10 Classic Rock Songs That Were Written About Drugs

Not every drug song on a list like this is exactly about the joys of getting high. For as much as something might give you a good hit in the moment, there's also a chance that you're going to lose yourself along the way, as your vices start to get the better of you the more you go down that road. And by the time that you heard the songs on Jar of Flies, you knew that Layne Staley was starting to reach the end of the line.

While the album Dirt might have helped him gain some perspective about his addictions, Layne was tattered and torn during these acoustic sessions, with I Stay Away mixing both sides of his issues in one song. Although everything starts out fairly mellow on the verses about traveling South this year, things start to take a turn during the pre chorus, with the harmonies sounding more demented, almost like the drugs are starting to speak through him and itching him to come back for one more hit.

By the time you hear the chorus line of "I Stay Away," Layne almost sounds like he's trying to exorcise some demon out of him, knowing that he's the only one who can really save him from himself. Layne would never conquer his demons though, with this being one of the final projects he worked on before passing away in 2002 when his body finally gave out. It may have been a cry for help at the time, but this song reads more like a cautionary tale these days.