Alice in Chains Bassist Mike Starr Dies in Salt Lake City

Michael Christopher "Mike" Starr was born on the 4th of April in 1966.

Recent photo of Mike Starr

(SALT LAKE CITY) - Michael Christopher "Mike" Starr was an extremely popular American musician, best known as the original bassist in Alice in Chains, with whom he played from the band's formation in 1987 until 1993.

MTV reports that the news of Mike Starr's death is having a big impact on his famous friends, including Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx and Dr. Drew, who treated Starr on "Celebrity Rehab."

However, MTV says those hardest hit may be the fans of the late musician, who flooded MTV News' comments section with memories of his music and well-wishes for his family.

Mike Starr was featured in the third season of the VH1 reality television series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2010. The program documented his treatment for heroin addiction at the Pasadena Recovery Center, which he started in August 2009. His sober living environment was then documented on the spinoff Sober House.

A Salt Lake City Police Department representative told reporters that officers found the rocker's dead body in a Salt Lake City home on Tuesday afternoon, March 8, after they were called to the house at around 1:42 P.M.

From: Mike Starr (musician)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the mid 1980s Jerry Cantrell began a band called Diamond Lie which included drummer Sean Kinney and Starr on bass. Cantrell's roommate, singer Layne Staley, also agreed to join while having Cantrell join his funk project which ended shortly thereafter. Diamond Lie gained attention in the Seattle area and eventually took the name of Alice in Chains. The band was later signed to a record deal with Columbia Records and enjoyed extensive success via record sales and radio play in the grunge rock movement of the early 1990s. Starr was with the group for the Facelift and Dirt albums and the Sap EP. He was most often seen playing several variations of a Spector NS-2 bass guitar through an Ampeg SVT all-valve head and Ampeg 8x10" speaker cabinets. Starr departed the group while it was touring behind the album Dirt. According to former singer Layne Staley, in a Rolling Stone article from February 1994, Starr's departure from Alice in Chains stemmed from "just a difference in priorities. We wanted to continue in tense touring and press, Mike was ready to go home." [2] Starr, however, mentions on an episode of Celebrity Rehab that he was kicked out of the band due to his budding drug addiction.

Starr later played bass for the band Sun Red Sun, which featured Ray Gillen and Bobby Rondinelli, both former members of Black Sabbath. The project was cut short by Gillen's death in 1993.