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Post by beatlies on Mar 4, 2015 0:52:05 GMT -5
Woody Allen friend and screenwriting partner, Marshall Brickman (also a musician, connected to the Laurel CIAnyon scene and the Mamas and the Papas), on Woody Allen: www.people.com/people/archive"People" magazine, 1983--- April 25, 1983 Vol. 19 No. 16 Marshall BrickmanBy Joshua Hammer Out of Woody Allen's Long Shadow, His Ex-Sidekick Scores Big with Lovesick Quiet, please. Marshall Brickman has a revelation to make. "I think it's time to stop this deception," he declares. "There is no Woody Allen." Won't buy that? Then try this one. "Woody Allen," says Brickman, his brown eyes twinkling behind wire-framed glasses, "is a tall Jamaican woman who works for me—comes in on Tuesdays and Fridays to do some light dusting. I can hear you asking, 'But what about the appearances on film?' That's all special effects. George Lucas does that." Until recently film viewers might well have wondered whether there really was a Marshall Brickman. For most of the '70s he was Woody Allen's nearly invisible junior partner, his collaborator on the screenplays of Sleeper, Annie Hall and Manhattan whose contributions wound up wedged between parentheses in doting cover stories praising master clown Allen. There were jocular rumors that he and Woody were, in truth, one very funny split personality, or that Brickman was an Allen clone, a slightly taller, not so nebbishy-looking duplicate, down to the Brooklyn accent, urbane sensibility and angst-inspired sense of humor. No longer. By 1980 Brickman had left the partnership that brought him and Woody a 1977 Best Screenplay Oscar for Annie Hall and had gone out on his own as writer-director of Simon, a bizarre sci-fi satire that ended up a box office dud. But Brickman's second solo venture, Lovesick, starring Dudley Moore as a middle-aged shrink who falls in love with a young female patient, has already earned more than $10 million. It has also generated a host of enthusiastic reviews, and howls of outrage from the psychiatric establishment over the movie's lighthearted treatment of transference—the process by which patients project onto therapists attributes of parents or other major figures from their past. Most important, Lovesick has finally established Marshall Brickman as a filmmaker who can go it alone. The split with Woody wasn't bitter; he and Marshall still have dinner once a week. Brickman, 43, a slender, casually dressed man whose face seems better suited to the corner pharmacist than a show business heavy, is nervous about opening chinks in his privacy. "This isn't going to expose my lovely 3-year-old daughter to kidnappers, is it?" he asks, surveying his visitor warily from an armchair in his newly refurbished studio on Central Park South. "You know, the guy from Kansas with The Catcher in the Rye in his pocket and a lot of dreams?" He gestures around the studio, serviceably furnished with a writing table, portable electric typewriter and a handful of books. His agent, Brickman says admiringly, wisely arranged for the Ladd Company, Lovesick's producers, to furnish Marshall with office space outside the Central Park West apartment he shares with his wife, Nina, and small daughter Jessica. "Now that Jessica is ambulatory, I can't write at home anymore," he explains. "Besides, this place makes me feel like a writer." The screenplay that earned Brickman his solitude came out of his own experience with analysis back in the '60s, shortly after making the transition from itinerant banjo player to comedy writer for Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. "I was depressed, I'd been working in nightclubs and on the road—it makes you a little crazy," he recalls. "I wasn't psychotic, living on catfood or unable to come out of my house. It was just sort of fashionable to be in analysis at the time. The analyst said, 'Mr. Brickman, I'm not sure why you're here, but you're in the right place.' Many years later he said, 'Mr. Brickman, I don't know why you're here, but you're in the wrong place.' " In between came a near disaster that reinforced Brickman's uneasy sense that "when something goes right, it's a miracle. And you should wonder what God is saving up for you later." It was midsummer, 1969. Brickman was on a Los Angeles junket for Tonight, then located in New York, and was hanging out nights at the Bel Air mansion of John and Michelle Phillips, friends from his musician days. Brickman found himself hypnotized by the L.A. atmosphere. "The house was furnished in that strange star furniture from the tip of Olympus," he recalls. "People were floating around the rooms and steam was rising off the pool, which was lit from underneath. It was like being on Venus—except I think the atmosphere on Venus is ammonia." One humid evening the Phillipses and their friends piled into their cars for a night on the town, and offered Brickman two choices. "We could either go out to so-and-so's in Malibu, or there were some people going over to Roman Polanski's house for a small get-together with Sharon Tate. I decided to go to the beach," he recalls, "and that was the night Tate and her friends were murdered by the Manson Family. I woke up the next morning at my hotel, and there was a pile of messages from everyone I knew. They all thought I had left the thing at Malibu, driven back to Benedict Canyon, and gone to the Tate party. The worst part was that the first victim the police discovered was a young unidentified male. I thought, 'Gee, that's interesting. I could have been dead.' To me, that's a definition of luck—something that happens to you from which you can learn absolutely nothing. Your parents, your teachers, your rabbi—all the people who tell you to be prompt, save string—never tell you that you could still be walking down the street and a man hoisting a piano up the side of a building could have a heart attack and it could come down and they'll send you home in an envelope." But as Brickman has proved in Lovesick, he is capable of balancing such pessimistic visions with tinges of sweetness. "Marshall is one of the most exquisitely funny people I've ever met," says Dudley Moore. "He has a cutting edge attached to a soft bottom—which makes an attractive, seductive combination." Moore's Lovesick co-star, Elizabeth McGovern, agrees. "I found Marshall sensitive and romantic," she says. "He comes on cynical at first because of his wit. What surprised me was the heart underneath." It was that delicate balance that brought Brickman and Allen together. They met at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village in 1963, when Brickman was a banjo player with the folk group the Tarriers and Woody was a stand-up comic. "My memory of his act was that it was absolutely brilliant and amazing, and the audience was not really with it," recalls Brickman. The writing collaboration that followed was surprisingly formal, despite the two men's similar backgrounds. "It was like the bakery my family went to was on Avenue M, and his was on Avenue J," Brickman says. "We only discovered this years later, when we broke enough of the ice to get involved in personal material, like 'Where were you born?' " By then the pair had become friends, sharing long walks through Central Park during which they discussed everything from Chinese food to sex to Ingmar Bergman. Much of their dialogue ended up in their screenplays. Together, they explored the psychic and intellectual turf of what Brickman calls "the articulate, educated, self-aware, analyzed, little bit nervous, little bit guilty" characters inhabiting the elegant brownstones and penthouses of Manhattan's Upper East and West Sides. They are people, says Isaac Davis in Manhattan, who "are constantly creating these real unnecessary neurotic problems for themselves that keep them from dealing with the more terrifying unsolvable problems about the universe." Though Brickman and Allen share a certain uneasy sensibility, Brickman's friends insist his outlook is sunnier. "Woody is a worrier, withdrawn and private, and doesn't get as much pleasure in life as he'd like," says Roger Angell of the New Yorker, who has edited pieces by both Brickman and Allen. "Marshall is the center of calmness and cheerfulness—I've never seen him depressed or worried." Dudley Moore concurs. "Woody is a timid and hostile chap, though I admire him enormously," he says. "Marshall is more socially amenable." But for all of Brickman's gregariousness, buddy Dick Cavett admits he can seem distant. "He's extraordinarily intelligent, which makes it hard for him to find people on the same wavelength," says Cavett. "Neither he nor Woody suffers fools gladly. Both make people feel inferior—and, of course, usually they are." For his part, Brickman, who was born in Rio de Janeiro, where his father ran an import-export business, claims he is a product of his upbringing in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, which he remembers as "rigid, upper-middle-class and Jewish—with an additional overlay of guilt and fear from being the son of left-wingers. I spent several years hoping and fearing that the FBI would come and take away my parents." His father he remembers somewhat mysteriously as doing "what Sydney Greenstreet did in The Maltese Falcon—he loaded crates onto ships in the dead of night." Brickman was brought up listening to Leadbelly records and attending summer camps "where they put you in the middle of the field and you joined arms and sang labor songs. The social strata there was determined not by how much your father earned but by how many of your parents were in jail under the Smith Act. It made me feel special and kind of out of it." By his teens, Brickman had mastered the banjo and was traveling into Manhattan on weekends to play in Washington Square Park. "We used to call Manhattan 'The City,' " Brickman recalls. "It had a mystical meaning to us—like Oz." Music, he says, "got me involved with a group of interesting people—musicians, bohemians and left-wingers—and it was a way out of Brooklyn. The kids that I grew up with on the block dutifully became dentists, doctors and drug salesmen. And if they couldn't become drug salesmen, they did the next best thing, which was to become patients." After attending the University of Wisconsin ("girls in camel-hair coats and penny loafers, and New Yorkers trying to get at them"), he joined the Tarriers in 1962, and toured later with John and Michelle Phillips before they struck it rich as one-half of the Mamas and the Papas. In 1966 he landed a job writing for Candid Camera and moved from there to The Tonight Show. Within a year he had become the head writer—at the tender age of 27. "Not only was he verbally brilliant," recalls David Lloyd, a co-writer for Carson, "but he had enormous mechanical facility. Marshall would sit there in his office taking apart a stereo and fixing it while spewing out jokes. It used to irritate the hell out of me." For Brickman, the high-intensity life of The Tonight Show was both glamorous and agonizingly pressure-filled. During trips to Los Angeles, "I used to carry my hotel room key in my pocket, so they'd know where to return me if they found me weeping, sitting on a Sunset Boulevard traffic island unable to cope." By 1970, however, he had become jaded. "Carson was the Queen Mary—he was never going to sink," Brickman recalls. "It didn't have that edge in it for a writer. Dick Cavett's show was new and unpredictable. He offered me a job as producer, and I asked Carson to release me from my contract. He did—which says more for him than it did for me." Brickman worked for Cavett until 1972, when an improbable series of events changed his life. Back in 1963, Marshall had recorded an album of banjo and bluegrass tunes with his childhood friend Eric Weissberg. In 1971, when John Boorman began filming Deliverance, he asked Weissberg to provide a tune for the movie. Weissberg obliged with Dueling Banjos, which rose quickly to the top of the charts. Warners then dug into its archives and rereleased the old Brickman/Weissberg album, using Dueling Banjos for the first cut and renaming the album The Sound Track From Deliverance, which it plainly wasn't. Nevertheless, the album sold more than a million copies. "I'm at the Cavett show and I get a call from my lawyer. He says, 'I've got a check here for $78,000,' " recalls Brickman, "and there were more on the way. I was in analysis at the time, and my analyst was doing his best to pound into my head that I was just like everybody else. Then this check comes floating out of the sky." The money made Brickman financially secure, enabling him to strike up a full-time collaboration with Allen, which began with Sleeper in 1973. It was around that time that Brickman married Nina Feinberg, a onetime ballet dancer and film editor whom Brickman had known casually since his high school days. "We finally came to our senses after having exhausted all other possibilities," laughs Brickman. Nina served as film editor on both Simon and Lovesick, and plans to work on Brickman's next film, which he has just begun writing, for Lovesick, Nina had to set up her equipment in the living room of the couple's nine-room apartment, in order to keep an eye on Jessica. Brickman, too, is heavily involved in being a parent. "Fatherhood's great," he says. "It's the other way to get immortality. One way is to write Pygmalion or build the Eiffel Tower. It's certainly less time-consuming to write Pygmalion." Brickman sees his life these days as "a triangle," with his time divided between his studio, his apartment and several Manhattan restaurants: the Carnegie Deli (for pastrami), the Russian Tea Room (lunch only) and Frankie & Johnny's (dinner)—where he eats with friends like Allen, Cavett and actor Michael Murphy. From this cloistered perspective, Brickman casts his gaze on contemporary America, and finds it hasn't improved much since his bitter satire Simon. "Studio 54 is like, you know, the shot of people dancing wildly right before the stock market crash," he says with a sigh. "We live in a very silly culture—you can tell just by watching the Country Music Awards. This fascination with celebrities—America wants to know how to live. They're always looking for examples of 'how to be.' " Brickman confesses also to a nagging uneasiness about himself. "There are people to whom all good things happen in the first half of their lives," he says. "Then there are those to whom all good things happen in the second half. Jack Kennedy was one of the people in the first. I certainly hope I'm in the the second." Still, Brickman says, paraphrasing Freud, he has come to "accept the normal frustrations of life,' " and his mood seems cautiously optimistic. "I'm happy to be happy when I can be happy," he shrugs. "When I'm not, I'm happy to be productive. I was in a fog, I wasn't totally awake—that's what put me in analysis. Now I'm awake and I don't know if I'm happy, but at least while the meter is ticking I'm looking out the window." MORE IN THE ARCHIVE Full Issue Popular Topics Cover Collections |
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Post by beatlies on Nov 30, 2015 19:42:49 GMT -5
www.tmz.com/2014/11/07/mary-kate-olsen-looks-different-ashley-photo/HomeMary-Kate Olsen -- I Used to Be a Twin MARY-KATE OLSEN I USED TO BE A TWIN 11/7/2014 7:38 AM PST BY TMZ STAFF Mary-Kate-and-ashley-Olsen_FILMAGICAshley Olsen (right) attended the 2014 World Of Children Awards in New York City on Thursday night alongside her formerly twin sister Mary-Kate. 28-year-old MK ... who's engaged to 45-year-old Olivier Sarkozy ... didn't quite go full-Zellweger, but something's up. Hey, at least we can finally tell them apart. 274 COMMENTS SEE ALSO Mary-Kate Olsen -- Screwed By Horse ... At Equestrian Show Olsen Twins: Good Genes or Good Docs? Olsen Twins: Good Genes or Good Docs? Sofia Marries Joe! Jaw Dropping Child Star Transformations!! AROUND THE WEB Paris Jackson Rushed to Hospital After Possible Suicide Attempt Ronda Rousey -- Out of Hiding ... With a Fresh Face Read more: www.tmz.com/2014/11/07/mary-kate-olsen-looks-different-ashley-photo/#ixzz3t1Z0gu6q JUNE 16, 2015 OLSEN TWINS CELEBRATE 29TH BIRTHDAY BUT MARY-KATE’S ANOREXIA, ASHLEY OLSEN’S LYME DISEASE CAUSE CONCERN [PHOTOS] JOANNE EGLASH The Olsen twins Mary-Kate and Ashley had an OMG Olympic-themed birthday party. The Olsen twin sisters decided that turning 29 gave them a real reason to get fit and have fun with their favorite posh party pals, revealed the Hollywood Reporter. Held in the ultra-chic Hamptons, the celebration ranged from an obstacle course to a dunk tank. Fans got to experience the Olsen twins’ teams vicariously with the hashtag #OlsenOlympics. And yes, they actually did have teams, with pals wearing either Team Mary-Kate or Team Ashley shirts. Mary-Kate and Ashley won the Womenswear Designer of the Year award together recently. But the Olsen twins, although together in their career, played tough on their separate teams at their parties. The winner was Team Ashley, revealed one party guest. Despite the Olsen twins‘ birthday party fun, the sisters have experienced challenges through the years, reported the Daily Mail. image: cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Mary-Kate-Ashley-Olsen-Twins.jpgOlsen twins have party. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen celebrated their 29th birthday. The fraternal twins jump-started their acting careers before they could walk by taking on the role of Michelle Tanner in Full House when they were only six-months-old. As they grew, they also did both TV and feature-length movies. But in 2004, rumors that Mary-Kate had an eating disorder began to circulate. The Olsen twin then admitted that she had gone to a rehab center for treatment of anorexia. Some fans subsequently thought that she had plastic surgery. “I’m so saddened by Mary-Kate Olsen’s plastic surgery decisions,” wrote one. “Mary-Kate Olsen was good looking then plastic surgery happened,” posted another. Beyond the anorexia health crisis for Mary-Kate, Ashley Olsen recently was reported to have Lyme disease, as the Inquisitr reported. Some attributed that health concern to the Olsen twins’ reason for skipping the Full House reunion show. image: cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Olsen-Twins-Turn-29.jpgOlsen twins turn 29. Although fans hoped that they would take part in the revival on Netflix called Fuller House, executive producer Robert L. Boyett set the record straight. “Although Ashley and Mary-Kate will not be a part of Fuller House, I know how much Full House has meant to them and they are still very much considered family. It has been exciting to see how they have built their professional careers, and I support their choice to focus on their fashion brands and various business endeavors. I appreciate their support and good wishes towards Fuller House.” Those who know the actress and designer say that her Lyme disease getting progressively worse. And now Ashley, with her twin Mary-Kate Olsen by her side, is fighting to regain her health. The first hint that something was wrong came in 2012. “I don’t like to be the center of attention anymore,” said Ashley, abruptly retreating from the spotlight. But it now appears that she may have exited the entertainment world prematurely because she was trying to hide her diagnosis of Lyme disease and the enervating symptoms of that condition. image: cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Ashley-Olsen-Lyme-Disease.jpgAshley Olsen may have Lyme disease. Ashley Olson reportedly is battling Lyme disease. “She’s really sick,” revealed a source. Lyme disease is more common — and dangerous — than most people realize, according to Healthline. It can be challenging to get a diagnosis, as well as to treat. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 300,000 nation-wide diagnoses annually. Of those who are bitten by a tick, 80 percent have symptoms including a rash, aches, pains, fevers, and flu-like chills. Antibiotics are sometimes given, but for some individuals, that treatment is not effective. Both Avril Lavigne and Yolanda Foster have discussed their battles with Lyme disease, as the Inquisitr reported. “I felt like I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t talk and I couldn’t move. I thought I was dying,” said Avril. [Photo by Newsmakers via Getty Images; Photo by Mike Coppola / Getty Images; Photo by Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images for Variety; Photo by Mireya Acierto / Getty Images] Read more at www.inquisitr.com/2176138/olsen-twins-celebrate-29th-birthday-but-mary-kates-anorexia-ashley-olsens-lyme-disease-cause-concern-photos/#YEkbxJw65WY7WziU.99 |
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Post by beatlies on Dec 4, 2015 18:45:11 GMT -5
Scott Weiland/Scott Kline, 1990s American "alternative rock" music celebrity. Yet another celebrity with a background/identity cloud around him....
"On December 3, 2015, Weiland was found in cardiac arrest on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota,[83][84] just before he was scheduled to go on stage with his band "The Wildabouts".[85] He was 48 years old. No underlying cause of death was immediately given.[85]"
Scott Weiland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scott Weiland
Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) Open Air St. Gallen (rotated).jpg
Weiland performing in June 2010.
Background information
Birth name Scott Richard Kline
Born October 27, 1967
San Jose, California, United States
Died December 3, 2015 (aged 48)
Bloomington, Minnesota, United States
Associated acts
Stone Temple Pilots Velvet Revolver Camp Freddy The Magnificent Bastards The Wondergirls Art of Anarchy
Website scottweiland.com
Scott Richard Weiland (né Kline;[1] October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American musician and singer-songwriter. During a career spanning three decades, Weiland was best known as the lead singer for the successful rock band Stone Temple Pilots from 1986 to 2013, as well as the supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008. He had also established himself as a solo artist, releasing four studio albums, a cover album, a live album and collaborations with several other musicians since 1995.
Weiland's onstage persona was known as being flamboyant and chaotic; he was also known for constantly changing his appearance and vocal style, as well as his use of a megaphone in concert for vocal effect.[2] Widely viewed as a talented and versatile vocalist,[3] Weiland has been ranked in the Top 100 Heavy Metal Vocalists by Hit Parader (No. 57).
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Career
2.1 1986–2002: Stone Temple Pilots first stint
2.2 2003–2008: Velvet Revolver era
2.3 2008–2013: Reunion with STP and subsequent departure
2.4 2008–2015: Solo career and The Wildabouts
2.5 2014: Art of Anarchy
3 Business ventures
4 Musicianship
5 Personal life
5.1 Drug use
6 Death
7 Solo discography
8 References
9 External links
Early life
Weiland was born at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose, California.[4] His surname was changed after he was adopted by his stepfather, David Weiland, at the age of five.[5] Around that time, Weiland moved to Bainbridge Township, Ohio, where he attended Kenston High School. He moved back to California as a teenager and attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College.[6]
Career
1986–2002: Stone Temple Pilots first stint
Main article: Stone Temple Pilots
In 1986 Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two of them were discussing their love interests, when they realized one of them was the same girl. They developed a bond over the incident, and ended up moving into her apartment. Weiland's childhood friends Corey Hicock and David Allin rounded out the group, both of whom would soon be replaced by Eric Kretz and DeLeo's brother Dean. They took the name Stone Temple Pilots due to their fondness of the initials "STP".[7] In one of the band's first opening performances as Mighty Joe Young, they opened for Electric Love Hogs, whose drummer Dave Kushner would one day co-found Weiland's later band Velvet Revolver.[8] In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits ("Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush").
In 1994, STP released their second record, Purple, which saw the development of a more distinctive identity for the band. Like Core, Purple was a big success for the band, spawning three hit singles ("Big Empty", "Vasoline", and "Interstate Love Song") and selling more than 6 million copies. The critical response to Purple was more favorable, with Spin Magazine calling it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.[9]
In 1995, Weiland formed the alternative rock band The Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo[10] in San Diego.[9] The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass.[10] Only two songs were recorded by The Magnificent Bastards, "Mockingbird Girl," composed by Nolan, Schloss, and Weiland,[11] appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack,[12] and a cover of John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" was recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon.[10][13] Weiland rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995, but STP was forced to cancel most of their 1996–1997 tour in support of their third release, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sold about two million albums. Weiland encountered problems with drug addiction at this time as well, which inspired some of his songs in the late-1990s, and resulted in prison time.[14]
While STP went on hiatus after the release of Tiny Music..., Weiland released a solo album in 1998 called 12 Bar Blues. Weiland wrote most of the songs on the album, and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau and Jeff Nolan. In 1999, STP regrouped once again and released No. 4. The album contained the hit single "Sour Girl" which featured a surreal music video with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year, Weiland also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup The Wondergirls. During this time period Weiland spent five months in jail for possession.[14][15][16][17][18]
In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of The Doors. Weiland did vocals on two Doors songs, "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on The Doors tribute CD, Stoned Immaculate with their own rendition of "Break on Through" as the lead track.[19] On June 19, 2001, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park and Staind.[20] In late 2002, the band broke up with the DeLeo brothers and Weiland having significant altercations back stage.
2003–2008: Velvet Revolver era
Weiland performing with Velvet Revolver in London
Main article: Velvet Revolver
In 2002, former Guns N' Roses members – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner were looking for a singer to help form a new band. Throughout his career Weiland had become acquainted with the four musicians; he became friends with McKagan after attending the same gym,[21][22] was in rehab at the same time as Sorum, and once played on the same bill as Kushner.[3][3][22] Weiland was sent two discs of material to work with, but felt that the first disc "sounded like Bad Company gone wrong."[21] When he was sent the second disc, Weiland was more positive, comparing it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots,[21] though he turned them down because Stone Temple Pilots had not yet separated.[3]
When Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003,[23] the band sent Weiland new music, which he took into his studio and added vocals. This music eventually became the song "Set Me Free."[23][24] Although he delivered the music to the band himself, Weiland was still unsure whether or not he wanted to join them,[23] despite performing at an industry showcase at Mates.[25] They recorded two songs with producer Nick Raskulinecz,[26] a recorded version of "Set Me Free" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money," for the soundtracks to the movies The Hulk and The Italian Job, respectively.[26] Weiland joined the band soon after,[21] and "Set Me Free" managed to peak at number 17 on the Mainstream Rock Chart[27] without any radio promotion or a record label.[28] It was prior to a screening of The Hulk at Universal Studios that the band chose a name.[29] After seeing a movie by Revolution Studios,[29] Slash liked the beginning of the word, eventually thinking of Revolver because of its multiple meanings; the name of a gun, subtext of a revolving door which suited the band as well as the name of a Beatles album.[29] When he suggested Revolver to the band, Weiland suggested 'Black Velvet' Revolver, liking the idea of "something intimate like velvet juxtaposed with something deadly like a gun."[29] They eventually arrived at Velvet Revolver,[29] announcing it at a press conference and performance showcase at the El Rey Theatre[29] while also performing the songs "Set Me Free" and "Slither" as well as covers of Nirvana's "Negative Creep", Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant", and Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy".[29]
I just thought he was a great singer, and he'd always been on my mind for [Velvet Revolver]. He was the one vocalist that I knew had the kind of voice that would serve what we were going to do: he had a John Lennon-ish quality, a little bit of Jim Morrison, and a touch of almost David Bowie. He was the best singer to come out in a long time in my opinion.[3]
—Slash on Scott Weiland
Velvet Revolver's debut album Contraband was released in June 2004 to much success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies worldwide to date. Two of the album's songs, "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces", reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song "Slither" also won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005, an award Weiland had won previously with STP for the song "Plush" in 1994. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Weiland (along with the rest of Velvet Revolver) performed the Beatles song "Across the Universe" along with Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alison Krauss, and Alicia Keys.[30] On 2 July 2005, Weiland and Velvet Revolver performed at Live 8 in London, United Kingdom; in which Weiland was condemned for using strong language before the UK watershed during the performance.
Velvet Revolver released their second album, Libertad, on July 3, 2007,[31][32] peaking at number five on the Billboard 200.[33] The album's first single "She Builds Quick Machines" peaked at 74 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles.[27] The second and third singles, "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door", both peaked at number 16 and 34 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, respectively.[34] Critical reception to the album was mixed. Though some critics praised the album[35][36] and felt that Libertad gave the band an identity of their own,[37] outside of the Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots comparisons, others described the album as "bland"[38][39] and noted that the band seem to be "play[ing] to their strengths instead of finding a collective sound."[32]
Weiland in 2007
2008–2013: Reunion with STP and subsequent departure
In 2007 Dean DeLeo discussed with Weiland an offer from a concert promoter to headline several summer festivals. Weiland accepted and said he had cleared the brief tour with his Velvet Revolver bandmates. He explained, "everything was cool. Then it wasn't", and said the rest of the band stopped talking to him.
On March 20, 2008 Weiland revealed at Velvet Revolver's show in Glasgow that this would be the band's final tour. After several flares on their personal blogs and in interviews,[40][41] on April 1 it was announced by a number of media outlets that Weiland would no longer be in Velvet Revolver.[42]
Scott Weiland performing with Stone Temple Pilots in São Paulo, Brazil, December 12, 2010.
In 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date U.S. tour on April 7 and performed together for the first time since 2002. The reunion tour kicked off at the Rock on the Range festival on May 17, 2008. According to Dean DeLeo, steps toward a Stone Temple Pilots reunion started with a simple phone call from Weiland's wife. She invited the DeLeo brothers to play at a private beach party, which led to the reconciliation of Weiland and the DeLeo brothers.[43] However, Weiland said in a 2010 radio interview to promote the band's self-titled release that the reunion was the result of Dean calling him and asking if he'd be interested in reuniting the band to headline the Coachella Festival.
STP's reunion tour was a success, and the band continued to tour throughout 2009 and began recording its sixth studio album. STP's first album since 2001, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on May 25, 2010.
In September 2010, STP announced it was rescheduling several U.S. tour dates so that the band could take a "short break." STP toured Southeast Asia for the first time in 2011, playing in Philippines (Manila), Singapore, and Indonesia (Jakarta). Following this, the band played successful shows in Australia, including sell out performances in Sydney and Melbourne.[44]
The band said they were interested in a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate the release of Core with Scott commenting on January 2, 2012, "Well, we're doing a lot of special things. [There's] a lot of archival footage that we're putting together, a coffee table book, hopefully a brand new album – so many ideas. A box set and then a tour, of course."[45] However, while the band did tour in 2012, they did not perform the album in its entirety as promised nor did they release a coffee table book, archival footage, or new album.
In January 2012, guitarist Dave Kushner announced Velvet Revolver would reunite with Weiland for the first time in four years for a one night, three song gig to raise money for the family of recently deceased musician John O'Brien. On what the future would hold for the band and Weiland, Kushner replied "We haven't played together in four years, and so we're really just like, 'Let's see how this goes."[46]
In April 2012, Scott Weiland remarked that he would like to reunite permanently with Velvet Revolver, saying that "if Maynard James Keenan can do it with A Perfect Circle and Tool, then there's no reason why I shouldn't go and do it with both bands".[47] Further in May in an interview with ABC Radio Weiland said that he had reunited with the band permanently for a tour and an album,[48] which however was denied a few days later by Slash in an interview with 93x.[49]
STP began to experience problems in 2012 that were said to have been caused by tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band. Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core,[50] this did not happen. On February 27, 2013, shortly before this solo tour was set to commence, Stone Temple Pilots announced on their website that "[..]they [had] officially terminated Scott Weiland".[51]
Weiland criticized the band after they hired Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington as his replacement, claiming he was still a member and they shouldn't be calling themselves Stone Temple Pilots without him.[52]
2008–2015: Solo career and The Wildabouts
On November 25, 2008, Weiland released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes, produced by Weiland and songwriting-producing partner Doug Grean. Weiland went on tour in early 2009 to promote the album.[53]
On August 30, 2011, Weiland released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website. The album was originally to be released along with Scott's autobiography until he decided to release it separately, stating, "[it] actually turned out so well that we're going to release a single and put it out on its own, 'cause I think it's...it's sort of my Pinups, I guess you'd say."[54][55][56]
On October 4, 2011, Weiland released The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album consisting entirely of Christmas music. Weiland supported the album with a club tour in the United States. Two promotional recordings were taken from the album, a cover versions of "Winter Wonderland" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas", with their respective music videos.
In a November 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland said he foresaw 2013 being a busy year for him and his solo band, The Wildabouts. Scott Weiland and The Wildabouts planned to record a new album and to go on tour.
Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts perform at The Howard Theater in Washington, DC on March 11, 2013 as part of the Purple At The Core Tour. Photo by: Steve Castano Photography.
Weiland and The Wildabouts' "Purple at the Core" tour commenced in March 2013 with pop/rock band MIGGS as the opening act.[57]
In June 2014, in an interview with San Diego radio station KBZT, Weiland revealed that his debut album with The Wildabouts, titled Blaster, would be released in November 2014.[58] Blaster was released on March 31, 2015.[59]
2014: Art of Anarchy
In January 2015, Weiland was announced as the singer of a new band, along with Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, John Moyer, Jon Votta and Vince Votta entitled Art of Anarchy, with an album set to release in spring 2015.[60] The band's origins came from a friendship between Bumblefoot and the Votta brothers that dates back many years. Jon Votta and Bumblefoot spoke about putting a band together. It was finally completed when John Moyer joined the band. The band name was created by Vince Votta.[61] However, Weiland distanced himself from the project, stating "It was a project I did where I was just supposed to have written the lyrics and melodies, and I was paid to do it. I did some production work on it, and the next thing I knew there were press releases that I was in the band. (...) I'm not in the band."[62] Weiland later added "It's just something I kinda got into when I wasn't doing anything else.... I sang over these stereo tracks and then sent it back. But it's not something I'm a part of."[63]
Business ventures
In 2006, Weiland launched his own record label, Softdrive Records. Later, Weiland announced that his label signed the up-and-coming rock band, Something to Burn. On December 19, 2008 Weiland signed a publishing deal with Bug Music, allowing Weiland to "receive funding to pursue the development of creative projects and writers for Bug Music through his co-founded label, Softdrive Records." The deal includes Weiland's share of the Stone Temple Pilots catalog and future solo projects.[64] On January 21, 2009 Weiland announced the launch of his clothing line, Weiland for English Laundry, in partnership with designer Christopher Wicks.[65][66]
Musicianship
Weiland's vocal and musical style proved to be versatile, evolving constantly throughout his career. At the peak of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland displayed a deep, baritone vocal style that was initially closely compared to that of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder.[67] However, as STP continued to branch out throughout its career, so did Weiland's vocal style. The band's third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, had Weiland singing in a much higher, raspier tone to complement the band's more 60's rock-influenced sound on that album. Later albums showcased Weiland's influences ranging from bossa nova on Shangri-La Dee Da to blues rock and classic rock on the band's 2010 self-titled album.
Weiland's first solo record, 1998's 12 Bar Blues, represented a huge shift in Weiland's style, as the album featured a sound "rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop."[68] With Velvet Revolver, Weiland's vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style to complement the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Velvet Revolver's 2007 album Libertad commented that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled yet passionate."[36]
Weiland's second solo album, 2008's "Happy" in Galoshes, featured a wide variety of musical genres, such as bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia, and indie rock.[69] Weiland's 2011 solo effort, the Christmas album The Most Wonderful Time of the Year consisted entirely of Christmas music in a crooning style similar to that of David Bowie and Frank Sinatra, as well as some reggae and bossa nova.[70]
Personal life
Weiland married Janina Castaneda on September 17, 1994; the couple divorced in 2000. He married model Mary Forsberg on May 20, 2000. In late 2001, Weiland was arrested on domestic violence charges in Las Vegas, Nevada, for allegedly shoving Fosberg. However, the charges were eventually deferred upon the couple agreeing to counseling. Soon after, Forsberg filed for divorce but the couple eventually reconciled. They have two children, Noah (born 2000) and Lucy (born 2002). In 2005, Weiland and his son Noah were featured on comedian David Spade's The Showbiz Show with David Spade during a comedy sketch about discouraging music file sharing. Noah has a line during the sketch in which he asks a little girl, "Please buy my daddy's album so I can have food to eat."
In a 2007 interview with Blender Magazine, Weiland mentioned that he was raised a Catholic.[71] Weiland was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.[72] Weiland was a Notre Dame football fan, as his stepfather is an alumnus. In September 2006, Weiland performed at the University of Notre Dame's Legends Restaurant on the night before a football game. He sang several of his solo songs as well as "Interstate Love Song" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here".
Weiland dated Paz de la Huerta from mid- 2008 to early 2009.[73]
Weiland's autobiography, Not Dead & Not for Sale, co-written with David Ritz, was released May 17, 2011.[74]
In a November 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland revealed that he was engaged to photographer Jamie Wachtel whom he met during the 2011 filming of his music video for the song, "I'll Be Home for Christmas".[75] Weiland and Wachtel married on June 22, 2013, at their Los Angeles home.[76]
Drug use
In 1995, Weiland was caught and convicted of buying crack cocaine. He was sentenced to one year's probation. His drug use did not end after his sentence, but increased, and he moved into a hotel room for two months, next door to Courtney Love, where she said he "shot drugs the whole time" with her.[77]
In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Weiland said that while performing in his first bands as a teenager, his drinking "escalated" and he began using cocaine for the first time, which he referred to as a "sexual" experience.[78] In December 2007, Weiland was arrested and charged with DUI, his first arrest in over four years (since October 27, 2003). On February 7, 2008, Weiland checked into rehab[79] and left in early March.[80]
Weiland's younger brother Michael died of cardiomyopathy in early 2007. The Velvet Revolver songs "For a Brother" and "Pills, Demons, & Etc" from the album Libertad are about Michael. Weiland said in an interview with MTV News in November 2008 that several songs on "Happy" in Galoshes were inspired by the death of his brother and his separation from Mary Fosberg. In the same article, MTV News reported that Weiland had not done heroin since December 5, 2002. Weiland also admitted that he went through "a very short binge with coke" in late 2007.[81]
In April 2015, footage from a show appeared online leaving fans to question the health of Weiland, who appeared in the video to be zoned out and giving a bizarre performance. A rep for Weiland responded stating that lack of sleep, a couple of drinks and a faulty earpiece were to blame, not drugs. In June 2015, Weiland claimed that he had been off drugs for 13 years. His response was directed towards comments made by Filter's Richard Patrick who claimed Weiland was using drugs and even his fans were pushing him closer to death saying "the fans are just sticking up for Scott, and they have no idea of what is going on behind the scenes and it’s actually they’re pushing him into his death, because they’re making him believe that whatever I did is acceptable, and I can be as high as I want and I can do as much drugs as I want.”[82]
Death
On December 3, 2015, Weiland was found in cardiac arrest on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota,[83][84] just before he was scheduled to go on stage with his band "The Wildabouts".[85] He was 48 years old. No underlying cause of death was immediately given.[85]
Solo discography
Further information: Stone Temple Pilots discography and Velvet Revolver discography
Studio albums
12 Bar Blues (1998)
"Happy" in Galoshes (2008)
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2011)
Blaster (As "Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts") (2015)
Live albums
Live in Los Angeles (2010)
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