Episode #159 | 02.06.24

Scott Weiland: Psych Wards, Demonic Forces, and a Kidnapping in Paris

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In this episode

Scott Weiland was sent to a psych ward when he was just 16 years old. Thirteen stints at rehab within the span of three years. In and out of two huge rock bands, Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver. On and off drugs. Addictions to heroin and cocaine that put him in harm’s way, not least of which were three muggers in Paris who abducted and tried to kill him. Addictions that also caused him to hallucinate “demonic forces.” Forces that Scott Weiland fought off, physically and mentally, thanks in large part to his robust survival instinct – one that served him well but could only hold all that trouble and evil at bay for so long.

Sources

Not Dead and Not for Sale: A Memoir, by Scott Weiland with David Ritz

Scott Weiland Cause of Death: Accidental Overdose (Rolling Stone)

Scott Weiland on the Brink: Rolling Stone’s 1997 Cover Story (Rolling Stone)

Stone Temple Pilots: The Needle & the Damage Done (Rolling Stone)

ACLU calls Men’s Central Jail a dungeon, seeks closure (Los Angeles Daily News)

Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

Credits

Hosted by Jake Brennan.

Written by Zeth Lundy.

Copy edited by James Sullivan.

Scored and mixed by Matt Beaudoin.

Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker.

DISGRACELAND theme song, “Crenshaw Space Boogie,” written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava, and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.

*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak