Rest in Peace Mike Starr
8 comments Mar 11, 2011 | Alice in Chains, Featured, Mike Starr, News, Pictures, Tributes
Sad to report Mike Starr the original bassist for Alice in Chains passed on Tuesday, March 8, 2011, after a long struggle with drug addiction. Mike was a dear friend of mine for many years. We dated for about 9 months when I was 19 years old and he was about 26 and then we stayed friends for years after we broke up. We had lost touch while he was going through his darker days but he was always in my heart. I had found him again recently on Facebook and wrote him a message to call me..I don’t think he was very active on the internet because he never wrote me back.. but then a couple weeks before his death he called my cell phone and left a very short but sweet message..that just said…
“Hi Barbara, this is Mike Starr, I love you! Call me back OK? I love you. Ok, Bye”
I was really happy to hear his voice again but he also sounded kinda sad and possibly loaded. I put off calling him back. Then my Mom called me Tuesday night to tell me his body had been found in Salt Lake City. I was sad but not shocked. I was angry at myself for not calling him back because maybe I could of said something that would of changed his path.. I know I’m probably really wrong but I can’t help feeling that way. I feel like I failed him somehow.. like he was reaching out for a friend and I was not there. There’s nothing I can do about it now but carry on and love as hard as I can because we’re not promised a tomorrow. None of us are.
Mike will always be missed and remembered. I had some really fun and amazing experiances with Mike and AIC. Facelift had just come out when we started dating so I was with him when he really started to feel and see the effects of fame and it was a lot of fun for both of us and to be along for the ride for something like that was so surreal pretty cool for a young girl from Laguna Beach.
I love this picture because you can see the silver pendent I gave him before her left to record Dirt in LA
When Mike went off to record Dirt in LA…. I ended up meeting someone else so we broke it off but we did remain good friends. About 2-3 years later he tracked me down and he was so excited because he wanted to give me a present… he gave me one of his Facelift Platnum albums with my name engraved in it. He drove me down to Naff studiors that day and then downtown to Susan Silvers office to get the Platnum Album.. I just thought it was amazing that even though we had been broken up for years that he still loved me and he told me because of the fact that I was with him during that time in his life he he wanted me to have it and he was like a little school boy when he gave it to me.. so excited and so proud of his accomplishment. I was also so proud and touched by his generosity and I was also so happy that he still thought of me and our times together because they truly were amazing times.. I was just extremely touched and I’ve kept it with me ever since through some crazy times, countless walls in countless bedrooms of mine and it’s even been my “carry on” the airplane once.. I still have the Alaska Airlines sticker on the back.. It is one of my most prized possessions and always will be.
When I was dating Mike I became friends with Layne and Demri and when me and Mike Starr broke up I started dating one of Layne and Demri’s best friends, Darin Lamb so I was still very much a part of the AIC family for many years. I was blessed to have been a part of their lives and I’ll never forget their laughter, their goofy ways and the fun we had together. It’s incredibly sad to me that we lost them all so young. Heroin is a curse.
There are some really great communities on Facebook dedicated to Mike and Layne and a lot of his friends including Mike’s beautiful sister, Melinda Starr are active members. If your looking to share your memories or how their music touched your lives this is where I would go to do that….
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- I love this picture because you can see the silver pendent I gave him before her left to record Dirt in LA
Not just another site..
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The AIC Boys
Demri the Fairy Goddess
I can’t believe I’m reading this just now. Beautiful text. I’ve been searching for Mike on the web after a long time and this text came to me. Touching as always. It’s a long time since we chatted a little, our kids are all grown up! Time flies! Xx Barb
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Nice read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing some research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Therefore let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch! “A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.” by Mark Twain.
You Rock too>Barbara!!! I truly believe that Mike KNOWS that you will always love and care for him…more now than ever. And he’s probably thrilled to be with all his old friends again. Tho it’s unfair to those of you still around. I think he’s finally at peace. i watched him on that celebrity Rehab show, and I know they play it up to make it more dramati c and crazy than it probably was…But after watching him talking to Layne’s mom and her saying something about how she doesn’t want the same thing to happen to Mike that happened to Layne really touched me. I even cried and I only met the guy once, and saw him around town here and there. I really thought he was gonna make it. Oh Ijust remembered somebody else that might know the people you were asking me about. he was actually in Jail with Mike at one point and got to know him. So I’ll ask him too. I’m sure you know him too..i don’t want to mention names, but i bet he’ll have something to say here. I post the link to him in a msg on FB….There’s actually a few people I can think of that knew him, so i’ll hook them all up to your sight…You’re doing a good thing, and if enought people PROTEST hopefully that Paris chickwill crawl back into her hole!!1 God I hope that she doesn’t write a book, cuz you KNOW the media will eat it up, and she’ll make a bunch of money,and it will end up in her arm most likely. Usually I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. but not ONE thing she said, made me think that she had good intentions and that she has some kind of ulterior motive. Anyways, I’ll be in touch soon, and I probly said it before, but if you EVER need to talk about anything or just vent, you can ALWAYS call me. Like me you obviously like to talk things out so that they don’t eat you up inside, until you self destruct,, ,that’s WHY you’ve survived all this!! …You’re a STRONG woman! We are both survivors of a drug that took Many people down. Keep on rockin my friend!! xoxo
Kimi206-353-0123
AAWWW Barbara I’m so sorry that you went through all that, and the guilt you felt from not calling him back, I couldn’t even imagine. You can only do the best you know how to do, and at that time, you did what you thought was best. There’s no way you could have known…At least he reached out to you. It sounds like he really cared for you and loved you, and had a very special place in his heart for you. May he be in Peace from here til eternity.And I also wish you Peace and find true forgiveness for yourself, so you can move past the guilt and keep doing exactly what you’ve been doing: keeping his memory alive!
xoxo
Kimi
Thanx Kimberly. I remember when I heard about his passing on the news I was just dumbstruck…I remember I was sitting in my car and I pulled up to my house and I just sat there in my car for like 30 minutes unable to bring myself to get out of the car and walk in the house. I guess the thought of seeing my family and my kids was just a little too overwhelming for me. I was flashing back on all my friends who I’ve lost to drugs over the past 20 years and believe me it’s been a lot and these were all very close friends. It makes me feel very lucky to have survived it all when it seems so few of us did.. What was just so crazy was it had been so recent that he had reached out to me for the first time in like 15-20 years and he had left that sweet message. I just wish I could of told him that I loved him too and that he would always have a special place in my heart. I have a lot of regret over almost all of the friends I’ve lost. My best friend Rosheen died 6 months after Demri and she never got to see my son who was born that same year. I never got to say goodbye, attend her funeral or make ammends with her Mother. I’ve already told you the regrets I had with Demri and it all just sucks. I miss their smiles and their laughter.. all of them were so funny and silly and I loved that about them all Layne, Demri, Mike and Rosheen Rest In Peace. Thanx for visiting the site Kim. 😉 You Rock Sister!
Mike was a sensational musician & by all accounts a really kind & wonderful man; he will be missed; I trust he has found some peace, joy never seemed to be his problem, what an amazing guy!