Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland says his well-publicized prison stay -- for repeatedly violating probation after a string of heroin busts -- was a major wake-up call.
"Yeah, I think it is for anybody. You experience something like that. You realize that unless you're a rather peculiar and odd sort, it's definitely not something you want to revisit," said Weiland, 33, yesterday. He was in town to promote STP's latest album, Shangri-LA DEE DA, with drummer Eric Kretz at his side in a downtown Toronto hotel lounge.
"It's got to be the most unnatural state for a human being to be enchained, to be locked up, whether it's punishment for a crime or an alleged crime, or whether it's like slavery, it goes against every basic human instinct."
Weiland's jail time came just as the veteran California rockers, who have sold 20 million albums worldwide in the last decade, were promoting their last album, 1999's No. 4.
"(It was) very, very frustrating to be in jail, right when we were putting out a new record," he said. "It took a lot out of me, knowing that because I was in jail everyone had to, like, sit around and wait for me to get out. Like, these guys had to wait for me to get out so we could tour. My wife and I, we were engaged at the time, we had to push back our wedding. There was a lot of waiting around."
Not anymore.
Weiland and his second wife, model Mary Forsberg, welcomed son Noah into the world last November -- an event documented on the new song A Song For Sleeping .
And STP, whose new album debuted at No. 5 in Canada and No. 9 in the U.S., is preparing to headline the Family Values Tour starting in October with next generation rockers Staind and Linkin Park on the bill.
Weiland conceded it's not going to be easy going out on the road this time given the arrival of Noah. The plan, so far, is to have his wife and son on the tour at intervals.
"My son's a baby," he said. "I get this whole fear that when I'm gone he's going to forget about me, so that's difficult."
And the presence of Noah does more than inspire him to stay straight.
"Not just clean and sober, that's a small part of trying to better yourself as a human," said Weiland. "I think a lot of it is, like, realizing this person really comes before I do. It's an exercise in putting somebody else's needs before your own. For a person like me that's a difficult thing to do and so it allows you to exercise those muscles."
Shangri-LA DEE DA, named after Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble's favourite vacation resort, was recorded at a rented Malibu mansion where the four members of STP lived and worked on the new record. They also, for the first time, filmed their sessions for a documentary they hope to have edited in time for next year's Sundance Film Festival.
Weiland said the band has always been approached to do various video and film projects, but have resisted until now.
"It always seemed like the timing wasn't right, that we should hold on to some of that information for a while longer. I think part of the reason why when it's 2001 and people are still intrigued with us is that we haven't allowed ourselves to be oversaturated. Really the only oversaturation point is the media not wanting to let go of their interest in my personal life."
Speaking of his personal life, does Weiland think jail is a deterrent to drug use?
"For crime, yeah. I don't think for drug users, really. I don't really see that as a deterrent. You spend a lot of time in there and you're in with people that, for the most part, tend to be very violent. I've made my opinions and my stands on that well-known. All jail does for an addict is you learn more creative ways to do worse things. Make a lot of connections that can lead you to darker places than just drugs."
