I remember getting turned onto AIC and STP around the same time. I always felt that AIC had more talent in their songwriting and was far more impressed with Layne's voice than Scott's, but I always held STP as my favorite band because their more mellow songs really won me over because they were so beautiful. Still, AIC's Unplugged performance remains as one of the best musical performances I have ever seen in my life. Everything with that show completely worked and they sounded terrific.
It's strange though. Layne's death seemed very predictable to me. Scott on the other hand always seemed to go through periods of extreme sobriety and extreme drug usage. I consider times like 1993 - 1994 to have been great for him, but he was pretty out there during his solo days. Then in 1999 - 2002, he was great again, and there were times in VR when I thought he was really out there. Cleaned up again, went back down again. Somehow, I always thought he would just keep bouncing back and forth forever. However, when he did that terrible live take of "Vasoline" and seemed completely gone during interviews, I knew his time was wearing thin. When I heard the news that he actually did pass away, part of me was shocked and the other part of me had seen it coming for years.