On Tuesday, March 8, Mike Starr, original bassist for Alice In Chains, was found dead at a Salt Lake City home. The residence was not Starr’s residence. The cause of death is still under investigation. Starr was arrested last month in Salt Lake City for suspicion of possession of drugs without a prescription. A report by TMZ asserts that Starr was seen mixing methadone and anxiety medication ‘hours’ before he died.

Starr played bass with Alice In Chains during the Seattle band’s glory years, providing excellent work on the band’s debut Facelift, on the EP Sap, and on the critical and commercial smash Dirt, which contained now-standards such as “Them Bones” and “Would?” and which has sold over four million copies since its 1992 release. Layne Staley, Alice In Chains’ original vocalist, died in 2002.

Starr was asked to leave Alice In Chains during the Dirt tour, an event which hurt and shocked Starr. Though the band originally cited ‘priorities’—specifically, a desire by Starr to spend more time at home—drug abuse was the actual cause of the dismissal. Starr appeared on the 2010 season of Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew—prompting vocal support from Starr’s remaining bandmates Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney even as they expressed their disgust with the show itself.

What would “Would?” be without Starr’s opening riff, which goes on to provide a sinister pulse throughout the song? A brief collection of Starr performances are below.

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Phil, we hardly knew you. Actually, that’s not true: we totally knew you. You sold millions of records with your main band, you sold millions solo, you produced other people’s records, you drummed (magnificently), you sang, your appeared in movies, you had exquisite handwriting on your solo album covers. For a good chunk of your forty-plus year career, you were everywhere.

Sadly, we’ll no longer have new work to satisfy our Phil jones (no, not Phil Jones)—the man is retiring. And despite what you might have read, Collins isn’t leaving the spotlight because he thinks everyone hates him, or that he’s too old, because he intends to focus more heavily on his Alamo obsession). Here’s what Phil had to say today in a note posted on his site:

‘Some of the things mentioned above have been said by me in various interviews, but said as asides with a smile on my face and in passing. They were not meant to be “headlines”, they were small parts of a conversation. This clearly doesn’t come over in print and I should know better.

However, the result is that I have ended up sounding like a tormented weirdo who thinks he was at the Alamo in another life, who feels very sorry for himself, and is retiring hurt because of the bad press over the years.

None of this is true.’

What is true is that he intends to spend more time with his young children. So long, then Phil Collins—we’ll miss you, but we won’t forget you. Here are nine random reasons why.

His Sleeveless Blue Sweater In The “Easy Lover” Video Great song, great sweater. Not very rock n’ roll, no, but very Phil. –>

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Need to jazz up your track, percussion-wise? Look no further than the Vibraslap, the jawbone-inspired instrument that, when struck, creates a resonating rattle of metal teeth in a hollow wood body. Don’t know what a vibraslap sounds like? Yes you do—check out the above video, and then listen to these vibraslap-powered songs.

“Crazy Train,” Ozzy Osbourne Ozzy’s ‘”ay ay ay’s” just wouldn’t sound the same without the accompanying spooky vibraslap vibes. Listen at :13.

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