SCOTT WEILAND: It's Hard For Me To Bet I Will Stay Sober

In the April 2004 issue of Metal Hammer U.K., current VELVER REVOLVER and former STONE TEMPLE PILOTS frontman Scott Weiland discusses his relationship with drugs. "I've been drinking since I was 15. I've been doing drugs since I was 16, I've been doing heroin since I was 23, " Weiland said in the interview conducted in Los Angeles in January. "And, with STP, I managed to sell 25 million records, make millions of dollars, own a lot of homes and enjoy a great career in arguably one of the best touring rock bands during the '90s. So I never worry that on any given day that it's going to be the end of it, from a business standpoint. The only thing that I worry about regarding drug issues is what kind of effect it's going to have on my children [Scott has a three-year-old son and a one-year old daughter — Ed.]. I never worry what kind of effect it's going to have on my music. I don't use continuously, I've gone back and forth for years — that's been my pattern. I can't just say that I'm going to be drug-free forever, obviously. So that's my statement: that I've had an ongoing drug career. It's not by choice that I've had an ongoing drug career but there's no reason for me to think that I won't have an ongoing musical career or that I won't have an ongoing drug career, because that's what's been happening. Both have co-existed, so if I was a betting man I'd say they both will go on co-existing. I would like to not continue doing drugs but looking at my past it would be hard for me to bet that I'd stay sober for the rest of my life."