- Haela Huntress
It’s been about eight and a half years since the tragic death of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland. According to the toxicology report at the time, Weiland died of an accidental overdose from a combination of cocaine, ethanol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA).
A lot of the discourse around Weiland’s death was shockingly harsh in the condemnation of his addiction. All these years later, Weiland’s widow, Jamie Wachtel Weiland, has a very different experience that she wants to share about the late singer’s legacy. In an appearance on the latest episode of the podcast Appetite for Distortion, she made a statement about Weiland’s legacy and said that she doesn’t like that people still talk about Weiland’s death as a drug overdose:
“I feel like he really does not have the accolades and the respect and the recognition that he absolutely deserves. I feel like when he died, everybody was kind of, like, that’s tragic, but, of course, he overdosed, which he didn’t f*cking overdose, which I tried to get that point across. He didn’t. Because he had drugs in his system, the coroner had to rule it an overdose. But the truth is Scott died because the main artery in his left ventricle was 95 percent blocked. That came from 10 years of heroin use, that came from an entire adult life of chain smoking. His heart stopped.
“Did he have trace amounts of drugs in his system? He did. Did I know he was using? No, I didn’t, because he lied to me, because I had caught him before and it would always be this huge fight and I would be furious at him. And to be doing this stuff, but to also to lie to me about it… And I remember even talking to the coroner in Minnesota when everything happened and saying, like, ‘How could he lie to me about this again?’ And the coroner was so kind. And he said, ‘I think he just really didn’t wanna disappoint you.’
“But, yeah, I really wanna clear up, that was not an overdose — it was not. He was not using heroin. He did not overdose on drugs. His heart stopped because his heart had been through so much abuse because of prior drug use in his life and smoking and heavy drinking.”
At the time of the singer’s death, ex-wife Mary Forsberg Weiland wrote a letter to Rolling Stone on behalf of herself and her children begging the public not to glorify the singer’s tragic death. Here’s what she had to say at the time:
“We don’t want to downplay Scott’s amazing talent, presence or his ability to light up any stage with brilliant electricity. So many people have been gracious enough to praise his gift. The music is here to stay. But at some point, someone needs to step up and point out that yes, this will happen again – because as a society we almost encourage it. We read awful show reviews, watch videos of artists falling down, unable to recall their lyrics streaming on a teleprompter just a few feet away. And then we click ‘add to cart’ because what actually belongs in a hospital is now considered art.
“Many of these artists have children. Children with tears in their eyes, experiencing panic because their cries go unheard. You might ask, “How were we to know? We read that he loved spending time with his children and that he’d been drug-free for years!” In reality, what you didn’t want to acknowledge was a paranoid man who couldn’t remember his own lyrics and who was only photographed with his children a handful of times in 15 years of fatherhood. I’ve always wanted to share more than anyone was comfortable with. When writing a book years ago, it pained me to sometimes gloss over so much grief and struggle, but I did what I thought was best for Noah and Lucy. I knew they would one day see and feel everything that I’d been trying to shield them from, and that they’d eventually be brave enough to say, ‘That mess was our father. We loved him, but a deep-rooted mix of love and disappointment made up the majority of our relationship with him.’”
It becomes important to remember that people are complicated and multiple, seemingly contradictory truths about a person can be true at the same time. It can be true that Weiland let down a lot of the people in his life who loved him, and it can be true at the same time that he was battling a powerful addiction that was nearly impossible to overcome. Remembering Weiland in multiple ways is valid, as Weiland was a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Tags: scott weiland, stone temple pilots
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