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Mike Starr had addiction problems, but was on the road to recovery and didn't commit suicide, two of his friends said Wednesday, the day after the former Alice in Chains bassist was found dead in a Salt Lake City house.

Starr, who played bass for the seminal Seattle grunge band from its formation in 1987 to 1993, died nearly three weeks after being arrested by Salt Lake City police on Feb. 18.

"I don't think this was a suicide," said Brett Gunn of Salt Lake City, Starr's Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. "We had a lot of plans."

Starr was living in the 1900 block of Richards Street with Spencer Roddan, a fellow musician who had known Starr for several years after being introduced to him by a friend, Travis Meeks. Roddan and Meeks met while in rehab at Utah's Cirque Lodge Drug Rehab Center in Sundance.Meeks, the frontman of the rock band Days of the New, found Starr's body at about 1 p.m. Tuesday in Roddan's house.

"I don't think [his death] was intentional," said Roddan. "Our deal was he had to be clean. He said he was going to make me proud."

Starr has been living with Roddan for about six weeks. He and Meeks had been making music in Roddan's basement recording studio. Meeks had booked shows on the East Coast the weekend of March 18, Roddan said, and Starr was going to join him on the road.

Starr had other musical plans, Gunn said. He wanted to collaborate with Gunn's Salt Lake City band Nazty Habit, and had spoken of playing with hard-rock bands P.O.D. and Korn. He had much to live for, both Gunn and Roddan said, with Gunn adding that the two planned to go to California this weekend to pick up some of Starr's instruments.

The Utah State Medical Examiner's Office will perform an autopsy. But both Roddan and Gunn said they believe the death was caused by Starr using both methadone and other prescription drugs. During the Feb. 18 traffic stop, Starr was a passenger in Meeks' vehicle and was allegedly found with six Opana pain pills and six Alprazolam pills for which he did not have a prescription. He was charged by police with a third-degree felony and one class B misdemeanor count of possession or use of a controlled substance.

Gunn said Starr had been using Opana to deal with a recurring pain from an injury. He then began using anti-anxiety medication Alprazolam, a benzodiazepine usually referred to by its trade name, Xanax, after his February run-in with the law. Gunn said he didn't know Starr had been using the other medications while on methadone until after Starr's death, when Meeks told him.

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