In the summer of 2018, there was a tribute show held to honor late Alice In Chains/Mad Season vocalist Layne Staley, with proceeds going to Staley's memorial fund. One of the highlights of the event was Staley's mom, Nancy getting up on stage and singing the Mad Seaason song "Wake Up."
The video has been on the internet for a while, but I saw it for the first time this morning on Loudwire, and was just so moved by the power in Nancy's voice. Now we know where Layne got it from.
“I would say Alice in Chains is even more relevant now, given the opioid crisis across our country,” Nancy recently told Northwest Music Scene. “The purpose of the music – Layne would say, ‘Mom, don’t they listen to the words?’ The purpose of his music was to warn people. ‘This is a trap, and it’s a trap that even I can’t get out of,’ he tried to warn people. With all of his money and all of his fortune and fame. He was in treatment ten times. He died at least five times, that we know of. He was dropped off at a hospital. He had infections. And he was still writing. He was still warning people. He was still performing.”
