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Formed in Seattle in 1987 by songwriters Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell, the band underwent several name changes before settling on Alice In Chains after bringing in Starr and Kinney and signing to Columbia in 1989. Their debut album Facelift crept up the Billboard 100, their success being accelerated by the ascendant grunge scene. By 1992 the group had released Top 10 hit EP SAP and second album Dirt, with no less than four hit singles taken from it the following year including Would? and Them Bones. There was a rumour the band would split when Staley formed another group The Gacy Bunch (later called Mad Season) but after one album, he was back with the gang to release third album Alice In Chains in 1995 that hit the US Number 1. When Cantrell went solo, Alice was on put on hold during which time Staley descended into a life of drug abuse culminating in his unexpected death on 5 April 2002. The group remained in a state of stasis until reforming with Comes With The Fall vocalist William DuVall and guitarist Mike Inez on the group's comeback record Black Gives Way To Blue in 2009.
Artist biography compiled by BDS/West 10. All rights reserved
