Harrowing last months of Scott Weiland’s life detailed in article

Posted by on January 28, 2016

weiland-wedding-bb3-2016-billboard-620When Scott Weiland suddenly died last month, many were shocked and saddened by his passing, which was caused by an accidental overdose. A lengthy article in Billboard details his final months, and begins with a quote from his wife Jamie, who had dinner with him in New York a week before his death. “I think maybe I knew I was never going to see him again,” she says. “We couldn’t get enough of each other. It was very powerful.” The article actually goes back to when he first started doing drugs, giving a history of his addiction, and while he’d apparently been off heroin for 13 years, he continued with prescription drugs, cocaine and alcohol. He’d also had a rough past ten months, with his bandmate Jeremy Brown’s death, both parents being diagnosed with cancer, his brother’s 2007 death, financial hardship, and being cut off from his children weighing on him, along with his bipolar disorder.

The interview Weiland’s third wife gives some insight about his mental issues.Jamie says that he kept his curtains closed all the time and that it was so bad that she moved out at one point because he was so unstable. He was put on one medication that worked, but after gaining 40 pounds, Weiland stopped taking it. She attributed the disastrous performance of “Vasoline” back in April to an increased dosage of the anti-psychotic drug Geodon. Nick Maybury, who replaced Brown in his band, said that on the tour, after finding out that both parents had cancer, Weiland broke down crying on the street.

A crew member and the band’s tour manager Aaron Mohler spoke about the day Weiland was found dead. He’d been out drinking with the band’s bassist Tommy Black the night before, on December 2 in Chicago. They’d last seen him at 9am on the December 3rd, but had been instructed that they should let him sleep,. so the band and crew went to the Mall of America to shop for Christmas gifts. At 7pm, after not hearing from him, Jamie texted Mohler and asked him to check on her husband.

Around 8 p.m., Mohler entered the tour bus, which was parked behind a Marriott Courtyard Inn. Weiland was lying on his left side in a fetal position. His hands were by his head, and his eyes were half closed. “I shook his leg and thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s not moving.’ I went to his shoulders and realized he was stiff.”

Mohler called drummer Joey Castillo, who sprinted there from the lobby. He looked for a pulse along Weiland’s neck but couldn’t find one. Meanwhile, Mohler dialed 911. “I think he’s dead,” he said to the dispatcher. “He’s not breathing.”

Tommy Black was initially arrested and charged with cocaine possession, and the article delves into what happened that night. Upon hearing about Weiland’s death, he immediately went to the nearest bar, a TGI Fridays, and did so many shots that he had to be carried out, Police searched the bus and found a bag of cocaine in Weiland’s bunk and one in Black’s but he was so drunk they were unable to get a statement from him and took him into custody. Mohler said that cocaine usage wasn’t that out of the ordinary for Weiland.

“A lot of times I’ve seen Scott do coke so he could drink more,” says Mohler. “If I had known he was going to die, I would have taken every bottle away from him and thrown it. Just broke it right there.”

The article ends with Weiland’s newly-widowed wife, saying she still hopes he’ll walk in through the door, and that the pajamas that he died in are still in a bag. It’s a tough read, and a sad one, that you can read over at Billboard.

[Photo: Piper Ferguson]

 

 

 

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