Artist News

Scott Weiland’s ex-wife writes open letter, asks fans not to “glorify” death

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 10 December 2015

The recently deceased Scott Weiland’s second wife Mary Forsberg has published an open letter in Rolling Stone, calling on people not to “glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll”.

As previously reported, Weiland died last week while on tour, and yesterday it was confirmed a search of the tour bus where he died unearthed various drugs. The rocker had long struggled with addiction. Weiland and Forsberg divorced in 2007 and have two children, Noah and Lucy. In her letter, Forsberg says that “the truth is, like so many other kids, they lost their father years ago. What they truly lost on 3 Dec was hope”.

“We don’t want to downplay Scott’s amazing talent, presence or his ability to light up any stage with brilliant electricity”, she writes. “So many people have been gracious enough to praise his gift. The music is here to stay. But at some point, someone needs to step up and point out that yes, this will happen again – because as a society we almost encourage it. We read awful show reviews, watch videos of artists falling down, unable to recall their lyrics streaming on a teleprompter just a few feet away. And then we click ‘add to cart’ because what actually belongs in a hospital is now considered art”.

She concludes: “Our hope for Scott has died, but there is still hope for others. Let’s choose to make this the first time we don’t glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don’t have to come with it. Skip the depressing t-shirt with 1967-2015 on it – use the money to take a kid to a ballgame or out for ice cream”.

Read Forsberg’s full letter here.