Layne Staley, Angry Chair: A Look Inside the Heart & Soul of an Incredible Musician

by Adriana Rubio

Rock Singer Layne Staley was one of the most private, mysterious and misunderstood performers ever! His story is told by his mother, sister and Layne himself. It dispels the myths about Layne's childhood, his early days in music, and the final, very private years of his life. It contains dozens of never-before-seen drawings, writings and photographs...that all shaped the ALICE IN CHAINS' songwriter/singer who sold millions of CDs...helping revolutionize modern rock.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am such a huge fan of Layne Staley and his band Alice In Chains. This author of this book, Adrianna Rubio, interviewed Staley during the last few weeks of his life. This would be his final interview before his overdose on April 5th, 2002.

When I picked up a copy of Angry Chair I expected to read interesting facts about Staley's life and upbringing. I wanted to read things that that I never knew about the artist that I loved. I wanted to know more about his drug addictions and what drove him to that lifestyle. Instead, this book was a way for Rubio to express her admiration for Staley, comparing her eating disorders to his drug addictions. She compared herself to the rock musician so much that the book lost it's focus and turned into a Lifetime movie. She continued to find ways to make everything about Staley relate to her.

The book was dull and lacked a professional point of view. I would not recommend it to any hard core Staley fan. Reading it will just insult you.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written book about a fascinating person.

[Chris Fernandez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scam https://icepicksandnukes.com/2012/01/...

[Amy Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is basically fanfiction. I bought it right when it was released and read it cover to cover in a day or 2. Layne never met with her and the “quotes” from him are all fabricated. For her to make up lies and give her own narrative about the last days of his life while never even speaking to the man is irresponsible journalism. His mom and sister regret ever speaking to her in the first place.

[alyssa 🎧 · Rating 3 out of 5]

i honestly didn't know what to rate this book. i was debating between giving it 2 or 3 stars. in all honesty, the only reason i picked up this book was because of the cover. i had no idea who layne staley was prior to reading this book. granted, i knew of alice in chains (though vaguely), but i never really gave their music a listen. i just wanted to read something new.

this book starts off good, but then it sort of goes downhill. i didn't really see the correlation between layne and some of the things mentioned in this book, like the beginning of chapter 10 for example. what the hell did the middle ages have to do with a musician? and the fact the author tried to compare her anorexia to layne's drug addiction threw me off. yes, both are difficult obstacles, but anorexia and drugs are 2 very different things.

though this book was informative in terms of introducing me to new music and someone new, i can see why some die hard AIC fans wouldn't like this book. i can see where the people who gave this book 2 stars are coming from. for me, this book wasn't too bad, but it wasn't the greatest either.

[Michelle Akers-dicken · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was hard to get through. Maybe a language barrier issue? I thoroughly enjoyed the interviews with Layne's mother and sister and I appreciated the artwork provided by Layne's family. I felt like I came away knowing a little more about this magnificent but tortured human being... because of his artwork and some of his writing. My heart breaks for his family, still...

[Aiden · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s almost like this is the author comparing themselves to to Layne the entire time, distasteful! Really wanted to learn more about Layne himself. I feel it was just the author comparing their dullness to someone that bled emotions into their passion, rather than learning things I’ve never heard about Layne, which was what I was looking for.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Besides the interviews that the author conducted with Layne’s mother and sister this book was absolute trash. There’s so much meandering and pointless off topic fluff throughout that it just becomes a chore to read.

[Mary DeWitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doing some research on the top 4 or 5 grunge bands of the 90s. Interesting to me how the lead singers grew up with religion (mostly Christian or even Catholic). You can hear the dualistic nature in their songs... good versus evil, wrong versus right, heaven versus hell, life versus death, dark versus light, yours versus mine, etc., creating dichotomies. The concepts like punishment, redemption, sacrifice, soul, church, prayer, etc. are often mentioned. Then there are the eventual sightings of crucifixes around their neck (or close by). How ingrained those ideologies can be from such a young age...ironic.

[Wes Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

Staley definitely deserves better treatment. Unfortunately, his paranoid, drugged-up lifestyle probably prevented any other writer to get as in-depth as Rubio claims she got. Too bad.

[Jimmy Locke · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT BOOK!We miss Layne,from my hometown of Kirkland,WA.SO much!!!I really liked the stories & Layne's comments!