Does Scott need an extended vacation from music?

[Toxic34]

It's been clear that after we thought Scott was truly on the mend with his 2014 performances, that he's slipped again, especially after Jeremy's death. I keep looking at Scott onstage right now, and it just doesn't seem like his heart is in it anymore. He seems completely dead inside as he sings these songs in his hindered voice, unable to bust out the manic, kinetic energy he's been known for.

Maybe this is the time for Scott to step out of the limelight for a year or two in order to work on himself and get back into fighting trim. If I were him, I'd do exactly that, which would involve the following:
-Quality time with 3rd wife and kids
-Physical therapy to overcome the effects of the 2009 seizure and reclaim some semblance of the energy that fueled him in the early STP and VR days
-Hiring a vocal coach in order to regain and strengthen voice
-Getting a specialist team to smother the remaining vestiges of addiction and better medicating bipolar needs

If Scott did all this, his performances would be truly a marvel to behold again, and it would go a long way into his desire to get back at Dean, Robert and Eric and show them what they lost.

Do you agree with this? What is the likelihood that Scott will do such a thing?

[RA]

Great idea. Would it ever happen? Doubtful.

[Blue]

Everything about Scott's cognitive state (I.E. seizure damage, damage from drugs, reactions to behavioral medicine)is all speculation at this point. But whatever condition he's in, I don't imagine its something that can be treated that he's ignoring. I think this is just the way he is now, and we have to accept that.


However, one thing we do know is that he drinks. A lot. It's clear that when he's sober he's a lot clearer speaking and thinking. So the number one thing Scott needs to do for his health and performance level is to quit drinking entirely. He has to be 100% sober.


Secondly, he needs to take a lot better care of his voice. A vocal coach, daily exercises, and a use of a vapor inhaler prior to every show followed by full vocal rest afterward could go a long way for his voice. We're never going to see him back at his peak, but I think returning to his vocal shape from 2009 is an attainable goal.


Finally, I think he does needs an extended break from the touring grind. He's been touring almost non-stop since 2012.


But let's be realistic. Scott was fired from STP because he refused to do these things. He drank like a fish, gave no consideration to his voice or performances, and when the rest of the band told him to take a break to get in better shape he turned around and did the Purple to the Core tour instead.


That's the frustrating thing about Scott, he can be a lot better performer these days if he just tries. But I think its clear from his behavior of late that he really just doesn't give a shit. He wants the paycheck and that's it.

[Rol2292]

I agree. He needs a sabbatical. But he won't take one - I think he needs the paycheck.

[Westenn]

It's been clear that after we thought Scott was truly on the mend with his 2014 performances, that he's slipped again, especially after Jeremy's death. I keep looking at Scott onstage right now, and it just doesn't seem like his heart is in it anymore. He seems completely dead inside as he sings these songs in his hindered voice, unable to bust out the manic, kinetic energy he's been known for.

Maybe this is the time for Scott to step out of the limelight for a year or two in order to work on himself and get back into fighting trim. If I were him, I'd do exactly that, which would involve the following:
-Quality time with 3rd wife and kids
-Physical therapy to overcome the effects of the 2009 seizure and reclaim some semblance of the energy that fueled him in the early STP and VR days
-Hiring a vocal coach in order to regain and strengthen voice
-Getting a specialist team to smother the remaining vestiges of addiction and better medicating bipolar needs
If Scott did all this, his performances would be truly a marvel to behold again, and it would go a long way into his desire to get back at Dean, Robert and Eric and show them what they lost.

Do you agree with this? What is the likelihood that Scott will do such a thing?

-Getting a specialist team to smother the remaining vestiges of addiction and better medicating bipolar needs

This is His problem...I'm not licensed 2 practice, but let's say SWeiland is my client...If in fact, He is taking Bipolar Meds...I would tell him 2 stop taking them cuz it's killing him...I would treat him w/ Chinese Herbs (even tho' in Chinese Medicine, there is no such thing as "Bipoar", there R specific treatment plans 4 what Western Medicine calls "Bipolar")...Unfortunately since His Mom is/was an Alcoholic & I believe in his book He listed several PPL in His family...It's in his DNA but He does have a choice 2 control it...not that I approve but I would tell Him that if He has 2 drink, at least drink Guinness (Irish Car Bombs not included)...whether the "health benefits" R there or not, the beer has been around several hundred years so I think it's possible from studies 2 reap benefits...

If U compare Alcohol vs. Bipolar meds then U can say that Alcohol is more Natural against the chemical make-up of the meds so if He has 2 choose an evil, alcohol is less taxing on the body if He chooses Guinness...once the detoxing of the meds R out of His system, He may find He doesn't need 2 drink or smoke as much as He is now......................

 

[Slither]

We've been saying this for years now. The guy's money appears to be constantly evaporating and needs to tour to facilitate whatever it is he does with it. And now this thing comes out today about this debt he owes to his legal team...forget it

[Tyrant]

You know, I'm not hinting at anything, but I was reading Elvis' wiki page the other day and was shocked at the amount of similarities to what's happening to Scott:

Presley's divorce took effect on October 9, 1973.[243] He was now becoming increasingly unwell. Twice during the year he overdosed on barbiturates, spending three days in a coma in his hotel suite after the first incident. Toward the end of 1973, he was hospitalized, semicomatose from the effects of Demerol addiction. According to his main physician, Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, Presley "felt that by getting [drugs] from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street."[244] Since his comeback, he had staged more live shows with each passing year, and 1973 saw 168 concerts, his busiest schedule ever.[245] Despite his failing health, in 1974 he undertook another intensive touring schedule.[246]


Presley's condition declined precipitously in September. Keyboardist Tony Brown remembers the singer's arrival at a University of Maryland concert: "He fell out of the limousine, to his knees. People jumped to help, and he pushed them away like, 'Don't help me.' He walked on stage and held onto the mike for the first thirty minutes like it was a post. Everybody's looking at each other like, Is the tour gonna happen?"[247] Guitarist John Wilkinson recalled, "He was all gut. He was slurring. He was so fucked up. ... It was obvious he was drugged. It was obvious there was something terribly wrong with his body. It was so bad the words to the songs were barely intelligible. ... I remember crying. He could barely get through the introductions".[248] Wilkinson recounted that a few nights later in Detroit, Michigan, "I watched him in his dressing room, just draped over a chair, unable to move. So often I thought, 'Boss, why don't you just cancel this tour and take a year off ...?' I mentioned something once in a guarded moment. He patted me on the back and said, 'It'll be all right. Don't you worry about it.'"[248] Presley continued to play to sellout crowds. As cultural critic Marjorie Garber describes, he was now widely seen as a garish pop crooner: "in effect he had become Liberace. Even his fans were now middle-aged matrons and blue-haired grandmothers."[249]


On July 13, 1976, Vernon Presley—who had become deeply involved in his son's financial affairs—fired "Memphis Mafia" bodyguards Red West (Presley's friend since the 1950s), Sonny West, and David Hebler, citing the need to "cut back on expenses".[250][251][252] Presley was in Palm Springs at the time,[253] and some suggest the singer was too cowardly to face the three himself. Another associate of Presley's, John O'Grady, argued that the bodyguards were dropped because their rough treatment of fans had prompted too many lawsuits.[254] However, Presley's stepbrother David Stanley has claimed that the bodyguards were fired because they were becoming more outspoken about Presley's drug dependency.[255] Presley and Linda Thompson split in November, and he took up with a new girlfriend, Ginger Alden.[256] He proposed to Alden and gave her an engagement ring two months later, though several of his friends later claimed that he had no serious intention of marrying again.[257]


RCA, which had enjoyed a steady stream of product from Presley for over a decade, grew anxious as his interest in spending time in the studio waned. After a December 1973 session that produced 18 songs, enough for almost two albums, he did not enter the studio in 1974.[258] Parker sold RCA on another concert record, Elvis: As Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis.[259] Recorded on March 20, it included a version of "How Great Thou Art" that would win Presley his third and final competitive Grammy Award.[260] (All three of his competitive Grammy wins—out of 14 total nominations—were for gospel recordings.) Presley returned to the studio in Hollywood in March 1975, but Parker's attempts to arrange another session toward the end of the year were unsuccessful.[261] In 1976, RCA sent a mobile studio to Graceland that made possible two full-scale recording sessions at Presley's home.[262] Even in that comfortable context, the recording process was now a struggle for him.[263]


For all the concerns of his label and manager, in studio sessions between July 1973 and October 1976, Presley recorded virtually the entire contents of six albums. Though he was no longer a major presence on the pop charts, five of those albums entered the top five of the country chart, and three went to number one: Promised Land (1975), From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976), and Moody Blue (1977).[265] The story was similar with his singles—there were no major pop hits, but Presley was a significant force in not just the country market, but on adult contemporary radio as well. Eight studio singles from this period released during his lifetime were top ten hits on one or both charts, four in 1974 alone. "My Boy" was a number one adult contemporary hit in 1975, and "Moody Blue" topped the country chart and reached the second spot on the adult contemporary chart in 1976.[266] Perhaps his most critically acclaimed recording of the era came that year, with what Greil Marcus described as his "apocalyptic attack" on the soul classic "Hurt".[267] "If he felt the way he sounded", Dave Marsh wrote of Presley's performance, "the wonder isn't that he had only a year left to live but that he managed to survive that long."[268]

Journalist Tony Scherman writes that by early 1977, "Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Hugely overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopoeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts."[269] In Alexandria, Louisiana, the singer was on stage for less than an hour and "was impossible to understand".[270] Presley failed to appear in Baton Rouge; he was unable to get out of his hotel bed, and the rest of the tour was cancelled.[270] Despite the accelerating deterioration of his health, he stuck to most touring commitments. In Rapid City, South Dakota, "he was so nervous on stage that he could hardly talk", according to Presley historian Samuel Roy, and unable to "perform any significant movement."[271] Guralnick relates that fans "were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past Elvis, whose world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his spiritualism books."

[Jim The Stimulator]

Haven't his reviews over the past year been pretty good?  I saw him twice and both were excellent shows.

[NickLorenza]

@Tyrant, very interesting comparison.  I think there are similar patterns of downward spirals not just in the troubled lives of famous singers, but in everyday people that both you and I know or have known who may have gone through tough times as well.  We can all recognize it when we see it, but having that conversation with someone isn't an easy thing to do. 

Despite the reviews of Scott's shows I think it's pretty clear the guy's been a shadow of himself for a while now, and while it frustrates and disappoints someone like me who has paid to see him perform since his decline, the reality is it probably upsets him more to feel like a shadow of himself.  People don't drink excessively or use drugs because they feel good, they do it because they don't feel good.  Often an escape from the reality of their lives.

Personally I hope the guy takes a break and can turn everything around.  When you've suffered so many traumatic losses it's hard to be passionate about anything really.  I don't believe it's over for this guy though.  It's a matter of will power and motivation.  If he wants to take care of himself and get in shape then he will.  If Angus Young, Mick Jagger, and Bono can be on the stage running around at their age there is no reason Scott can't.  Getting sober, cutting out cigarettes, hiring a personal trainer, and perhaps hiring a good vocal coach to build up his vocal strength again are a winning formula. 

Again, none of this will happen without motivation.  He has to want it.

[JugeSTP]

Scott needs to be sober. 100% sober. Any drinking for him is not a good situation. He's said as much. And he's drinking a lot. On meds.

At this point Scott is never getting back to 2000 form but he can still improve his current condition. It's a bad vibe. He has some enablers on tour that don't make things any easier.

[Chris Pepper]

I think he needs to be working,stay busy in order to be sober.  Bit of a catch 22.  He's put out two solid albums and has toured quite a bit.  He's clearly not 100% but he is functioning fairly well and has rebounded quite well from the STP fiasco and death of J Brown.  Must say the overdose of J Brown was not welcome news.  I saw a show in June and I thought it was a solid show.  But he needs to surround himself with people that are sober or motivated to be sober.  Clearly J Brown was not one of those people.  Hope he walks a path that keeps him moving forward.   

[STPGurl]

Poor, poor pretty boy.

I've been saying for 10 years that Scott should chill out and disappear in "Anytown, USA." The last time I saw him I managed to find myself backstage. Who I met was the body of what used to be Scott Weiland. When I spoke he looked at me but he didn't hear anything I said. I may as well have been speaking Russian. I am talking full-blown "dead behind the eyes" here. I hugged him and it felt like I, tiny 110-lb me, could snap him in half.

I wanted to take him home and give him a bath and a hot meal. Not in the sexual kind of way I would have wanted to 15 years ago, either. This time it was a "mama bear" kind of wanting to take him home. I felt sad for him. Scared. I wondered if he knew where he was or if anyone gave a damn. That brilliant, beautiful man. So lost.

Scott is a lonely, lost little boy. My heart truly hurts for him and I hope that one day he gets the help he needs -- even if that means putting down his microphone for good.

[EyesOfDisarray]

That brilliant, beautiful man. So lost.

[JugeSTP]

I think he needs to be working,stay busy in order to be sober.  Bit of a catch 22.  He's put out two solid albums and has toured quite a bit.  He's clearly not 100% but he is functioning fairly well and has rebounded quite well from the STP fiasco and death of J Brown.  Must say the overdose of J Brown was not welcome news.  I saw a show in June and I thought it was a solid show.  But he needs to surround himself with people that are sober or motivated to be sober.  Clearly J Brown was not one of those people.  Hope he walks a path that keeps him moving forward.   

Nick is a good influence. Very hard worker, positive guy and straight when it comes to substances. Tommy, on the other hand, is a huge drinker. And they are drinking buddies. He's definitely a Scott enabler and yes man. I don't know much about the drummer.

[Slither]

I think he needs to be working,stay busy in order to be sober.  Bit of a catch 22.  He's put out two solid albums and has toured quite a bit.  He's clearly not 100% but he is functioning fairly well and has rebounded quite well from the STP fiasco and death of J Brown.  Must say the overdose of J Brown was not welcome news.  I saw a show in June and I thought it was a solid show.  But he needs to surround himself with people that are sober or motivated to be sober.  Clearly J Brown was not one of those people.  Hope he walks a path that keeps him moving forward.   

Nick is a good influence. Very hard worker, positive guy and straight when it comes to substances. Tommy, on the other hand, is a huge drinker. And they are drinking buddies. He's definitely a Scott enabler and yes man. I don't know much about the drummer.

Joey more or less got kicked out of QOTSA for excessive drug use, I hear he's sorted himself out since then and hope it's true. The problem is, with Joey desperate for work, and Nick and Tommy being basically nobodies outside of Scott's band, they all depend on him as their meal ticket. As long as that's the case, none of these guys are standing up to him and telling him to cut his shit.

It doesn't really even matter anyway, if Dean and Robert couldn't do it, who could he be in a band with that would?