Filter frontman Richard Patrick pleaded with the late Scott Weiland to get clean and sober earlier this year following Weiland’s terrible performance in Corpus Christi, and he has now posted a Facebook message sharing his thoughts on his method of reaching out via the media now that Weiland has died:
I’m sorry Scott. You know.. I was trying to help.. You were mad at me when I went public with my comments on your addiction.. and pissed you off just to get you to hear.. I figured if I lost a friend in order to help him it was worth the risk.. I figured if the shoe were on the other foot.. maybe one day you could hit me back somehow if I went out. People think it was lame or a publicity stunt but all I wanted was for you to hear me, if not all of us.. Bless you Scott. I will learn from your mistakes. I will be sober because of you.. Your death won’t be in vain.. Whenever I feel the temptation to use I will say too myself…
For Scott, not today.
-RP
Patrick criticized Weiland back in April, calling his fans enablers. “The amount of shit that [the fans] give the band for trying to have a normal life [with a new singer]… When the crowd, especially [for] STP, is the biggest enabler for Scott — when they’re shitting all over Chester, when they’re shitting all over me for being in Army of Anyone, when they’re shitting all over these people that try and just…. You know, the band — Robert, Dean… — and [the fans are] just sticking up for Scott, and they have no idea of [what is going on] behind the scenes. And it’s actually… They’re pushing him into his death, because they’re making him believe that, ‘Whatever I did is acceptable. And I can be as high as I want. And I can do as much drugs as I want.’”
Patrick also talked about Weiland’s addiction, saying he loves him and wants him to get sober. “We all want Scott to be Scott, but Scott’s not even really Scott. I love him, but he’s transformed into a very different person. Bless his heart, and I hope he gets sober and everything. But I was in Army of Anyone for years working on that record and producing it, and I heard a lot of stuff [about what it was like being in a band with Scott].”
Weiland said in June that Patrick making these comments was a ‘douchebag maneuver.’ He told the Phoenix New Times, “I wouldn’t say anything if I ran into him. He did that for whatever reason, I have no idea. He doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know my situation. For him to go on there and for him to comment about me was a kind of a douchebag maneuver.”
