Saunders’s body was cremated, and the ashes were interred at the Crown Hill Cemetery, located a few blocks from the house where he spent the final years of his life. “Really little, tiny, out-of-the-way cemetery that I think he had mentioned [liking] to his mom … He used to go there and just chill by himself,” Dan Gallagher explained.
On the tomb is a series of small plaques listing the names and dates of all the people whose remains are contained there. Midway down the list of names on the right-hand side, one plaque reads, BAKER SAUNDERS 1954–1999 with a bass clef symbol next to the year of his birth.
Chapter 24
Layne was still inside that shell. The humor and his wit were in there.
IN APRIL 1997, an entity known as the Larusta Trust bought a three-bedroom, fifteen-hundred-square-foot, fifth-floor condominium at a building in Seattle’s University District for $262,000. A review of the property records, when cross-referenced with Alice in Chains’s album liner notes and other public records, shows that the Larusta Trust shared the same Bellevue address as VWC Management, a business management and accounting firm that has counted Alice in Chains among its clients in the past. Larusta is named for John Larusta, the alias Layne was using at the time, according to Ken Elmer. The property was acquired through this roundabout mechanism, presumably to keep Layne’s name off any public records associated with the transaction. This condo would be Layne’s home for the final five years of his life.1
At some point after Layne moved in, Toby Wright set up a home-recording studio for him. Wright described it: “I think he had some [Alesis Digital Audio Tapes] up there, a small console. I set up guitar paths. I set up a couple of vocal paths, and I think I had a keyboard path as well and some multiple things where he could just go in, hit a button, and record … He had a little drum machine and that kind of thing he used to do demos.”
Jerry seemingly confirmed the existence of Layne solo recordings or demos during a 2010 interview, saying, “I’d fucking go over to his place and he’d be playing me shit he’d be writing all the time. I would, too. He’d play me stuff, I’d play him stuff, vice versa.” He did not specify the period when he heard these recordings, if they were from the period when Alice in Chains was still active, or if they were from Layne’s later years. Jerry also said in the same interview that there are no more unreleased Alice in Chains recordings with Layne’s vocals, although Sean did not entirely rule out the possibility. “If there is, it’s nothing that we would want, or he would have wanted released.”2
Jamie, Jim, and Ken Elmer are unaware of any solo demos Layne might have recorded during his later years, though he had the means to do so. The one person who would know for sure is his mother, who declined to be interviewed for this book. Layne did at least one confirmed guest recording from this period. His friend Jesse Holt—known as Maxi when he was the singer and guitarist of Second Coming—was working on a new project under the moniker the Despisley Brothers—the name presumably a play on the R&B group the Isley Brothers. Layne rerecorded his guest vocal for the chorus of the song “The Things You Do,” which is musically different from an earlier version he recorded with Ron Holt in 1988.
There are at least two recorded versions of this song, the first from the spring or summer of 1996, the second dated November 3, 1997. Musically and lyrically, the two later versions are the same. Stylistically, Layne’s vocals sound very different from any of his previous work. The difference is that in the 1997 version, he sounds indifferent, with no real power or feeling in the performance. Jason Buttino, who has recordings of both versions, attributes the change to the fact that the second version was recorded more than a year after Demri’s death. Buttino also said Jesse Holt—who declined to be interviewed for this book—had to boost the level on Layne’s vocals in the 1997 version because his voice was so soft and quiet.3
Soundgarden broke up in spring of 1997 amid rising tensions. The band played what at the time was their final show in Honolulu on February 9. Chris Cornell decided to call it quits shortly after. Susan Silver Management and A&M Records issued a joint statement announcing the split.4
In October 1997, according to a report in The Seattle Times, Susan was a panelist during a discussion about rock management at North by Northwest Music and Media Conference. Susan responded to a question about whether her gender ever blocked her progress, saying, “It didn’t even enter my sphere of reality.” The report also notes, “She also hinted, with a sigh, that Alice is about to ‘self-destruct.’”5
That fall Susan announced she was closing down her management business. The news was mentioned in the Lip Service section of The Rocket, which also made the sarcastic comment, “Sources within the company report that Silver will close up the shop near the end of December. Sure, Soundgarden don’t need a manager anymore, but who will burp and change Alice in Chains?”6
At some point after that edition was published, the magazine received a package containing a jar of urine and a bag of feces. It also included a note, which read, “Wipe and change this, motherfuckers!” The assumption is it came from Layne.7
Susan Silver Management organized a Christmas party that year, held at a bar in the U District. Randy Biro went to the party, along with his former roommate, Kevin Shuss, who had worked with Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam over the years.
“Hey, Layne wants to see you,” Shuss told Biro at the party.
“Great, where is he?”
“He’s right behind you.”
Biro turned around. “I’m looking past this really skinny, fucked-up-looking guy trying to see where Layne is, and it was Layne. I felt really awkward.
“He had a baseball cap on. He had glasses down to the end of his nose, and not very many teeth. It shocked me at first. It looked like death. It was gross.” Jim Elmer doesn’t know exactly when Layne’s tooth loss started but thinks it was around 1995 or 1996 and said it was a gradual process.
Layne invited Biro to check out his condo, which was around the corner from the bar. He described Layne as being very proud about his home. Layne had a massive rear-projection TV. “The fucking thing was huge. I’d never seen a TV that big. He had gotten it through the label some way, and all he did was sit there and get high and play video games all day.”
Biro, who was clean, asked, “Wow, have you got anything?”—referring to drugs.
“Yeah, but I’m not gonna give it to you.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re clean. I’m not gonna be part of this. If you need to go do that, you do it somewhere else. I don’t want to be part of it. I don’t want you to end up like me again.” That was the last time Biro saw him.
With Alice in Chains on hiatus, Jerry called Toby Wright. “He was compiling songs for a while, and then he just called me up and asked if I would help out with a solo record, which I gladly did,” Wright said.
Jerry tapped Sean to play drums and a series of guest musicians to record parts, including Mike Inez, Fishbone’s Norwood Fisher, Pantera’s Rex Brown, and Primus’s Les Claypool.8 Three of the four members of Alice in Chains were appearing on this album, with the exception of Layne. “At that point, they weren’t really speaking for whatever reason. There was some kind of something going on. I don’t know the cause of it or why,” was Wright’s explanation for whether Jerry tried to get Layne onboard. Wright said there was more pressure on Jerry because, in addition to being the main songwriter and guitarist, he had to sing.