We wanted to continue intense touring and press. Staley told Rolling Stone at the time, 'It was just a difference in priorities. Bassist Mike Starr was fired while on tour in Brazilĭirt was an album that explicitly referenced drug use and it was no secret that Layne Staley and drummer Sean Kinney were wrestling with their own addictions during the period It was bassist Mike Starr who was fired though, being replaced by Inez. (Image credit: Krasner/Trebitz/Redferns) 5. He said it was one of the most funniest things he’d ever seen in his life. Ozzy bassist Mike Inez – who would later join Alice In Chains - added: “Ozzy was watching from his dressing room window. And I turned and was either going to run into a truck and break my neck or try and jump off. “I was riding a three-wheel, all-terrain vehicle,” he explained in an interview. Staley spent most of the tour on crutches, following an accident in which he broke his foot. The band’s first major tour in support of Dirt was with Ozzy Osbourne on his No More Tours jaunt.

Lane Staley broke his foot touring with Ozzy Osbourne, much to Ozzy’s amusement I said, 'God, you look like a badass in those sunglasses.' And it was like, 'All right, let's go. As director Mark Pellington recounted in Mark Yarm’s grunge history Everybody Loves Our Town: 'Layne was pretty high.

The music video featured real Vietnam documentary footage, as well as graphic combat simulations and Layne Staley in thick black shades.Īpparently, the singer wasn’t just going for rock star cool.

Staley’s shades in the Rooster vid were covering up his pinprick pupilsįans will already know that Rooster was written for guitarist Jerry Cantrell’s father, who went by that nickname and served in the US Army during the Vietnam War. The track was originally untitled on Dirt, with the name only revealed on later compilations.ģ. Legend has it that the rest of the band hated it but let the singer keep it on the album if he promised never to play it to them again. The track was built around a riff written by vocalist Layne Staley that sounds a lot like Black Sabbath’s Iron Man if you dipped it in tar and rolled it through an abattoir. Sticking with Tom Araya, the Slayer frontman contributed his distinctive howl to the 43-second interlude Iron Gland. The Araya-enhanced Iron Gland was built on a Layne Staley riff the rest of the band hated

Alice in chains dirt album cover fanart