SCOTT WEILAND: 'My Family's Love Has Allowed Me To Write Music Again'

VELVET REVOLVER frontman Scott Weiland was recently interviewed for the "Weekend" section of the Los Angeles Times. The article, which was published in today's (Jan. 20) edition of the paper, features Weiland talking about his favorite way to spend a weekend with the family.

Scott Weiland: "On Friday, we like to plan something we can do as a whole family. We used to have a nanny, but we ended up getting aggravated by the whole experience, and we really wanted to raise our children ourselves and do things with them. Mary and I have two kids, a 4-year-old son, Noah, and a 2 1/2 -year-old daughter named Lucy. We like to go down to the Santa Monica Pier and just hang out, eat, go on a few rides, play a few games. It's like going to Disneyland, but it's got such a neat history, and it's one of the last standing landmarks in Southern California.

"Afterward, we can spend the night at a hotel nearby like Shutters and or someplace in Malibu and make it feel like some real 'away' time. It makes us feel young again.

"On Saturday, we might get up early and take the kids to the snow. My parents live in Colorado, and we love it whenever we go there and play around in it, but taking them to the local mountains here is such an easy thing to do. It's like going to another whole world.

"Or if the weather is hot, we'll go to the beach and surf and maybe stay over at a friend's house for dinner. But L.A. is full of such fabulous restaurants, so we'd probably go out. Food really interests me. That's one thing about getting your life cleaned up — you put down the spoon, and you pick up a fork.

"I like Cha Cha Cha [in L.A. and Encino] for the Latin/Caribbean food, and there's a great Italian place off PCH in Santa Monica Canyon called Giorgio Baldi. Ita-Cho on Beverly has traditional country Japanese food, and Katsu-ya on Ventura Boulevard has very good sushi for about a fifth the price of other places.

"And after dinner, that would be about it on a Saturday. My wife and I used to be real night people back in the day, but obviously that's changed a lot.

"On Sunday, the brunch at the Four Seasons is one of our favorite places. After that, we'd just stick around home. We used to hang out around L.A. or Hollywood, and we swore that we'd never move 'over the hill.' But Toluca Lake is much nicer for families. It's a nice slice of Americana, and it's perfect for us.

"Music is everything as far as my creative forces go, but my family is my life, and that's where the love comes from. As I slipped further into darkness, I lost my ability to create. But now it's my family's love that has allowed me to write music again."