I've mentioned this before, but I met Layne Stayley at a UK club back in the 90's. Alice In Chains were due to play there the next night, so I assume they were just scoping the place out.

He was drinking straight from a bottle of Jack Daniels (or it might have been Southern Comfort) and seemed pretty drunk. It was a busy club, dark and noisy and for whatever reason, nobody else seemed to have recognised them. I asked Layne to sign an autograph for me and he seemed happy to do so, then looked for a pen and kind of panicked and didn't know what to do. He was drunk and swaying and seemed confused and unsure of himself.

The drummer swooped in, put an arm around his shoulders protectively, gave Layne a pen and then defused/lightened the situation by hitting on me and making everyone laugh.

At that point my brain froze and I was kind of blown away that I was actually talking to Layne Stayley. Like an idiot, I misheard his accent for a moment and asked him 'Are you Scottish?'. Which is crazy because I knew perfectly well that they were American, but for some reason my brain froze while my mouth kept working.

Layne's response to that (stupid!) question was too laugh so hard he snorted his drink out of his nose. In retrospect I'm glad I said something stupid though, because it made him laugh and detracted from his own awkwardness a moment or so beforehand.

He was amazingly good looking in real life. Very fine features and perfect bone structure. The other band members were really protective of him and obviously cared a lot about him. Even when talking to other people, they always had one eye on him, ready to jump in and help him if he needed anything.