Scott Weiland promised his wife he’d get on top of his addiction issues in the weeks leading up to his death, she’s revealed.
The former Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman was found dead in his tour bus earlier this month after taking an accidental overdose. He was 48.
And even though he was struggling with drink and drugs, he was clear on what he had to achieve with his new band, the Wildabouts, if he wanted to get his career back on track.
Widow Jamie Weiland tells Rolling Stone that he’d been drinking heavily “before he left on this tour,” adding: “He did tell me, ‘I’m going to get it together.’”
She spent a week on the road with him last month and says: “He was just killing it – every night taking it up a notch.”
Weiland’s last manager, Tom Vitorino, has recalled how the singer queried his involvement when they tied up together earlier this year. “He said, ‘I’m sure you hear all this stuff about me – why would you want to do this?’ I said, ‘Because you don’t have a talent problem.’
“He was well aware of where he was in his career, of how he got there.”
But Jamie says her late husband never got over the death in March of Wildabouts guitarist Jeremy Brown, who also took an accidental overdose.
The tragedy left Weiland “completely destroyed,” she recalls. “Even up to a couple of weeks ago he’d talk about Jeremy every day. He always had tears in his eyes.”
Earlier this week his STP bandmates released a musical tribute to him, and supergroup Art Of Anarchy offered their debut album, featuring his lead vocals, as a free download.
