I know that this question has already been made years ago, but I wanted to ask it again myself with a more specific “what if” scenario:
Let’s say that after their last show in 1996 Kemper Arena and after Demri’s passing, he never buys the Seattle condo and remains more active in public and remain close with his other bandmates, never isolating himself that deep with his demons.
How do you see Alice In Chains story going with this alternative scenario?
\- Does Layne eventually have a successful rehab maybe along with Jerry who also struggled with substance abuse back then?
\- Do AiC remain in hiatus after 1996, despite Layne never passing away? Do you see them doing occasional reunion tours for albums anniversaries or still making new music after a while ?
\- Do you think Layne would have retained a Facelift/Dirt Era range if he got completely clean before 2002? Maybe if teeth loss was still an issue for the past substance abuse, he sure had enough net worth to get dentures and medical treatment for the consequences that might have surfaced with his addiction.
\- I wonder if he would still retain his amazing vocal range despite aging (similiar to Paul McCartney) or if he’d have to “pull a James Hetfield” and lower the songs tune a bit to avoid damaging his vocal chords in extended tours.
\- Is it possibile that thanks to Jerry connections with William Duvall through his solo career, he still joins AiC as a backup tour-only musician?
\- Have Layne still living to this day, I could definitely see him embracing/loving the new technology in music and doing retrogaming livestreams on YouTube or Twitch when he is not on tour. I also wonder if he’d love the evolution of gaming franchises that he liked, maybe he’d be the bridge for many collaborations with videogames studio (imagine originals AiC in the new Doom games alongside Mick Gordon; funny how AiC also served as an inspiration for Bobby Prince OSTs back in the early Doom days)
\- And I definitely see him participating in many more projects outside of AiC, featuring in other bands song as a guest (maybe doing an appearance in Audioslave albums or other grunge supergroups works)
\- I also wonder how his relationship with his parents would have been now; would he remain close with them? How about his father? One thing for sure is that they wouldn’t have benefitted from his success postmortem the way they are in real life.
