He also discusses more about Velvet Revolver and how him and Axl almost met up once. 

Credit: Details Magazine

Scott Weiland Sobers Up . . . Again

The troubled frontman on kicking heroin (but not scotch), his rivalry with Axl Rose, Christmas-caroling in prison, and the first Stone Temple Pilots album in nine years.
By Matt Hendrickson, Photographs by Alex Prager

Q: Stone Temple Pilots are releasing their first album in nine years this June. Did you ever think of skipping the record and just doing the cash-grab tour?
A: We got back together and toured in 2008 and realized pretty quickly that we were going to get burned-out playing the old songs every night. We have just as much fun in the creative process as we do on the road'”it'™s not like when we were in our twenties and it was rock-and-roll hell on wheels.

Q: Do you miss that?
A: No, I don'™t. I had plenty of it.

Q: What does the new album sound like?
A: We have a tendency to make a straightforward rock-and-roll record, then try and spread our wings a bit. Core and No. 4 were rock records'”the others had different touches. We went off the deep end with our last one, with Shangri-La Dee Da. Lived in a house in Malibu, had a film crew there. That record caught people off guard. It was inspired by Grandaddy and Sparklehouse and the Flaming Lips. It sort of divided our audience a bit. The meat-and-potatoes rock fans didn'™t really embrace it. Then we split. I prefer to break new ground, but it gets harder and harder with the territory that'™s already been walked on. We started doing demos and it became apparent that this is a back-to-basics rock record. There'™s some stuff that deviates, like 'Cinnamon,'  which is the Beatles meets Joy Division. It'™s a different sound for us, but this is a Stone Temple Pilots rock record.

Q: The band'™s breakup in 2003 was acrimonious. How were you able to put the past behind you?
A: Well, no one does drugs anymore, so it was pretty easy. Dean DeLeo and I were the close runners-up to the Toxic Twins throne. The wounds heal. And we got the humor back in the band. That'™s the most important thing'”to laugh at the same funny stories we were laughing at years ago.

Q: Dean has questioned your sobriety.
A: He'™s probably referring to my drinking. I still drink. If he thought he could drink and not do drugs, he might do that too. I can have a scotch and not want to shoot up.

Q: You sound so matter-of-fact about it now. Why were the drugs so hard for you to kick?
A: Heroin made me feel all right in my own skin. Before I did it I was uncomfortable going into crowds, which is interesting given my profession. But when I did dope, the fear went away. That'™s why I hung on to it so long. But my kids fill up that hole now.

Q: I read that when you were in jail for possession you taught music to your fellow inmates.
A: A counselor gave us some Christmas carols, and I'™d learn all the parts and assign the harmonies. There were some former Crips and a white supremacist in there, which added some levity to the idea of missing the holidays with your family. I ran into a couple of those guys a while back and had a good laugh. As horrible as jail was, there were some first-rate guys in there.

Q: You feuded with Axl Rose after you formed Velvet Revolver with his former Guns N'™ Roses bandmates. Now that you'™ve left that group less than amicably, do you want to trade war stories with Axl?
A: We came close to getting together one time. I had wondered if he was the center of all their problems or if it was a mixed bag'”and it was definitely the latter. When Velvet Revolver first got together it was great. I got to know the guys before: Met Duff at the gym, because he loves to work out and I was obsessed with running. I was in rehab with Matt. I'™d only met Slash twice'”he'™s not the most social person. We had all been through the same experiences, and it felt like a gang. But everyone was a rock star. There were petty jealousies. Then the wives got involved with the business of the band, and that was the beginning of the downfall.

Q: Speaking of wives, your ex Mary Forsberg wrote in her memoir that you got a massage while she was delivering your first child. What were you thinking?
A: What do you mean? I was incredibly stressed-out. She was having contractions and that was tripping me out, so I called up our friend and she gave me a massage. I laid out right next to where Mary was.

Q: You didn'™t think it was weird, even after the nurse kicked the masseuse out?
A: No one I'™ve ever talked to thought it was weird. It'™s incredibly stressful when the person you love is having a child. And I was sober at that time, so I needed something to take the edge off.

Q: Celebrity clothing lines have become ubiquitous. What makes yours, Scott Weiland for English Laundry, different?
A: There'™s a sense of history and classiness there. It'™s very much based in the late-sixties, early-seventies Savile Row style. All of the cloth is vintage from that period. I'™m obsessed with fabric. I prefer a three-piece suit myself. Very sixties rock and roll. But they'™re not too quirky. Businessmen could wear them.

Q: Matt has also launched a clothing line. Do you ever drop in to his store and check out the competition?
A: God, no. We'™re doing totally different things. Mine is London, his is L.A. Let'™s just say there'™s a lot of leather and jewelry.

Q: I hear you'™re a fan of Notre Dame football. You'™re probably the last person I'™d think of as a football guy.
A: Oh man, massively. My dad played football there, and I go to at least one game every year. I get my Blue & Gold report every morning. My assistant prints it out, and I read it like the newspaper. In fact, I'™m looking at it right now. There'™s this kid, Louis Nix, that we got coming in from Jacksonville. A high-school senior, who is six three, 315 pounds. Wow. He'™s living my dream.