Alice in Chains are Still On Good Terms with the Parent Layne Staley Didn’t Seem to Like
Although Layne Staley’s mother, Nancy McCallum, is suing the band because they allegedly owe her royalties for her late son’s work, the band has apparently managed to remain on good terms with Staley’s other parent. That would be his father (duh), Phil Staley, who joined the band on-stage at Fox Fest in Burnaby, BC over the weekend. You can check out video and a photo below; he looks JUST LIKE LAYNE (or Layne looked just like him, I guess):
Interestingly enough, while I don’t know what kind of terms they were on when Staley the Younger died, the vocalist did make it pretty clear that he and his dad didn’t have the best relationship in the past. To wit: the lyrics to the Staley-penned “Hate to Feel,” from AiC’s Dirt:
All this time I swore I’d never
Be like my old man
What the hey it’s time to face
Exactly what I am
And in case that didn’t make Staley’s daddy issues perfectly clear, there’s these statements from Adriana Rubio’s Layne Staley: Angry Chair, the singer’s infamous final interview before his death. Speaking about the fact that Phil left Nancy and the kids when Layne was only eight:
“I got [a] call saying that my dad had died, [but] my family always knew he was around doing all kind of drugs. Since that call I always was wondering, ‘Where is my dad?’ I felt so sad for him and I missed him. He dropped out of my life for 15 years.”
Staley continued:
“When I was 16, I tried to find him without saying a word to my family. I did it for a long fuckin’ time, and what I found over the years was not good, so I changed my mind about wanting to see my dad again.”
But Phil sought out Layne after he “saw my picture printed in a magazine”:
“He said he’d been clean of drugs for six years. So, why in the hell didn’t he come back before? I was very cautious at first. Then the relationship changed. My father started using drugs again. We did drugs together and I found myself in a miserable situation. He started visiting me all day to get high and do drugs with me. He came up to me just to get some shit, and that’s all. I was trying to kick this habit out of my life and here comes this man asking for money to buy some smack.”
It’s possible the father and son made amends before Layne passed away… but if that was his final interview, well, it sure doesn’t sound like they made amends, does it? The fact that the band is on the outs with the parent Layne Staley apparently liked but is on good terms with the one he didn’t leaves a sour taste in my mouth. You?
[via Metal Insider]
