Layne Staley's Real Name: Layne Thomas Staley

Quick answer: Layne Staley's documented full name is Layne Thomas Staley. A biography cited in the Library of Congress name record, Layne Staley by Adriana Rubio (2003), gives that full name and records that he was born August 22, 1967, in Kirkland, Washington. He was the lead singer of Alice in Chains. The King County Medical Examiner's Office determined that he died on April 5, 2002, in Seattle (The Seattle Times; Los Angeles Times).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress heading is "Staley, Layne, 1967-2002." The 2003 Rubio biography cited there supplies the full name Layne Thomas Staley and the Kirkland birthplace. The Los Angeles Times, in its 2002 obituary, described him as a native of Washington state. This page follows those published sources for the name, date, and place and does not add unsourced childhood detail.

Career highlights

The Los Angeles Times reported that Staley formed Alice in Chains in 1987 with guitarist Jerry Cantrell, who was already working with bassist Mike Starr and drummer Sean Kinney, and that the group was signed by Columbia Records. Its 1990 debut album, Facelift, included the widely heard track "We Die Young" and, the Times wrote, sold more than two million copies. The paper placed the band among the groups that defined Seattle's early-1990s grunge scene, a period that also included Chris Cornell's Soundgarden.

A later Seattle Times report noted that five of the 13 songs on the 1992 album Dirt were about the cycle of heroin addiction, a subject Staley also discussed in interviews. Library of Congress citations likewise identify him as the lead singer of Alice in Chains and of the group Mad Season.

Death

Police found Staley's body on April 19, 2002, in his condominium in Seattle's University District; the Los Angeles Times and the Seattle Times both reported that he appeared to have been dead for several days. The King County Medical Examiner's Office later determined that he died on April 5, 2002, at age 34, and that the cause was accidental "acute intoxication of the combined effects of opiates (heroin) and cocaine," the Seattle Times reported on May 8, 2002.

Name notes for searchers

Layne Thomas Staley is the documented full name; he was known professionally as Layne Staley. Searchers looking for the lead singer of Alice in Chains are usually aiming at the same person.