Visiting the site of Mike Starr’s Death in Salt Lake City

Mike Starr was a founding member of Alice In Chains and made incredible music with Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney. He played bass for many of the bands most famous tracks, including Man in the Box, Would?, Rooster, Down in a Hole and Them Bones.

He departed the band in 1993 after the release of Dirt. His bandmates, in particular close friend, Layne Staley, said Mike wanted to get back to home and off the road. The band had an intense touring grind ahead. The album was getting traction. But in later years, Mike would claim he was fired due to his struggles with drug addiction.

Starr was to hook on with former Black Sabbath members Ray Gillen and Bobby Rondinelli to play in their band Sun Red Sun. The band cut several tracks and one album, but the project fell apart after Gillen died in 1993.

At that point, Mike wasn’t playing music professionally at all. And with nothing to occupy his time, he fell back into addiction. He also had many brushes with the law. He was arrested in Houston at the airport in 1994 for possession and sentenced to serve 30 days in jail. He was convicted in Utah in 2003 for possession. He failed to appear for his sentencing and the court issued a bench warrant. That will be important later on.

He and his father were arrested in 2003 for possession. In 2005, he was busted in Seattle for vandalism. And in 2009 he was arrested in Los Angeles on felony narcotics charges.

Those ongoing struggles eventually led him to appear in the third season of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. The show, which aired in 2010, traces how Mike and other celebrities worked through therapy with Dr. Drew Pinsky and LA musical icon and recovering addict, Bob Forrest.

In that season’s 7th episode, Starr meets with Layne Staley’s mother - Nancy McCallum - for the first time since Layne’s death in 2002. In the series, Mike deals with the grief and guilt he felt about Layne. He was the last person to see Layne before he died.

Upon wrapping up Celebrity Rehab, Starr went on to appear in the spin off show, Sober House. Mike’s spiral was on display in Sober House, and upon concluding that show he headed back to Salt Lake City to try to latch on with a new band and get back to making music.

Starr was set to join Days of the New and trying to stay clean while living in Salt Lake City. But in February of 2011, less than a month before he died, police in Salt Lake City pulled over a van that Starr was a passenger in. The cops found that bench warrant and arrested him.

His death was ruled an overdose of methadone. Starr was only 44 years old.


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