Eight Previously Unreleased Layne Staley Songs Could Be In the Works
Seattle-based audio designer Jesse Holt says he's working on eight previously unreleased songs by late Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley.
Holt tweeted (via Alternative Nation) that the songs already have Staley's vocal tracks and asked the late singer's former Mad Season bandmate (and Pearl Jam guitarist) Mike McCready to help.
Reportedly among the songs is "Things You Do," which has surfaced online in various forms since Staley died of a drug overdose in 2002.
Before his death, Staley had also reportedly planned to record vocals for a song by nu metal outfit Taproot. Drummer Jarrod Montague revealed that producer Toby Wright (Jar of Flies) had suggested Staley for the project and said he the demo was in Staley's CD player when he was found dead.
Staley also had reportedly planned to audition for the band that would become Audioslave. His longtime friend said, “(Staley) had gotten a call from the old Rage Against the Machine members and they were putting together a new project, and they wanted him to audition. He said he was going back to treatment and then going to L.A. to do the audition in a couple of months. He never made it, so Chris Cornell went and got the job.”
Staley and Rage/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello had previously collaborated in the supergroup Class of '99 and contributed a cover of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" for the soundtrack to the 1998 Robert Rodriguez horror flick The Faculty.