A slew of timeless rock hits came from the 1990s.

Bands like Nirvana, Oasis, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Korn, Green Day, Radiohead, Stone Temple Pilots, TOOL, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, and Alice In Chains, to name only a few, paved the way for emerging genres including grunge and heavy metal and set the scene for an unforgettable decade of music built on the foundation of introspection and intensity.

The best rock singer of the '90s tragically passed away from a drug overdose in 2002 at the age of 34, following the release of albums Facelift, Dirt, Alice In Chains, and 1994's Jar of Flies EP. According to IMDB, the Alice in Chains frontman's death spurred a four-year hiatus for the band who got back together in 2006. The Grammy-nominated group went on to release three additional albums and sold over 30 million records worldwide.

According to a list compiled by The Top Tens, the greatest rock singer of the '90s was Layne Staley.

Other icons that made the list include Soundgarden's Chris Cornell, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, and TOOL's Maynard James Keenan.

Here's what The Top Tens had to say about the greatest rock vocalist of the 1990s:

"Layne Thomas Staley was an American musician who served as the lead singer and co-songwriter of the rock band Alice in Chains, which he founded with guitarist Jerry Cantrell in Seattle, Washington in 1987. Alice in Chains rose to international fame as part of the grunge movement of the early 1990s. In 2002, Staley was found dead in his home of a drug overdose."

Check out The Top Tens for a continued list of the best rock stars of the 1990s, and watch Staley perform live with Alice in Chains in 1993 below.

Ken Dashow