10 Legendary Bands That Were Actually Side Projects

For the back half of the ‘90s, Layne Staley was spending most of his time on the mend. As Alice in Chains finished their self titled record, it was becoming clear that Staley was trying to get clean, only for his dependence on heroin to come creeping back in at every single opportunity. In the meantime away from Alice though, Layne had a brother in arms with Mike McCready, who helped steer him in the right direction again.

Although the Seattle scene was never really known for having stable lineups, Mad Season felt like a ragtag team of musicians looking to use music to get their addictive demons out of them. Coming out of one of the first semi-successful treatment programs, Staley sounds a lot more refreshed on their only album Above, working perfectly off of the Hendrix-like guitar licks that were coming from McCready’s Strat.

Outside of just the raw sound of the music, the lyrics are a lot more optimistic than what you’d expect coming out of Layne’s mouth. Coming off of songs like Dirt and Them Bones, Layne is trying to be on the road to recovery on River of Deceit, almost like he’s trying to cleanse himself of the more unstable sides of himself. Granted, this would only last for a little while longer before Layne closed himself off for good, eventually withering away until he was found dead in his home in 2002 of an overdose. For a brief few months though, things looked like they were going to turn around.