This guy doesnt need introducing. He's legendary.

Layne's voice always gets me. Every. Single. Time.

Layne Staley was one of the most amazing voices to ever set foot on this planet. He sang with passion!

Layne was a once in a lifetime experience. There will never be another singer like him. He’s the greatest vocalist from the grunge era.

With Layne's performance on this song we almost forget about how Sean Kinney absolutely strangled that drum set.

The best thing about Layne was his authenticity. You really felt his pain when he sang.

His singing and that heavy, distorted bass riff together are just something else. Rest easy, Layne and Mike, you absolute legends.

Layne’s was just a raw force of nature. Just nothing like him and will be forever missed

Feeling sad, angry, lost, hopeless, dreamy, happy? Grunge it is, that is all.

Beth's excited reactions to Layne are so cute!

There is NO ONE like him now, and there never will be, which is the greater tragedy. We still miss you, Layne.

Layne was a beast behind the mic. Best vocalist I've ever heard: raw talent and pure emotion, I believe every word he ever sang and that's something one can't "learn". I miss him...

Also, can’t forget Jerry’s vocal harmonies, riffs, and absolutely haunting solo in this one. Or Mike and Sean, of course.

The world didn't know what they had when Layne Staley was still alive. The man was untouchable.

There will never be another Layne Staley... May he rest in peace.

Layne painted a masterpiece with his voice every single time he stepped up to the microphone-he’s a legend.

I think what makes Layne's voice so powerful is the fact he meant and felt every word he sang. Listening to his lyrics retrospectively is quite heart breaking when you know how the story end. RIP to one of the most unique voices in rock

Layne sounds like a damn mountain Lion.

He sounds amazing because his voice is the psychical expression of his broken soul... A true feeling, a true voice.

Layne was once in a lifetime singer he made his on vocal path in everything he did he was such a trendsetter back in the 90s ! He was one talented dude!

Perfect breakdown. You get it! My wife asked me and my daughter “what do you listen to when your depressed?” We both said “Alice in Chains” the she said what do you listen to when you’re happy? We both said “Alice in Chains.” There is something about the true emotive singing that Layne had that really helps you feel. That aside, the great debate amongst us Gen X grungies….. Who had a better voice? Layne Staley or Chris Cornell? I always go back and forth on this one.

So casual at the end. "Thanks a lot".

Does anyone else get goosebumps from Layne's voice?

it's always a pleasure to hear Layne

Layne always felt what he was singing. I think this is why he was different. Legendary! Forever.

The way he belts out "I do it a lot yeahhh" right before the solo is one of my top 3 Layne moments. Goosebumps every single time. He just absolutely destroys. Miss him so damn much.

Layne Staley, the greatest singer Ive seen in my entire 25 years of life.

Layne was underestimated, but his voice will be eternal, he who does not understand does not know about music.

I'm a simple man. I see beth roars and Alice in chains and I have to click

Alice in chains "Bleed the Freak" from Moore Theater next please!

0:23 “Layne’s voice is heartbreaking”. Nailed it.

Hypnotic! Thank you Beth for honoring the one and only Layne.

Hell yes AIC is the best, absolutely love when people do AIC reactions, Layne was an all time great and Jerry’s harmonies with Layne are unmatched. Nice video.

Never been click faster before

Thank you Beth for this video. It's soothing to see how this gives other people shivers, too :) like at 02:25 where Lane becomes nothing less than sort of an ultra loud stadium siren putting out a long screeching holler without a decay in pressure, just to move up 3 halftones at the end of it. That's not just a "Yeah" but comes to "Yeeeeeeaaaahhhhoowwweahh", sounding like finally the yell goes down the drain in a sink. Absolutely amazing how he can do artsy things like that with such control of his voice in a live situation... 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🎶

Layne Staley has helped me through my darkest times. A talented musician and a wonderful man.

My favorite version of this song! I get goosebumps every time.

Beth the appreciation and analysis you provide with Layne and other raw emotional talent sets you apart from the balance of individuals across this medium. Thanks so much for just being you and honest to the these artists giving all of what they have in life.

Layne makes me cry every goddamn time I listen to him, no matter what mood I'm in. RIP angel.

She needs to do Godsmack by this band so I know that the fuck he is doing with his voice in that song.

Probably my favorite AiC song. Every member is firing on all cylinders.

Layne was insanely awesome live! Miss both him and Chris!

His voice kills me. It’s so distinct, hard and soft at the same time. Every time I hear his voice it remind me of my youth, but makes me so sad. I feel like the best voices are only around for such a short time

Layne was the best singer to walk the planet, so much soullll.

This song right here helped me understand the mind of a drug addict. My dad was clean for 30 plus years until ALS and multiple knee surgeries caused him to have a relapse I still get chills listening to this song.

Layne Staley is the most unique singers I’ve ever listened to. You think he’s going one way then he goes someplace totally unexpected. He literally sings to a tune all his own. Not to mention he did many of his own harmonies. I have loved AIC & him since I bought Dirt (when it came out). I actually listened to AIC today. Layne Staley AIC is always in the lineup!

It’s not just me I’m sure but when he kicks in the first chorus it makes my body and my head tingle. Voice from god.

Layne's imperfections were absolutely perfect. Thanks for the video, Beth.

Junkhead, Angrychair, and Don’t Follow. My three favorite AIC songs.

Layne really was special. Thank you for this video, Beth.

His entire MTV unplugged session was absolutely amazing... his voice was on point even though he was about to nod out throughout the entire thing. RIP Layne

What a voice! His emotiveness and rasp are unparalleled. Would love to see you react to Tamino.

Layne Staley, Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell all put 100% into their vocals. Each had their own unique sound. All of them were absolutely amazing and a gift to the music world! Layne is my all time favorite singer. RIP

There will never be another one like him. RIP Layne.

The best part of the song for me is the chorus where Jerry's beautiful vocal harmony comes in, and you can hear Mike's incredibly funky and catchy bassline just carry the melody so well. Fucking amazing

Layne always put it out there when doing live performances. Should see live in settle moore. Man in the box..

One of the best live performances from Alice in Chains. This was Layne Staley in his pocket in terms of vocal power/dexterity. If you do AIC again, Please check out "God Am Live at the Kiel Center, St. Louis, MO, July 1996." I personally go for the audio recording because the live video is grainy but nevertheless this is an underrated gem from Alice in Chains. This performance was the last time Layne Staley was on helm as lead vocalist. Layne was at this point deep in the thralls of his heroin addiction and physically and mentally gone (the glaring weight loss, long sleeved clothes and gloves to hide the needle marks, (e)motionless, and teeth decay). Layne's bandmates were also struggling with addiction (particularly lead guitarist/secondary singer/songwriter/riff lord Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney dealing with alcoholism). With all that going on in these guys' personal lives, this rendition of "God Am" is an exercise of despair rooted from the band's personal pain and sorrow. Layne in particular, gives a harrowing yet powerful and piercing vocal performance that will hit anyone a certain way. I think can be up there with any of AIC's live work, including their performance of "Junkhead." Love your content Beth Roars! 😁👍❤️ Hope all is well

Beth Roars has the most soothing voice I have ever heard.

He was as real as it gets. The Goat imo from a rock vocal standpoint.

You gotta do the song "Real Thing" from live at the Moore. Layne sings that song with a different passion then usual--you'll see him in a different light. Hardly anyone does it.

the guy is missed. Alice in chains music is so heavy loaded. makes it more sadder the way he was slowly sinking into death. everytime he sings you hear this kickass talent but also you hear the undertone of his kinda depressing state of himself. gives me chills.

Some of their songs also feature a lot more harmonizing between him and their guitarist, Jerry Cantrell, who is a good singer too, just not Layne level (who is?) I can't think of another rock band from the era that had a better harmonizing pair. Heaven Beside You is one that comes to mind where Cantrell takes the lead.

Thank you Beth! Love your analyses ☺

A lot of people miss that really low note he hits in this song. Never really here Layne use his lower register. Very cool.

I love this band so much, thank you for feeling all the feelings that Layne gave us… he is a legend and missed dearly

Amazing video. I’ve always been blown away with what Layne can do with his voice.

Whenever I hear him sing, I want to sing.

Long live the legend... Layne Staley ❤ 🤘

I love how you feel this and pick up on how the techniques connect to the emotions.

It's awesome to see you evolve from the 1st time hearing him to now. I can tell your a fan of him now. Awesome!

Awesome choice for the song!

Layne was always better live than he was in the studio version. The lyric "What's my drug of choice? Well, what have you got? I don't go broke and I do it a lot." Layne had an accountant and access to a continual supply of money thanks to royalty checks always coming in. He spent his money on drugs, toys, and video games mostly. Layne had tried just about every drug in a span of twelve years. He sent Demri out to get drugs once, for cocaine, she came back with heroin. It's a toss-up whether she introduced him to heroin, or he discovered it on the tour with Van Halen in 1991 or if one of the guys in the industrial rock band Ministry taught him to shoot heroin, or he discovered it on his own. But, once he had heroin that was it. It's hard to break a heroin habit. He did do crack on a regular basis. When they found his body, they found a handful of needles around and under his body and two crack pipes on the coffee table. It's unclear if Mike Starr had taken the drugs with him when he left the day before because all they found was five hundred dollars in cash, heroin stains on the carpet between the bathroom and living room, and drug paraphernalia. The door was bolted from the inside when the police caused around $12,000.00 in damage breaking the door down. Crack was one drug that Mark Lanegan REFUSED to do with him because crack messed Lanegan up. So apparently Lanegan had discovered a drug that was a bridge too far for him, but he sure didn't help Layne's situation at all. Layne was working on Mad Season's Above album (and later on Tripod) and the assistants in both sessions had asked Layne why he was doing this (using drugs) to himself. Both times, Layne replied to the effect of "I'm either going to drink or do dope, and drinking is harder on me." Cantrell said in 2013: "That darkness was always part of the band, but it wasn’t all about that. There was always an optimism, even in the darkest shit we wrote. With the Dirt album, it’s not like we were saying ‘Oh yeah, this is a good thing.’ It was more of a warning than anything else, rather than ‘Hey, come and check this out, it’s great!’ We were talking about what was going on at the time, but within that, there was always a survivor element - a kind of triumph over the darker elements of being a human being. I still think we have all of that intact, but maybe the percentage has shifted." The Dirt album, most of the songs written by Layne, aside from a handful of them, concern his own feelings about his drug addiction. He knew he had made a mistake by getting into drugs. He wanted his fans to LEARN FROM his mistakes, he never wanted them to follow in his footsteps. Having a fan come up and tell him they were high was the exact opposite of what he intended. According to Jerry Cantrell, "I think SICKMAN is not that bad. I thought most of the hassle would come from JUNKHEAD and GOD SMACK. Those songs are put in sequence on the second side those five songs from JUNKHEAD to ANGRY CHAIR for a reason: Because it tells a story. It starts out with a really young naive attitude with JUNKHEAD, like drugs are great, sex is great, rock'n' roll, yeah! Then, as it progresses, there's a little bit of growing up and a little bit of a realization of what it's about, and that ain't what it's about. I've been using this phrase a lot, but it makes a lot of sense: It's really easy to die; it's really hard to live. It takes a lot of guts to live. It doesn't take a lot of guts to die. Those five and SICKMAN are the only ones talking about that type of mentality (drugs). The rest of the stuff is not like that at all. A good portion of it is a story, and it's meant to be that way. It's kind of overwhelming and unpleasant at times, unsettling maybe, but that's why all those songs are together. Even if it's disturbing, it's not something anybody else needs to worry about or the way somebody else needs to live their life." And for reference, GOD SMACK -- as two words -- is an Alice In Chains song that Layne wrote concerning HIS feelings about his own drug addiction. 'Godsmack' -- as one word -- is a horrible Alice In Chains tribute band who took their name from the Alice In Chains song, and stole their whole look and sound from Alice In Chains, and is the reason why I hate tribute bands. I see Layne Staley of AIC and Jim Morrison in the same way a little bit. Whereas Jim was only musically active from 1964/65 - 1970.... that's 6 years... there was a finality to his passing. Maybe it had to do with the other band members not doing anything for so many years after Jim died until Manzarek decided to regroup with new singers as The Doors of the 21st Century. With Layne ... Layne was around a lot longer than Jim... 12 years, but in that span, Layne was probably only active the same amount of time as Jim as far as albums and live shows over the years (not the actual amount of shows between the two, but the YEARS they were seen at live events). After the 4 KISS shows in 1996, people only saw him out and about sporadically. Other musicians tried to spark a creative flair hoping if he was creative he wouldn't want the drugs, but it only worked for as long as it took to complete the project and he'd close down again. Layne's story is more tragic and haunting because you can actually watch and hear him deteriorate over the 12-year span: from the mild use of drugs in 1990 all the way through 1996 when he was deep into a heroin addiction to dropping to 90 pounds by 1998 to 86 pounds when he died in 2002. Both Layne and Jim kept their humor and wit even to the end of their lives. "Whatever dramas are going on in my life, I always find that place inside my head where I see myself as the cleanest, tallest, strongest, wisest person that I can be." -- Layne Staley "My bad habits aren't my title. My strengths and my talent are my title." -- Layne Staley "When I tried drugs they were fucking great, and they worked for me for years, and now they're turning against me- and now I'm walking through hell and this sucks. I wrote about drugs, and I didn't think I was being unsafe or careless by writing about them. I didn't want my fans to think heroin was cool. But then I've had fans come up to me and give me the thumbs up, telling me they're high. That's exactly what I didn't want to happen." -- Layne Staley

Layne is how I found your channel :) It makes me so happy that you regularly come back to him as well as Chris Cornell because you articulate what made them special *SO* well. More please!!!

Love that sandpaper Staley sound!

6:06 its heartbreaking, calming, strong and magical at the same time.

Beth is so freaking adorable. Lol. I love her so much. This is one of my favorite bands of all time. Layne is the reason I'm a vocalist myself and I miss him every day.

I love your energy in your reactions Beth 😁. A great way to start the end of my week!

One of my favourite recordings 😍.

You should listen "Godsmack", a really twisted vocals by Layne on that

My favorite song of theirs and the best version of it. Absolutely crushing and from the depth of his soul. So sad.

Another great reaction! And I do so love how you react! Keep 'em coming Beth.

Layne just does everything possible here to express this song. Context: this was right when they were putting out Dirt and for a lot of people it was the first time hearing this song. I can’t think of any singers with as much power and distortion today but that kid from Nothing But Thieves, Connor, has all of the power and range. Just missing the wailing distortion. Great analysis Beth!

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O melhor "yeah" do rock, como disse Mark Lanegan. Na minha opinião a voz mais visceral do rock, dava pra ouvir os sentimentos dele em cada palavra. 🇧🇷

As a singer/ guitarist/ songwriter myself, the one singer that I would say has this emotive style right now, is Jay Buchanan from the band "Rival Sons". Jay is an incredible vocalist and writer. I bet you would like him. His acoustic performances are typically my favorite. But the band is awesome.

This song has a really nice bass line in the chorus. Always catches my ear.

My favorite voice of all time. Greetings from Portugal 🇵🇹

AIC is one of the greatest bands to me, and Layne is without a doubt one of the greatest vocalists ever. I was pumped for this reaction, my fav live performance ever.

Unforgettable performance by Layne. Listened to this album so many times and it still hits hard every time I hear it. Thanks for covering it Beth!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really liked him in Mad Season. 'River of Deceit' is probably my favorite off that album.

I could only say: hey Beth, welcome to the family, as you're final words are just... The ultimate sentence (just my opinion). Cheers from Italy and AIC 4ever

Best singer of all time and I’ll never change my opinion

I really like how you describe his singing and delivery ( "ripping..", "oozing", etc.). Great word choices!

this song gives me goose bumps in EVERYTHING, it seems to take my soul out of my body. lots of feeling.

Alice in chains nutshell unplugged! Should be done

I Love it when you do AIC or anything Layne Staley. Thanks for the video ❤️

I remember a comment someone made after Layne died in regards to his music and voice; that with a lot of bands when you heard them sing about whatever you said to yourself "They're full of it, that's not really who they are and what they live, just an act", but when you heard Layne you just knew "This is the real deal, he's speaking his truth and what he is dealing with" and considering all that AIC music was about with Layne, that it was scary and saddening and almost prophetic considering his final years. And an extra shout-out to Mike Starr, another one gone way too soon who was extremely underrated as a bassist, that original lineup was magic(no disrespect to their replacements, who are great as well).

My favorite band. Really enjoyed this one! ♥

Even with the voice kind of broken at this performance, Layne managed to give us an insane performance. The most visceral singer of all time in my opinion. Greetings from Brazil!

You're amazing! Love your channel and listening to you has definitely helped my singing so thank you. 😊😌