Eight Years Ago – Scott Weiland Dies From Drug Overdose

Many of Scott Weiland’s followers thought the singer was clear when he began touring together with his final band, Scott Weiland & the Wildabouts, in late 2015. The evening of his dying, on Dec. 3, 2015, the band was scheduled to play a present on the Medina Entertainment Center in Medina, Minnesota.

Then at 8:22PM, police in Bloomington, Minn. responded to a name a name about an “unresponsive male in a recreational motor vehicle.” When they arrived, they discovered the person, Weiland, was useless. Initial studies instructed he died in his sleep from cardiac arrest, however toxicology outcomes carried out by The Hennepin County Medical Examiner in Minneapolis, and launched on Dec. 18, decided that Weiland died from an unintentional overdose of cocaine, alcohol and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA). The report additionally talked about that Weiland had a historical past of atherosclerotic heart problems, bronchial asthma and multi-substance dependence, which can have contributed to his dying.

The day after he died, police in Bloomington introduced that they’d discovered a small amount of cocaine within the band’s tour bus within the bed room space the place Weiland’s physique was discovered. Wildabouts bassist Tommy Black was arrested for possession, however launched the subsequent day.

After studying about Weiland’s dying, his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots – the group with which he turned well-known – posted a letter on Facebook: “Dear Scott, Let us start by saying thank you for sharing your life with us,” they wrote. “Together we crafted a legacy of music that has given so many people happiness and great memories. The memories are many and they run deep for us. We know amidst the good and the bad you struggled, time and time again. It’s what made you who you were. You were gifted beyond words, Scott. Part of that gift was part of your curse. With deep sorrow for you and your family, we are saddened to see you go. All of our love and respect. We will miss you brother — Robert, Eric, Dean.”

Weiland had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. In 1995 he was convicted of buying crack cocaine and sentenced to a year of probation. Over the next four years, Weiland was arrested for a DUI and a domestic violence charge and he spent five months in jail in 1999 after violating his probation on an August 1998 conviction for heroin possession. In early 1998 he went into rehab. He cleaned up and relapsed numerous times but claimed to have kicked drugs in 2002.

“Drugs worked for me until they didn’t,” Weiland advised me in September 2013. “They were fun until they were absolutely heinously nightmarish. But that’s all way in the past. I’d abuse on and off. I’d go through a period of using for a while, but then I’d go get clean and stop and I’d go through that whole cycle of rehabbing that became very expensive – more so than the drugs ever were.”

In an interview with Loudwire that ran on June 4, 2014, Weiland reiterated that he had been clear for 13 years. The remark got here after accusations from Filter frontman Richard Patrick that Weiland was nonetheless utilizing.

Although Weiland was a strong singer and charismatic frontman, his issues with medicine uprooted his profession on quite a few events. He fronted Stone Temple Pilots from 1986 till 2002, acting on 5 gold, platinum and multi-platinum albums earlier than his private points led to the band’s break up.

After leaving Stone Temple Pilots, Weiland joined Velvet Revolver and recorded two albums with the tremendous group earlier than leaving to reunite with Stone Temple Pilots in 2008. The band launched an eponymous album in 2010 and toured by means of 2012.

READ MORE: See Photos of Scott Weiland Through the Years

In February of 2013, Stone Temple Pilots fired Weiland for erratic and irresponsible habits and employed Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington. “I had an issue with being late to shows,” Weiland advised me. “I can admit that. And it’s not just shows, I have a time problem in general and I’m working on being closer to right on time to the dentist or to a business meeting. I’ve always had a problem with it and my friends call it living on Weiland time.”

In addition to his work with Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, Weiland launched two solo albums and the Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts document Blaster. He additionally recorded vocals for the self-titled Art of Anarchy album, which got here out June 2, 2015.

Weiland was buried at a personal funeral on Dec. 11 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. Members of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver had been there to honor their former bandmate.

On the one 12 months anniversary of his dying, the members of Stone Temple Pilots paid tribute Weiland with the next Facebook publish:

Loudwire contributor Jon Wiederhorn is the writer of Raising Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metal Legends, co-writer of Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal, in addition to the co-writer of Scott Ian’s autobiography, I’m the Man: The Story of That Guy From Anthrax, and Al Jourgensen’s autobiography, Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen and the Agnostic Front ebook My Riot! Grit, Guts and Glory.