Died On This Date (March 8, 2011) Mike Starr / Alice In Chains
themusicsover Mike Starr
April 4, 1966 – March 8, 2011
Mike Starr was the original bassist for Seattle grunge band, Alice In Chains. Morphed from Diamond Lie, a band made up of Starr, Jerry Cantrell, Layne Staley, and Sean Kinney, Alice In Chains went on to become one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Starr can be heard on the band’s Facelift and Dirt albums. He and Alice In Chains parted ways during their Dirt tour of 1992/93. Starr went on to play in Sun Red Sun, a band that also included Ray Gillen of Black Sabbath and Badlands fame. In 2009, Starr appeared on VH1’s drug rehabilitation program, Celebrity Rehab as he attempted to beat his heroin addiction. He also participated in the show’s spin-off, Sober House and later episodes of Celebrity Rehab. At the time of his death, Starr was playing with Days Of The New, whose original singer, Travis Meeks, found him unconscious in the home they were sharing. Mke Starr was 44 when he was pronounced dead on March 8, 2011. Cause of death was not immediately released.
Thanks to Craig Rosen at Number1Albums and Nancy Powell for the assist.
What You Should Own
Layne Staley was the lead singer of hair band killers, Alice In Chains. The band was part of a new musical movement that exploded out of Seattle in the early ’90s. It was called Grunge and Alice In Chains ruled alongside Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Nirvana. It married the best elements of metal with punk and spoke to millions of disaffected teens of that era. Staley’s voice separated them from the pack. It was metal but it was also rock god. On stage, he quickly became one of the generations most captivating front men. Sadly, as the band’s success soared in the mid ’90s, so did Staley drug habits. And it only got worse in 1996 when his fiance died of drug abuse. As the decade came to a close, Staley was mostly invisible to fans of Alice In Chains, making sporadic contributions to soundtracks and such. On April 19, 2002, Staley’s lifeless body was found in his condo by his mother and step father. He was surrounded by various drugs and paraphernalia. The autopsy concluded that he had died of a deadly dose of heroin and cocaine, or “speedball.” The coroner determined the official date of death as April 5, 2002, two weeks before he had been found. It was amazingly eight years to the day after 
