I knew Layne back when he was with the band Sleze/Alice N' Chains, more specifically, during the last lineup of Alice N' Chains. We dated off and on in 1987.  We were both 19 at the time. My sister Barb introduced me to Layne after a David Lee Roth and Cinderella concert back in December of 1986 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.  My sister worked at the Music Bank with her boyfriend Jeff at the time.  She came home from the Music Bank the day after I met him with the picture of Layne and Morgen (the one posted on this page) and Sleze's first demo tape. She told me Layne wanted me to have them. I started going to the Music Bank a lot after that and saw many of their practices and shows.  Their drummer James became one of my best friends back then as well. I had a lot of great times hanging out with them.  One of my favorite Alice N' Chains memories was being up onstage as one of the  "Football Girls" for the their show at Kane Hall back on June 6, 1987. 

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After 1987, I saw Layne on occasion (mainly when he played shows) up until January 1994.  The Mad Season and Second Coming show on New Year's Eve 1994 was the last time I saw him. 

 

Back in 2000, I was looking up information on Alice due to their Grammy nomination for Get Born Again.  I stumbled upon a message board on AOL (America Online).  I started reading posts from a girl who said Layne's lyrics saved her life.  After reading more posts I found out that she wasn't the only one who felt a deep connection to Layne through his lyrics.  I was floored, fascinated, and proud that my old friend had made such a huge impact on other people's lives.

 

At that point I thought it would be fun to share some of my old pictures and stories with the members of that message board.  There was very limited information or pictures online about Sleze/Alice N Chains back then.  That was my inspiration for starting the Layne the Legend website back in 2000/2001.  Layne used to wear a T-shirt that read "Layne" on the front and "the Legend" on the back.  He had hand-written it on the shirt himself.  Hence the name of this site.

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After Layne passed away, I decided to turn the site into a memorial and added angel wings and animation to the site icon. 

 

The day after his passing , my sister and I were approached by a girl who asked us if we would like to be part of putting on a benefit show for Layne in August 2002.  We accepted.  In 2003 Layne's mother Nancy took over and reorganized the tribute team and we ended up working with her from 2003 to 2010.

 

Once in awhile I share my stories with new fans of AIC/Layne  I am continually astounded by how deeply his music touched people's lives.  It's pretty amazing.  I was recently asked if my Layne the Legend site was still up and felt really bad that it wasn't. I couldn't believe the site has been down for nearly a decade.  I decided to bring the site back and keep it up for good this time!

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RIP Layne...the Legend!

 

Christy Kells (aka MusicBankChristy)

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***If you care to read the full version of my Layne stories, please click the link below:

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https://nehistripes.com/2019/04/12/my-friend-layne-the-legend-part-1/?fbclid=IwAR1rRsDuGXbQX6qKP3U4q-4IDTp52ALf7-is4P6CHPux4Jn3onr-OV7KOYo