Scott Weiland has a new memoir out in stores titled Not Dead & Not For Sale, and a few excerpts from it have already been posted online. Just by reading those excerpts, we’ve learned a lot more about the Stone Temple Pilots/ex-Velvet Revolver singer…and we mean A LOT more.
Most likely the most shocking new tidbit we learn about Weiland was that he was raped at the age of 12. In an excerpt published by Spinner, Weiland claimed the following about his rapist, who was:
“…big muscular guy, a high school senior… [who] rode the bus with me every day to school … [He] invited me to his house. The dude raped me. It was quick, not pleasant. I was too scared to tell anyone. ‘Tell anyone,’ he warned, ‘and you’ll never have another friend in this school. I’ll ruin your f—in’ reputation.’ … This is a memory I suppressed until only a few years ago when, in rehab, it came flooding back. Therapy will do that to you.”
Well guess this won’t be the lighthearted read of the Summer. It’s certainly a very shocking thing to hear about, and somewhat gives new meaning to songs like “Creep.”
On the other hand, the memoir isn’t entirely filled with dark moments like this, as proven by a excerpt RollingStone.com posted. In this preview, Weiland revealed that he initially did Velvet Revolver and for the money (surprised?), saying the following about not liking the original demos:
“It sounded like Bad Company-styled classic rock. And I never liked Bad Company. But being a nice guy, I said, ‘There’s some stuff that’s okay, but just send me another disc when you have a few new songs.’ A week or so later, another CD arrived with songs custom-designed for me. The tunes had STP written all over them.
Duff called and said, ‘Hey, man, just drop by the studio.’ I knew Duff from the gym, and I said I’d try. I still wasn’t sure whether I wanted to hook up with these guys. ‘Look, Scott,’ Duff said, ‘there’s also soundtrack stuff we’ve been asked to do. And the money’s great.’ The money attracted me.
My managers, pushing me to join this band, said, ‘They’re going to cover Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’ for a new movie called The Italian Job. And then Ang Lee wants songs for his remake of The Hulk. This is going to be a hot band. Just give it a chance.’ I reluctantly agreed. The idea was just to jam. Couldn’t hurt to see if there was any chemistry. Meanwhile, I was still hurting chemically. I was still shooting dope. That’s the reason I showed up many hours late.”
Weiland later admits that once the band finally jammed, the chemistry was evident. However, he still claimed that the band was more about creating commercial hits. In any case, these two excerpts alone prove that Weiland’s new memoir is going to get very personal.
