It's from August 2007, here is printable version
Scott Weiland
The Velvet Revolver star on Phil Spector (guilty), Axl (weird-looking) and the coolest way he knows to kill someone (um, rocket launcher).
By Jonah Weiner
Blender, August 2007
When you’re invited to Scott Weiland’s house, this is what you expect: a half-naked model at the door, a mirrored ceiling, leather pants strewn across a red shag carpet, perhaps some large marble statues of snakes. This, however, is what you get: a cast-iron coffee table straight out of a Pottery Barn catalogue, a framed picture of two beaming toddlers at a theme park and baskets of organic snacks and spring water on the spotless kitchen counter. A model does open the door, but it’s Scott’s wife of seven years, Mary, and not only is she fully clothed, she’s wearing a comfy, oversize cardigan. This Sherman Oaks, California, spread is where the Velvet Revolver frontman — the same guy who has been arrested for possession of controlled substances four times, and imprisoned for said substances once — lays his bones?
Now, at 39, Weiland is all about stability. For the past three and a half years, one of rock’s most storied junkies has been living clean and sober. He’s got Mary and his two children to think about, not to mention a band full of similarly reformed drugbuckets who help keep him on the up and up. But that doesn’t mean he’s gone boring: Velvet Revolver’s new album, Libertad, is a slithering monument to L.A. hard-rock sleaze, albeit with a dash of social consciousness. And when Weiland emerges from his bedroom, he’s wearing motorcycle boots, skinny jeans and a white shirt opened to his navel, several necklaces slapping against his skin. He slides on designer sunglasses, lights up the first of many cigarettes and steps onto his backyard patio, sitting Blender down in full view of his child-proofed in-ground pool. “All right,” he says. “Let’s see how painful this is.”
You liked to play dress-up as a kid. What’s the craziest outfit you can remember?
hyenatearz, Port Jefferson, NY
When I was 9 or 10, I used to spend summers with my dad in California and the rest of the year with my mother in Ohio. One summer my dad took me to see Saturday Night Fever, and when I went back to Chagrin Falls, I was determined to put together a Tony Manero outfit. I’d gotten a pair of Angels Flight pants; I borrowed a silk shirt from my mother, unbuttoned it all the way down and put on four-inch platform shoes I took from my grandmother. I went to school like that, and I didn’t get the reaction I was hoping for. I don’t think I attempted¬ another rock-star outfit until I actually¬ had a band. I would still dress up in private, though.
What songs do you remember from your time as a choirboy?
juliette.marshall, Elizabeth, NJ
There’s still some bits and pieces of Brahms, Mozart’s “Requiem.” I learned all 32 opuses of the “Liebeslieder” waltz, in German. I remember a few hymns and madrigals — you rehearse them so much, those things stick with you. I’m still a practicing Catholic, and it’s an interesting dichotomy: I haven’t lived my life like a perfect Catholic, but I don’t think you have to. I believe in the Devil: I experienced some very bizarre things when I was in the height of my addiction — popped a cork in the genie bottle and felt the Devil — not, like, literally Satan, but energy from that side of the spectrum.
Please describe your worst haircut ever.
ydiomatyc, Sedona, AZ
The faux hawk. I went to my wife’s hairdresser a few years ago, and it was sort of done to me. It was a hair rape. I felt like an idiot.
In high school, you quarterbacked your football team and wrestled — what kind of self-respecting outcast were you?
diceteeth, Astoria, NY
One with a lot of cojones. I was never a jock, but I was an athlete, and I was good. I went to a school called Edison in Huntington Beach, right when they had just won multiple state football titles; it was a hardcore football school. I had aspirations of going to Notre Dame, so I played quarterback. But also I was into music: I sang in the school choir; and the two worlds didn’t really hold hands skipping down the hallways. I got a lot of flak from the coach and the guys on the team. Then I formed a rock & roll band with my best friend, and at the start of the senior year, I decided that I was into music more.
What’s the secret to pulling off man makeup?
crude_awakening, Missoula, MT
You either got it or you don’t.
Part of your drug rehab involved martial arts training. What’s the most badass way you know to kill a man?
infinityonhigh, Lake Jackson, TX
When we train with martial arts, they don’t teach specific ways to end a person’s life. So I suppose I could say that the most badass way to kill a person is with a rocket launcher.
The new Velvet Revolver record was supposed to be a concept album — what happened?
hugsanddrugs730, Antimony, UT
We had the title Libertad before we ever had an album. Slash came into the dressing room one day and he had a copy of an old Chilean coin with a woman breaking shackles above her head, and on the coin it said libertad. And Duff came in later that week and he had a T-shirt on that said LIBERTAD. I’ve been thinking a lot about the lack of freedom in our country — it seems more and more we’re heading in this direction that’s almost like Nazi Germany in the early ’30s. I tried to think of a concept that would embody that, but we had a bunch of stops and starts in the writing process, and it just didn’t work out. So we just went at the album more organically, but when you listen to it, there is totally this “liberty” theme running through it.
What are you gonna be doing when you’re 65?
5ibilants, Chattahoochee, FL
Hopefully, breathing. You know, riding horses, fishing, [takes a drag from a cigarette] not smoking, having a great relationship with my wife and kids. I’d still like to be writing songs, but I don’t wanna be shaking my ass onstage anymore. Doing music in a dignified manner — not in size-27 skinny jeans.
What book should everyone read?
hell2pay, Grand Forks, ND
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer. It’s one of the most horrific books I’ve ever read, and it’s very pertinent today.
What was the single worst day of your life?
walter.pk, Benton City, WA
I have two. When I got arrested for possession for the fourth time, I felt beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would lose my wife and kids. I was either gonna get clean or hang myself. The other was the day my brother died, earlier this year. It was an overdose, but it was horrible not knowing whether it was suicide or not — we just assumed it was due to the state he’d been in. The coroner’s report finally came back, and it was cardiomyopathy, the same thing that killed Jim Morrison. He was four and a half years younger than me. We were always really close as kids. We’d get kicked out of the house and hole up together. But then we hit this stretch where I’d get clean and he’d be using, then he’d get clean and I’d be using, and that sort of made the distance grow between us. Finally, three and a half years ago, I got clean, and we pretty much stopped talking. I said I’d never be judgmental toward anybody, but I started to be toward him ’cause it pissed me off so much. He was losing his family right in front of his eyes. The police found a message he’d scribbled across his fridge, telling himself to stay alive for his daughters.
Your wife recently burned $10,000 worth of your clothing. What made her so mad?
EddyShreddy, Washington, MO
I don’t wanna answer that. Things are going well. That’s the great thing about our relationship. We’re crazy about each other. And a little bit crazy. That’s why we’ve been together so long.
What Web sites do you have bookmarked?
Jolenesd, Sioux Falls, SD
That’s the running joke — I am just not up with the times on that stuff. Probably the only thing would be Notre Dame football sites. They have their own site, and there are a few fan sites. But, like, I don’t know how MySpace works. I just don’t get it.
What would it take for Stone Temple Pilots to get back together?
Purplepeople, Franklin, TN
Time. Time that I don’t have now. The resentment and ill will we harbored for each other has dwindled. We’ve talked, and we’ve made amends. There’s definitely a part of me that would love to put a nice bookend on that story, to make a great record that would finish things up. But I’m so busy with Velvet Revolver, and when I’m not with them, I go to my studio and try to finish my solo record. But I’m not ruling it out.
You called Axl Rose a “fat, Botox-faced, wig-wearing fuck.” What did he ever do to you?
Ladyday1492, Columbus, OH
He’s definitely interesting-looking, isn’t he? I can’t remember what our spat was about, but there was a period of a couple weeks where he was going off on his Web site or saying stuff in interviews about me. It was after Velvet Revolver had been touring for about a year, and I go through periods where I can be sort of antagonistic. If somebody says something that rubs me the wrong way, I’ll launch back. If his feelings were hurt, he shouldn’t have said anything in the first place.
Did Phil Spector do it?
vesuvius7, Radnor, PA
Uh … of course he did. I mean, how could he not have? There wasn’t anyone else there with a gun, and no one drives to someone’s house who they don’t know just to commit suicide.
Is rock & roll dead?
spazatack, Shelton, CT
No, I think it’s just in hibernation. We’re an anomaly — I don’t think there are any other bands under 50 who do it at this level. We have fans who’ve been buying our records for a few generations, but the majority of our fans are young. There’s U2, but they’re older than us, they’re over 50 [all are actually in their late 40s] and the majority of their fans are over 30. I don’t know how you’d characterize us within the context of rock & roll. There are some great bands coming up, though. My favorite new band is Silversun Pickups. Local boys done good. They remind me of early Smashing Pumpkins.
Which drugs have you never done?
jonny.semtex, Oak Ridge, TN
I’ve done just about everything at least once. There are a couple I’ve never done, and that’s just because I couldn’t find them. Quaaludes — never got a hold of the “leg spreaders” — and Seconals. Both over before my time. I wish I could’ve gotten a hold of ’em, though. Missed the boat on that!
