AIC was first formed in 1987
with the original bassist
Mike Starr. The main reason they started this band was to
get girls and beer. But when they started playing together
people thought they were really good and they decided to
take music seriously.
In 1989 they released their
first album (EP) We Die
Young. The song "We Die Young" became real
popular
becoming a top 5 metal track and ending up in a second
release, Facelift. They made the video "Man In
the Box"
which became a world round hit and later made another
for "Sea of Sorrow". Soon enough, they opened for the
big boys like Ozzy, Megadeth, and Van Halen at the "Clash
of the Titans" tour. During the Megadeth tour they sang the
two soon to be hits "Would?" and
"Rooster". the crowd
didn't give a "flying f**k".
After this, they were asked to
play a song for the movie
"Singles". They decided on "Would?" which
they also
played at a bar in the movie. "Would?" became an
instant
hit, as the band finally reached commercial sucess.
In 1991, while touring, Layne became
addicted to heroin.
Thank G-d he was taken care of just in time. 1992 marked
the release of one of the best albums (IMO) in rock
history, Dirt. Dirt contained 5 hits
on it including
"Would?", "Rooster", "Angry Chair",
"Down in a Hole",
and "Them Bones". Dirt won Spin's Best album of the
year, "Would?" won the Mtv music award for best video
from movie, American Music Award's Best Hard Rock
band, and others I may have left out. While AIC was
touring, Mike Starr couldnt take touring anymore, and
left the band. He later joined Sun Red Sun. While touring
with Ozzy, they asked Mike Inez, the bassist for Ozzy, to
finish touring with them. He later became their perminent
bassist. AIC later released a four song acoustic EP Sap.
Sap included the hit "Got me Wrong" which was
also
on the Clerks Soundtrack.
AIC later released Jar of
Flies, which was the first EP
*EVER* to debut at #1 on the charts. It included the BIG
hits such as "I Stay Away" and "No Excuses".
The band
was now known as one of the most prolific bands of
the decade.
But Layne's heroin addiction
came back to haunt him. With
this happening, they had to cancel their tour with Metallica,
cancel Woodstock, and playing opening night at the
Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame.
Layne got back on track and
played in a side project with
fellow Seatlers, Pearl Jam's Mike Mcready and Screaming
Tree's drummer Barret Martin called Mad Season. They
released the hit Above which included the hits
"River of
Deciet" and "I Don't Know Anything". Sean also had
a
side project doing songs for the Willie Nelson tribute
album while Mike Inez was Slash's Snakepit and Jerry
was creating a solo album which he eventually used the
songs for the new one.
They then decided to get back
together and make the new
self-titled album which would have been called Tripod
(3rd full length album, and three legged man and dog). And
it looks like AIC are ready to soar to some new heights!