I couldn't figure out how to start a new topic in the Scott Weiland section of the board, so I thought I'd just dump this here. I transcribed this for another website on February 2nd 2009, and just tonight thought you guys might like to read it. The original interview was published in Classic Rock in January 2009.
Here's the best bits of it, I feel:
Weiland in Wonderland
Scott Weiland is naked. He’s enjoying a day off promoting his new double solo album – “Happy” in Galoshes by having a lie-in with his current squeeze, actress/model Paz de la Huerta (who is featured in a video promo for new song, Paralysis).
“You gotta excuse me-my girlfriend keeps distracting me,” Weiland jokingly apologises during the course of the interview, sounding far more relaxed than he was in our last encounter, when his tenure with VR was coming to an unpleasant and much publicized demise.
[…]
“There are people that love me and there are people that probably think I’m a prick,” Weiland drawls, as we kick off the proceedings, “I’m aware of a lot more than people give me credit for.”
The last time we spoke you were about to play your last two shows with VR at the Brixton Academy. How did that go?
“The first one was great and the second one was shit. It was ruined by Matt Sorum. He went online and talked a lot of crap about me. It was kinda like a duel, except we weren’t dueling with guns or swords, it was pens. He’s a great drummer but it was a dumb manoeuvre”.
Have you spoken to any of the band since?
“I spoke to Dave [Kushner]-he’s an amazing guy, he’s wonderful”.
Have you heard that they’ve been dropped by their record label?
“Yeah, they were dropped after I quit. It’s karma, y’know? I never told them I wasn’t going to make another record. I planned on making a final record. But there were too many egos, and I’m not excluding myself-it was really hard to keep it together.
You also have to remember that it was really the first band that Matt was a member of, rather than being a hired hand. He’s had Ian [Astbury], Axl and me to deal with; three very large personalities, frontmen with a bit of a reputation. Matt was a really good friend of mine for a long time. Actually, I was his dad at rehab-that’s what the call the person who takes care of a new resident. We knew each other before but we had different lifestyles. He flew the flag of reckless abandon and that ended up affecting everybody. Everyone went down eventually, except for Dave.
I heard a quote from Duff where he said, ‘we broke up because of Scott’s incessant drug use’, which is odd because in the last six years I haven’t done any heroin. I’ll tell you what really broke up the band: the Yoko Ono factor. We allowed the wives to have too much say and you never do that in a band. A band is like a gang.”
And now the rumours are back about a Guns N’ Roses reunion?
“The rumours will always persist but the problem is uh…Well, it’s not my business. Before I left VR me and Slash had a real man-to-man talk. He gave his blessing for the STP reunion and I said, ‘If you have a chance to do the festival thing with Guns and make shitloads of money, I would back you completely.’”
Have you heard Chinese Democracy yet?
No, just a couple of songs. I think Axl’s incredibly talented and when he and I had our cyber spat, I found out that it was a misunderstanding down to a certain individual I was playing music with. If there’s one thing I regret out of all the rants and ravings that I’ve done it would be saying those things [Weiland called Axl a ‘fat, botox-faced, wig-wearin’ fuck’] It wasn’t really nice, I mean, it was funny and witty, but it wasn’t really the kindest thing to do and I try to be a kind person these days”.
What was it like playing with STP again?
“It was great, the feeling on stage. It’s like a family: we grew up with each other. The tour was meant to be four months and almost every show sold out and an extra two months were added, then the economy took a shit. I didn’t know about those extra two months, if I did I probably wouldn’t have done them. That’s why I’m moving into the direction of my solo career because I want to tour when I want to and make records the way I want to.
Nowadays the business is all about commerce-they put you out basically as slaves. There’s more people taking pieces of the pie and you’re out there doing all the work. I wanna do things my way with the people I’m in business with on my label, Softdrive.”
Is it true STP are having troubles with their record company?
“Oh yeah. Atlantic Records are a skeleton of what they used to be. I don’t even know anyone over there except Craig Callman […] he heads the label and claims that he was there from the beginning, which is a load of shite. It was Danny Goldberg who was the head of the label and Kurt’s (Cobain) manager.
If you recall a couple of records that were made in the 70’s” (the magazine thinks Scott’s talking about Neil Young’s ‘Trans’ and The Velvet Underground’s ‘Metal Machine Music’) “We (STP) have two albums that we owe Atlantic and we’ll definitely deliver them, but I think I might be playing a lot of drums on those records”.
What does Happy in Galoshes mean?
“It sorta tongue-in-cheek: happy when it’s raining. I wrote most of the songs during the breakups between me and my wife”.
Would you describe it as a break-up album?
“Yeah, several break-ups. That’s when the studio would become my church, that’s where I would go to for confession. The mic was my confessionary booth. "
Were you prolific on drugs?
“Oh no. Early on there were periods of time but during the vast majority, not at all. That’s why this album is so much more focused than the first solo record. It’s still all over the place because that’s my style. This is not Scott Weiland, frontman of famous rock bands-this is me as a songwriter, producer and artist.”
Listening to the album, it’s hard to figure out which songs are about your divorce, the death of your brother, your mother’s illness. Is there any that specifically relate to one incident?
“Yes, there are some songs that are definitely about my brother and a lot of songs about the break-up of my marriage, but there is also a beautiful song that I think is the most interesting artistically, which is about my girlfriend. You know when you’re in pre-school sitting in a sand box and you say to a friend, ‘If we dig deep enough, do you think we could get to China?’ This song is about digging to the opposite end of the earth to try to find this person”.
Which song is that?
“Well. You’ll have to listen to the album and find out for yourself (laughs). There are also two special secret songs on the record. The hymn that I recorded for my brother which is really hard to listen to. I recorded that for my mother because it was her favourite song at church. I’m Catholic, I was an alter boy and we’d go to church every Sunday. Yeah, something must have gone wrong there. We surprised everybody and played it live at my brother’s service. Listen to the record and when it finishes wait for about ten seconds.”
Let’s talk about the cover versions, starting off with ‘Fame’.
“Bowie is my musical hero. I think he’s one of the greatest artists of modern times. If you look at his paintings, fashion sense, his ability to comb his hair. He is amazingly astute at everything he does and he has a wonderful taste in women., except for his first wife; a bit of a nutter. He’s the only real icon of mine that I’ve never met.
‘Fame’ says basically everything that I’m trying to say with this record. I’ve been doing this for 17 years, I’ve won Grammys, I’ve sold almost 40 million records, I’ve had a lot of houses, given away houses-the whole thing. That’s why ‘Fame’ is something I relate to completely”.
How about the Smiths track?
“It’s a song that always made the hairs stand on the back of my neck. ‘Hatful of Hollow’ is one of my top ten favourite albums of all time. I think that Morrisey is one of the greatest frontmen of the last 20 years. My favourite singers/songwriters are those that use their voice as an instrument. I mean, could you imagine how boring it would be to hear a guitar playing one tone, without having effects or switching pick ups? The voice is an instrument and I’ve always looked at it that way”.
