Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [265]
JEFF GILBERT There was a public gathering at the Seattle Center around the fountain. Whenever anybody dies, that’s where everybody goes. The local radio station came down and blasted music out. I ran into Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder, and they were walking around on the outside of the crowd. And I was glad that people were stayin’ the fuck away from them, givin’ them some room. Eddie was tremendously distraught. I gave Chris a hug and said, “You doin’ okay?” He said, “I’m never okay with this.”
MIKE INEZ The private service was on this island, so you had to take a ferry there. I remember sitting with Chris Cornell, smoking cigarettes at the front of the ferry, just totally silent, listening to the waves hit the boat.
NANCY WILSON Layne’s memorial was another amazing communal thing. We went out to kind of a resort somewhere in the San Juans, and me and Ann and Chris Cornell sang together. It was hard to get through it; it was an emotional moment, but a really great moment. We did a Bob Dylan song called “Ring Them Bells,” which Layne had sung with us for one of Heart’s albums.
I remember when Layne had finally agreed to sing with us on “Ring Them Bells,” we were like, “This will be great! Let’s have a moment!” He was like, “Oh no, you can’t be in the control room when I’m singing. You have to go away.” He was too shy to be singing where Ann Wilson might be listening. We went out to dinner or something and came back, and he didn’t want to be there when we heard it, so he left. He was just like that.
JERRY CANTRELL Was there more I could have done to help Layne? I don’t think so. I think we all cared about each other a lot and dealt with each other pretty realistically, but we were grown men at that time and you live your life the way you’re going to live it. So I don’t think there was anything anybody could have done. He made a choice and stuck with it, and it didn’t turn out very well, obviously. It’s not like nobody did anything or nobody cared, that would be a ridiculous statement.
SEAN KINNEY It felt like when Layne passed away, he largely got swept under the carpet. They just kinda discounted everything he was.… It made me really sick when he’d just passed away, and we’d been up for another Grammy, and they convinced us to go.… And during those shows, they play a collage of all the people who passed away, and they didn’t even put him up there. I remember us lookin’ at each other and just gettin’ up and leaving.
JERRY CANTRELL “Died of a heroin overdose. Junkie.” That’s the only thing anybody ever fuckin’ wrote, and to see that start to fade and people realize what the guy contributed and the amazing talent that he was—and nobody’s ever gonna know personally what kinda fuckin’ guy he was. We do, and he was so fuckin’ cool and badass. It’s cool he’s taken on an Obi-Wan kinda of thing: He’s more powerful in death, and he’s gained a lot more reverence.
MIKE STARR (died March 8, 2011, of a suspected drug overdose) When the band formed, we all became brothers, especially me and Layne. Me and Layne definitely bonded. Over what? We wanted to be rock stars. Every time I’d walk into the jam room I’d look at Layne and he’d look at me and we’d get these big smiles. Everyone was funny as hell. We all laughed a lot. As a band, we were always really good. Layne was, Jerry was, Sean was. They were great. I was a lucky guy to play with them.
One time, Jeff Ament came up to me and said, “Every time you guys walk in, it’s all four of you, you’re always together.” I was like, “That’s right, man. We’re the Four Musketeers, man.”
We lived our band. That was our only focus in life.
JOHN BIGLEY I got a phone call from Bruce Pavitt. I haven’t talked to him in a year or two, and this must have been 1989, 1990.