Salt Lake City, UT (Top40 Charts) Mike Starr (former Alice in Chains) appeared on the 3rd season of 'Celebrity Rehab' back in 2009 - and was arrested last month for felony possession of a controlled substance. Salt Lake City cops say he had 6 Xanax pills and 6 Opana (painkiller) pills when he was busted.
According to Police, the body of the 44-year-old Starr was discovered on Tuesday in a house in Salt Lake City.
Starr was 44 years old.
A spokesman for the Salt Lake City police separtment said that officers responded to call about a possible body at a residence in the city centre earlier on Tuesday afternoon.
'There is nothing to indicate that this was foul play by another individual,' police said.
Mike Starr, the former Alice in Chains bassist whose battle with drugs was chronicled on the reality TV show 'Celebrity Rehab.'
Starr's former Alice in Chains band mates, Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney, released a statement, offering their support for his family.
The band's original singer, Layne Staley, died from a drug overdose in 2002.
'Jerry and Sean are mourning the loss of their friend and ask that the media respect their privacy - and the privacy of Mike's family - during this difficult time. Their thoughts & prayers are with Mike's family,' it read.
Mike Starr Biography
Michael Christopher 'Mike' Starr (April 4, 1966 � March 8, 2011) was an 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.
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 intense touring and press, Mike was ready to go home.' Starr, however, mentioned 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.
Starr was later featured in the third season of the VH1 reality television series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2010, which documented his treatment for heroin addiction at the Pasadena Recovery Center, which began in August 2009. His subsequent stint staying in a sober living environment was then documented on the spinoff Sober House. He and fellow recovering addicts Mackenzie Phillips and Tom Sizemore appeared in the eighth episode of Celebrity Rehab's fourth season to provide testimonials about their recovery to that season's patients. During this appearance, Starr marked six months and seven days of sobriety.
Both Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney criticized the show Celebrity Rehab, calling it 'disgusting'. However, they stopped short of criticizing their former bandmate and expressed hope that Starr would turn his life around. Kinney also thanked Starr along with all over members of AIC both past and present within the liner notes of Alice in Chains' most recent album Black Gives Way to Blue.
'I totally back Mike and I back his efforts to get clean and remain somebody that I and the band really care about - he's a friend of ours, you know, and we wish him the best.' - Jerry Cantrell.
'So I don't support that show at all and I think it's pretty disgusting. But Mike getting his life together or anybody doing that, I'll support that.' - Sean Kinney
On February 18, 2011, Starr was arrested and booked on suspicion of felony possession of a controlled substance in Salt Lake City, Utah.
On March 8, 2011, Mike was found dead in Salt Lake City. No details have emerged yet as to the cause of death.
