For so many talented musicians, slow suicide through addiction was easier than the almost impossible task of getting and staying sober. No preaching, no warnings, just honesty - I'm an addict, my life is torturous hell and I'll die this way.ĭirt, Them Bones, Down in a Hole and Rain When I Die all deal with the ever present specter of death surrounding the Seattle music scene at the time. That in and of itself was enough to convince me that yeah, I'd rather not go down that path. He was living a hell in which he knew he would die.

Layne didn't try to glorify his addiction or make excuses, nor did he pretend that he wanted to get clean. Junkhead, a song about an addict's narrow, naive view of non-users and how drugs are the cure to life's monotony, sets the stage for the fall into pain and psychosis with the God Smack, Hate to Feel and Angry Chair. Songs written by Layne dealt with the ecstasy and horror of heroin in a brutally honest way. For all the conversations about drugs by teachers, parents, on TV and in movies, the album Dirt was the most honest, eye-opening look into drug addiction I had ever experienced as an early teen.

Alice in chains dirt album genius