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Alice in Chains: The Untold Story Paperback – 13 November 2018
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The first comprehensive biography of Alice In Chains from its genre-forging years on the hard edge of grunge to the tragic death of lead singer Layne Staley and the band's comeback.
Alice in Chains were among the loudest voices out of Seattle. They were iconic pioneers who mixed grunge and metal in ways that continue to influence today's artists, and theirs is a story of hard work, self-destruction, rising from the ashes, and carrying on a lasting legacy.
Four years after their first meeting at a warehouse under Seattle's Ballard Bridge, Alice in Chains became the first of grunge's big four - ahead of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden - to get a gold record and achieve national recognition. With the charismatic Layne Staley behind the microphone, they became one of the most influential and successful bands to come out of the Seattle music scene. But as the band got bigger, so did their problems.
Acclaimed journalist David de Sola delves beneath the secrecy, gossip, and rumor surrounding the band to tell their full story for the first time. Based on a wealth of interviews with people who have direct knowledge of the band, many speaking on the record for the very first time, de Sola explores how drugs nearly destroyed them and claimed the lives of Staley and founding bassist Mike Starr, follows Jerry Cantrell's solo career and Mike Starr's life after being fired from the band, and chronicles the band's resurrection with new lead singer William DuVall.
From their anonymous struggles to topping the charts with hits like Would?, Man in the Box, and Rooster, Alice in Chains reveals the members of the band not as caricatures of rock stars but as brilliant, nuanced, and flawed human beings whose years of hard work led to the seemingly overnight success that changed the music scene forever.
- Print length432 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication date13 November 2018
- Dimensions13.59 x 3.43 x 20.83 cm
- ISBN-101250199387
- ISBN-13978-1250199386
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Product description
About the Author
David de Sola is a journalist with experience working at CNN, 60 Minutes, and Reuters. His work has also been published in The Atlantic, The Huffington Post and other print and online publications.
As a journalist, he has covered a range of stories including WikiLeaks, the War on Terrorism, the 2004 presidential elections, and the CIA leak investigation. He has filed stories from five foreign countries on two continents.
He has a B.A. in history from Tufts University, a M.A. in print journalism from the University of Southern California, and a M.A. in security studies from Georgetown University. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
David is the author of Alice in Chains: The Untold Story.
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Product details
- Publisher : Griffin; Reprint edition (13 November 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 432 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250199387
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250199386
- Dimensions : 13.59 x 3.43 x 20.83 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 40,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 21 in Biographies of Heavy Metal Musicians
- 31 in Heavy Metal Music (Books)
- 222 in Rock Music (Books)
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About the authors
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David de Sola is a journalist with experience working at CNN, 60 Minutes, and Reuters whose work has also been published in The Atlantic, The Huffington Post and other print and online publications. He has degrees from Tufts University, the University of Southern California, and Georgetown University. He lives in Los Angeles.
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Like most biographies, ‘Alice in Chains: The Untold Story’ is a little chaotic, with jumps in the timeline which fans of the band will occasionally question. I find that a common trait in biographies when so many ‘characters’ are involved. And that’s the other problem: there are a lot of ‘characters’ in this book, and I would have liked to be able to refer to an Appendix at the end to remind myself of who was who. Unfortunately, no such ‘cast list’ is included.
The remaining members of the original Alice in Chains line up are notoriously private, and as a result, they declined to be involved with De Sola’s research. Similarly, Layne Staley’s mother did not respond to the author’s interview requests. Therefore, the book relies on the account of ‘secondary’ sources - friends, staff members and assorted hangers-on. But all considering, De Sola does a very good job of stitching together a coherent account of the events from the sources available, and the ‘story’ flows as well as it can do, albeit with a heavy Layne bias. Modern day Alice in Chains are barely touched on, but I have to admit that I have little interest in their current incarnation. As Susan Silver is quoted to say at one point in the book, ‘Layne *is* Alice in Chains’.
Maybe one day Cantrell, Kinney and Inez will ‘talk’ and allow their version of the events to surface in a new biography; but for the time being, David De Sola’s book is all we have. It’s certainly a great read which all fans of the bands will no doubt devour.

That said there is some things to point out. The book does not include first hand interviews with the bandmembers Jerry Cantrell, Sean Kinney and Mike Inez. Though several other people and family members have been interviewed and that these accounts altogether makes for a decent historical overview, you are left feeling a little alianated from the direct sources.
Secondly, the book puts a lot of attention on the late Layne Staley, which kind of scews the picture of the band, which were four even parts in a band of brothers.
I also need to warn fragile souls: The accounts of Layne Staleys later life are by all means not pleasant reading. It is truly horrifying to read how Layne Staley got caught in a long downwords spiral caused by drug abuse and it is as sad at it is scary.
That said, it is a good book that also highlights the beauty of the people involved and the extreme power of their music, which is what stands back and what should be remembered.


