Thirty years after its release, Alice In Chains’ Unplugged remains one of the most significant live recordings of the MTV Unplugged era, capturing the band at a pivotal moment in its history and preserving Layne Staley’s final headlining performance. by Paul CashmereThirty years after Alice In Chains released Unplugged on 30 July 1996, the album continues to stand as one of the defining documents of the grunge era. When Unplugged reached stores in July 1996, it represented far more than another entry in MTV’s hugely successful acoustic series. Alice In Chains had not toured since 1993 and had not performed live at all since January 1994 as vocalist Layne Staley battled severe heroin addiction. At the time, only Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged In New York and Rod Stewart’s Unplugged…and Seated had opened higher among albums released from the television series.