This strained relationship reached its zenith during the recording of AIC's final self-titled album. When Staley started to slip off deeper into heroin addiction, this would have increased Cantrell's need to control him and further strained the relationship. This would have put Cantrell in a somewhat uncomfortable position because he NEEDED Staley. I think Cantrell was dependent on Staley to really make his own songs reach their full potential. His voice, on its own, is quite boring but it is excellent when in harmony with Staley. Cantrell is a great songwriter and an OK singer. This caused a strained relationship with Starr and Staley in particular (who were essentially partyboys). Personally, I think Cantrell is a classic highly-driven perfectionist who probably expected no-less than total commitment from his bandmates. It seems that Cantrell was seen by Starr and Staley as a "no-fun" business-minded musician who took the whole thing too seriously, and sucked the joy and fun out of the band. It's noted in "The Untold Story" that Staley reluctantly went along with Starr's firing, and expressed doubts about it. Layne and Starr used to shoot heroin together, particular in the Dirt/post-Dirt period. Jerry wasn't much of a playboy and certainly wasn't into heroin, as far as I'm aware. However, I think Starr's degenerate reputation as a playboy who slept with a huge number of AIC female fans, and his close relationship with Layne annoyed Jerry. Starr's firing has been attributed to a few things such as scalping tickets, escalating drug use and starting to assert a desire to be more involved with song-writing and wanting a bigger royalty slice. It seems Cantrell and Susan Silver (the bands manager) were the key to Starr's firing. Cantrell was annoyed by Starr's playboy antics, and might have even been jealous of Starr's popularity with the female fans. Here's why I think the original line-up fell apart after Dirt.Ĭantrell became very business-oriented about AIC and he was the main reason that Starr got fired. ![]() I'm a huge fan of the original AIC line-up of Staley, Starr, Cantrell and Kinney. Trigger warning to fans: I am going to express some opinions that might upset some people, especially the fans of Cantrell.
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