Wildabouts guitarist Nick Maybury opened up about his bandmate Scott Weiland’s death for the first time in an interview on the No Guitar Is Safe podcast, as transcribed by Alternative Nation.
“It was one of those things he had that he had been dealing with for years. It was hard to take at first, because they were all really hurt by Jeremy passing away and stuff, and that stuff will start happening if you don’t look after yourself. I would have thought that would have been some kind of revelation to look after yourself more or something. I had a chat with him about it, I did bring it up with him. [It was] before we went on stage at Carolina Rebellion, I had a deep heart to heart, serious conversation with Scott Weiland, about his life and his career, and where he was heading, on the bus. I think just the fact that we had a chance to connect on a deeper level, put us closer together. He goes, ‘I’ve had a career for 20 years, and I don’t think this is really going to change it.’ I was like, ‘Okay.'”
He added, “He had been on the drink and stuff. I felt threatened for my life almost in a way, because of what had already happened in the group, and I didn’t want to see anything more like that happen or be around it. It was quite a traumatic experience for me actually, to be honest, especially how it ended. I didn’t expect that. By the time we had gotten back from that first tour, that first tour was exciting, but rough at the same time. It was rough for them having to adjust to a new guy, the new dynamic, and missing the co-writer who wrote the stuff, their buddy, and I wasn’t drinking, or doing anything like that. I just didn’t want to see him do that to himself. I cared about him, I freaking cared about him to bring that up. It actually brought us closer together a little bit. I think he thought, ‘What’s this kid worrying about, and why does he care?’ I don’t know, you couldn’t really read him. He was a deep cat.
“I was that concerned about him, and we were on that level. I would have thought, ‘Okay fuck, am I going home? Did I just get myself fired just saying all this shit?’ It wasn’t like that at all, Scott was so compassionate. He would listen, he might not say anything, but I knew he would take things [and listen]. He was the kind of guy, he would want you to feel better, he wanted you to feel comfortable. He made me feel like I was his family in the end. We came a long way in such a short amount of time.”
Nick also mentioned he thought he would die on the tour bus in a tornado at one point. “I’m going to die on this tour bus, this is fucked.” He mentioned that the tour bus driver saved their life twice.
“I figured out ways how to deal with it. I just thought, he’s not going to change for me, I tried to bring it up and help him, and talk about it.”
“In the end, I just ended up accepting him for who he was, that’s who he is. You’ve just got to love him for who he is. I’ll do me, he’ll do him, and we’ll play music together.”
“For the last tour, it was like, ‘He’ll probably need a drink to feel better.’ I ended up going to alcoholics anonymous, I went to a meeting, to help deal with people who are like that in the workplace, when you’re not an addict, and you’re not using like that. I wanted to keep doing the gig, I didn’t want to say, ‘I can’t do this because of that.’ I was like no, I can get through it. It made me realize to be more compassionate, and less judgmental towards people with their disease. It’s a disease, it’s such a deep thing. I figured out a way how to deal with it. He just wasn’t well man, he should have been recovering, and getting healthy.”
“We were about to do a new record, and do another album cycle. There was talk of possibly getting back with STP after an album cycle. He was like, ‘Alright, we’ll do another album cycle, then maybe get back with STP.’ At first I was like, okay, that’s a bit weird, but if you can get well, and be healthy, the best you can be, that could possibly be the best thing for you.”
“The poor bugger was on prescribed medications and stuff, and that mixed with a little bit of booze, that’s what did it. Then we found out later obviously, he wasn’t doing too well the whole time.”
“There were times on stage where I felt like, ‘This is the worst gig I’ve ever been at in my life.’ It was horrible sometimes, to feel like that. I loved the guy, I loved the music. It was like, ‘Why is this happening right now?'” He mentioned there would be in ear monitor problems, and that the internet only heightened awareness of the poor performances.
He also looked back at Weiland’s last day alive. “He liked the bus. He wanted to stay on the bus all the time. He didn’t want to go to hotels on the days off, he just wanted to stay on the bus.” He said the band and crew went to the Mall of America, while Weiland stayed on the bus like he frequently did. Maybury said he had a day room at the hotel, and he put Blaster on as he showered. He then was getting an Uber ride to go get a bite to eat, and he saw police cars surrounding the tour bus, and he initially feared it might be a drug bust, or that it even could just be an interrogation.
He got a text from the tour manager telling everyone to get back to the bus. The production manager then told him that Scott had died on the bus. “From then on, I was just blank. Numbness, shock, trauma, tears, emotions, the whole thing. Having to talk to the cops, being in an emotional state, was just rough.” He added, “I never saw Scott do any drugs. It’s obvious now, we all know that he was. He obviously wasn’t doing it in front of everyone. I never saw him doing any drugs, so I figured, okay, as long as he can do the gig and keep it together, I guess it’s not a problem. I’d see him drinking a lot, we all knew he was drinking, and on the prescription stuff too. We knew that was a terrible mix to start with already.”
He also said, “It’s on a level of Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Jimi Hendrix. That’s not the kind of thing I want to be around, but that’s the reality of the disease of addiction and substance abuse, what it can do to people. I encourage people to get help for their problems.”
