It’s been an emotional week regarding the recent passing of singer/songwriter Scott Weiland (Wildabouts, ex-Stone Temple Pilots, ex-Velvet Revolver) as heartfelt messages of adoration and grief have blanketed the internet, pouring in from his family, friends, bandmates, and fans. Yesterday Rolling Stone published a letter written by Mary Forsberg Weiland, Scott’s ex-wife and mother of his two children, Noah, 15, and Lucy, 13. The letter takes a different look at the infamous singer, as it’s driven from the perspective of a person who had to see him through many of the troubling aspects that accompanied his rock-star lifestyle, all while trying to raise his two children and give them “a feeling of normalcy” with their father.
“The outpouring of condolences and prayers offered to our children, Noah and Lucy, has been overwhelming, appreciated and even comforting. But the truth is, like so many other kids, they lost their father years ago. What they truly lost on December 3rd was hope.”
The letter carries a somber tone as she details the intense reality regarding his family life.
“Even after Scott and I split up, I spent countless hours trying to calm his paranoid fits, pushing him into the shower and filling him with coffee, just so that I could drop him into the audience at Noah’s talent show, or Lucy’s musical. Those short encounters were my attempts at giving the kids a feeling of normalcy with their dad. But anything longer would often turn into something scary and uncomfortable for them.”
Weiland obviously had his issues. His years fighting with addiction and mental health problems left a toll on his family and the one’s that loved him. Mary only hopes that people will take a lesson from his unfortunate circumstances and use it as a catalyst for positive change in how to interact with our respective children.
“Our hope for Scott has died, but there is still hope for others. Let’s choose to make this the first time we don’t glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don’t have to come with it. Skip the depressing T-shirt with 1967-2015 on it – use the money to take a kid to a ballgame or out for ice cream.”
You can read the full letter at RollingStone.com.
