Mary,
You don't know me personally, however, I felt compelled to respond to your letter on behalf of your ex-husband, the late Scott Weiland. I sat here waiting for someone to stick up for him and thankfully, Joe Howard did. Nothing from the media though, they all kept saying your letter was "moving" and "heartfelt". I felt just the opposite.
Quite frankly, I found your letter disgusting and deplorable. First, how dare you write the letter on behalf of his two children. This letter was clearly all about you and you simply used them just as you had before when you released your "tell-all" book. I sure hope this wasn't your cold and calculated move towards securing a movie deal for that book as that would be even more evil.
Did you ever wonder why Scott could not spend as much time as he wanted with his children? Did you ever think it might have had something to do with the $60,000 a month alimony he had to pay to you? In case, you haven't noticed, albums, even from established acts, like Scott don't sell like they used to and they have to tour and tour just to get by and maintain their standard of living. Scott had to do that and pay you alimony, so you can now stand on your soapbox and attack a man who can't respond or defend himself. How selfish and irresponsible of you.
If you really cared about your children, you never would have released this letter, as you would have thought about their school friends and anybody they ever met reading it online. You see, this letter is permanent, and you can never take it back. It wasn't awful enough that you attacked a man who couldn't defend himself or the fact that he hasn't even been gone a solid week yet. You had to hurt his children.
You also say "it" (describing your ex-husband's musical accomplishments) will happen again, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Scott Weiland was a one and only, there will never be another talent just like him; every artist is unique and special in their own way. Scott was and is special to people around the world in a way you couldn't possibly fathom.
It’s awful when divorced parents use their kids as weapons to attack each other because the kids are the only ones who really get hurt. Why couldn't you allow them to remember the, as you say, "handful of times they got to spend with him". If you really think he was that awful, why etch it into their hearts and brains and even worse, in such a public manner.
It’s despicable how you use those very same kids, you claim you care about, as anticipation shields to protect you from any criticism for your letter. Why not just write the letter on behalf of yourself?
I agree with you on one thing though, we should skip the depressing t-shirts, but, we should also skip the depressing attention-seekers who just want to drag his name through the mud one more time because doing it to him when he was alive just wasn't enough.
I could go on, but, I'm going to stop here with one last thought. How dare you say he gave up? He put 110% of his heart and soul into everything he did. He played multiple concerts every week to keep you happy, he toured all year long. He didn't stop, he was a human dynamo who died doing what he loved. He never stopped creating and he never stopped caring. Please see what Joe Howard said in an interview below:
“Wow! It’s pretty funny that I sat at a lunch last week with Scott and Tommy Black and Scott was very upset at the fact that his ex moved the kids out of state and shut him out from them. He was upset and frustrated about it. We got into an “I miss my kids” conversation and he was visually upset by this. So much that I had to change the topic. I felt reading this that there were a bunch of cheap shots written and some untruths. Scott loved his kids and was totally upset by the situation between his ex and kids. The last thing he said was I haven’t seen my kids in over a year and I love and miss them very much. Glasses came off and his eyes were red. Remember, there are three sides to every story. Scott is not here to defend himself so I had to at least share this. My heart goes out to his children.”
My own heart goes out to his children as well.
You should be ashamed Mary, it may be too late to apologize to Scott for your letter, but, at least apologize to your children.