Alice in Chains' Founding Bassist, Mike Starr, Found Dead in Salt Lake City

• Posted on Mar 8th 2011 6:51PM by Benjy Eisen
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Marty Temme, WireImage

The founding and, then, former bassist of Alice in Chains -- Mike Starr -- has been found dead in a home in Salt Lake City, according to a report first filed by TMZ.com. Police were called to the house at 1:42PM on Tuesday and found controlled substances including Xanex and the painkiller Opana, along with the dead body.

In 1987, Starr was friends with guitarist Jerry Cantrell and agreed to join his new project with vocalist Layne Staley and drummer Sean Kinney, under the name Alice in Chains. The Seattle-based band was signed to Columbia Records two years later, in 1989, and cashed in on the Seattle grunge movement when it broke in the early '90s, following Nirvana's unexpected, massive success. Suddenly, Alice in Chains was branded as an alternative rock band, instead of the heavy metal machine they first imagined themselves as, and the group scored a hit with the song, 'Would?,' which was featured on the soundtrack to the generation-defining film, 'Singles.'

Starr either quit the band, or else he was fired, in 1993. The official reason for his departure was a lifestyle change. On the record, Starr wanted to spend more time with his family, less on the road, and the split was amicable. Years later, Starr publicly said that, in actuality, he was kicked out due to his drug use, which was spiraling out of control.

In 2010, Starr joined the cast of VH1's reality television series 'Celebrity Rehab' for its third season. The show documented his recovery from heroin addiction and Starr returned to the series the following season as a special guest, appearing as something of a mentor for that season's recovering addicts.

Last month, on February 18, Starr was arrested in Utah on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance. We'll update this tragic story as it develops.

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