Posted on 03/08/2011 5:38:53 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
Mike Starr's demons tragically caught up with him.
The original bassist for Alice in Chains was found dead Tuesday in Utah. He was 44. Cause of death has not yet been released.
Starr, who battled drug addiction, appeared on the third season of Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew in 2009 and gave a testimonial marking six months and seven days of sobriety during season four.
But his latest run-in with the law implied that he had hit a roadblock in his recovery.
GALLERY: Celebrity Deaths in 2011
* Mike DeStefano, Last Comic Standing * Jane Russell, The Outlaw * Amanda Seyfried, Gary Winick * Deadliest Catch, Justin Tennison * Len Lesser
Starr was arrested last month in Salt Lake City on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance for allegedly having six Xanax pills and six tablets of the painkiller Opana.
"Devastating to hear of Mike Starr succumbing to his illness. So very sad. Our prayers are with his family," Dr. Drew Pinsky tweeted this afternoon.
Starr, who was born in Honolulu, played in Seattle with Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney as the glam band Diamond Lie, which later morphed into Alice in Chains with the addition of Layne Staley.
Their first studio EP was 1990's We Die Young.
Starr left the band in 1993 while they were touring with Ozzy Osbourne and was replaced by Mike Inez. Starr mentioned during his time on Celebrity Rehab that he had been booted from Alice in Chains because of his drug problem.
Inez was the one to reunite with Cantrell and Kinney in 2005 for a benefit concert for victims of the tsunami in South Asia. Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002.
"I totally back Mike and I back his efforts to get clean and remain somebody that I and the band really care abouthe's a friend of ours, you know, and we wish him the best," Cantrell wrote in the liner notes to the band's 2009 album Black Gives Way to Blue.
RIP.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nco_kh8xJDs
Man in The Box bump.
Why was the other thread nuked, do you know?
Great band, Alice in Chains - listened to them a lot in the early ‘90s. I can still remember gasping when I heard Layne had passed 9 or 10 years ago. Always hoped he’d get better and they’d be able to get together again.
Wasn’t he the hot headed ahole on that show. Charlie aint far behind..
Hey. The album title says it all. Mike was just keepin' it real man. Their music was generic and dull. It looks like the only one to try and make it a full life will be Cantrell.
Have the live album on mp3 format and Layne just belts everything thru the roof. Saw them live in Vancouver many, many years ago and won’t forget that show. Would is still one of my fave headbang songs of all time.
Oh the mod’s have been having a field day lately being ridiculous...just outright deleting threads and putting things like “Belong in chat”....SO MOVE IT TO CHAT THEN.
Or removing threads with 300 posts on them and locking them and showing a thread started 2 mins before with 7 replies and keeping that one.
Zero sense sometimes.
Gretchen Wilson & Alice in Chains - Barracuda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqQkECIn738
Rest in peace Mr. Starr
Alice in Chains had a lot of rockin’ songs that still sound good today, even though they’ve been around for a lot of years. Standing the test of time is a good testament to the quality of the band and the music it put out.
Starr will be missed.
Was it his choice of drugs? Some drug users are more equal than others?
Lotta people don’t win the dance with the Dragon.
He gave a good portion of the Seattle female population herpes in the 1990s so at least many have a lifetime momento to remember him by.
Out of all the Seattle bands out back then the only one I missed was Soundgarden when they broke up.
Nobody really wins. Some survive, but no one wins.
Staley was the voice of AIC and contributed greatly to the music development. They never would of booted him from the band. He did drugs, but he always pulled it off when performing on stage.
As for Mike Starr, he didn’t write any of the songs, and by the time they started touring for Dirt album, he was soo wasted all the time that he was making all kinds of mistakes during live shows. That’s why they kicked him out, even when this was at a time when the band was at it’s most popular.
So they went out and got Mike Inez who was a very good bass player who had toured with Ozzy. He’s been with them ever since and contributed to a lot of their new material.
The new AIC album that came out last year was easily one of the most underated albums of 2010. I saw them live last year and they were very good.
RIP.
Metal Ping!
Metal Ping!
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