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Alice In Chains - Speedball!
greed by Graham Reed May 9th, 2002
Alice In Chain’s singer Layne Staley, who was discovered dead on April 19th, died from a drug overdose after all, just as everyone suspected - so the death certificate says.

After all, this is the band whose breakthrough album 'Dirt' included such tracks as 'Godsmack' and 'Junkhead' – no hidden drug subtext there eh? – and a singer with a long and well-documented history of drug addiction. He was once quoted as saying - "[Drugs] worked for me for years, and now they're turning against me - and now I'm walking through hell.".

The cause of death, according to the death certificate was; "accidental" officially attributing the death to "acute intoxication of the combined effects of opiates (heroin) and cocaine." (known as a speedball, amongst drug users, the same combination also led to the death of John Belushi) The body was in a state of decomposition, with the date of death being estimated as April 5th: leaving the body two weeks to decompose before being found.

Alice in Chains last released a new studio album in 1995 – since then there’s been an unplugged album and a compilation and a retrospective box set released. Oddly For a band so revered, the most recent Alice in Chains Cd was never released in the UK.. Ironically, it was called "live".

*ahem*.



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