The Chains won’t be unbroken: Alice in...

The Chains won’t be unbroken: Alice in Chains’ bassist Mike Starr left the group after finishing a quick two-show swing through South America last week, citing burnout from the “rigors of touring.” Mike Inez, who used to play with Alice influence Ozzy Osbourne, will step in beginning with a European tour that starts Feb. 2 in Germany. . . .

Guns N’ Roses follows its unusual December double video release with two new videos documenting the making of the “Don’t Cry” and “November Rain” videos. The new twist: The one billed as “Part II” (which covers “Don’t Cry”) will come out first, on March 16. “Part I” (for “November Rain”) is due a month later. Meanwhile, GNR is set to hit the road for a no-frills, small-market “Skin and Bones” tour starting Feb. 23. . . .

Janet Jackson’s first album since signing a mega-deal with Virgin has been rescheduled for May 18. It had been due in April. . . . Naughty by Nature, the rap trio that made the racy “OPP,” is back with a hot new single “Hip Hop Hooray,” but the group’s new album won’t be out until late March or early April. . . . The members of Slayer are writing material for an album that might be ready for summer. . . .

Ice-T is set to address the “Cop Killer” flap and a whole lot more in a book, “The Ice Opinion . . . Who Gives a (Expletive)?,” which he’s just starting work on for Penguin. . . . And Boy George has an autobiography due in May in England, with the cheeky title “Take It Like a Man.”

Elvis Costello’s new “The Juliet Letters” has just been released, but he’s already starting plans for his next album, which will reunite him with producer Mitchell Froom. Froom is also set to produce David Byrne’s next. . . .

Is there no end to the marketing of the Grateful Dead? The latest: the Daily Tripper, a computer personal planner program that incorporates Dead images and sounds. . . . Lita Ford is also exploring new tie-ins. The metal siren is the heroine of a new line of heavy-metal comic books due in late spring, and this summer will see the debut of a line of “Lita Ford Body Wear” featuring “cat suits, sexy little outfits and bustiers.”. . .

David Foster, who is producing Barbra Streisand’s “Back to Broadway” album, has also been hired by a less-likely act: Color Me Badd. But Foster, known for his lush pop work, will only handle the ballads. Other producers will oversee the group’s hip-hop work. . . .

Pere Ubu, which burned its bridges with Mercury Records in a dispute over who should pay for the band to fly to New York for a David Letterman TV appearance a couple of years ago, has signed with Imago Records. A new album, “The Story of My Life,” is due April 27, with a U.S. tour starting in May. . . .

Rapper Basehead has a second album, “Not in Kansas Anymore,” due March 9. . . . L.A. band the Blue Bonnets (which includes former Go-Go Kathy Valentine) will be featured as a bar band in the pilot of the new “Route 66” TV series, which stars MTV sports guy Dan Cortese and James Wilder. The show will feature an original song by the group, plus its version of Rufus Thomas’ “Walking the Dog.” . . .

Sire Records and Spin magazine are putting out “Sire’s Lucky 13 for ‘93,” a free sampler of new material by Sire acts including Dinosaur Jr., Judybats, Belly and John Wesley Harding--but it won’t be found in issues of the magazine in Los Angeles. Sire vice president and general manager Howie Klein says he wanted it to be special for markets that don’t have alternative-oriented radio stations.