September 17, 2025 • 55 mins
Three brilliant frontmen lit up the 1990s with voices that could break your heart with songs that still echo today. Jeff Buckley soared with Grace before vanishing into a Memphis river. Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon danced barefoot through MTV fame, only to spiral into addiction on a tour bus in New Orleans. Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley turned despair into anthems, then faded into reclusion until his lonely death in Seattle. This episode unpacks their meteoric rises, their drug-fueled downfalls, and the enduring legacies they left behind.
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(00:00):
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My name is Kyle Plouffe. And I'm Jerry Aquino.
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beautiful journey full of what kind of necklaces and sandals
and things of that nature. Probably a little bit of
sandals, more denim, more flannel.
(03:07):
Yeah, a lot of really cool 90s vibes today.
We're talking 90s music tragedies.
Yes, we got Jeff Buckley, Shannon Hoon and Lane Staley.
Oh, so get your baggy jeans, getyour flannel, and get in the
goddamn car. All right, so we're going to
(03:45):
start this off with a heartbreaker.
I mean, I guess they're all heartbreakers.
Yeah, they are Jeff Buckley, who, you know, was a incredible
musician. Jeff was raised as Scott
Moorehead and we'll figure out why.
He was born on November 17th, 1966 in Anaheim, CA.
Well, that last name is gonna get you made fun of no matter
(04:05):
what. Morehead.
Yeah. Morehead.
Hey, Scott, why don't I just geta little bit Morehead over here?
I don't do that, you know, You're all gay and stuff,
Morehead. No, no.
OK, OK. Anaheim, of course, is the same
time where the smell of churros from Disneyland floats over the
freeway. So you would think there'd be a
lot more fat people from Anaheim, but a lot of people
(04:26):
from the Orange County area are very attractive.
Yeah, oranges around Cheerios make you chunky.
Yeah, they are a little attractive, but I've seen some
biggies out there too. OK, let's be honest.
His mother, Mary, was a classically trained pianist
turned homemaker. His biological father was Tim
Buckley, a rising folk singer with a haunting tenor voice.
(04:46):
Oh, so he comes from Good Music Jeans.
Yes, but he comes with an allergy to commitment.
Oh, that'll happen. Yeah, it's like a peanut, but
worse. Yeah, honey ruins everybody
else's lives, not just yours. Yep.
I have great news, honey. I'm dating somebody.
Oh, is it long? Is it long term?
Yeah. They're a musician.
That's gonna last about 4:00 to 5:00.
(05:07):
Weeks, he said he's gonna take me on the road.
No. Sorry, actor bus is full.
Classic. So Tim, he was kind of a jerk
there. There's a This happens a lot in
the Dipod universe, where you know the father or grandfather
of somebody usually isn't a great guy.
Yeah, what? An artist that has, you know,
(05:28):
complicated family issues. That's so weird.
It is weird. I don't believe it.
Tim, he left Jeff when he was just an infant, which is the
hardest time to leave him. I as a as a committed father.
Right. He's like, how do you see that
little baby? And you're like, I'll see you
later. I got to go drink at a bar.
Yeah. Play to about 30 people.
That's so true. I mean, I I could totally see
(05:49):
you wanting to leave a teenager.Easily I'm like I'm.
Getting the fuck? Out of here, dude, I can't stand
you. I've got to go be anywhere but
here. Right.
Yeah. Babies, they're so cute.
Yeah, they're getting good then.It's a great point.
Getting's good's little strange term to use, but.
It is. It's a little strange to pervert
it. It's sad though, I can barely
(06:10):
leave my dog Jerry when I go to Walmart or 711.
Just looking at a child's eyes as you close the door, knowing
it's the last time you're going to see him.
I don't like it one bit. He was raised by his mother,
Mary, and his stepfather, Ron Moorehead.
So. He went from a Buckley to a
Moorehead. Yeah, a Buckley is so much
cooler. Yeah, they lived in the working
(06:32):
class stretch of Orange County, and the Morehead House was
filled with music, classical, LP's, Miles Davis, Jody
Mitchell. Wow.
But also tension. Ohh, it seems like the wife
could have given a little okay. Hey, Morehead.
Jeff was a quiet. Yeah, come from a long line of
moreheads. My grandma gave some of the
Yeah, my grandma gave some of the better head around my great,
(06:53):
great grandmother and my great grandfather.
That's what got us the last name.
They came over on the old Mayflower.
They sucked everyone off. They were their best heads.
Oh yeah, and then they were leaving.
They say Morehead. No Morehead then that's just
last name stuck. Yeah.
TMJ runs in the family. Yeah, Jeff was a quiet,
withdrawn kid, described by teachers as quote sweet, but
(07:15):
somewhere else entirely. And not libidable.
Yeah. Seriously, I'm always looking
into the distance. He's really not focusing on the
charm of Orange County right now, right?
Yeah, I want to get the fuck outof here.
I. Need you to focus on the Los
Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It's the Inland Empire, so he
should really be more focused onthat.
By 5 he was teaching himself guitar, sitting cross legged
(07:38):
with a beat up acoustic almost as big as he was.
And. By 10, he was obsessed with Led
Zeppelin, cranking Robert Plantsfalsetto until walls rattled.
Yeah, he's cool. Yeah, what are that, the five
year old live alone? Yeah, seriously.
It's like listening to like Led Zeppelin just being like, oh
man, Stairway to Heaven. Just it just doesn't get any.
(07:59):
Better, that's my shit. Right.
Like what do you know about Stairway to Heaven?
You're 9. I mean, I've lived a long life
here. Younger 5:00 to 9:00.
That's insane. As the song takes up like 10% of
his life. Seriously.
I was still playing with my Batman figures and I would play
with other kids and they would try to make him fly.
And I'd be like, Batman doesn't fly.
(08:20):
And then Jeff Buckley is just talking about fucking the
insurance and outs of having sexwith women on the road.
Yes, seriously. And then meanwhile, now kids
today just have baby shark. Oh, boy.
Yeah. Yeah, that's just yeah, that's a
whole different beast entirely. Yeah.
You just planted that again. Yeah.
Thanks for that. So yeah, he barely knew his
(08:41):
father, Tim. And the ghost of his father, he
said, like, haunted him over everything.
Jeff saw him once when he was 8.And just weeks later, Tim died
of a heroin overdose. Oh.
Oh, he. Was actual ghost.
Yeah, yeah, it might have been. Sometimes your life is such a
wreck where you're like, you know what, it's better for you
if I'm out of it. So maybe his dad was like, I'm a
(09:03):
train wreck, bro. Yeah.
You don't want this. You don't want anything to do
with me. You see how traumatized you are
right now. You're welcome.
You're. Going to be a great hardest one
day. That's yeah, that's what that's
If I stuck around, it would havebeen a lot worse.
Yeah. True, Jeff attended the funeral,
small and stunned, holding his mother's hand.
People are saying Imagine being 8 years old, standing at your
famous father's funeral and realizing everyone's looking at
(09:25):
you like you're the sequel. Whoa weird.
And he like totally felt that because he's all deep and shit
even though he's 6. Yeah.
And it's reported that the moment fused something in him, a
mix of defiance and dread. Also relatable, yeah.
I could totally see that. Yeah, it's like I'm not gonna,
(09:46):
I'm not gonna let you kill me. I wish I was dead.
That was, that is literally like, it's like the death of his
dad. It was the the birth of his
existential crisis. Yeah.
Relatable for sure. He vowed never to be defined by
someone else's shadow. And yet every time he opened his
mouth to sing people, I heard Tim.
That sucks. Yeah.
(10:06):
After high school, Jeff drifted through Los Angeles playing in
bar bands, studying at the Musicians Institute, which is
right across the street from Jameson's on Hollywood Blvd.
Is that right? Yeah.
So if people, I know a lot of people that go and teach there
and they got 50% off at Jameson.So there's a lot of musicians
over there. Interesting.
I mean, if you if you run a bar business, that might be the
(10:27):
perfect location. Yeah, right next to an artist
facility. Right.
He was working odd jobs, but he grew restless, convinced LA was
swallowing his soul. See that happen?
It's a soul swallower. Yeah, after Moorhead, in 1990,
at 23, he boarded A1 Way flight to New York City with a battered
guitar and a head full of ghosts.
(10:48):
Let's go. And he landed in the East
Village, which is a place I didn't really hang out too much.
Not the East Village. Yeah, yeah, I bounced.
I bounced it to Bear called Cabin.
That was on 2nd Ave. between 4thand 5th.
I guess actually, in hindsight, there was a lot of comedy open
mics. Yeah.
I spent some time in the East Village.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then there's a place called
Pianos, which is pretty dope. It was still artistic, but it
(11:10):
was getting very expensive. Yeah.
Really was and is. And is yes.
At the time, the East Village was a wreck.
It was loud, grimy and anonymous.
I would assume it's more was what was Williamsburg Brooklyn
was like when I first got there in 2005 or were still affordable
and by the time I left it's crazy.
It's just Apple stores 2 point Oand apparently now you've got to
(11:31):
go to Bushwick. That's where the art is.
That's so weird. That's what they say.
That's where I lived. Across from a triple murder
suicide. Oh.
Yeah, I mean, they're definitelyall over the place there.
Yeah. And we called NBC because we
were filming all the people being taken out on gurneys and
they were covered with like blankets and in body bags and
stuff. But my buddy worked for NBC
News. He's like, let's call him and
sell him the footage 'cause sometimes they buy footage,
(11:52):
Yeah. And the guy just goes, Oh yeah,
we already heard about that dude.
That happens all the time there,like all the like.
You hack, you fucks. Casually.
Also, I love you schmuck. Broke schmucks.
Be like, how much do you think we can get off of these people
on these gurneys? A whole 25 bucks send it. 250
bucks going rate for a video or a photo.
(12:12):
Yeah, they didn't do it, No. And I was like, what do you mean
all the time? And he literally just lost all
professionalism. He goes dude all the time like
fuck I just signed a year long lease here.
You could be next. Yeah, but just like Bushwick at
that time, he lived cheap and was always around the coffee
houses and record stores. I love that.
(12:33):
That's where he found Shanay, a tiny Irish cafe with candles on
every table and barely room for 30 people.
I definitely thought that was going to be a woman, but it's a
place. OK.
All right. Yeah, I'm fine with that.
Enter Shanay, the bar he was at.You love being inside Shanae,
even in public. Oh, only in public, yeah.
(12:55):
He played late night sets there every week, just him, a
telecaster, and an ocean of reverb.
Cool. At first, five people would show
up, then 20, then lines around the block.
Really. Yeah.
His His voice was A5 octave siren that cracked like glass.
Wow, and I love that. Why does that?
Sound like it would be bad though.
(13:15):
Ow, like what? He spread through downtown like
a rumor. He covered Nina Simone, Van
Morrison, The Smiths and even operatic songs.
Yeah, industry scouts whispered.This guy's not real.
This can't be. There's no way.
How do we make money off of thisguy?
He's actually has a soul and talent.
(13:36):
Do you think we can make him into a boy band?
In 1991, he performed at a memorial for his father,
reluctantly, the first and only time he publicly linked himself
to his dad. Hmm.
It made him sick, he later said.I don't want to be Tim Buckley's
son. I just want to be me.
But he did again. That's how bad the last name
Morehead is, that he still took the guy who he hates last name
(13:59):
'cause it was better, yeah. That's so true.
Lesshead for me, thanks. Yeah, Jeff Lesshead.
What? Then why are you here?
What are you even good for? That night, Columbia Records
took notice. By 1993, Jeff had a record deal
in a mission to carve out his own name or die trying.
I don't know, it feels like thiswhole like living in his
father's shadow thing is definitely something he's
(14:21):
building up in his head. Yeah.
That's something we all do though.
Yeah. When you have something,
sometimes you hold on to it for a little too long and it's just,
it's always there. Yeah, it's very true.
I mean I I. I don't know.
I don't feel that. I don't feel like I'm living in
my father's shadow, but my dad also, I think my whole thing,
no. Not even necessarily like
Father's shadow, just like there's.
(14:43):
We all have something in the back of our head, I think.
Yeah, sure. Family expectations, reasons to
not let them down. Yeah, yeah.
Or sometimes it's the opposite, where you're like, I don't want.
Well, I guess that's what Jeff was doing, where he didn't want
to be like his father, but then also he followed in his father's
footsteps. I would have had to become an
immigrant truck driver in Germany because that would have
been the opposite of what my father did.
Yeah. So yeah, it's just different.
(15:05):
It is. It's just.
Different In August 1994, Jeffrey's Grace recorded with
his hand picked band after two years of woodshedding.
It wasn't an instant blockbusterin America's sales were slow,
But in Britain, France and Australia, he became a
phenomenon overnight, which is so cool to see.
Like, everyone has a country where they could actually become
famous. I feel that, like, true
(15:27):
somebody's There's a country outthere for you.
Yeah. Even if it's not your own.
We talk about it all the time. Sometimes we'll cover people
there who have like 10 million Instagramers.
So social media followers are like, who the fuck are they?
They're like huge in Portugal, yeah.
Seriously. Yeah, it's true.
Arch Barker. And he's just like, you know,
exactly. He's a comedian.
He's one of the most famous comedians in Australia.
(15:49):
Really. Yes, he's like, they're Carlin.
He's like the biggest guy fucking ever in Australia, but.
Literally no idea who you just mentioned.
Exactly. Most people in America don't.
Good for him. Wow.
Yeah, yeah. You know, they say him
Australia's Carlin. But then it's also like, oh, OK,
you're in Georgia, so we don't care.
Yeah, he had songs The Last Goodbye, Lover, You Should Have
Come Over and Hallelujah, They became anthems of beautiful
(16:13):
sadness. Critics they are.
The Hallelujah one Hallelujah 1 is so sad.
Oh my God. Shrek.
Oh my God, absolutely. They have the Jeff Buckley one
in that. Is it?
I'm not sure if it's the Buckleyone, but if it's definitely in
the movie. And one of the.
Makes you cry, yeah. Wow, yeah, that that song does
make you cry and I have a story about it following.
(16:35):
A little bit. That was one of the trend.
Like grandmothers. The grandchildren love that.
They're like, this one does work.
Oh, my God. No matter how hard you want to
be, you're like, OK saying it. All right.
Yeah. Critics gushed over it.
David Bowie called Jeff the future of music.
Wow. Jimmy Page said hearing Jeff was
like watching the first moon landing, which I thought was
weird. Done in.
The studio watched him in the studio.
(16:57):
The first moon landing. The first one, the first and
none it. Was recorded, yeah.
Tours followed. He sold out sweaty nightclubs
night after night and then graduated to theaters.
Let's. Go Yeah.
On stage, he was unhinged and angelic, and fans compared shows
to spiritual experiences. Well, I believe that.
(17:19):
But off stage, he was unraveling.
He was sleeping on friends couches, dodged interviews,
scribbled paranoid diary entries.
He hated being famous. But he had to have some money,
right? Yeah, but selling a theater?
I don't think it's being broke, I think it's needing to be
around other people. Yeah.
Because people go crazy. They'll buy a mansion up in the
hills and then just go fucking stir crazy.
(17:41):
Britney Spears. Yep.
You say crazy, I say genius. Yeah, very.
Cry. Also, whoever she was on a date
with at that sushi restaurant should have done better.
He hated the fame machine. It's been said, I believe that
he hated that every article thatmentioned him had to mention his
dad. He hated.
Oh. It sucks.
That would absolutely drive me bananas.
Yeah, 'cause then it reaffirms that you are living in the
(18:03):
shadow in some way, even though you're just as famous as he is
now, but. Again, I'm not He did take the
last name, right? He really could have gone with
any other last. Name that is a conscious choice.
Some head. It doesn't have to be head
related. He could limit, he could exit
all of that. Yeah, I was thinking more Dick,
but then it's like Jeff Dick, more Dick.
(18:24):
Oh my God, more Dick, but then you guys are in the gutter.
But then it's like, people are going to think that that's what
they're going to be saying to you.
I want more Dick. But then you're like, I ran out.
That's all the Dick I got. What about?
Sweeney, I ran Jeff Sweeney Thatwould have worked, Jeff.
Sweeney Todd. Sure, Jeff.
Swede. That's a nice name that would
have worked. Nice name that kind of rolls
off. His friend said that he wanted
(18:45):
to be immortal through art, not through gossip.
Still, he put. He really hates gossip, this
guy. He hates gossip.
Stop talking about. Me.
He might be one of those guys who's like, I don't even deal
with drama. What the fuck did you just say
to me? Yeah.
But still, he was pushing on. By 1996, he was expected to
deliver another masterpiece thatcould save Rock'n'roll.
(19:07):
Instead he was like, fuck this, I'm going to Tennessee, let's
go. Well, there you go.
I love it. Yeah, you know.
I love when people are like, youknow, this is going to be the
next thing that you should do, and then you just turn on you
something completely different, right?
Like, I don't wanna. You're the artist.
They don't know anything. The industry is so stupid,
right? They don't know until money
starts coming in and the fans tell them.
(19:27):
They don't even get me started. Tell them kiss all.
I don't even. Know, I just don't know if
podcasting is gonna really be off hung.
That's crazy. Thank you 3 arts fucking
assholes. Have you thought about doing
stand up on the road for $150.00a night?
Yeah, you're almost losing moneyafter you give us money, but
it's fun 'cause you get to do the art.
Right. Yeah, exposure.
(19:48):
It's my exposure. Right, right.
Jeff settled in Memphis, rentinga house near Wolf River Harbor.
Jeff. Wolf, another great name.
Oh, that would have been a good one.
That is a good one. Maybe a little bit more authory,
Maybe a little authory. It is a little, yeah.
Like a novelist. Right.
Yeah, He went up and down Beale Street Incognito, drank black
(20:09):
coffee alone and jammed with local Blues musicians.
I do love that he was Incognito to the point where like that
guys Incognito. Yeah, like where he's like, he's
only drinking black coffee, sunglasses inside.
Yeah, those are some pretty big glasses.
It's. A huge sign that says don't look
at me, Yeah. He's Incognito.
He's Incognito, yeah. Yeah, he told his friends he
might change his name and disappear, maybe play under an
(20:31):
assumed identity. Let's go.
I don't. Know I just feel like he should
have just done it. Just do it.
Just do it. You're already doing it.
He's literally just whining. Some people still think that
Garth Brooks and Chris Gaines are the same person.
And not to mention he's like fucking couch.
He's couch hopping and couch surfing and living this like
little like bohemian, right broke artist lifestyle just
(20:52):
because he's because he's mad that his dad was also like good
at what? Yeah, 'cause he's following a
family legacy, right? It's actually awesome.
It is. Yeah, and he's like, I'm being a
tortured like brat over this, but it.
Is tough, 'cause yeah, I'm sure he had issues with it all.
Yeah. That's why I'm sort of, I'm
like, so happy my mom and dad are just my mom and dad.
Yeah. Like when they die or whenever
(21:14):
that does happen, which will happen, but not soon, it's all
about us. It'll be like, they had three
kids. That's what they left him out.
And it's like, it's gonna be that's it.
My dad is like, yeah, he takes government money and mine,
that's it. After deciding against playing
under an assumed identity, Columbia Records was like,
pissed. They're like we need you and
your name for the hits, baby. Oh God, and.
(21:36):
He was like, no, it's not my artform.
I'm with this shit. Yeah, so they were really like
on his ass, and he did not like that.
So he was sending them cryptic unfinished demos instead.
Like. Fuck you guys did.
You guys ever hear the Van Morrison record that he made
when he was trying to get out ofa horrible record con?
No, it was the one right before the main one that has all of his
classic hits came out. Oh, so we had a trash ass deal.
(21:58):
So he sang songs about like having hemorrhoids and all these
horrible. It's fucking hilarious.
I wanna listen to that. Album.
So yeah, fun. It was the only way he's like,
technically he gave them an elbow and it's really, really
funny. It's great.
It's horrible, but it's. Great.
Hilarious. He was having his band fly in
from New York City to start rehearsals on the long delayed
second album, which off the record was called My Sweetheart
(22:21):
The Drunk. Oh, I like that it's a little
Tom Waitsy. Heart the drunk.
Yeah. Oh, he means well.
He's just going to be knocked out all day.
Yeah, he's cute. I wake up hungry.
Yeah, he's going. To do it all over.
Again, we have a little chicken sandwich ready for him.
My sweetheart, the drunk. He.
He does seem kind of like a mama's boy, a little little Ben
Kisely over here. Whoa, no one's ever said I don't
(22:44):
give head. Wait, what?
OK, never mind. Oh my.
No one's ever asked me for Morehead 'cause I go down there
for head right now. No, no, I'm the only one.
His friends and bandmates were saying he was exhausted at the
time, but he'd call his mom and let her know he was eating
right, running, laughing, checking in with his mom.
Have you laughed? Have you laughed at it?
Oh, that's so sweet. Remember, you have to make sure
(23:04):
you laugh. Yeah, my parents never had to be
like, are you eating enough, Benjamin?
They already knew it. I'm like, yeah, my mom got back
up. Yeah.
Then on May 29th, 1997, he went to the river.
That evening, Jeff and his roadie Keith Fotey were killing
time waiting for the band to arrive.
His roadie, Keith Fotey. She was born to be already.
(23:26):
Roadie Fotey is born to be already.
I mean come on now, he was just born carrying like the umbilical
cord like a fucking guitar out of the womb.
Marshalls, you're. Going to want this.
Is this set to the right tune or?
They drove over to the Wolf River Harbor and it was
described as a deceptively calm channel.
(23:46):
It's a part of the Mississippi River named the Shoot by locals.
It looks still, but it isn't. It's no joke, dude.
Yeah. Jeff was he was still wearing
boots and he waited in waist deep water, laughing, floated on
his back, arms out like a crucifix, and started singing
Whole Lot of Love by Led Zeppelin.
Nice. Yeah, that's awesome.
(24:09):
Sounds like they're having a great time.
Sounds. Like a great day to be a fucking
roadie. Yeah, seriously?
So Fodie the roadie? He then turned to move their
guitar and radio up the bank, and when he looked back, Jeff
was gone. Oh no.
What? Do you mean?
Police and divers searched for six days.
On June 4th, 1997, they found his body caught in a branch
downstream. What?
He was 30 years old. What?
(24:30):
Was this an accident or do we know?
Is there a definitive answer to that?
Well, the Shelby County Medical Examiner ruled it an accidental
drowning. Toxicology showed no drugs and
very low alcohol levels. So we just had a couple of
beers, went for a nice swim. They said he, the undertow got
him. He wasn't depressed.
He didn't leave a note. They think that he just
(24:51):
misjudged the river. Oh, wow.
That's so sad. Sucks.
Yeah. After his death, Hallelujah took
a second life. The song was appearing
everywhere again. TV dramas, funerals, talent
shows. In 2013, after the Boston
Marathon bombing, the Boston RedSox played Jeff's version over
the loud speakers at Fenway Parkduring a tribute montage.
So I was there at the. You were at the game.
(25:13):
Yeah. Wow.
And this game is infamous. And everybody knows this game
because it was the day that after they caught the bombers.
OK. The woman that was found in the
boat and the other one that was run over by him.
The hunky Sharna brother. They called him Speed Bump in
Boston. Very, very nice.
(25:33):
That's the brother speed bump. And everyone's crying.
There's like a whole montage. It's all pictures and video of
the aftermath and the chaos of the Boston Marathon bombings.
And then they had all like the police and everybody out there
on the field, and they were like, we're going to give the
mic to David Ortiz. And that's when he went out
there and said this is our fucking city.
Oh, he gave that speech, Yeah. It was powerful speech.
(25:56):
I just got goosebumps thinking about it.
The FCCI believe he's Dominican.He is, yes.
Yeah, he is, and the FCC declined to find the stationer
team, saying that they understood the emotion of the
moment in part. Thankful thanks to Jeff Buckley
and his incredible. Song that is.
(26:17):
It's sad because I thought that it was more on purpose.
I didn't think he was going to commit.
I literally thought that's what it was leading all up to.
So he was all upset and bratty about a lot of things, like his
success. Right.
And then, but he was legacy. He would have been, I mean,
hell, super young still, right? He'd be one in his 50s now.
Yeah. Probably be doing some great
work. More mature.
(26:38):
That's too bad. Yeah.
You got to be very careful in those streams.
I did a little a little adventure in Colorado a few
years back before I performed atRed Rocks.
And it is all. It's crazy how powerful it is.
Doesn't look like it's moving atall.
And it's going like 20 miles an hour underneath.
Yeah. We'll die.
You die. Wow.
It's very scary. It's beautiful though.
Ain't good. And then and the fact that he
(27:00):
has a the Foley the roadie or roadie?
Foley the roadie, Foley the roadie to say exactly what he
was singing and what happened. I know, right?
Yeah. Led Zeppelin.
Wow. Interesting.
RIP Jeff Buckley. RIP Mr. But Jeff Buckley?
Legend. For our second story, we are
going to Lafayette, IN. Oh, different place.
(27:20):
September 26th, 1967 someone named Shannon Hoon was born.
Hoon Hoon Hoon who, cornfields, 2 lane highways and Friday Night
Lights all exist right there in Lafayette, IN.
So it's you don't you don't expect like a alternative rock
guy maybe to come out of that scene.
I'm telling you, dude, the Midwest creates some very
(27:43):
interesting artists. Slipknot, Iowa.
There's something that it's so desolate, it's pretty
depressing. It's so cold, it's flat, it's
scary flat. And then there's not a lot of
money. Like there's areas in the
Midwest that do well, but Lafayette IN Indiana is a broke
ass state. Yeah.
It's nothing to do with play music.
There really isn't anything to do at all, yeah.
You could do what I did and takea poop at Lincoln's first house.
(28:07):
That was in Indiana, yeah. Oh, not Illinois, huh?
Oh, it was in Illinois then. Yeah, I thought that was.
The way. It could be, I don't know.
They they claimed different stuff.
North Carolina, they say they'rethe 1st in flight, but those
dudes are from Ohio. Lincoln.
They say it's the Land of Lincoln in Illinois, but he was
probably fucking around in otherplaces too.
Yes, yes, with men. Yeah, most likely.
(28:28):
Speaking of fucking, can you give me lesson with that beard?
Can you come back shaved, please, Abraham?
I'm the fucking president. You'll take it.
Beard please. Man, your thighs are all red.
Yeah. Fucking Abe got to me again.
Beard, man. It's got bugs in it dude.
Oh boy, so I don't. Teach presidential history?
Oh, no, no, I don't. Should.
(28:48):
Not yet, no. So he grew up in nearby Dayton,
a small blue collar town where everyone knew everyone's
business. I hate those.
Yeah. So annoying.
Yeah. Going to CVS and they're like,
Oh my God, did you see what Clara was doing the other day?
She the word on the street is she won't let her son go to the
field trip. Yeah, he's it's always the
dumbest shit. It's like, stupid.
(29:10):
On top of that, her haircut's tacky.
She actually got the pizza lunchables which were fucking
disgusting. She's so lame.
His father, Richard, worked at amanufacturing plant.
His mother, Nell, stayed home with Shannon and his two
sisters. Dick Hoon.
Let's go. It was.
Yeah, Good old Dick Hoon. Sounds like he needed to own a
(29:31):
fucking car dealership. Only used cars.
Dick Hoons used Nissan. Only used.
I also didn't look up his sister's names 'cause I like the
idea of him being Shannon and like his sisters are like Frank
and Ed. He was a wiry, restless kid,
hyper, funny, always singing. By high school he was fronting
(29:52):
local cover bands, driving a dented Camaro and plotting his
escape. Friends remember him as equal
parts class clown and philosopher.
I love it. Scribbling on napkins at house
parties, then stage diving off the couch.
I could totally see that. That's so Shannon Hoon.
He's cool. He said that Indiana felt like
quicksand. In 1989, Shannon arrived right
here in Los Angeles with nothingbut his guitar and a backpack,
(30:14):
slept on floors, lived on ramen and chased auditions.
Hmm. So he was actually auditioning
for for music roles? Or was he trying to act?
And yeah, no, there's a lot of. Bands.
Yeah. No band.
Band. You audition in Bands.
Oh, yeah. Oh, OK.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Naturally. All right, I get it.
Come in and do your little thingfor us.
Right. Right.
Yes, I guess you can't all just be like a really cool little
(30:36):
like friend group where each of you just conveniently plays like
every single instrument you needto start a band.
Yeah, like the dream. Yeah, right.
Yeah, that's why band dynamics, I guess.
We know we have band dynamics. We've all had those types of
things, but they're very complicated.
They are. Then came his break.
He met guitarist Roger Stevens, bassist Brad Smith, guitarist
Christopher Thorne and drummer Glenn Graham, and they formed
(30:59):
Blind Melon. Yeah.
Let's go. Love Blind Melon.
That's in 1990. So he got to LA and within one
year he's creating Blind Melon. That's amazing.
Fucking let's go, dude. I.
Don't know the song? Yeah.
The band. Yeah.
You don't know any Blind Melon songs?
No. Oh, I'll play some for you.
You'll. They're fantastic.
They rehearsed obsessively, living in one house together
(31:19):
like a commune. So it was like a hype house, but
it was just Blind Melon. It's so cool.
Blind Melon, self-titled debut, dropped in 1992.
The first single, Tones of Home,got modest airplay, but it
wasn't until 1993 that the song No Rain exploded.
Oh, I can say you said my life is pretty plain.
(31:41):
Oh, that's the one. The girl that's dancing with in
the bee costume and everything. Psychotic.
Yeah. It's video that featured that
girl tap dancing in a bee costume and became an MTV
staple. It was on all times of the day,
Yes, and it was So I was 12 years old when it came.
Out and it was just like, this is so true.
I'm that fat girl in the bee costume.
(32:02):
He actually hand picked that girl, she auditioned and he was
like, that's the girl that's most like me.
I love. That and I I want you in that's.
So sweet. The song shot to #1 on all
charts and their album went multi platinum.
Really nice song. It is a nice song.
Yeah, Overnight they were headlining festivals.
Shannon became the face of the band.
Why are he shirtless and chaotic?
(32:22):
He was just going nuts on stage.He was compared to Jim Morrison.
Ladies, I was gonna say, dude, don't skip over the fact that
every girl loved him. Yeah, and God forbid you'd be a
little big. God forbid you'd be a little
chunky. And then they said you're not
Shannon Hoon. You're more like fucking Ben.
Kiss little, ease your face, Fuck.
And then. But I'm sorry, I wasn't Kurt
Cobain growing up. Right.
(32:42):
But every girl fucked guys that looked like that.
I didn't think that wiry was something that it was like you
wanted to aspire. Yeah, it was.
It was the 90s. Everyone was.
Everyone was a twig. I love how wiry he.
Is they loved? It back a lot of girls, yeah,
they like the skinny still. Do I think yeah, I've heard that
they still like skinny men. Yeah.
The the skinny ones usually havebut.
(33:02):
The purse. Yeah, see what we talked about.
But he also is another person that didn't, you know, settle in
easily to fame. He'd always use drugs for fun,
but now cocaine, heroin and alcohol were daily fixtures.
No longer for fun, Zisa. No, that's when the party stops.
Yeah, he was partying through interviews.
Got arrested in 93 for indecent exposure in Vancouver.
(33:23):
Did. He fully peed on by Shannon
nude. I'll take it for the story.
I'll take it for the story. Fans, they were seeing like, Oh
my God, this is a wild rock star.
This is great. But his bandmates were like, oh,
this guy's in trouble. Right.
And so are we. Shit, by 1994, shit, Shannon was
a new father. His daughter, Nico Blue, was
born in July. Oh, that's.
Such a nice name. I know beautiful.
(33:45):
Nico Blue. Nico Blue Hoon.
Oh yeah. Nico Blue.
Hoon, Blue Hoon sounds like out of a out of a Doctor Seuss.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like she lives in Whoville.
Yeah, Sam, I am. No Green Eggs and ham.
Nico Blue Hoon. Cindy Lou Who.
Meet Nico Blue Who? He wanted to be present, but he
(34:05):
couldn't slow down. Blind Melon's second album,
Soup, released in August of 1995.
It was darker, jagged, experimental, and a commercial
disappointment. Because that often happens where
a band comes out and then they change their sound and people
go, this isn't you, what the fuck?
Yeah, but I thought that was a popular album.
At least it was with my little friend group growing up, not.
(34:27):
Commercially, yeah, Critics wereconfused, Radio was pissed and
they ignored it. I thought I OK, that's
interesting. The band, we liked it.
My group liked it, damn it. Your group ate the world it was.
8 No it wasn't 8 kids in StevensPoint, WI.
But it was his world. Yeah, and we were just living in
it. The band hit the road anyway,
(34:47):
desperate to promote it and get this actually like Catching
Fire. Shannon checked into rehab that
summer but left early on the road.
He hired a drug counselor to stay with him every second.
Yeah, just. Slapped the coke out of my nose.
That's a tough you gotta stay, do the rehab, just do the month,
do the month, something about that.
He wanted to be clean. He just couldn't be.
Oh, poor guy. He called home constantly,
(35:09):
promising Nico he'd get better, which is so sad.
Yeah, 'cause Nico probably didn't even know, right?
He's like, sorry, Daddy's on drugs.
She's like, what? Yeah, yeah.
I don't know, Daddy. I'm too.
My brain's all. I'm super fucked up, Yeah.
He was mailing her drawings fromthe road.
His bandmates described him as beautiful when he was clear, but
terrifying when he wasn't. Oh wow.
(35:29):
On October 20th, 1995, Blind Melon played a show in Houston.
Shannon was erratic, slurring lyrics and wandering off stage.
And that's tough to find out that you're slurring lyrics to
Blind Melon 'cause it was kind of a slurred sound to begin
with. You're gonna be extra.
Slurry. Yeah.
They drove overnight to New Orleans for the show the next
day. At dawn on October 21st, the
band sound engineer found Shannon lying on the tour bus.
(35:52):
He was cold, pale and unresponsive.
Paramedics pronounce him dead onthe scene.
So he had overdosed. Cause of death Cocaine overdose
Cocaine. That's crazy.
You gotta do a lot. You.
Do right or it's before they were testing for fentanyl.
But was fent in I call it. Fent.
(36:12):
Yeah. I don't know.
I thought back then cocaine was cocaine.
That's what they tell you. Yeah, but I don't, I don't
recall fentanyl being a thing because it was Fentanyl was
created in the lab. I interviewed the guy who wrote
a book called Fentanyl Inc. Oh, it's made in labs in China.
And it's actually an act of warfare.
They're killing a lot of us. Wow.
And I don't think fentanyl was. Around fentanyl is super
(36:33):
obviously deadly but there's another one called carfentanyl
which is 1000 times more deadly than actual fentanyl.
Car Fentanyl. Yeah, if you do like a.
Fentanyl for your car. My car, What happened?
Why didn't you get to work todayin car?
Fucking OD non fentanyl dude it was horrible.
Hit by the car. Fentanyl, Yeah.
Never saw it coming. It was such a good car.
Yeah, I wish it would have reached out for help.
(36:55):
OK. He was only 28 years old, which
I didn't realize. Baby.
Aw, so sad. In his bunk were sketchbooks,
children's books for Nico, and acopy of The Prophet by Khalil
Gibran, apparently. It's also sad because I don't
know, my brain is all is all weird and and dark sometimes.
So 27. So we missed the 27 club and
(37:15):
then for comedy, the 33 club with Farley and and and Belushi.
Yeah, but so you kind of missed.I was not.
He's not in that. Club.
It's both trains all right. Blind Melon collapsed in shock.
They actually released this collection of outtakes and demos
and they named it Nico in 1996. That's beautiful.
Yeah, all proceeds went into a trust for her, which is so nice
(37:37):
that. Is really nice.
Because although they yeah, theywent what, multi platinum?
Oh yeah, and again, I think bands made many money back then.
Yeah, hopefully he held on to itor was able to pass them on to
her. He didn't seem to spend it well,
I guess on coke he's. Going up his nose for sure.
Shit. Yeah, yeah.
It's not the cheapest drug on earth.
Yeah, for Shannon, he he had seemed to people you know who
(37:59):
were watching him like someone who could outrun the darkness.
But instead it caught him on a parked bus.
It always does. Yeah.
Drugs always win. Yeah.
You'll be very careful out there, folks.
Yeah, Overtime, you know, Shannon has his little niche
carved out in the music industry.
Oh, forever. Yeah.
Yeah, he's coming, becoming slightly a a cult figure.
(38:22):
Oh, yeah. But yeah, they say he's proof
that you could be radiant, funny, flawed, and doomed all at
once. And you can never tell what
people are going through on the inside.
That's true. You're actively doing heroin
right now, Jerry. Yeah, yeah, in my mind.
Oh, in my mind, yeah. That's something you never know
what people are going through intheir mind.
Yes. Did you seem happier?
Uh huh. So RIP Shannon Hoon and moving
(38:45):
on to our last story here, one of my favorite bands of all
time, the lead singer Mr. Lane Staley.
He was born August 22nd in 1967 in Kirkland, WA.
Kirkland, WA, you know, is. That where is that the home of
Kirkland? Oh, it might be.
Actually, I used to perform there a lot.
They had a comedy club called Laughs.
(39:06):
Oh lat comedy club names. Come on to Snickers.
Have you been to fucking belt Busters yet?
Have. You been to giggles?
Yeah, I can't believe they're heckling in me.
I thought this was going to be aclassy place here at Huff Knobs.
Just across the street from Moreheads.
Exactly. And he grew up in Bellevue,
which is like a super rich town,actually, that's right on the
water where like Bill Gates lived.
(39:28):
Oh, shit. And Kurt Cobain lived across the
water on the other side from Bill Gates.
Oh, so he come from a little bitof money?
Damn. Seems that way.
OK, but it's crazy. His mother was a nurse, his
father Phil also a musician. He was a drummer and a heavy
drug user. Oh, OK.
So we've been having fun with the parents here.
Yes, indeed. Yeah.
When Lane was about 7, Phil walked out and didn't come back.
(39:50):
The abandonment scarred him deeply.
He grew up shy, gentle and oftensad, retreating into drawing and
music. Yeah 7.
Also how do you look at a 7 yearold and just leave?
It's so fucked up, crazy. Yeah, by 12 he had a drum kit
and dreams. He wanted to be the next John
Bonham. John Bonham.
Yeah, who the heck? John Bonham.
John Bonham, the famous drummer.OK.
(40:11):
He joined garage bands through high school, switching to vocals
after realizing his voice could slice through the walls.
Yeah. Let's go.
Yeah, his home life was messy. His mom remarried, laying off
and clashed with his stepfather,drifted between houses.
He was couch surfing, spending nights on sofas sketching comic
style monsters and writing lyrics about decay and angels.
(40:32):
I do like the musicians who I always think are super cool are
also Uber nerds. Yeah, for real.
They always have these. And alternative music always
has, like the words decaying in it.
They're always like falling fromgrace.
It's awesome. It's so funny too, like just
thinking about the different eras of music and like, you
know, you know these guys in their final form, but they
(40:54):
always have like a past where they're in a different era or,
or genre of music. I think it's funny because Lane
he was actually the front man ofa glam metal band.
Was he? Yeah.
Spandex teased hair, everything and it's he's the most brooding,
fucking, you know, character outthere of music.
And just to see him like dancingon stage, like jazzercising.
(41:16):
It reminds me of Doctor Dre. Doctor Dre was in a band that
was, like, really comical hip hop, basically.
Yeah. Before I'll show you some photos
before the gangster rap thing take off because they're all
performers at the end of the day.
Yeah. That's very true.
Then came Alice In Chains which was with the N apostrophe.
(41:36):
That was almost like glam metal version too Alice.
And that was in chains. Oh, thought it was Alice in the
chain. Well, it does become that.
OK. Lane was restless.
He wanted something darker, heavier, truer to his moods.
He's fucking up there dressing like Richard Simmons and shit.
Needs to be more himself. Right.
(41:57):
Sure. So around 1987, he met guitarist
Jerry Cantrell. Oh yeah, bassist Mike Star and
drummer Sean Kinney, and they formed Alice.
In chains. Not to be confused with Alice.
In chains, Alice. In chains.
OK, very good. Yeah.
Save yourself a lawsuit there, boys.
Yeah. Genius.
Yes, there's an OOM loud that. Probably what it actually was.
(42:23):
Yes, Sir. Blending metal crunch with
tortured harmonies. Metal Crunch.
Yeah, it's better than Captain Crunch.
Still ripped your mouth up though.
It does. Lane's piercing howl went
perfectly with Jerry's low growl, and it was just a match
made in fucking hell. The fact that the fact that
there's another WWE tag team howl and growl.
(42:45):
That's adorable. Damn, let's do it.
Let's be it. Seattle's grunge wave was just
beginning. There was a huge boom.
You had like Pearl Jam, Nirvana.Soundgarden I believe was
Seattle as well. Fuelled by Starbucks coffee.
Columbia Records pops up again. They signed them in 1989.
Their debut facelift went gold, powered by man in the box.
(43:08):
There a man there no box. Someone let me out of here,
please. I am a man in the box.
Literally. I'm seriously a man in the box.
Buried in my shit. Oh yeah, those lyrics are
fucking awesome, bro. I feel like I'm driving my
Thunderbird again, getting stoned with my boys, yeah.
And suddenly this little quiet Bellevue misfit was suddenly on
(43:30):
MTV every hour, singing his heart out.
Thank. You.
This is another guy just like Jeff Buckley.
And I guess Shannon Hoon did it as well, wearing sunglasses and
doors, scowled in interviews because acting like he didn't
want to be there. Maybe he didn't, Probably
didn't. Yeah.
And sang about death and rot with biblical intensity.
(43:52):
He also started using heroin at this time.
God damn it heroin, stop taking our rock stars.
God damn it. That was why the Bill Hicks joke
where he's like, I want my rock stars dead.
I used to always say I want my rock stars old and fat because
they survived. Surviving.
Yes, why not Pam? Their second album, Dirt, hit
1992 like a Warhead. Songs like Wood Rooster and Down
(44:16):
in a Hole were brutally personalfor him.
Oh yeah, heroin. I thought it was about Vietnam.
No shit. Bricks called it a definitive
Drunge statement. They're setting the pace for
everybody else, and it sold millions.
Internally, though, just like, you know, Shannon, he was
falling apart internally. He began showing up late with
glassy eyes and vanishing for days after that.
(44:39):
In 1993, bassist Mike Star left,partly over Lane's drug use.
The band, they tried. They tried to do interventions,
see, they tried to, you know, say, let's take some time off,
take a vacation. He promised to get clean.
He would try and then disappear again.
But they were trying to stand byhis side.
They were, yeah. They still kept creating.
In 1994, Jar of Flies debuted at#1 and became their first
(45:04):
acoustic EP. He was making art that could
stop your breath, then started disappearing for weeks into
nodding silence. God.
The burdens of creative genius. Yeah, there's always this
duality. They were saying he's the funny,
soft spoken goofball who love video games and his cat Sadie.
And then he was a ghost who drifted through hotel hallways
(45:25):
and pupils at at pinpoints. Fucking heroin, dude.
Sucks, dude. I don't understand.
I mean, it must feel fucking incredible.
Heroin, Yeah. I ain't trying to even deal with
all. That I know there's certain
things that I just can't do. I'm probably going to do it when
I'm like 75. Well, when you're when you
actually get older, they basically give you the medical
version. Yeah, yeah, I'll take that.
Yeah, yeah. I can't wait to be hitting that
(45:47):
drip button. Let's go.
Yeah, Bang Bang bang button. Yeah, it's like 1000 milligrams
every time you press the button.Yeah, it would be awesome.
People like man, I got like 8 nurses working on me.
They'd be like, there's one of us.
Sick my buddy did it, very good friend of mine and he told me
years later he was like dude he's like I tried it and he
snorted it. He said it was the only time he
(46:07):
was puking his brains out and his eyes were like bursting out
of his head. Whoa, it was the only time he
was puking that hard and being like this is still fucking.
Awesome. Oh my God, that's crazy.
I believe that it must be. There's something to it.
I heard there's something to heroin.
Amazing. By 1995, Lane's world was
crumbling. He had lost his fiance Demri to
(46:28):
endocarditis after years of addiction.
Oh, she actually passed away. Yeah.
Oh, I thought he just lost her. Like legit I thought she left
him for like a dude named Endo. Endocarditis.
Yeah, we've all lost a girl to Endo.
Yeah. Fucking bastard.
You know he doesn't leave this small town, right?
Yeah, yeah, he's endoby all. Yeah, he stopped answering
(46:49):
phones. He weighed under 100 lbs at the
time, 'cause you're too busy sleeping, you can't eat.
Oh my God. It's so brutal.
His teeth were rotten out of hishead.
Just awful. Still, in April 1996, he walked
on stage for MTV Unplugged. And I think Pearl Jam and Alice
In Chains are the two best MTV Unplugs.
(47:09):
It's no, not even a question I'mgoing to put.
I put Nirvana Unplugged in there.
Nirvana's up there. I'm gonna go ahead and put in a
corn with Evanescence with Amy Lee.
Oh hell yeah, that's a great one.
That's. A really fucking good.
One just those unplugged series were fantastic.
So good I they should have brought him back.
I know it's no nothing like thatanymore.
It's. It's crazy.
They the MTV Unplugged. It was their first show in
(47:31):
nearly three years. Really.
Yeah, so they had gone a long time without seeing him, and
they did not like how he showed up.
He looked skeletal, hollow eyed and, you know, almost clutching
the mic like a cane, but then heopened his mouth and sang and it
is, oh, I'm getting chills thinking about it again, man,
it's so fucking good. Oh wow, and he's a young man.
(47:51):
Yeah, down in a hole. They were saying that it sounded
like a man clawing his own way out of the grave.
Wow. After that, he retreated.
The band recorded a final 2 songs in 1998, Get Born Again,
and died. And then stopped entirely.
And then Lane vanished from public view.
He just went and was a recluse. Right.
From 1997 onward, Lane became, like I said, a recluse.
(48:15):
He rarely left his Seattle condo.
He lived mostly in darkness, ordering food, getting it
delivered and speaking to almostno one.
And that's the one thing heroin does to you.
It's like I'm your only friend. Yeah, that's what it.
Does just you and me. It's.
Very sad. There was an interview done with
a comedian talking about, Oh my goodness, the very famous
comedian that died of heroin oneliners, Mitch Hedberg.
(48:38):
And he's just said heroin's the worst because they would have
these huge parties and Mitch would just be in the room alone,
not hanging out with anyone. He's just, it was very sad.
Yeah. It's not a party drug.
Right. No, I think it's a.
Party drug, and it's not a partydrug.
Yeah, it's the complete opposite.
Yeah, 'cause he just stayed in. He was playing video games,
nodding off, waking up painted and then just stared out the
(48:59):
window like he was not up to much.
Doesn't sound fun, no. His mother and stepfather were
the only regular visitors and itmade them very fucking sad.
People who knew him said Demi's death haunted him and so did his
father Phil, who resurfaced in Lanes Life and tried to get
clean with him. Oh, but instead the it's like,
(49:19):
yeah, this fucking a bad dad, right?
They actually ended up doing drugs together.
I'm getting. Worse, they did.
Of course they did. Two people trying to stop each
other from doing drugs. Exactly.
Or drugs. Yeah, they're.
Yeah, they're right. Either we could not or, or Hear
me out, hear me out. Let's fucking do it.
Let's just do it. Have we ever talked about
getting clean tomorrow? Yeah.
No, no, I'll get just. They have a bumper, they have a
(49:40):
fucking I'll clean tomorrow. And they laugh like dude, get
it? I'm so glad we're such good
friends. Dad.
Oh my God, again. I'm just so happy I have a
normal fucking father who I would never even want to have a
beer with. Yeah, what?
I didn't. Just the way I grew up.
Lane reportedly told a friend. I never wanted to end up like my
dad, but now here I am. Literally with him.
(50:02):
Exactly. Like, horrible.
His health collapsed, he lost his teeth, he could barely walk.
Yet he kept surviving year afteryear as rumors swirled that he
was already dead. Wow.
Well. Sounds like he's been dead for a
long time on the inside. Yeah, and this is the the early
Internet, so you would go to like the the fan sites and shit
and that's where all the gossip was.
(50:23):
That's where you learn the penissize of everybody.
Yeah, the world thought Lane Staley vanished in 96.
It just took six years for his body to catch up because on
April 19th, 2002, Seattle policeforced entry into Lane's condo
after his accountant reported noactivity on his bank account for
weeks. That's the oh wow, that's the
thing. The account is like, I don't
really care just can we figure out why I'm not getting paid
(50:44):
right now? Hate that they found him on the
couch. He had reportedly been dead for
close to two weeks. What?
Yeah, so he had no one in his life his.
Dad took. Off of him.
Wow and his dad was somewhere running off being high as fuck.
So it's an accountant and like the pizza delivery guy was just
like, I'm not really getting work today.
What's? Going on, Yeah, it's true.
(51:05):
Where's that guy from that apartment?
Yeah, the cause of death was a speed meatball, which if you
don't know, is heroin mixed withcocaine.
Speaking of Belushi, that's whatkilled the Belushi.
I know. And probably Chris, Yeah.
Barley. The date of his death was later
estimated to be April 5th, 2002.Yeah, when they have to estimate
the day of your death, things have gone horribly wrong.
(51:25):
Yeah. What do you think, Frank?
Sloughing really caught up to you.
Yeah, we're going to circle thisweek sometime within there,
yeah. Generally around there.
He was 34 years old. Again, one year out of the 33
club. Yeah, they're just barely
missing it, I guess. There were art supplies and
spray paint cans all around him,A pile of unopened fan mail, a
photo of Demry nearby. Oh.
(51:47):
His cat said he was still alive,curled up near his body.
Which is fucking insane because cats usually eat dead bodies.
Might be a myth. Who says usually?
Yes, Seriously, what do you meanusually?
I only my friend had his neighbor eaten by three of his
cats. That does happen, yeah.
And then apparently the cats loved him.
Well, the cat probably had food from all the from all the
(52:07):
takeout. True.
Yeah, very true. But yeah, that cat was hungry.
No shortage of snacks Insight. Also, not to be crass, but Lane
might not have had a lot of meaton the bone.
That cat was like fuck this. Shit, that's true too.
It's. A horrible buffet.
The coroner described the scene as quiet.
No drama, no chaos, just the endof a long slow fade smell.
(52:29):
The smell, the heroin, yeah. Sheesh Lane never got to see the
second life of Alice In Chains, obviously.
The band officially regrouped in2005 with William Duvall on
vocals carrying Lane's Ghost on stage every night.
How are they? Are you now?
Are they good? Yeah, they're pretty good.
The dude is a very good singer. Fans still argue whether they
should have stopped Which? No, hey man, the musicians got
(52:52):
to make money. They got to fucking feed their
kids. Man, they're artists too, yeah.
Lane's mother, Nancy, launched the Lane Staley Memorial Fund to
help musicians in recovery. He's very sweet, Yeah.
Every August 22nd, fans hold candlelight vigils.
His fans are carved on park benches, tattooed on arms and
whispered by kids who weren't even born when he died.
Yeah, he has. Allison trains to say legacy.
(53:14):
Yeah, they might be the most successful of the bands that
we've covered. The Gallison Chains is still, I
still hear them all the time on the radio, right.
I mean they're. Play.
Very true. Everyone knows all of a lot of
their songs. Yeah, exactly.
The Rooster. Yeah.
When you put on songs like Nutshell, which Oh my God,
Nutshell, yeah, OK down in a hole, they they just remind you
(53:35):
what it costs to sing your pain out loud.
Yeah, it does. Yeah.
So RIP Lane Staley. Yeah, 90's rock tragedy indeed.
Yeah, don't go swimming in the Mississippi and don't fucking do
all the drugs. Yeah, please, God, take care of
yourself. It's not worth it for the.
I mean, again, that's why heroinis.
It just seems to me like that's the worst one.
Yeah. Like I said, it's not a social
(53:56):
drug. Right.
But anyway, be safe, don't let the drugs win and the art.
It's just sad that was what was taken from us, even though in a
selfish way, what was taken fromus from these God damn drugs and
depression and all of those horrible things that go with the
mind of an artist and anyone really, you know, it's just
hard. So you got to take care of
(54:16):
yourself, seek treatment and youknow, trust, trust.
Try to find a network of people you can trust.
Easier said than done. Support systems are key.
Community, Community. Everything.
All right, everyone, thank you all so much for listening.
Love yourself, be yourself, hailyourself.
And until next week. Don't go dying on us.
Bye, bye, bye. You have just heard a.
(54:39):
True. Hollywood.
Murder mystery. I have never seen anything like
this before. The movies, Broadway, music,
television, all of it. A place that manufacturers
nightmares. Look everybody, that's a wrap.
Good night, please drive home carefully and come back again
soon.
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babbel.com/wandery. Rules and restrictions may
apply. Chicago, March 2nd, 1976.
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A savage double murder rocks thecity.
Two young lives snuffed out in their prime and the killer, a
privileged rich kid caught within four days only to walk
free through a web of influence and power.
For four years the case gathereddust, the truth buried under the
web of money, drugs and corruption.
Until an unlikely hero emerged, former rock musician turned star
(01:07):
prosecutor who refused to let the justice slip away.
Together with his determined partner, they dared to resurrect
the case that Chicago forgot. Now, for the first time, step
inside the investigation that brought a killer to trial.
Convergence, the explosive new true crime book by Jonathan
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inside one of Chicago's most shocking cases.
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greenlight.com/wonderE. Live from Los Angeles. 911 What
(02:24):
is your emergency? Here in Hollywood now, 2 counts
of murder, injury and death. Oh my.
God. Shocking new details that has
stoned the entertainment world. This makes me a little nervous.
The hair stood up on my arms just like in the movies.
What do? You call this thing anyway.
Death. Entertainment.
(02:45):
Greetings, Deado Universe. How the hell are you?
My name is Kyle Plouffe. And I'm Jerry Aquino.
And I am Ben Kissel. Today's episode of Death and
Entertainment, it's going to bring us down the road a
beautiful journey full of what kind of necklaces and sandals
and things of that nature. Probably a little bit of
sandals, more denim, more flannel.
(03:07):
Yeah, a lot of really cool 90s vibes today.
We're talking 90s music tragedies.
Yes, we got Jeff Buckley, Shannon Hoon and Lane Staley.
Oh, so get your baggy jeans, getyour flannel, and get in the
goddamn car. All right, so we're going to
(03:45):
start this off with a heartbreaker.
I mean, I guess they're all heartbreakers.
Yeah, they are Jeff Buckley, who, you know, was a incredible
musician. Jeff was raised as Scott
Moorehead and we'll figure out why.
He was born on November 17th, 1966 in Anaheim, CA.
Well, that last name is gonna get you made fun of no matter
(04:05):
what. Morehead.
Yeah. Morehead.
Hey, Scott, why don't I just geta little bit Morehead over here?
I don't do that, you know, You're all gay and stuff,
Morehead. No, no.
OK, OK. Anaheim, of course, is the same
time where the smell of churros from Disneyland floats over the
freeway. So you would think there'd be a
lot more fat people from Anaheim, but a lot of people
(04:26):
from the Orange County area are very attractive.
Yeah, oranges around Cheerios make you chunky.
Yeah, they are a little attractive, but I've seen some
biggies out there too. OK, let's be honest.
His mother, Mary, was a classically trained pianist
turned homemaker. His biological father was Tim
Buckley, a rising folk singer with a haunting tenor voice.
(04:46):
Oh, so he comes from Good Music Jeans.
Yes, but he comes with an allergy to commitment.
Oh, that'll happen. Yeah, it's like a peanut, but
worse. Yeah, honey ruins everybody
else's lives, not just yours. Yep.
I have great news, honey. I'm dating somebody.
Oh, is it long? Is it long term?
Yeah. They're a musician.
That's gonna last about 4:00 to 5:00.
(05:07):
Weeks, he said he's gonna take me on the road.
No. Sorry, actor bus is full.
Classic. So Tim, he was kind of a jerk
there. There's a This happens a lot in
the Dipod universe, where you know the father or grandfather
of somebody usually isn't a great guy.
Yeah, what? An artist that has, you know,
(05:28):
complicated family issues. That's so weird.
It is weird. I don't believe it.
Tim, he left Jeff when he was just an infant, which is the
hardest time to leave him. I as a as a committed father.
Right. He's like, how do you see that
little baby? And you're like, I'll see you
later. I got to go drink at a bar.
Yeah. Play to about 30 people.
That's so true. I mean, I I could totally see
(05:49):
you wanting to leave a teenager.Easily I'm like I'm.
Getting the fuck? Out of here, dude, I can't stand
you. I've got to go be anywhere but
here. Right.
Yeah. Babies, they're so cute.
Yeah, they're getting good then.It's a great point.
Getting's good's little strange term to use, but.
It is. It's a little strange to pervert
it. It's sad though, I can barely
(06:10):
leave my dog Jerry when I go to Walmart or 711.
Just looking at a child's eyes as you close the door, knowing
it's the last time you're going to see him.
I don't like it one bit. He was raised by his mother,
Mary, and his stepfather, Ron Moorehead.
So. He went from a Buckley to a
Moorehead. Yeah, a Buckley is so much
cooler. Yeah, they lived in the working
(06:32):
class stretch of Orange County, and the Morehead House was
filled with music, classical, LP's, Miles Davis, Jody
Mitchell. Wow.
But also tension. Ohh, it seems like the wife
could have given a little okay. Hey, Morehead.
Jeff was a quiet. Yeah, come from a long line of
moreheads. My grandma gave some of the
Yeah, my grandma gave some of the better head around my great,
(06:53):
great grandmother and my great grandfather.
That's what got us the last name.
They came over on the old Mayflower.
They sucked everyone off. They were their best heads.
Oh yeah, and then they were leaving.
They say Morehead. No Morehead then that's just
last name stuck. Yeah.
TMJ runs in the family. Yeah, Jeff was a quiet,
withdrawn kid, described by teachers as quote sweet, but
(07:15):
somewhere else entirely. And not libidable.
Yeah. Seriously, I'm always looking
into the distance. He's really not focusing on the
charm of Orange County right now, right?
Yeah, I want to get the fuck outof here.
I. Need you to focus on the Los
Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It's the Inland Empire, so he
should really be more focused onthat.
By 5 he was teaching himself guitar, sitting cross legged
(07:38):
with a beat up acoustic almost as big as he was.
And. By 10, he was obsessed with Led
Zeppelin, cranking Robert Plantsfalsetto until walls rattled.
Yeah, he's cool. Yeah, what are that, the five
year old live alone? Yeah, seriously.
It's like listening to like Led Zeppelin just being like, oh
man, Stairway to Heaven. Just it just doesn't get any.
(07:59):
Better, that's my shit. Right.
Like what do you know about Stairway to Heaven?
You're 9. I mean, I've lived a long life
here. Younger 5:00 to 9:00.
That's insane. As the song takes up like 10% of
his life. Seriously.
I was still playing with my Batman figures and I would play
with other kids and they would try to make him fly.
And I'd be like, Batman doesn't fly.
(08:20):
And then Jeff Buckley is just talking about fucking the
insurance and outs of having sexwith women on the road.
Yes, seriously. And then meanwhile, now kids
today just have baby shark. Oh, boy.
Yeah. Yeah, that's just yeah, that's a
whole different beast entirely. Yeah.
You just planted that again. Yeah.
Thanks for that. So yeah, he barely knew his
(08:41):
father, Tim. And the ghost of his father, he
said, like, haunted him over everything.
Jeff saw him once when he was 8.And just weeks later, Tim died
of a heroin overdose. Oh.
Oh, he. Was actual ghost.
Yeah, yeah, it might have been. Sometimes your life is such a
wreck where you're like, you know what, it's better for you
if I'm out of it. So maybe his dad was like, I'm a
(09:03):
train wreck, bro. Yeah.
You don't want this. You don't want anything to do
with me. You see how traumatized you are
right now. You're welcome.
You're. Going to be a great hardest one
day. That's yeah, that's what that's
If I stuck around, it would havebeen a lot worse.
Yeah. True, Jeff attended the funeral,
small and stunned, holding his mother's hand.
People are saying Imagine being 8 years old, standing at your
famous father's funeral and realizing everyone's looking at
(09:25):
you like you're the sequel. Whoa weird.
And he like totally felt that because he's all deep and shit
even though he's 6. Yeah.
And it's reported that the moment fused something in him, a
mix of defiance and dread. Also relatable, yeah.
I could totally see that. Yeah, it's like I'm not gonna,
(09:46):
I'm not gonna let you kill me. I wish I was dead.
That was, that is literally like, it's like the death of his
dad. It was the the birth of his
existential crisis. Yeah.
Relatable for sure. He vowed never to be defined by
someone else's shadow. And yet every time he opened his
mouth to sing people, I heard Tim.
That sucks. Yeah.
(10:06):
After high school, Jeff drifted through Los Angeles playing in
bar bands, studying at the Musicians Institute, which is
right across the street from Jameson's on Hollywood Blvd.
Is that right? Yeah.
So if people, I know a lot of people that go and teach there
and they got 50% off at Jameson.So there's a lot of musicians
over there. Interesting.
I mean, if you if you run a bar business, that might be the
(10:27):
perfect location. Yeah, right next to an artist
facility. Right.
He was working odd jobs, but he grew restless, convinced LA was
swallowing his soul. See that happen?
It's a soul swallower. Yeah, after Moorhead, in 1990,
at 23, he boarded A1 Way flight to New York City with a battered
guitar and a head full of ghosts.
(10:48):
Let's go. And he landed in the East
Village, which is a place I didn't really hang out too much.
Not the East Village. Yeah, yeah, I bounced.
I bounced it to Bear called Cabin.
That was on 2nd Ave. between 4thand 5th.
I guess actually, in hindsight, there was a lot of comedy open
mics. Yeah.
I spent some time in the East Village.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then there's a place called
Pianos, which is pretty dope. It was still artistic, but it
(11:10):
was getting very expensive. Yeah.
Really was and is. And is yes.
At the time, the East Village was a wreck.
It was loud, grimy and anonymous.
I would assume it's more was what was Williamsburg Brooklyn
was like when I first got there in 2005 or were still affordable
and by the time I left it's crazy.
It's just Apple stores 2 point Oand apparently now you've got to
(11:31):
go to Bushwick. That's where the art is.
That's so weird. That's what they say.
That's where I lived. Across from a triple murder
suicide. Oh.
Yeah, I mean, they're definitelyall over the place there.
Yeah. And we called NBC because we
were filming all the people being taken out on gurneys and
they were covered with like blankets and in body bags and
stuff. But my buddy worked for NBC
News. He's like, let's call him and
sell him the footage 'cause sometimes they buy footage,
(11:52):
Yeah. And the guy just goes, Oh yeah,
we already heard about that dude.
That happens all the time there,like all the like.
You hack, you fucks. Casually.
Also, I love you schmuck. Broke schmucks.
Be like, how much do you think we can get off of these people
on these gurneys? A whole 25 bucks send it. 250
bucks going rate for a video or a photo.
(12:12):
Yeah, they didn't do it, No. And I was like, what do you mean
all the time? And he literally just lost all
professionalism. He goes dude all the time like
fuck I just signed a year long lease here.
You could be next. Yeah, but just like Bushwick at
that time, he lived cheap and was always around the coffee
houses and record stores. I love that.
(12:33):
That's where he found Shanay, a tiny Irish cafe with candles on
every table and barely room for 30 people.
I definitely thought that was going to be a woman, but it's a
place. OK.
All right. Yeah, I'm fine with that.
Enter Shanay, the bar he was at.You love being inside Shanae,
even in public. Oh, only in public, yeah.
(12:55):
He played late night sets there every week, just him, a
telecaster, and an ocean of reverb.
Cool. At first, five people would show
up, then 20, then lines around the block.
Really. Yeah.
His His voice was A5 octave siren that cracked like glass.
Wow, and I love that. Why does that?
Sound like it would be bad though.
(13:15):
Ow, like what? He spread through downtown like
a rumor. He covered Nina Simone, Van
Morrison, The Smiths and even operatic songs.
Yeah, industry scouts whispered.This guy's not real.
This can't be. There's no way.
How do we make money off of thisguy?
He's actually has a soul and talent.
(13:36):
Do you think we can make him into a boy band?
In 1991, he performed at a memorial for his father,
reluctantly, the first and only time he publicly linked himself
to his dad. Hmm.
It made him sick, he later said.I don't want to be Tim Buckley's
son. I just want to be me.
But he did again. That's how bad the last name
Morehead is, that he still took the guy who he hates last name
(13:59):
'cause it was better, yeah. That's so true.
Lesshead for me, thanks. Yeah, Jeff Lesshead.
What? Then why are you here?
What are you even good for? That night, Columbia Records
took notice. By 1993, Jeff had a record deal
in a mission to carve out his own name or die trying.
I don't know, it feels like thiswhole like living in his
father's shadow thing is definitely something he's
(14:21):
building up in his head. Yeah.
That's something we all do though.
Yeah. When you have something,
sometimes you hold on to it for a little too long and it's just,
it's always there. Yeah, it's very true.
I mean I I. I don't know.
I don't feel that. I don't feel like I'm living in
my father's shadow, but my dad also, I think my whole thing,
no. Not even necessarily like
Father's shadow, just like there's.
(14:43):
We all have something in the back of our head, I think.
Yeah, sure. Family expectations, reasons to
not let them down. Yeah, yeah.
Or sometimes it's the opposite, where you're like, I don't want.
Well, I guess that's what Jeff was doing, where he didn't want
to be like his father, but then also he followed in his father's
footsteps. I would have had to become an
immigrant truck driver in Germany because that would have
been the opposite of what my father did.
Yeah. So yeah, it's just different.
(15:05):
It is. It's just.
Different In August 1994, Jeffrey's Grace recorded with
his hand picked band after two years of woodshedding.
It wasn't an instant blockbusterin America's sales were slow,
But in Britain, France and Australia, he became a
phenomenon overnight, which is so cool to see.
Like, everyone has a country where they could actually become
famous. I feel that, like, true
(15:27):
somebody's There's a country outthere for you.
Yeah. Even if it's not your own.
We talk about it all the time. Sometimes we'll cover people
there who have like 10 million Instagramers.
So social media followers are like, who the fuck are they?
They're like huge in Portugal, yeah.
Seriously. Yeah, it's true.
Arch Barker. And he's just like, you know,
exactly. He's a comedian.
He's one of the most famous comedians in Australia.
(15:49):
Really. Yes, he's like, they're Carlin.
He's like the biggest guy fucking ever in Australia, but.
Literally no idea who you just mentioned.
Exactly. Most people in America don't.
Good for him. Wow.
Yeah, yeah. You know, they say him
Australia's Carlin. But then it's also like, oh, OK,
you're in Georgia, so we don't care.
Yeah, he had songs The Last Goodbye, Lover, You Should Have
Come Over and Hallelujah, They became anthems of beautiful
(16:13):
sadness. Critics they are.
The Hallelujah one Hallelujah 1 is so sad.
Oh my God. Shrek.
Oh my God, absolutely. They have the Jeff Buckley one
in that. Is it?
I'm not sure if it's the Buckleyone, but if it's definitely in
the movie. And one of the.
Makes you cry, yeah. Wow, yeah, that that song does
make you cry and I have a story about it following.
(16:35):
A little bit. That was one of the trend.
Like grandmothers. The grandchildren love that.
They're like, this one does work.
Oh, my God. No matter how hard you want to
be, you're like, OK saying it. All right.
Yeah. Critics gushed over it.
David Bowie called Jeff the future of music.
Wow. Jimmy Page said hearing Jeff was
like watching the first moon landing, which I thought was
weird. Done in.
The studio watched him in the studio.
(16:57):
The first moon landing. The first one, the first and
none it. Was recorded, yeah.
Tours followed. He sold out sweaty nightclubs
night after night and then graduated to theaters.
Let's. Go Yeah.
On stage, he was unhinged and angelic, and fans compared shows
to spiritual experiences. Well, I believe that.
(17:19):
But off stage, he was unraveling.
He was sleeping on friends couches, dodged interviews,
scribbled paranoid diary entries.
He hated being famous. But he had to have some money,
right? Yeah, but selling a theater?
I don't think it's being broke, I think it's needing to be
around other people. Yeah.
Because people go crazy. They'll buy a mansion up in the
hills and then just go fucking stir crazy.
(17:41):
Britney Spears. Yep.
You say crazy, I say genius. Yeah, very.
Cry. Also, whoever she was on a date
with at that sushi restaurant should have done better.
He hated the fame machine. It's been said, I believe that
he hated that every article thatmentioned him had to mention his
dad. He hated.
Oh. It sucks.
That would absolutely drive me bananas.
Yeah, 'cause then it reaffirms that you are living in the
(18:03):
shadow in some way, even though you're just as famous as he is
now, but. Again, I'm not He did take the
last name, right? He really could have gone with
any other last. Name that is a conscious choice.
Some head. It doesn't have to be head
related. He could limit, he could exit
all of that. Yeah, I was thinking more Dick,
but then it's like Jeff Dick, more Dick.
(18:24):
Oh my God, more Dick, but then you guys are in the gutter.
But then it's like, people are going to think that that's what
they're going to be saying to you.
I want more Dick. But then you're like, I ran out.
That's all the Dick I got. What about?
Sweeney, I ran Jeff Sweeney Thatwould have worked, Jeff.
Sweeney Todd. Sure, Jeff.
Swede. That's a nice name that would
have worked. Nice name that kind of rolls
off. His friend said that he wanted
(18:45):
to be immortal through art, not through gossip.
Still, he put. He really hates gossip, this
guy. He hates gossip.
Stop talking about. Me.
He might be one of those guys who's like, I don't even deal
with drama. What the fuck did you just say
to me? Yeah.
But still, he was pushing on. By 1996, he was expected to
deliver another masterpiece thatcould save Rock'n'roll.
(19:07):
Instead he was like, fuck this, I'm going to Tennessee, let's
go. Well, there you go.
I love it. Yeah, you know.
I love when people are like, youknow, this is going to be the
next thing that you should do, and then you just turn on you
something completely different, right?
Like, I don't wanna. You're the artist.
They don't know anything. The industry is so stupid,
right? They don't know until money
starts coming in and the fans tell them.
(19:27):
They don't even get me started. Tell them kiss all.
I don't even. Know, I just don't know if
podcasting is gonna really be off hung.
That's crazy. Thank you 3 arts fucking
assholes. Have you thought about doing
stand up on the road for $150.00a night?
Yeah, you're almost losing moneyafter you give us money, but
it's fun 'cause you get to do the art.
Right. Yeah, exposure.
(19:48):
It's my exposure. Right, right.
Jeff settled in Memphis, rentinga house near Wolf River Harbor.
Jeff. Wolf, another great name.
Oh, that would have been a good one.
That is a good one. Maybe a little bit more authory,
Maybe a little authory. It is a little, yeah.
Like a novelist. Right.
Yeah, He went up and down Beale Street Incognito, drank black
(20:09):
coffee alone and jammed with local Blues musicians.
I do love that he was Incognito to the point where like that
guys Incognito. Yeah, like where he's like, he's
only drinking black coffee, sunglasses inside.
Yeah, those are some pretty big glasses.
It's. A huge sign that says don't look
at me, Yeah. He's Incognito.
He's Incognito, yeah. Yeah, he told his friends he
might change his name and disappear, maybe play under an
(20:31):
assumed identity. Let's go.
I don't. Know I just feel like he should
have just done it. Just do it.
Just do it. You're already doing it.
He's literally just whining. Some people still think that
Garth Brooks and Chris Gaines are the same person.
And not to mention he's like fucking couch.
He's couch hopping and couch surfing and living this like
little like bohemian, right broke artist lifestyle just
(20:52):
because he's because he's mad that his dad was also like good
at what? Yeah, 'cause he's following a
family legacy, right? It's actually awesome.
It is. Yeah, and he's like, I'm being a
tortured like brat over this, but it.
Is tough, 'cause yeah, I'm sure he had issues with it all.
Yeah. That's why I'm sort of, I'm
like, so happy my mom and dad are just my mom and dad.
Yeah. Like when they die or whenever
(21:14):
that does happen, which will happen, but not soon, it's all
about us. It'll be like, they had three
kids. That's what they left him out.
And it's like, it's gonna be that's it.
My dad is like, yeah, he takes government money and mine,
that's it. After deciding against playing
under an assumed identity, Columbia Records was like,
pissed. They're like we need you and
your name for the hits, baby. Oh God, and.
(21:36):
He was like, no, it's not my artform.
I'm with this shit. Yeah, so they were really like
on his ass, and he did not like that.
So he was sending them cryptic unfinished demos instead.
Like. Fuck you guys did.
You guys ever hear the Van Morrison record that he made
when he was trying to get out ofa horrible record con?
No, it was the one right before the main one that has all of his
classic hits came out. Oh, so we had a trash ass deal.
(21:58):
So he sang songs about like having hemorrhoids and all these
horrible. It's fucking hilarious.
I wanna listen to that. Album.
So yeah, fun. It was the only way he's like,
technically he gave them an elbow and it's really, really
funny. It's great.
It's horrible, but it's. Great.
Hilarious. He was having his band fly in
from New York City to start rehearsals on the long delayed
second album, which off the record was called My Sweetheart
(22:21):
The Drunk. Oh, I like that it's a little
Tom Waitsy. Heart the drunk.
Yeah. Oh, he means well.
He's just going to be knocked out all day.
Yeah, he's cute. I wake up hungry.
Yeah, he's going. To do it all over.
Again, we have a little chicken sandwich ready for him.
My sweetheart, the drunk. He.
He does seem kind of like a mama's boy, a little little Ben
Kisely over here. Whoa, no one's ever said I don't
(22:44):
give head. Wait, what?
OK, never mind. Oh my.
No one's ever asked me for Morehead 'cause I go down there
for head right now. No, no, I'm the only one.
His friends and bandmates were saying he was exhausted at the
time, but he'd call his mom and let her know he was eating
right, running, laughing, checking in with his mom.
Have you laughed? Have you laughed at it?
Oh, that's so sweet. Remember, you have to make sure
(23:04):
you laugh. Yeah, my parents never had to be
like, are you eating enough, Benjamin?
They already knew it. I'm like, yeah, my mom got back
up. Yeah.
Then on May 29th, 1997, he went to the river.
That evening, Jeff and his roadie Keith Fotey were killing
time waiting for the band to arrive.
His roadie, Keith Fotey. She was born to be already.
(23:26):
Roadie Fotey is born to be already.
I mean come on now, he was just born carrying like the umbilical
cord like a fucking guitar out of the womb.
Marshalls, you're. Going to want this.
Is this set to the right tune or?
They drove over to the Wolf River Harbor and it was
described as a deceptively calm channel.
(23:46):
It's a part of the Mississippi River named the Shoot by locals.
It looks still, but it isn't. It's no joke, dude.
Yeah. Jeff was he was still wearing
boots and he waited in waist deep water, laughing, floated on
his back, arms out like a crucifix, and started singing
Whole Lot of Love by Led Zeppelin.
Nice. Yeah, that's awesome.
(24:09):
Sounds like they're having a great time.
Sounds. Like a great day to be a fucking
roadie. Yeah, seriously?
So Fodie the roadie? He then turned to move their
guitar and radio up the bank, and when he looked back, Jeff
was gone. Oh no.
What? Do you mean?
Police and divers searched for six days.
On June 4th, 1997, they found his body caught in a branch
downstream. What?
He was 30 years old. What?
(24:30):
Was this an accident or do we know?
Is there a definitive answer to that?
Well, the Shelby County Medical Examiner ruled it an accidental
drowning. Toxicology showed no drugs and
very low alcohol levels. So we just had a couple of
beers, went for a nice swim. They said he, the undertow got
him. He wasn't depressed.
He didn't leave a note. They think that he just
(24:51):
misjudged the river. Oh, wow.
That's so sad. Sucks.
Yeah. After his death, Hallelujah took
a second life. The song was appearing
everywhere again. TV dramas, funerals, talent
shows. In 2013, after the Boston
Marathon bombing, the Boston RedSox played Jeff's version over
the loud speakers at Fenway Parkduring a tribute montage.
So I was there at the. You were at the game.
(25:13):
Yeah. Wow.
And this game is infamous. And everybody knows this game
because it was the day that after they caught the bombers.
OK. The woman that was found in the
boat and the other one that was run over by him.
The hunky Sharna brother. They called him Speed Bump in
Boston. Very, very nice.
(25:33):
That's the brother speed bump. And everyone's crying.
There's like a whole montage. It's all pictures and video of
the aftermath and the chaos of the Boston Marathon bombings.
And then they had all like the police and everybody out there
on the field, and they were like, we're going to give the
mic to David Ortiz. And that's when he went out
there and said this is our fucking city.
Oh, he gave that speech, Yeah. It was powerful speech.
(25:56):
I just got goosebumps thinking about it.
The FCCI believe he's Dominican.He is, yes.
Yeah, he is, and the FCC declined to find the stationer
team, saying that they understood the emotion of the
moment in part. Thankful thanks to Jeff Buckley
and his incredible. Song that is.
(26:17):
It's sad because I thought that it was more on purpose.
I didn't think he was going to commit.
I literally thought that's what it was leading all up to.
So he was all upset and bratty about a lot of things, like his
success. Right.
And then, but he was legacy. He would have been, I mean,
hell, super young still, right? He'd be one in his 50s now.
Yeah. Probably be doing some great
work. More mature.
(26:38):
That's too bad. Yeah.
You got to be very careful in those streams.
I did a little a little adventure in Colorado a few
years back before I performed atRed Rocks.
And it is all. It's crazy how powerful it is.
Doesn't look like it's moving atall.
And it's going like 20 miles an hour underneath.
Yeah. We'll die.
You die. Wow.
It's very scary. It's beautiful though.
Ain't good. And then and the fact that he
(27:00):
has a the Foley the roadie or roadie?
Foley the roadie, Foley the roadie to say exactly what he
was singing and what happened. I know, right?
Yeah. Led Zeppelin.
Wow. Interesting.
RIP Jeff Buckley. RIP Mr. But Jeff Buckley?
Legend. For our second story, we are
going to Lafayette, IN. Oh, different place.
(27:20):
September 26th, 1967 someone named Shannon Hoon was born.
Hoon Hoon Hoon who, cornfields, 2 lane highways and Friday Night
Lights all exist right there in Lafayette, IN.
So it's you don't you don't expect like a alternative rock
guy maybe to come out of that scene.
I'm telling you, dude, the Midwest creates some very
(27:43):
interesting artists. Slipknot, Iowa.
There's something that it's so desolate, it's pretty
depressing. It's so cold, it's flat, it's
scary flat. And then there's not a lot of
money. Like there's areas in the
Midwest that do well, but Lafayette IN Indiana is a broke
ass state. Yeah.
It's nothing to do with play music.
There really isn't anything to do at all, yeah.
You could do what I did and takea poop at Lincoln's first house.
(28:07):
That was in Indiana, yeah. Oh, not Illinois, huh?
Oh, it was in Illinois then. Yeah, I thought that was.
The way. It could be, I don't know.
They they claimed different stuff.
North Carolina, they say they'rethe 1st in flight, but those
dudes are from Ohio. Lincoln.
They say it's the Land of Lincoln in Illinois, but he was
probably fucking around in otherplaces too.
Yes, yes, with men. Yeah, most likely.
(28:28):
Speaking of fucking, can you give me lesson with that beard?
Can you come back shaved, please, Abraham?
I'm the fucking president. You'll take it.
Beard please. Man, your thighs are all red.
Yeah. Fucking Abe got to me again.
Beard, man. It's got bugs in it dude.
Oh boy, so I don't. Teach presidential history?
Oh, no, no, I don't. Should.
(28:48):
Not yet, no. So he grew up in nearby Dayton,
a small blue collar town where everyone knew everyone's
business. I hate those.
Yeah. So annoying.
Yeah. Going to CVS and they're like,
Oh my God, did you see what Clara was doing the other day?
She the word on the street is she won't let her son go to the
field trip. Yeah, he's it's always the
dumbest shit. It's like, stupid.
(29:10):
On top of that, her haircut's tacky.
She actually got the pizza lunchables which were fucking
disgusting. She's so lame.
His father, Richard, worked at amanufacturing plant.
His mother, Nell, stayed home with Shannon and his two
sisters. Dick Hoon.
Let's go. It was.
Yeah, Good old Dick Hoon. Sounds like he needed to own a
(29:31):
fucking car dealership. Only used cars.
Dick Hoons used Nissan. Only used.
I also didn't look up his sister's names 'cause I like the
idea of him being Shannon and like his sisters are like Frank
and Ed. He was a wiry, restless kid,
hyper, funny, always singing. By high school he was fronting
(29:52):
local cover bands, driving a dented Camaro and plotting his
escape. Friends remember him as equal
parts class clown and philosopher.
I love it. Scribbling on napkins at house
parties, then stage diving off the couch.
I could totally see that. That's so Shannon Hoon.
He's cool. He said that Indiana felt like
quicksand. In 1989, Shannon arrived right
here in Los Angeles with nothingbut his guitar and a backpack,
(30:14):
slept on floors, lived on ramen and chased auditions.
Hmm. So he was actually auditioning
for for music roles? Or was he trying to act?
And yeah, no, there's a lot of. Bands.
Yeah. No band.
Band. You audition in Bands.
Oh, yeah. Oh, OK.
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Naturally. All right, I get it.
Come in and do your little thingfor us.
Right. Right.
Yes, I guess you can't all just be like a really cool little
(30:36):
like friend group where each of you just conveniently plays like
every single instrument you needto start a band.
Yeah, like the dream. Yeah, right.
Yeah, that's why band dynamics, I guess.
We know we have band dynamics. We've all had those types of
things, but they're very complicated.
They are. Then came his break.
He met guitarist Roger Stevens, bassist Brad Smith, guitarist
Christopher Thorne and drummer Glenn Graham, and they formed
(30:59):
Blind Melon. Yeah.
Let's go. Love Blind Melon.
That's in 1990. So he got to LA and within one
year he's creating Blind Melon. That's amazing.
Fucking let's go, dude. I.
Don't know the song? Yeah.
The band. Yeah.
You don't know any Blind Melon songs?
No. Oh, I'll play some for you.
You'll. They're fantastic.
They rehearsed obsessively, living in one house together
(31:19):
like a commune. So it was like a hype house, but
it was just Blind Melon. It's so cool.
Blind Melon, self-titled debut, dropped in 1992.
The first single, Tones of Home,got modest airplay, but it
wasn't until 1993 that the song No Rain exploded.
Oh, I can say you said my life is pretty plain.
(31:41):
Oh, that's the one. The girl that's dancing with in
the bee costume and everything. Psychotic.
Yeah. It's video that featured that
girl tap dancing in a bee costume and became an MTV
staple. It was on all times of the day,
Yes, and it was So I was 12 years old when it came.
Out and it was just like, this is so true.
I'm that fat girl in the bee costume.
(32:02):
He actually hand picked that girl, she auditioned and he was
like, that's the girl that's most like me.
I love. That and I I want you in that's.
So sweet. The song shot to #1 on all
charts and their album went multi platinum.
Really nice song. It is a nice song.
Yeah, Overnight they were headlining festivals.
Shannon became the face of the band.
Why are he shirtless and chaotic?
(32:22):
He was just going nuts on stage.He was compared to Jim Morrison.
Ladies, I was gonna say, dude, don't skip over the fact that
every girl loved him. Yeah, and God forbid you'd be a
little big. God forbid you'd be a little
chunky. And then they said you're not
Shannon Hoon. You're more like fucking Ben.
Kiss little, ease your face, Fuck.
And then. But I'm sorry, I wasn't Kurt
Cobain growing up. Right.
(32:42):
But every girl fucked guys that looked like that.
I didn't think that wiry was something that it was like you
wanted to aspire. Yeah, it was.
It was the 90s. Everyone was.
Everyone was a twig. I love how wiry he.
Is they loved? It back a lot of girls, yeah,
they like the skinny still. Do I think yeah, I've heard that
they still like skinny men. Yeah.
The the skinny ones usually havebut.
(33:02):
The purse. Yeah, see what we talked about.
But he also is another person that didn't, you know, settle in
easily to fame. He'd always use drugs for fun,
but now cocaine, heroin and alcohol were daily fixtures.
No longer for fun, Zisa. No, that's when the party stops.
Yeah, he was partying through interviews.
Got arrested in 93 for indecent exposure in Vancouver.
(33:23):
Did. He fully peed on by Shannon
nude. I'll take it for the story.
I'll take it for the story. Fans, they were seeing like, Oh
my God, this is a wild rock star.
This is great. But his bandmates were like, oh,
this guy's in trouble. Right.
And so are we. Shit, by 1994, shit, Shannon was
a new father. His daughter, Nico Blue, was
born in July. Oh, that's.
Such a nice name. I know beautiful.
(33:45):
Nico Blue. Nico Blue Hoon.
Oh yeah. Nico Blue.
Hoon, Blue Hoon sounds like out of a out of a Doctor Seuss.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like she lives in Whoville.
Yeah, Sam, I am. No Green Eggs and ham.
Nico Blue Hoon. Cindy Lou Who.
Meet Nico Blue Who? He wanted to be present, but he
(34:05):
couldn't slow down. Blind Melon's second album,
Soup, released in August of 1995.
It was darker, jagged, experimental, and a commercial
disappointment. Because that often happens where
a band comes out and then they change their sound and people
go, this isn't you, what the fuck?
Yeah, but I thought that was a popular album.
At least it was with my little friend group growing up, not.
(34:27):
Commercially, yeah, Critics wereconfused, Radio was pissed and
they ignored it. I thought I OK, that's
interesting. The band, we liked it.
My group liked it, damn it. Your group ate the world it was.
8 No it wasn't 8 kids in StevensPoint, WI.
But it was his world. Yeah, and we were just living in
it. The band hit the road anyway,
(34:47):
desperate to promote it and get this actually like Catching
Fire. Shannon checked into rehab that
summer but left early on the road.
He hired a drug counselor to stay with him every second.
Yeah, just. Slapped the coke out of my nose.
That's a tough you gotta stay, do the rehab, just do the month,
do the month, something about that.
He wanted to be clean. He just couldn't be.
Oh, poor guy. He called home constantly,
(35:09):
promising Nico he'd get better, which is so sad.
Yeah, 'cause Nico probably didn't even know, right?
He's like, sorry, Daddy's on drugs.
She's like, what? Yeah, yeah.
I don't know, Daddy. I'm too.
My brain's all. I'm super fucked up, Yeah.
He was mailing her drawings fromthe road.
His bandmates described him as beautiful when he was clear, but
terrifying when he wasn't. Oh wow.
(35:29):
On October 20th, 1995, Blind Melon played a show in Houston.
Shannon was erratic, slurring lyrics and wandering off stage.
And that's tough to find out that you're slurring lyrics to
Blind Melon 'cause it was kind of a slurred sound to begin
with. You're gonna be extra.
Slurry. Yeah.
They drove overnight to New Orleans for the show the next
day. At dawn on October 21st, the
band sound engineer found Shannon lying on the tour bus.
(35:52):
He was cold, pale and unresponsive.
Paramedics pronounce him dead onthe scene.
So he had overdosed. Cause of death Cocaine overdose
Cocaine. That's crazy.
You gotta do a lot. You.
Do right or it's before they were testing for fentanyl.
But was fent in I call it. Fent.
(36:12):
Yeah. I don't know.
I thought back then cocaine was cocaine.
That's what they tell you. Yeah, but I don't, I don't
recall fentanyl being a thing because it was Fentanyl was
created in the lab. I interviewed the guy who wrote
a book called Fentanyl Inc. Oh, it's made in labs in China.
And it's actually an act of warfare.
They're killing a lot of us. Wow.
And I don't think fentanyl was. Around fentanyl is super
(36:33):
obviously deadly but there's another one called carfentanyl
which is 1000 times more deadly than actual fentanyl.
Car Fentanyl. Yeah, if you do like a.
Fentanyl for your car. My car, What happened?
Why didn't you get to work todayin car?
Fucking OD non fentanyl dude it was horrible.
Hit by the car. Fentanyl, Yeah.
Never saw it coming. It was such a good car.
Yeah, I wish it would have reached out for help.
(36:55):
OK. He was only 28 years old, which
I didn't realize. Baby.
Aw, so sad. In his bunk were sketchbooks,
children's books for Nico, and acopy of The Prophet by Khalil
Gibran, apparently. It's also sad because I don't
know, my brain is all is all weird and and dark sometimes.
So 27. So we missed the 27 club and
(37:15):
then for comedy, the 33 club with Farley and and and Belushi.
Yeah, but so you kind of missed.I was not.
He's not in that. Club.
It's both trains all right. Blind Melon collapsed in shock.
They actually released this collection of outtakes and demos
and they named it Nico in 1996. That's beautiful.
Yeah, all proceeds went into a trust for her, which is so nice
(37:37):
that. Is really nice.
Because although they yeah, theywent what, multi platinum?
Oh yeah, and again, I think bands made many money back then.
Yeah, hopefully he held on to itor was able to pass them on to
her. He didn't seem to spend it well,
I guess on coke he's. Going up his nose for sure.
Shit. Yeah, yeah.
It's not the cheapest drug on earth.
Yeah, for Shannon, he he had seemed to people you know who
(37:59):
were watching him like someone who could outrun the darkness.
But instead it caught him on a parked bus.
It always does. Yeah.
Drugs always win. Yeah.
You'll be very careful out there, folks.
Yeah, Overtime, you know, Shannon has his little niche
carved out in the music industry.
Oh, forever. Yeah.
Yeah, he's coming, becoming slightly a a cult figure.
(38:22):
Oh, yeah. But yeah, they say he's proof
that you could be radiant, funny, flawed, and doomed all at
once. And you can never tell what
people are going through on the inside.
That's true. You're actively doing heroin
right now, Jerry. Yeah, yeah, in my mind.
Oh, in my mind, yeah. That's something you never know
what people are going through intheir mind.
Yes. Did you seem happier?
Uh huh. So RIP Shannon Hoon and moving
(38:45):
on to our last story here, one of my favorite bands of all
time, the lead singer Mr. Lane Staley.
He was born August 22nd in 1967 in Kirkland, WA.
Kirkland, WA, you know, is. That where is that the home of
Kirkland? Oh, it might be.
Actually, I used to perform there a lot.
They had a comedy club called Laughs.
(39:06):
Oh lat comedy club names. Come on to Snickers.
Have you been to fucking belt Busters yet?
Have. You been to giggles?
Yeah, I can't believe they're heckling in me.
I thought this was going to be aclassy place here at Huff Knobs.
Just across the street from Moreheads.
Exactly. And he grew up in Bellevue,
which is like a super rich town,actually, that's right on the
water where like Bill Gates lived.
(39:28):
Oh, shit. And Kurt Cobain lived across the
water on the other side from Bill Gates.
Oh, so he come from a little bitof money?
Damn. Seems that way.
OK, but it's crazy. His mother was a nurse, his
father Phil also a musician. He was a drummer and a heavy
drug user. Oh, OK.
So we've been having fun with the parents here.
Yes, indeed. Yeah.
When Lane was about 7, Phil walked out and didn't come back.
(39:50):
The abandonment scarred him deeply.
He grew up shy, gentle and oftensad, retreating into drawing and
music. Yeah 7.
Also how do you look at a 7 yearold and just leave?
It's so fucked up, crazy. Yeah, by 12 he had a drum kit
and dreams. He wanted to be the next John
Bonham. John Bonham.
Yeah, who the heck? John Bonham.
John Bonham, the famous drummer.OK.
(40:11):
He joined garage bands through high school, switching to vocals
after realizing his voice could slice through the walls.
Yeah. Let's go.
Yeah, his home life was messy. His mom remarried, laying off
and clashed with his stepfather,drifted between houses.
He was couch surfing, spending nights on sofas sketching comic
style monsters and writing lyrics about decay and angels.
(40:32):
I do like the musicians who I always think are super cool are
also Uber nerds. Yeah, for real.
They always have these. And alternative music always
has, like the words decaying in it.
They're always like falling fromgrace.
It's awesome. It's so funny too, like just
thinking about the different eras of music and like, you
know, you know these guys in their final form, but they
(40:54):
always have like a past where they're in a different era or,
or genre of music. I think it's funny because Lane
he was actually the front man ofa glam metal band.
Was he? Yeah.
Spandex teased hair, everything and it's he's the most brooding,
fucking, you know, character outthere of music.
And just to see him like dancingon stage, like jazzercising.
(41:16):
It reminds me of Doctor Dre. Doctor Dre was in a band that
was, like, really comical hip hop, basically.
Yeah. Before I'll show you some photos
before the gangster rap thing take off because they're all
performers at the end of the day.
Yeah. That's very true.
Then came Alice In Chains which was with the N apostrophe.
(41:36):
That was almost like glam metal version too Alice.
And that was in chains. Oh, thought it was Alice in the
chain. Well, it does become that.
OK. Lane was restless.
He wanted something darker, heavier, truer to his moods.
He's fucking up there dressing like Richard Simmons and shit.
Needs to be more himself. Right.
(41:57):
Sure. So around 1987, he met guitarist
Jerry Cantrell. Oh yeah, bassist Mike Star and
drummer Sean Kinney, and they formed Alice.
In chains. Not to be confused with Alice.
In chains, Alice. In chains.
OK, very good. Yeah.
Save yourself a lawsuit there, boys.
Yeah. Genius.
Yes, there's an OOM loud that. Probably what it actually was.
(42:23):
Yes, Sir. Blending metal crunch with
tortured harmonies. Metal Crunch.
Yeah, it's better than Captain Crunch.
Still ripped your mouth up though.
It does. Lane's piercing howl went
perfectly with Jerry's low growl, and it was just a match
made in fucking hell. The fact that the fact that
there's another WWE tag team howl and growl.
(42:45):
That's adorable. Damn, let's do it.
Let's be it. Seattle's grunge wave was just
beginning. There was a huge boom.
You had like Pearl Jam, Nirvana.Soundgarden I believe was
Seattle as well. Fuelled by Starbucks coffee.
Columbia Records pops up again. They signed them in 1989.
Their debut facelift went gold, powered by man in the box.
(43:08):
There a man there no box. Someone let me out of here,
please. I am a man in the box.
Literally. I'm seriously a man in the box.
Buried in my shit. Oh yeah, those lyrics are
fucking awesome, bro. I feel like I'm driving my
Thunderbird again, getting stoned with my boys, yeah.
And suddenly this little quiet Bellevue misfit was suddenly on
(43:30):
MTV every hour, singing his heart out.
Thank. You.
This is another guy just like Jeff Buckley.
And I guess Shannon Hoon did it as well, wearing sunglasses and
doors, scowled in interviews because acting like he didn't
want to be there. Maybe he didn't, Probably
didn't. Yeah.
And sang about death and rot with biblical intensity.
(43:52):
He also started using heroin at this time.
God damn it heroin, stop taking our rock stars.
God damn it. That was why the Bill Hicks joke
where he's like, I want my rock stars dead.
I used to always say I want my rock stars old and fat because
they survived. Surviving.
Yes, why not Pam? Their second album, Dirt, hit
1992 like a Warhead. Songs like Wood Rooster and Down
(44:16):
in a Hole were brutally personalfor him.
Oh yeah, heroin. I thought it was about Vietnam.
No shit. Bricks called it a definitive
Drunge statement. They're setting the pace for
everybody else, and it sold millions.
Internally, though, just like, you know, Shannon, he was
falling apart internally. He began showing up late with
glassy eyes and vanishing for days after that.
(44:39):
In 1993, bassist Mike Star left,partly over Lane's drug use.
The band, they tried. They tried to do interventions,
see, they tried to, you know, say, let's take some time off,
take a vacation. He promised to get clean.
He would try and then disappear again.
But they were trying to stand byhis side.
They were, yeah. They still kept creating.
In 1994, Jar of Flies debuted at#1 and became their first
(45:04):
acoustic EP. He was making art that could
stop your breath, then started disappearing for weeks into
nodding silence. God.
The burdens of creative genius. Yeah, there's always this
duality. They were saying he's the funny,
soft spoken goofball who love video games and his cat Sadie.
And then he was a ghost who drifted through hotel hallways
(45:25):
and pupils at at pinpoints. Fucking heroin, dude.
Sucks, dude. I don't understand.
I mean, it must feel fucking incredible.
Heroin, Yeah. I ain't trying to even deal with
all. That I know there's certain
things that I just can't do. I'm probably going to do it when
I'm like 75. Well, when you're when you
actually get older, they basically give you the medical
version. Yeah, yeah, I'll take that.
Yeah, yeah. I can't wait to be hitting that
(45:47):
drip button. Let's go.
Yeah, Bang Bang bang button. Yeah, it's like 1000 milligrams
every time you press the button.Yeah, it would be awesome.
People like man, I got like 8 nurses working on me.
They'd be like, there's one of us.
Sick my buddy did it, very good friend of mine and he told me
years later he was like dude he's like I tried it and he
snorted it. He said it was the only time he
(46:07):
was puking his brains out and his eyes were like bursting out
of his head. Whoa, it was the only time he
was puking that hard and being like this is still fucking.
Awesome. Oh my God, that's crazy.
I believe that it must be. There's something to it.
I heard there's something to heroin.
Amazing. By 1995, Lane's world was
crumbling. He had lost his fiance Demri to
(46:28):
endocarditis after years of addiction.
Oh, she actually passed away. Yeah.
Oh, I thought he just lost her. Like legit I thought she left
him for like a dude named Endo. Endocarditis.
Yeah, we've all lost a girl to Endo.
Yeah. Fucking bastard.
You know he doesn't leave this small town, right?
Yeah, yeah, he's endoby all. Yeah, he stopped answering
(46:49):
phones. He weighed under 100 lbs at the
time, 'cause you're too busy sleeping, you can't eat.
Oh my God. It's so brutal.
His teeth were rotten out of hishead.
Just awful. Still, in April 1996, he walked
on stage for MTV Unplugged. And I think Pearl Jam and Alice
In Chains are the two best MTV Unplugs.
(47:09):
It's no, not even a question I'mgoing to put.
I put Nirvana Unplugged in there.
Nirvana's up there. I'm gonna go ahead and put in a
corn with Evanescence with Amy Lee.
Oh hell yeah, that's a great one.
That's. A really fucking good.
One just those unplugged series were fantastic.
So good I they should have brought him back.
I know it's no nothing like thatanymore.
It's. It's crazy.
They the MTV Unplugged. It was their first show in
(47:31):
nearly three years. Really.
Yeah, so they had gone a long time without seeing him, and
they did not like how he showed up.
He looked skeletal, hollow eyed and, you know, almost clutching
the mic like a cane, but then heopened his mouth and sang and it
is, oh, I'm getting chills thinking about it again, man,
it's so fucking good. Oh wow, and he's a young man.
(47:51):
Yeah, down in a hole. They were saying that it sounded
like a man clawing his own way out of the grave.
Wow. After that, he retreated.
The band recorded a final 2 songs in 1998, Get Born Again,
and died. And then stopped entirely.
And then Lane vanished from public view.
He just went and was a recluse. Right.
From 1997 onward, Lane became, like I said, a recluse.
(48:15):
He rarely left his Seattle condo.
He lived mostly in darkness, ordering food, getting it
delivered and speaking to almostno one.
And that's the one thing heroin does to you.
It's like I'm your only friend. Yeah, that's what it.
Does just you and me. It's.
Very sad. There was an interview done with
a comedian talking about, Oh my goodness, the very famous
comedian that died of heroin oneliners, Mitch Hedberg.
(48:38):
And he's just said heroin's the worst because they would have
these huge parties and Mitch would just be in the room alone,
not hanging out with anyone. He's just, it was very sad.
Yeah. It's not a party drug.
Right. No, I think it's a.
Party drug, and it's not a partydrug.
Yeah, it's the complete opposite.
Yeah, 'cause he just stayed in. He was playing video games,
nodding off, waking up painted and then just stared out the
(48:59):
window like he was not up to much.
Doesn't sound fun, no. His mother and stepfather were
the only regular visitors and itmade them very fucking sad.
People who knew him said Demi's death haunted him and so did his
father Phil, who resurfaced in Lanes Life and tried to get
clean with him. Oh, but instead the it's like,
(49:19):
yeah, this fucking a bad dad, right?
They actually ended up doing drugs together.
I'm getting. Worse, they did.
Of course they did. Two people trying to stop each
other from doing drugs. Exactly.
Or drugs. Yeah, they're.
Yeah, they're right. Either we could not or, or Hear
me out, hear me out. Let's fucking do it.
Let's just do it. Have we ever talked about
getting clean tomorrow? Yeah.
No, no, I'll get just. They have a bumper, they have a
(49:40):
fucking I'll clean tomorrow. And they laugh like dude, get
it? I'm so glad we're such good
friends. Dad.
Oh my God, again. I'm just so happy I have a
normal fucking father who I would never even want to have a
beer with. Yeah, what?
I didn't. Just the way I grew up.
Lane reportedly told a friend. I never wanted to end up like my
dad, but now here I am. Literally with him.
(50:02):
Exactly. Like, horrible.
His health collapsed, he lost his teeth, he could barely walk.
Yet he kept surviving year afteryear as rumors swirled that he
was already dead. Wow.
Well. Sounds like he's been dead for a
long time on the inside. Yeah, and this is the the early
Internet, so you would go to like the the fan sites and shit
and that's where all the gossip was.
(50:23):
That's where you learn the penissize of everybody.
Yeah, the world thought Lane Staley vanished in 96.
It just took six years for his body to catch up because on
April 19th, 2002, Seattle policeforced entry into Lane's condo
after his accountant reported noactivity on his bank account for
weeks. That's the oh wow, that's the
thing. The account is like, I don't
really care just can we figure out why I'm not getting paid
(50:44):
right now? Hate that they found him on the
couch. He had reportedly been dead for
close to two weeks. What?
Yeah, so he had no one in his life his.
Dad took. Off of him.
Wow and his dad was somewhere running off being high as fuck.
So it's an accountant and like the pizza delivery guy was just
like, I'm not really getting work today.
What's? Going on, Yeah, it's true.
(51:05):
Where's that guy from that apartment?
Yeah, the cause of death was a speed meatball, which if you
don't know, is heroin mixed withcocaine.
Speaking of Belushi, that's whatkilled the Belushi.
I know. And probably Chris, Yeah.
Barley. The date of his death was later
estimated to be April 5th, 2002.Yeah, when they have to estimate
the day of your death, things have gone horribly wrong.
(51:25):
Yeah. What do you think, Frank?
Sloughing really caught up to you.
Yeah, we're going to circle thisweek sometime within there,
yeah. Generally around there.
He was 34 years old. Again, one year out of the 33
club. Yeah, they're just barely
missing it, I guess. There were art supplies and
spray paint cans all around him,A pile of unopened fan mail, a
photo of Demry nearby. Oh.
(51:47):
His cat said he was still alive,curled up near his body.
Which is fucking insane because cats usually eat dead bodies.
Might be a myth. Who says usually?
Yes, Seriously, what do you meanusually?
I only my friend had his neighbor eaten by three of his
cats. That does happen, yeah.
And then apparently the cats loved him.
Well, the cat probably had food from all the from all the
(52:07):
takeout. True.
Yeah, very true. But yeah, that cat was hungry.
No shortage of snacks Insight. Also, not to be crass, but Lane
might not have had a lot of meaton the bone.
That cat was like fuck this. Shit, that's true too.
It's. A horrible buffet.
The coroner described the scene as quiet.
No drama, no chaos, just the endof a long slow fade smell.
(52:29):
The smell, the heroin, yeah. Sheesh Lane never got to see the
second life of Alice In Chains, obviously.
The band officially regrouped in2005 with William Duvall on
vocals carrying Lane's Ghost on stage every night.
How are they? Are you now?
Are they good? Yeah, they're pretty good.
The dude is a very good singer. Fans still argue whether they
should have stopped Which? No, hey man, the musicians got
(52:52):
to make money. They got to fucking feed their
kids. Man, they're artists too, yeah.
Lane's mother, Nancy, launched the Lane Staley Memorial Fund to
help musicians in recovery. He's very sweet, Yeah.
Every August 22nd, fans hold candlelight vigils.
His fans are carved on park benches, tattooed on arms and
whispered by kids who weren't even born when he died.
Yeah, he has. Allison trains to say legacy.
(53:14):
Yeah, they might be the most successful of the bands that
we've covered. The Gallison Chains is still, I
still hear them all the time on the radio, right.
I mean they're. Play.
Very true. Everyone knows all of a lot of
their songs. Yeah, exactly.
The Rooster. Yeah.
When you put on songs like Nutshell, which Oh my God,
Nutshell, yeah, OK down in a hole, they they just remind you
(53:35):
what it costs to sing your pain out loud.
Yeah, it does. Yeah.
So RIP Lane Staley. Yeah, 90's rock tragedy indeed.
Yeah, don't go swimming in the Mississippi and don't fucking do
all the drugs. Yeah, please, God, take care of
yourself. It's not worth it for the.
I mean, again, that's why heroinis.
It just seems to me like that's the worst one.
Yeah. Like I said, it's not a social
(53:56):
drug. Right.
But anyway, be safe, don't let the drugs win and the art.
It's just sad that was what was taken from us, even though in a
selfish way, what was taken fromus from these God damn drugs and
depression and all of those horrible things that go with the
mind of an artist and anyone really, you know, it's just
hard. So you got to take care of
(54:16):
yourself, seek treatment and youknow, trust, trust.
Try to find a network of people you can trust.
Easier said than done. Support systems are key.
Community, Community. Everything.
All right, everyone, thank you all so much for listening.
Love yourself, be yourself, hailyourself.
And until next week. Don't go dying on us.
Bye, bye, bye. You have just heard a.
(54:39):
True. Hollywood.
Murder mystery. I have never seen anything like
this before. The movies, Broadway, music,
television, all of it. A place that manufacturers
nightmares. Look everybody, that's a wrap.
Good night, please drive home carefully and come back again
soon.
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