Michael Christopher "Mike" Starr was an American musician, best known as the original bassist in Alice in Chains, with whom he played from the band's formation in 1987 until 1993.[1](April 4, 1966 – March 8, 2011)
Career
In the mid 1980s, Jerry Cantrell began a band called Diamond Lie which included drummer Sean Kinney and Starr on bass. Cantrell's roommate, singer Layne Staley, also agreed to join while having Cantrell join his funk project which ended shortly thereafter. Diamond Lie gained attention in the Seattle area and eventually took the name of Alice in Chains. The band was later signed to a record deal with Columbia Records and enjoyed extensive success via record sales and radio play in the grunge rock movement of the early 1990s. Starr was with the group for the Facelift and Dirt albums and the Sap EP. He was most often seen playing several variations of a Spector NS-2 bass guitar through an Ampeg SVT all-tube head and Ampeg 8x10" speaker cabinets.Starr departed the group while it was touring behind the album Dirt. According to former singer Layne Staley, in a Rolling Stone article from February 1994, Starr's departure from Alice in Chains stemmed from "just a difference in priorities. We wanted to continue intense touring and press, Mike was ready to go home." [2] Starr, however, mentioned on an episode of Celebrity Rehab that he was kicked out of the band due to his budding drug addiction. The unreleased track "Misery, Crack Pipes, and Gothic Main Lines" from this time frame makes allusion to Starr's use.
Starr later played bass for the band Sun Red Sun, which featured Ray Gillen and Bobby Rondinelli, both former members of Black Sabbath. The project was cut short by Gillen's death in 1993.
Starr was reported to be working with his new band which included touring with the band Days of the New. Starr expressed excitement about the new music he wrote, and was in the process of recording at the time of his death.
Personal life
Starr was later featured in the third season of the VH1 reality television series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2010, which documented his treatment for methadone addiction beginning in August 2009 at the Pasadena Recovery Center. His subsequent stint staying in a sober living environment was then documented on the spinoff Sober House. He and fellow recovering addicts Mackenzie Phillips and Tom Sizemore appeared in the eighth episode of Celebrity Rehab's fourth season to provide testimonials about their recovery to that season's patients. During this appearance, Starr marked six months and seven days of sobriety.Both Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney criticized the show Celebrity Rehab, calling it "disgusting". However, they stopped short of criticizing their former bandmate and expressed hope that Starr would turn his life around. Kinney also thanked Starr along with all other members of Alice In Chains both past and present within the liner notes of Alice in Chains' Black Gives Way to Blue album.
"I totally back Mike and I back his efforts to get clean and remain somebody that I and the band really care about — he’s a friend of ours, you know, and we wish him the best." ~ Jerry Cantrell[3]
"So I don't support that show at all and I think it's pretty disgusting. But Mike getting his life together or anybody doing that, I'll support that." ~ Sean Kinney[4]On February 18, 2011, Starr was arrested and booked on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance (six pills of Oxymorphone, and six pills of Alprazolam) in Salt Lake City, Utah.[5][6]
Death
On March 8, 2011, at 1:42PM, police were called to Starr's home in Salt Lake City where they found the musician's body; Starr was 44. Reports later surfaced that Starr's roommate had seen him mixing Methadone and anxiety medication hours before he was found dead.[7][8] A private memorial was held for Starr at Experience Music Project in Seattle on March 20, 2011. There were roughly 400 people in attendance, including former bandmates Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, according to Mike Inez.[9]Discography
With Alice in Chains
- We Die Young (1990)
- Facelift (1990)
- Sap (1992)
- Dirt (1992)
- Music Bank (1999)
- Nothing Safe: Best of the Box (1999)
- Live (2000)
- Greatest Hits (2001)
- The Essential Alice in Chains (2006)
With Sun Red Sun
- Sun Red Sun (1993)
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