It seems everyone is doing it these days. It’s the cool thing to do. Become a legend and rake in the money and the women and the fans and the love, then give it all to an addiction. It’s cool, it’s fun, it feels good. Hey, everyone else is doing it!

What’s this, number ten in as many years? It not only pisses me off, but it saddens me deeply that we keep losing the best ones to the worst enemy. Drugs. I can think of at least ten in the business who we could lose and not count as loss. But Layne?

I’ve been a fan since the Facelift days. Then came the others. If a compact disk has a theoretical limit of how many times it can be played before it wears out like a cassette, well we brought Jar of Flies real close to that limit in the Dredge House. We’d put it on repeat and smoke out the living room over and over again. You hear me? I said smoke. Not shoot up. Not trip or bake or snort. Smoke. And of course, drink.

I don’t feel sorry for Layne. He was my favorite vocalist of all time. His voice and his lyrics were defining cornerstones in the grunge scene. Everyone wanted to sound like him. But I don’t feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for his fans. It’s not too often a band like that comes along and actually makes a dent in the wall of the world. And now days it’s only common to make a dent with a single song. There’s no such thing anymore as Pearl Jams or Soundgardens. Those bands that stepped out and took the world by the balls. It’s almost impossible for a band to make that kind of difference anymore. Looks like Creed is doing it. But it’s rare. Layne and the boys did it. It’s hard to think of a track they made that I don’t like.

We’ve now lost so many fantastic musicians that it’s hard to put faith in the music anymore. Afraid we’ll get burned. Shannon Hoon, Kurt Cobain, Bradley Nowack, and many others. All gone. Cause it’s the thing to do. I have always thought being successful would be enough of a high to stay on top of. I can’t imagine wanting to throw it all away to slick yourself up. Well, I’m sick of doing this, but here’s to Layne – thanks for the lyrics, the riffs, and the inspiration.