Staley's Death Ruled an O.D.

Layne Staley's death has been ruled a drug overdose by the King County, Washington, Medical Examiner's office. According to the coroner's report, the thirty-four-year-old Alice in Chains frontman died on April 5th shortly after injecting a dose of heroin and cocaine. Staley's decomposed body wasn't discovered until two weeks later.

Staley's battles with heroin addiction were well documented, both in his music and in a 1996 Rolling Stone cover story. "If I'm staying busy, and if I'm getting my job done, and I'm doing things I think are great, then I don't have a problem with anything," Staley said at the time. "[Drugs] worked for me for years, and now they're turning against me -- and now I'm walking through hell."

The singer's family requested that any donations be made to Bellevue, Washington's Eastside Recovery Center.

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

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