Mad Season (band)

Mad Season
Mad Season in 1995, left to right: Barrett Martin, Layne Staley, John Baker Saunders and Mike McCready
Background information
Also known as	Gacy Bunch Disinformation
Origin	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, grunge
Years active	1994–1999 (Partial reunion: 2012, 2014–2015)
Labels	Columbia
Associated acts	Screaming Trees, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog, Walking Papers
Past members	Barrett Martin Mike McCready John Baker Saunders Layne Staley Mark Lanegan

Mad Season was an American rock supergroup formed in Seattle, Washington in 1994 by members of three popular Seattle-based bands: Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Screaming Trees. Mad Season released only one album, Above, and is best known for the single "River of Deceit". The band went on a semi-permanent hiatus in 1996 due to the band members' conflicting schedules and vocalist Layne Staley's problems with substance abuse. Attempts were made in the late 1990s to revive the group without Staley; however, the band dissolved following the death of bassist John Baker Saunders in 1999. Staley died three years later of a drug overdose.

During the production of 1994's Vitalogy, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready went into drug and alcohol rehab at the Hazelden Clinic in Minnesota, where he met bassist John Baker Saunders. In 1994, when the two returned to Seattle, Washington, they formed a side band with drummer Barrett Martin. McCready played in such bands as Pearl Jam and Temple of the Dog, Martin with Skin Yard and the Screaming Trees and Saunders with blues talents such as Little Pat Rushing, Hubert Sumlin, Sammy Fender, and The Lamont Cranston Band. Immediately the trio set up rehearsal time together and wrote the music for two songs that would later become Mad Season's "Wake Up" and "River of Deceit" ( sample ), both of which would later appear on the band's album Above. McCready then brought in friend and Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley to round out the line-up. McCready had hoped that being around sober musicians would push Staley to get himself sober.