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

0:00
Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
0:03
Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
0:08
Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The stories about Scott Wiland
0:27
Speaker 1: are insane. He was sent to a psych ward at
0:30
Speaker 1: the age of sixteen. He went to rehab thirteen times
0:35
Speaker 1: thirteen times in three years for addictions to heroin and cocaine.
0:41
Speaker 1: Those addictions caused him to hallucinate quote unquote demonic forces,
0:46
Speaker 1: forces which he claimed tried to harm him in his
0:50
Speaker 1: own house, not unlike the real forces of evil, three
0:54
Speaker 1: muggers in Paris who abducted him and nearly killed him.
0:59
Speaker 1: Scott Wiland, course did not die at the hands of
1:02
Speaker 1: French thugs, but instead by the grip of his own habit,
1:06
Speaker 1: which took his life at the age of forty eight,
1:09
Speaker 1: leaving behind great music, music made as the front man
1:14
Speaker 1: of Stone Temple, Pilots and later Velvet Revolver. Unlike that
1:19
Speaker 1: clip I played for you at the top of the show,
1:21
Speaker 1: that wasn't great music. That was a preset loop form
1:25
Speaker 1: my mellotron called Sentimental Shuffle MK. Two. I played you
1:31
Speaker 1: that loop because I can't afford the rights to Genie
1:34
Speaker 1: in a Bottle by Christina Aguilera, And why would I
1:38
Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of rub me the right way? Cheese?
1:43
Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
1:46
Speaker 1: song in America on August thirteenth, nineteen ninety nine, And
1:51
Speaker 1: that was the day that Scott Wiland was sentenced to
1:54
Speaker 1: a year in prison for repeatedly violating his probation on
1:58
Speaker 1: an earlier heroin Possession Church. On this episode, psych Wards Rehab,
2:05
Speaker 1: Parisian Muggers, Demonic Forces and Scott WiLAN, I'm Jake Brennan,
2:11
Speaker 1: and this is disgraceland. The buzz coming from the other
2:32
Speaker 1: side of the door was splitting his skull in two.
2:35
Speaker 1: Everything was shaking the floor, his hands, hands that were
2:39
Speaker 1: holding the door in place, even though it was shut,
2:42
Speaker 1: tight and locked. He wasn't taking any chances, not now,
2:46
Speaker 1: not with those things out there. He watched their feet
2:51
Speaker 1: paced the gap between the bottom of the door and
2:53
Speaker 1: the hardwood. The dog saw them too. Otis his golden
2:57
Speaker 1: retriever standing next to him, losing his shit, barking his
3:01
Speaker 1: head off. From the other side of the door, muffled
3:05
Speaker 1: voices talked amongst themselves. They knew he couldn't hide in
3:08
Speaker 1: the bathroom all night, and they knew he was responsible
3:11
Speaker 1: for this for them. He brought them here, his actions,
3:16
Speaker 1: and if he was why they were here, then only
3:19
Speaker 1: he could send them away back to Hell or wherever
3:22
Speaker 1: it was that they came from. Only then would he survive.
3:27
Speaker 1: That's what he told himself. He clenched his eyes shut,
3:30
Speaker 1: and the buzzing sound grew louder. Concentrate, Think of strength,
3:35
Speaker 1: think of power, think of the words. Think. Scott Wilin
3:43
Speaker 1: opened his eyes. He was outside. The wind was brisk.
3:48
Speaker 1: It carried away the sounds raging inside his head, just
3:52
Speaker 1: like the memory of being locked inside his bathroom was
3:54
Speaker 1: now being carried away with his breath and the cold
3:57
Speaker 1: December air. Two thousand and eight, Paris, the place where
4:04
Speaker 1: Scott Wiland was now alone, doing some soul searching and
4:07
Speaker 1: getting his shit together. He was on the ropes, but
4:11
Speaker 1: he had thick skin, a tough, leathery exterior, honed by
4:15
Speaker 1: years as the front man of two popular rock and
4:18
Speaker 1: roll bands, first Stone Temple Pilots and then Velvet Revolver.
4:24
Speaker 1: You don't work at that heightened level of success, sell
4:27
Speaker 1: millions of copies of albums year after year without taking
4:31
Speaker 1: your fair share of licks. For every dude who called
4:34
Speaker 1: him a rock star, someone else called him a poser.
4:38
Speaker 1: Wyland could take his licks, though, but now he was
4:40
Speaker 1: a little worse for the wear on and off drugs,
4:44
Speaker 1: in and out of rehab. His marriage was ending. Stone
4:48
Speaker 1: Temple Pilots were already over for now, and the same
4:51
Speaker 1: drama that played out with that band was now playing
4:54
Speaker 1: out with Velvet Revolver, a drama in which Scott Wiland
4:58
Speaker 1: spiraled so far out of controlled that he eventually spiraled
5:02
Speaker 1: himself right out of the grow fuck it. He put
5:06
Speaker 1: his life in Paris's hands, specifically in the hands of
5:09
Speaker 1: the three dudes he'd just met on the street. They
5:12
Speaker 1: figured him for an American in his basic denim, in
5:15
Speaker 1: his north faced jacket. He wasn't sure if they knew
5:18
Speaker 1: his true identity. They simply promised a party, a great party,
5:22
Speaker 1: not that far from where they were standing. Pretty good
5:25
Speaker 1: chance to score some weed. Wiland knew what the guy's
5:29
Speaker 1: in his band or his soon to be ex wife
5:31
Speaker 1: would want him to say. But it's not like it
5:33
Speaker 1: was cocaine or heroin. It was just a little weed.
5:37
Speaker 1: Weed never heard anyone. Weed never trapped him in a
5:39
Speaker 1: bathroom while some unholy force tried to break down the door. Well,
5:44
Speaker 1: he didn't want to think about that right now. Right now,
5:46
Speaker 1: it just felt nice to be wanted, So Scott Wiland
5:50
Speaker 1: accepted the invitation and got in the car. The driver
5:55
Speaker 1: tore out of the Pigall district where they originally met,
5:57
Speaker 1: up the red light to the sex shops retreat behind them.
6:01
Speaker 1: They took a left, and then a right and another left.
6:04
Speaker 1: They said it wasn't too far now, just a little
6:06
Speaker 1: more and pewed. But that wasn't exactly true, because now
6:10
Speaker 1: they were taking an on ramp to a freeway. The
6:13
Speaker 1: car lurched forward into the road ahead, and the lights
6:16
Speaker 1: of Tyis sizzled on the dark horizon. Scott asked how
6:20
Speaker 1: much longer him? No one answered. He was getting nervous now,
6:23
Speaker 1: but kept his cool. Eventually the car pulled off the
6:26
Speaker 1: freeway and into a neighborhood tractousing nondescript o. Wiland had
6:32
Speaker 1: completely lost his bearings at this point. The driver turned
6:36
Speaker 1: again and again, and now they were on a dirt road,
6:39
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere, and they were fucking with him, purposely
6:42
Speaker 1: confusing him. They'd rob him, beat him, kill him, even
6:47
Speaker 1: they didn't care. Scott Wild, on the other hand, cared
6:51
Speaker 1: very much, not necessarily about his bands or his marriage,
6:55
Speaker 1: seeing as he'd done a pretty good job fucking those up.
6:58
Speaker 1: His motivation was a primal one, that basic human instinct
7:02
Speaker 1: to survive. It kicked in hard. He had to do something,
7:06
Speaker 1: He had to escape. He grabbed the hands of the
7:09
Speaker 1: door next to him in the back seat and wrenched
7:11
Speaker 1: it open, and the chili December air hit his face,
7:14
Speaker 1: cold and unrelenting. The car was going at a fast cliff.
7:18
Speaker 1: It was now or never. Don't even think about it,
7:21
Speaker 1: just do it, Just jump. Nineteen ninety five, Pasadena, Scott
7:30
Speaker 1: Wiland's body hit the pavement with great force. He didn't
7:35
Speaker 1: so much feel the impact of the fall as he
7:37
Speaker 1: felt that similar gnawing sensation continue to burn deep inside
7:42
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. He needed to fix bad, so bad that
7:48
Speaker 1: jumping from a moving vehicle seemed like a good idea.
7:51
Speaker 1: He had no other choice. He had begged her to stop,
7:55
Speaker 1: just swing him by a payphone so he could call
7:57
Speaker 1: his guy and score, but she refused. Janina, his wife,
8:02
Speaker 1: kept driving. She was on a mission, a mission which
8:05
Speaker 1: began with her paying ten grand to bail him out
8:07
Speaker 1: of jail, in which ended with her taking him directly home.
8:11
Speaker 1: Do not pass the dealer, do not collect more heroin.
8:15
Speaker 1: But that's exactly what he was thinking about. It was
8:18
Speaker 1: careless thinking, the type of thinking that got mbusted earlier
8:21
Speaker 1: that evening during a deal gone bad. Now you're surely
8:24
Speaker 1: facing time for two pieces of crack and a little junk.
8:28
Speaker 1: That was a problem for future scott Wland to figure out.
8:31
Speaker 1: Though current scott Island, present scott Island was in withdrawal.
8:36
Speaker 1: Nothing was coming between him and more dope, not even
8:39
Speaker 1: his wife's lad foot. He picked himself up off the street,
8:43
Speaker 1: watching Janina in their car recede into the distance. He
8:46
Speaker 1: knew what would happen next. First walk, however many miles
8:50
Speaker 1: it took to find his dealer, second blow through what
8:54
Speaker 1: little money he had on him to cop dope, then
8:56
Speaker 1: third stumble home high as shit, where Ginino would refuse
9:01
Speaker 1: to let him back in, and to think things had
9:05
Speaker 1: actually been well for once Stone Temple Pilots were just
9:09
Speaker 1: back from a tour supporting their sophomore studio album, Purple,
9:12
Speaker 1: a huge record number one on the Billboard Album chart
9:16
Speaker 1: for three weeks, even more than a commercial success. It
9:20
Speaker 1: was vindication. It was a great comeback to all the
9:23
Speaker 1: critics who dunked on their debut, The ones who took
9:26
Speaker 1: pleasure in humiliating them called them low rent pearl jam.
9:31
Speaker 1: But STP wasn't grunge. STP was more glam less punk,
9:36
Speaker 1: more pop less sludge. Great band. The de Leo brothers
9:41
Speaker 1: Dean and Robert on guitar and bass, along with Eric
9:44
Speaker 1: Kretz on drums, they were a dual engine, full throttle
9:47
Speaker 1: rock and roll machine. Vasilene Interstate love song, Big Empty
9:52
Speaker 1: Purple was all massive earworms, undeniable. Those already on board
9:58
Speaker 1: with STP knew, and those who weren't were quickly catching on.
10:02
Speaker 1: It was big music for everyone. Unlike the album's cover artwork,
10:06
Speaker 1: which was an inside joke for a select few, a
10:09
Speaker 1: wink and a nod to those who braved the shittier
10:12
Speaker 1: parts of downtown LA looking for their man. The illustration
10:16
Speaker 1: of a smiling baby riding a dragon in the clouds
10:19
Speaker 1: was the exact same illustration that graced the baggies of
10:22
Speaker 1: China White that Scott Wilde had grown partial to. In
10:26
Speaker 1: his eyes, heroin and rock and roll were linked. The
10:29
Speaker 1: Stones did it, John Lennon did it, and if it
10:32
Speaker 1: was good enough for them, then it was good enough
10:34
Speaker 1: for him. And there was a direct connection between his idols,
10:37
Speaker 1: between musical creativity and shooting dope, Or so he thought.
10:42
Speaker 1: It was a false assumption, just like the false assumption
10:45
Speaker 1: that stp were JV hacks who deserved to be shit
10:48
Speaker 1: on in reality, heroin cocaine. It was all just a
10:53
Speaker 1: conduit for the worst angels of his nature. It brought
10:57
Speaker 1: demons to his door. In his mind, they were real,
11:02
Speaker 1: and they even took physical form, and they entered his house.
11:06
Speaker 1: They trapped him inside his bathroom, and they were patient
11:10
Speaker 1: because they knew, just like those three thugs in Paris knew.
11:14
Speaker 1: Three thugs now circling back for their prey, the scrawny
11:18
Speaker 1: American junkie who bailed from their car. That guy he
11:23
Speaker 1: couldn't hide forever. The car skidded to a stop. Scott
11:52
Speaker 1: Wiland on his ass in the middle of that Parisian
11:54
Speaker 1: road after having just bailed from the car of as
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Speaker 1: would be captors, struggled to his feet. There was no
11:59
Speaker 1: time time to think, not about how this wasn't the
12:02
Speaker 1: first time he'd jump from a moving vehicle, and not
12:04
Speaker 1: about anything. It was only time for action. But one
12:08
Speaker 1: of his would be captors was out of the car,
12:10
Speaker 1: now screaming in French and running toward him. Scott bolted
12:13
Speaker 1: legs full stride, heart pumping, not fast enough, though. Two
12:17
Speaker 1: hands grabbed him from behind and spun him around. French
12:20
Speaker 1: He kicked at him with his feet, but Scott managed
12:22
Speaker 1: to block him. He didn't know what he was doing exactly.
12:25
Speaker 1: He was simply reacting all instinct. French he swung his
12:29
Speaker 1: entire head forward and spatched it directly into Scott's face.
12:32
Speaker 1: Some wwe shit and Scott's mouth was wide open when
12:35
Speaker 1: it happened, and one of his teeth sank into Frenchy's forehead.
12:38
Speaker 1: It pierced the skin, blood splurted while he ran his
12:41
Speaker 1: tongue across his teeth. At least one of them was gone.
12:45
Speaker 1: The two other guys were out of the car now
12:47
Speaker 1: coming for him, and they were on him fast, knocked
12:50
Speaker 1: him to the ground, one holding a pair of pliers
12:52
Speaker 1: in his hand, snapping them open and closed, lunging for
12:55
Speaker 1: Scott's balls, trying to snap his dick off with dirty metal.
12:59
Speaker 1: Scott scraped himself across the dirt and launched an elbow
13:02
Speaker 1: caught the dude's nose. He managed to get to his feet,
13:05
Speaker 1: hands grabbed onto his north faced jacket. He let the
13:07
Speaker 1: guy pull and wriggled right out of it. Never mind
13:10
Speaker 1: that the jacket had his wallet and his passport. He
13:12
Speaker 1: couldn't worry about those things right now. Right now, he
13:15
Speaker 1: had to get away, and he was off, running so
13:18
Speaker 1: fast that one of his shoes came off, and he
13:20
Speaker 1: didn't stop. He ran harder. He leapt over bushes, He
13:23
Speaker 1: slid down an embankment. He wound up in a forest,
13:26
Speaker 1: and he covered himself in leaves. Ten twenty minutes passed nothing.
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Speaker 1: He was freezing. He didn't know where he was or
13:36
Speaker 1: what he'd do next. He just knew that he was
13:38
Speaker 1: not going to die, not here, not in Paris, not
13:42
Speaker 1: at the hands of three psycho fuckers, and not buried
13:44
Speaker 1: in dead leaves in the woods. That was most definitely
13:48
Speaker 1: not Scott Weiland's purpose. Nineteen eighty four, Huntington Beach, sixteen
13:56
Speaker 1: years old and ready to find purpose, true purpose again,
14:00
Speaker 1: just like wearing the robes and lighting the candles once
14:03
Speaker 1: gave him purpose during Mass. But Scott Wiland was no
14:07
Speaker 1: altar boy, at least not metaphorically speaking, his purpose involved
14:12
Speaker 1: new rituals. These days, rock and roll came easy, especially
14:16
Speaker 1: when your best friend at Edison High played guitar. That well,
14:20
Speaker 1: Scott didn't need to know guitar or any other instrument
14:22
Speaker 1: for that matter. He had confidence. That was ninety percent
14:26
Speaker 1: of it. You could be the best singer in the world,
14:28
Speaker 1: but if you didn't know what the hell you were
14:29
Speaker 1: doing up on stage in front of a packed house,
14:31
Speaker 1: what was the point? Then? Furthermore, what was the meaning
14:34
Speaker 1: of his high school band's name, Suati's An didn't matter?
14:39
Speaker 1: The true point, and the true meaning for any rock
14:41
Speaker 1: and roller was the music, yes, but also the sex
14:44
Speaker 1: and the drugs, both of which just came as easily.
14:47
Speaker 1: But unlike rock and roll, you had to hide that
14:49
Speaker 1: other stuck. You hide it, and then, like any good
14:52
Speaker 1: Catholic boy, you pray to God that they both remain hidden.
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Speaker 1: Prayer didn't help, not in this situation. Scott's stepfather barged
15:01
Speaker 1: right into Scott's room while he and his girl were
15:03
Speaker 1: in the middle of it, freaked the girl out, pissed
15:06
Speaker 1: Scott off. At dinner that evening, his stepdad, Dave still
15:10
Speaker 1: wasn't over it. Scott's defiant attitude annoyed it in a
15:13
Speaker 1: no end, so stepdad Dave overturned the dinner table and
15:17
Speaker 1: launched for his step son. Scott escaped out the window,
15:20
Speaker 1: laid low at her friend's house. For five days, they
15:23
Speaker 1: got stoned and listened to records, and Scott searched for
15:26
Speaker 1: the clash queen and Duran Duran for meaning well. Stepdad
15:29
Speaker 1: day searched his room for contraband. Scott didn't know that
15:35
Speaker 1: his stepfather had found his weed and his coat until
15:37
Speaker 1: days later at school, sitting in class, when the door
15:40
Speaker 1: swung open and two paramedics walked in with a gurney
15:44
Speaker 1: bee line straight to Scott, strapped him in legs, arms,
15:49
Speaker 1: the whole damn thing right in front of the class.
15:51
Speaker 1: The place was dead silent. Everyone just watched as Scott
15:55
Speaker 1: was wheeled through the room like a fucking lunatic, flat
15:57
Speaker 1: on his back, unable to turn his head, staring up
15:59
Speaker 1: at the water leaks and the drop ceiling like there
16:01
Speaker 1: were ancient ruins in need of interpreting. Turns out, Stepdad
16:05
Speaker 1: Dave had called the cops at finding Scott's stash. He
16:09
Speaker 1: and Scott's mom had him committed three months of lockdown
16:13
Speaker 1: and a psych ward three months in which he was
16:15
Speaker 1: made to feel like a criminal every day at just
16:19
Speaker 1: sixteen years old, and they weren't going to let him
16:21
Speaker 1: out unless he admitted it to the hospital staff and
16:24
Speaker 1: to himself. Scott didn't believe it, not then, but he
16:28
Speaker 1: desperately wanted out, so he told him what they so
16:30
Speaker 1: desperately wanted to hear. I am a substance abuser. As
16:37
Speaker 1: the years went on, Scott Weiland's one time bogus admission
16:41
Speaker 1: became truth, a self fulfilling prophecy or something like that,
16:45
Speaker 1: which meant that he saw this kind of place with
16:47
Speaker 1: alarming frequency, rehab, detox hospitals, even prison. It was hard
16:53
Speaker 1: to keep track or keep count, but in nineteen ninety six,
16:57
Speaker 1: by his math, he'd done rehab thirteen times in a
17:00
Speaker 1: three year span. This was the year of Tiny Music
17:05
Speaker 1: Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, Stone Temple, Pilot's eclectic
17:09
Speaker 1: follow up to Purple and their third LP. Overall, once again,
17:14
Speaker 1: the band was riding a high critical and commercial success
17:17
Speaker 1: with three singles Big Bang Baby, Tripping on a Hole
17:20
Speaker 1: in a Paper Heart, and Lady Picture Show topping the
17:23
Speaker 1: mainstream rock chart. But though STP was strong, Scott was
17:28
Speaker 1: a liability, strung out one moment high the next, hopelessly addicted,
17:33
Speaker 1: clinging to that false assumption that dope equal creativity, he
17:37
Speaker 1: was jeopardizing the whole operation. STP wasn't a lark for
17:41
Speaker 1: the other guys. It was a job, a business, their income,
17:45
Speaker 1: and they worked too hard for it. Robert Delio, STP's
17:49
Speaker 1: bass player, had already played that game where he lived
17:51
Speaker 1: out of his Volkswagen Rabbit, and he wasn't going to
17:54
Speaker 1: do it again. And if Scott fucked things up, he'd
17:57
Speaker 1: fuck it up, not just for himself, but for everyone else.
18:00
Speaker 1: It was now December, just after Christmas. Robert's brother, Dean,
18:05
Speaker 1: STP's guitarist, was preparing for the band's New Year's Eve
18:08
Speaker 1: show in Alaska. His phone rang, It was Scott. Dean.
18:13
Speaker 1: Scott said, I'm fucking up. I need help. The next day,
18:19
Speaker 1: Scott checked himself into a treatment center in Pasadena, the
18:23
Speaker 1: same town where he had been busted a year earlier
18:25
Speaker 1: for trying to score. STP's show in Alaska was canceled,
18:29
Speaker 1: as were two more shows the following weekend in Hawaii.
18:33
Speaker 1: Thirty thousand fans left in the lurch, forty people on
18:37
Speaker 1: the payroll without a check in one rock and roll
18:40
Speaker 1: band looking for a purpose. Three years later, it was
18:44
Speaker 1: the same thing all over again, another new record followed
18:48
Speaker 1: by another canceled tour. This time the knives came out.
18:53
Speaker 1: STP wanted Scott to personally foot the bill for the cancelation,
18:57
Speaker 1: one million dollars of his own money. And it wasn't
19:00
Speaker 1: just his band that was leaving him. Janina his wife,
19:03
Speaker 1: the one who bailed him out after his drug bust,
19:05
Speaker 1: only to have him bail out of her car. She
19:07
Speaker 1: wanted a divorce. Those things weighed heavy on his mind
19:12
Speaker 1: now as he stood in front of a judge at
19:14
Speaker 1: an La County Courthouse August nineteen ninety nine, almost ten
19:20
Speaker 1: years before Paris, Scott Wiland hoped he looked somewhat respectable.
19:25
Speaker 1: Respectable like that solo record he put out the year prior,
19:28
Speaker 1: twelve Bar Blues, the one with cover art that paid
19:31
Speaker 1: homage not the downtown La Dope Baggies, but to John Coltrane,
19:35
Speaker 1: a respectable musical icon if there ever was one. In
19:39
Speaker 1: his classic album Blue Train but No Suit and tie
19:42
Speaker 1: combo and no callback to suit and Tide Jazz was
19:45
Speaker 1: going to help Scott Wiland now. The judge, like his
19:49
Speaker 1: band and his wife, told Scott that he'd run out
19:51
Speaker 1: of chances. Too many probation violations following a previous conviction
19:56
Speaker 1: for heroin possession. The judge had no other voice, so
20:01
Speaker 1: the gavel came down. One year in prison, but not
20:06
Speaker 1: just prison, a medieval dungeon, a concrete coffin, a place
20:10
Speaker 1: which took the minds of sane men and twisted them
20:14
Speaker 1: beyond recognition. We'll be right back after this. We're, We're, We're.
20:32
Speaker 1: Scott Weiland entered the notorious Men's Central Jail in downtown
20:37
Speaker 1: La As inmate number sixty one five eight seven three
20:41
Speaker 1: five deemed at risk in the general population, which was
20:45
Speaker 1: a mass of violent, hardened criminals, some of the very
20:49
Speaker 1: worst in the Greater Los Angeles area. Scott was ushered
20:52
Speaker 1: into a protective custody cell might as well have been solitary.
20:57
Speaker 1: One room the size of a closet, one bunk, one toilet,
21:01
Speaker 1: one wash basin, and no windows, no bars in the door,
21:06
Speaker 1: and when that door shut there was nothing, no voices
21:12
Speaker 1: coming from other inmates or from other guards, just dead silence,
21:16
Speaker 1: the white noise inside your own head building like a
21:19
Speaker 1: thousand crickets from a great distance. It was like that
21:23
Speaker 1: for hours, four blank walls, time at a complete standstill, time,
21:29
Speaker 1: merely an illusion, a con that you had fallen for
21:32
Speaker 1: for years, when really there was no time, just a moment,
21:37
Speaker 1: an eternal loop that went on and on and on,
21:42
Speaker 1: and when the lights went out at night time didn't
21:45
Speaker 1: move any faster. But gradually the noises did begin again.
21:50
Speaker 1: First the click clocks, scattering of roaches popping out of
21:53
Speaker 1: cracks in the corners, and those ship brown bodies crawling
21:57
Speaker 1: all over you. Then the sound of rat doing rat things, gnawing,
22:02
Speaker 1: clawing somewhere inside the walls, down in the pipes that
22:05
Speaker 1: connected to the toilet, or maybe it was all just
22:08
Speaker 1: coming from inside your own head time reality. It was
22:13
Speaker 1: hard to tell anything on the inside. You lost sense
22:16
Speaker 1: of it, all, sense of yourself. No wonder they found
22:20
Speaker 1: guys hanging from a noose, their bodies stiff with rigor mortis.
22:24
Speaker 1: The urge to do the same, to succumb to the
22:27
Speaker 1: sensory deprivation, the hope deprivation. It was overwhelming. One of
22:32
Speaker 1: the many temptations circulating in the stale air at Men's Central,
22:36
Speaker 1: like the temptation Scott received from a neighboring inmate Mexican
22:40
Speaker 1: mafia affiliate, or so he claimed. Best to just take
22:44
Speaker 1: a guy at his word on the inside, and this
22:47
Speaker 1: guy got a piece of paper to Scott. They called
22:50
Speaker 1: it a kite. Fucked if he knew how it worked.
22:52
Speaker 1: But again, for a guy at risk, a guy in
22:55
Speaker 1: protective custody, probably better not to know. This kite was
23:01
Speaker 1: a fan Leutter. Ombrey knew Scott's music. Ombrey wanted Scott's
23:06
Speaker 1: John Hancock. In return, he'd get the mother load China
23:10
Speaker 1: white shit that would take you far away from the
23:13
Speaker 1: reality of your surroundings. Hell man, it would warp your reality,
23:18
Speaker 1: if only for a little while, a little while being
23:21
Speaker 1: better than nothing in the end, though, that's what Scott
23:25
Speaker 1: asked for nothing. He gave the guy an autograph, but
23:29
Speaker 1: turned down the dope. He couldn't believe he was doing it.
23:34
Speaker 1: Cold turkey was hard, not quite as hard as overnight
23:38
Speaker 1: opiate detox or rapid detox, but then few things were
23:42
Speaker 1: that bad, at least the way he experienced it. This
23:46
Speaker 1: was on the Lower East Side, back when he was
23:48
Speaker 1: touring twelve Bar Blues with his band, The Action Girls,
23:51
Speaker 1: which was all dudes by the way, but that doesn't matter.
23:54
Speaker 1: Point is he was busted trying to score, bailed out
23:58
Speaker 1: by his Atlantic Records publicist. One of those too many
24:01
Speaker 1: chances the judge was referring to at is sentencing Now.
24:05
Speaker 1: Back at that time, Scott was dope sick. He couldn't
24:08
Speaker 1: get a fix, he couldn't find a dealer, and he
24:10
Speaker 1: needed something someone, a doctor, a doctor who might put
24:14
Speaker 1: him under sedation and flush all that evil shit from
24:16
Speaker 1: his system while he was out. That was the plan anyway.
24:20
Speaker 1: But this doctor that he found either underestimated Scott Wiland
24:24
Speaker 1: or didn't give Scott enough juice, because Scott woke up
24:27
Speaker 1: in the middle of the whole thing, and he woke
24:29
Speaker 1: up in full withdrawal, aches, cramps, the worst pain, puking
24:34
Speaker 1: and shitting his insides out, and the nurses didn't lift
24:37
Speaker 1: a finger. They weren't breaking a sweat for him, not
24:40
Speaker 1: for a dope fee. They told him he was going
24:42
Speaker 1: to have to sweat it out for half an hour
24:44
Speaker 1: until the doc returned. Thirty minutes of pure agony. It
24:50
Speaker 1: was enough to make you feel like you were a
24:51
Speaker 1: different person on the other side, but the feeling at
24:54
Speaker 1: Men's Central was even stronger. He was someone else. He
24:58
Speaker 1: was a different person, someone with nude purpose. That was
25:01
Speaker 1: the thing at Men's Central. He was a man transformed,
25:05
Speaker 1: even not unlike the kid transformed by Rock and Roll.
25:08
Speaker 1: At just sixteen. Five days later, he wasn't just transformed,
25:14
Speaker 1: but transferred from men Central to an inmate drug treatment
25:18
Speaker 1: program at biz Kalou's Recovery Center, a former Japanese American
25:22
Speaker 1: internment camp, where routine was king up and at him
25:26
Speaker 1: at five am, ten minutes to piss and throw on
25:29
Speaker 1: regulation threads, then single file, no talking to the mess
25:34
Speaker 1: hall for the first of three disgusting meals of the day,
25:37
Speaker 1: a day which consisted of chores, group therapy, and plenty
25:40
Speaker 1: of time spent alone. Scott Wiland did this for about
25:44
Speaker 1: five months, just under half his original sentence, which is
25:48
Speaker 1: when he was released on early parole, Clean, sober, and
25:53
Speaker 1: ready to put the demons behind him for good. He
26:20
Speaker 1: crawled out from the pile of dead leaves and began
26:23
Speaker 1: to walk through the woods, cold, shivering, his north faced
26:27
Speaker 1: jacket long gone, his wallet and passport too, all of
26:32
Speaker 1: it left in the hands of three guys who would
26:34
Speaker 1: gladly wring his neck if given the chance. His bloody,
26:38
Speaker 1: ragged T shirt that he was wearing was no match
26:40
Speaker 1: for December in Paris. Still he pressed on. He emerged
26:46
Speaker 1: from the woods and made his way to a neighborhood,
26:49
Speaker 1: tiny houses Christmas lights. He chose a house at random
26:53
Speaker 1: and knocked on the door, one thing on his mind,
26:56
Speaker 1: getting out alive. The straight who answered the door took
27:01
Speaker 1: Scott Weiland at his word. He was without money, without
27:05
Speaker 1: a passport, no direction home and all that. And Scott
27:09
Speaker 1: had the forces of good to thank for getting him
27:10
Speaker 1: back to his hotel that night. And once he was there,
27:14
Speaker 1: it was easy enough to apply for a new passport
27:16
Speaker 1: and get some more cash. But the trauma he just
27:19
Speaker 1: endured this night, this city, it made him desperate for
27:23
Speaker 1: more than just a passport in cash. It made him
27:27
Speaker 1: long for the thing he said he wasn't going to
27:29
Speaker 1: seek out here in Paris, the thing that, against his
27:32
Speaker 1: better judgment, he already went searching for when he accepted
27:36
Speaker 1: the ride with those three thugs, thugs who certainly were
27:39
Speaker 1: not representing the forces of good. They were with the
27:43
Speaker 1: other forces in this world. Call it karma or an
27:46
Speaker 1: occupational hazard if your occupation is a rock star, or
27:50
Speaker 1: more to the point, a junkie, the very thing Scott
27:54
Speaker 1: Weiland professed to be back when he was sixteen, before
27:57
Speaker 1: he even knew what he was truly saying. Every time
28:00
Speaker 1: he put a needle in his vein or the pipe
28:02
Speaker 1: to his lips, every time he felt the burn slide
28:05
Speaker 1: down his throat and waited a nervous anticipation for the
28:08
Speaker 1: hide a hit. Every time he surrendered himself to dope,
28:11
Speaker 1: to junk, to rock, he was at their mercy, the
28:15
Speaker 1: mercy of forces of evil, demonic forces. They conspired against him.
28:21
Speaker 1: They pulled at him like that French asshole pulled at
28:24
Speaker 1: his north faced jacket. He saw them with his own eyes.
28:29
Speaker 1: Just recently, during a relapse back at his home, he
28:33
Speaker 1: locked himself in the bathroom. Owedis set aside, pure uncut grade,
28:38
Speaker 1: a hellspawn trying to exploit his sickness, his weakness, banging
28:44
Speaker 1: on the door. Holy shit, do not let them in.
28:50
Speaker 1: He was holding the bathroom door or shut now. The
28:53
Speaker 1: dead bull rattled the wood, vibrated against his hands. That
28:57
Speaker 1: buzzing sound rang out and spore his head into otis
29:01
Speaker 1: was at his side, barking, clawing at the feet. They
29:04
Speaker 1: both could see through the gap between the floor and
29:06
Speaker 1: the bottom of the door. On the other side of
29:08
Speaker 1: the door, they had manifested themselves, and they walked and
29:12
Speaker 1: they talked, nothing he could actually understand, but they made noises.
29:16
Speaker 1: They were real, a legion of evil, evil that didn't
29:19
Speaker 1: have a name, but now had a shape of physical form,
29:22
Speaker 1: summoned there by his lack of control, his lack of willpower.
29:26
Speaker 1: He shut his eyes again, and the buzzing sound grew louder. Concentrate.
29:32
Speaker 1: Think of strength, think of power. Think of the words,
29:36
Speaker 1: the words from when you were a kid, words spoken
29:39
Speaker 1: while you made the sign of the cross. He tried
29:42
Speaker 1: to speak, but the forces were too powerful and they
29:45
Speaker 1: wouldn't let him, so he thought of the words instead.
29:50
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus Christ, our God and Lord,
29:54
Speaker 1: strengthened by the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother
29:57
Speaker 1: of God, of Blessed Michael, the Archangel of the blessed
30:01
Speaker 1: Apostles Peter and Paul than all the saints. And the
30:04
Speaker 1: door was shaking harder. Now something was trying to get through,
30:08
Speaker 1: and he resisted. Otis howled keep thinking of the words
30:12
Speaker 1: the prayer keep saying it in your head and powerful
30:17
Speaker 1: in the holy authority of our ministry, we confidently undertake
30:21
Speaker 1: to repulse the attacks and deceits of the devil. God arises,
30:25
Speaker 1: His enemies are scattered, and those who hate him flee
30:28
Speaker 1: before him as smoke is driven away. So they are
30:32
Speaker 1: driven as wax melts before the fire. So the wicked
30:35
Speaker 1: perish at the presence of God. More feet now appearing
30:39
Speaker 1: at the foot of the door. More pressure, the buzzing, incessant,
30:43
Speaker 1: non stop. We drive you from us, whoever you may be,
30:48
Speaker 1: unclean spirits, all Satanic powers, all infernal invaders, all wicked legions,
30:55
Speaker 1: assemblies and sects. God the Father commands you. God the Son,
31:00
Speaker 1: he commands you. God the Holy Spirit commands you. One
31:09
Speaker 1: by one. The feet retreated, the noises too. Everything was still.
31:16
Speaker 1: Everything was quiet, even otice. But Scott Wiland was tired
31:23
Speaker 1: on his last nerve, perhaps but thankfully not on his
31:26
Speaker 1: last breath. He had thick skin stp velvet revolver, more
31:33
Speaker 1: stints in the white walled rooms that he cared to remember,
31:37
Speaker 1: and all of it only made his stromer as cliched
31:39
Speaker 1: as that's saying was just as cliched as a rock
31:43
Speaker 1: star on an off dope. Toughness though only matters so much.
31:49
Speaker 1: It's the fatigue that gets you. And unlike those Parisian thugs,
31:54
Speaker 1: the forces of evil would circle back once again. Deep down,
31:59
Speaker 1: he knew this, and they kept coming because he kept using.
32:04
Speaker 1: He couldn't hide from them forever, not in a bathroom
32:08
Speaker 1: and not in a tour bus outside of Minneapolis, which
32:11
Speaker 1: is where Scott Wiland's body was found on December third,
32:15
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, finally caught by his demons while sleeping, cocaine
32:22
Speaker 1: ethanol MDA in his body, a small quantity of coke
32:27
Speaker 1: by his side, Stripped of life, denied true purpose. Such
32:34
Speaker 1: a disgrace, Jake Brennan and this this Disgraceland. Disgraceland was
32:57
Speaker 1: created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with
32:59
Speaker 1: Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on
33:02
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33:06
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