LAYNE STALEY Officially Declared Dead Following Autopsy

ALICE IN CHAINS frontman Layne Staley has been officially declared dead after The King County Medical Examiner positively identified Staley's body following an autopsy earlier today, CNN has reported. Exact time and cause of death are pending, as laboratory results could take several weeks.

Here are some more details about Staley's tragic death, as reported by MTV: “Police responded to a call to check on a person's well-being at Staley's address in Seattle's University District at 5:41 PM PT on Friday, according to the police report. Upon discovering the body, which is presumed to have been there for several days, officers called investigators from the medical examiner's office, who arrived on the scene at approximately 7:30-8:00 PM, a spokesperson said. The body couldn't immediately be identified as that of Staley, whose longtime battle with drug dependency was a central component of his band's music — a dark and bombastic sound that continues to influence artists some 15 years after the group first formed.”

Various quotes from 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 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."

"When somebody starts asking me if I'm an addict of how messed up I am or just stupid and stuff like that, it's like man do you have a brain at all? Aside from a brain, do you have any feelings at all? What if I started asking these questions? This is really personal stuff!"

"I found out through the Internet that I have AIDS. I learned that I was dead. Where else would I find these things? I don't see a doctor regularly. I was in San Francisco at Lollapalooza, and this girl walked up to me and stopped like she had seen a ghost. And she said, 'You're not dead.' and I said, 'No, you're right.' Wow."

"People have the right to ask questions and dig deep when you're hurting people and things around you, but when I haven't talked to anyone in years, and every single article I see is dope this, junkie that, whiskey this... That ain't my title...my bad habits aren't my title. My strengths and talents are my title."

"Drugs are not the way to the light. They won't lead to a fairy-tale life. They lead to suffering."