Alice In Chains were recently granted the 2020 Founders Award by the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, WA. In speaking on the award, band bassist Mike Inez said he feels vocalist Layne Staley would be proud of what the group has accomplished.
"I think he would dig it," he said. "It's so funny, Layne is so, kind of misrepresented in a way, everybody thought he was like gloom and doom and all negativity. But he probably laughed more than anybody. I miss his laugh so much. He was always looking for the joke and always just such a sweetheart of a guy."
Inez later added that Staley is usually mislabeled as a pretty gloomy guy, when in fact that was not the case.
"He had his troubles for sure, but he was just one of the sweetest, most filled-with-life people I think I've ever met in this life… God, I just loved every second with him. He was just a good dude. People don't realize that about him, but we know. So I guess that's all that really matters."
Staley passed away in April 2002.
