Alice in Chains: The Untold Story

After their set, Cornell came up to her and recognized her even in disguise, which Susan said “he got huge points for.” Cornell told her Soundgarden was trying to get a show in Vancouver, Canada. Susan told him she was going there for a show the following week, and, if he wanted to meet, she would take a tape for them. About a week after, they ran into each other at the Vogue, after which they headed to a twenty-four-hour diner. They tried to go back to Susan’s place afterward, but she had lost her keys. They made out for a while, and then he took her to her mother’s home.15 This was the beginning of a relationship that would eventually blossom into marriage.

As Susan and Cornell started dating, Cornell decided to step down as drummer to focus on singing, and Scott Sundquist was brought in to play drums. At the same time, the local buzz about the band was growing. According to Kim Thayil, they needed someone to answer phones, make calls, and book gigs. Labels were showing interest, and the band was about to make a record for Sub Pop, so they were anticipating the need for lawyers and an accountant. At the time, Susan had no intention of managing Soundgarden, since she was already doing that job for the U-Men and a pop group called the First Thought. She wound up helping them out however she could, despite her initial reluctance to take the job because of her relationship with Chris and the parallels of their situation to the film This Is Spinal Tap.16

Though they weren’t her clients, a few years later Nirvana would come to Susan’s office, where bassist Krist Novoselic asked about lawyers and record labels. She agreed to introduce them to Peter Paterno, the Los Angeles–based attorney who would later represent Alice in Chains. When that meeting fell through because of a scheduling conflict, she introduced them to Alan Mintz, who became the band’s attorney. More than two decades later, Novoselic publicly thanked Susan for introducing the band to the music industry during Nirvana’s induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.17

Susan’s main responsibility as a manager was to promote and defend the interests of her clients. One night, Soundgarden was playing a show with Redd Kross, Malfunkshun, and Green River. An A&R person was there to see Green River, but because Soundgarden was the first act, Susan was able to sneak the A&R person out during Green River’s set. At the time, there was no frenzy to sign Seattle bands. According to Green River guitarist Bruce Fairweather, his bandmate Jeff Ament was furious with Susan for a long time after that.18 Susan had been managing Soundgarden for several years by the time she agreed to represent Alice in Chains.

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Thad Byrd was still working on his Father Rock movie when his producer, Mike Bentley, heard “Sea of Sorrow” playing on Seattle radio station KISW. He recorded it on a cassette and told Byrd, “I heard Layne on the radio, and they have a song!”

Byrd was impressed. He was twenty-one or twenty-two years old at the time and got a very ambitious idea, implausible as it might sound: he would finance and shoot a music video for “Sea of Sorrow,” which he would sell to the record label Alice in Chains signed with, who would then get it played on MTV. Byrd went to the club where Alice in Chains was performing and was reintroduced to Layne through Mike, where he pitched his idea of making a video.

Byrd recalled that Mike was the one who was most enthusiastic about making a video. “Mike was always the guy that was hovering around me every time I was with the band, and he was always like the buddy-buddy guy: ‘Hey, come on! I gotta show you this!’ He was such a nice guy; that was my impression. If you wanted to have a good time, Mike Starr was the go-to guy.”

Layne told Byrd he’d have to discuss it with their manager and gave him Susan’s business card. He called her shortly after, and Susan invited Byrd to a meeting at her office with her and Kelly Curtis to pitch his idea. Byrd’s plan was to hire a cinematographer friend and Steadicam operator. By doing so, they would have access to his camera cranes, have a production manager and crew, and shoot the video using sixteen-millimeter film. Byrd estimated he could do all this with a budget he would put up of five to seven thousand dollars—a feat possible only because the crew was working for free as a favor to him. Otherwise, the video could have cost as much as twenty to forty thousand dollars.

Susan and Curtis gave Byrd their blessing, and Susan gave him a copy of the band’s demo. Byrd thinks Susan offered suggestions for which songs might be best for a video. As he recalls, they considered “Killing Yourself” to be one of their best singles and were kind of leaning toward that. Byrd set up a meeting with the band at their house.