When Alice in Chains’ frontman Layne Staley left this world on April 5, 2002 at 34—eight years to the day that Kurt Cobain died—there was a void left unfilled. Yet beyond his visceral and vulnerable lyrics and enigmatic presence, there was more left unsaid and unshared by Staley than just unrealized songs. This Angry Pen of Mine: Recovering the Journals of Layne Staley, due out November 11 via Weldon Owen, offers a collection of Staley’s personal poetry, original artwork, handwritten lyrics and musings, never-before-seen photographs, fan art and tributes, and more that helps reopen the life of the singer and songwriter.
Assembled in collaboration with Staley’s family, the book opens the pages of Staley’s personal journals and delivers a more familial touch with a foreword written by his mother Nancy McCallum, who was directly involved in the project. McCallum hopes the book will reveal the man she knew off the stage, outside of his personal struggles and addictions. “I hope this book gives you a glimpse of the son I knew,” writes McCallum, “the one beyond the headlines, the one with a beautiful, creative, happy soul.”
A photograph of McCallum holding a “baby Layne,” Staley’s organized list of drum set pieces and an ad for drum lessons, the handwritten lyrics to the Jar of Flies classic “I Stay Away”—This Angry Pen of Mind reveals a son, musician, writer, poet, artist, and more, all of them gone too soon.
Born on August 22, 1967 in Kirkland, Washington, Staley started playing drums at age 12 and began his musical journey during the 1980s in several glam-rock bands, including Sleze, which transitioned into Alice ’n Chains in 1986. A year later, Alice in Chains formed with bassist Mike Starr, drummer Sean Kinney, and Jerry Cantrell sharing guitar and vocal duties with Staley.
In the mid-‘90s, Staley also dipped into Mad Season, a side project with Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan and Barrett Martin, Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, and The Walkabouts’ John Baker Saunders, and later with Class of ’99, another supergroup featuring Tom Morello, Porno for Pyros’ Marin LeNoble, Jane’s Addiction’s Stephen Perkins, and Collective Soul’s Matt Serletic.
By 1999, Staley had become mostly reclusive and isolated, while struggling with drug addiction. He was found dead in his apartment in Seattle from an accidental overdose of cocaine and heroin nearly two weeks after the overdose occurred.
For decades, Staley’s life and music has been honored with tributes and the continuation of Alice in Chains, which reformed in 2005. Shortly after Staley’s death in 2002, his mother and father, Phil Staley, founded the Layne Staley Memorial Fund in his honor. Proceeds from sales of This Angry Pen of Mine will benefit the fund, which helps provide education, treatment, and support for heroin addicts and their families in Seattle.
“Through Layne’s scribblings and heartfelt musings are a window into the emotional depths of a man who gave so much of himself to his art and his fans, even as he struggled with his own battles,” reads a descriptor of the book. “His story, told through his own words, creations, and the lives he forever changed, is a testament to the enduring power of music, art, and the human spirit.”
You can preview more pages from the forthcoming book below, and pre-order it here.
