Filter frontman Richard Patrick discussed trying to help Scott Weiland quit drugs last year before his tragic death in December in a new interview with The Street.
“Scott was also an addict. People would probably say, ‘Wow, he has everything.’ But he wasn’t happy. He wasn’t at peace with himself. Addiction is a terrible thing.
You have to hit bottom as an addict. I remember getting a voicemail from a friend who’d seen me play in Columbus, Ohio. She said ‘I have one word for you — REHAB.’ A hundred people had told me that before, but for some reason that one voicemail really got to me. And I finally did go to rehab.
With Scott, I was thinking, ‘Maybe if we all just pile on, maybe he’ll finally understand.’ When you’re trying to save someone’s life, you do it by any means necessary. I wanted to do whatever I could to help him. He was falling off stages, and some of the performances… it was obvious that he needed help. And people actually made fun of me for trying to help him.”
He also claimed that people who were around Weiland wanted Patrick to ‘shut up’ when he publicly tried to help him.
“The sad thing about the Internet is, there’s always someone who is going to crap all over you, no matter what you do or say.
I had reached out to Scott, saying ‘Look, I’m just trying to help.’ And I know that message went to him, because some of his people responded to me. Some of the people around him actually called my bandmates, and said things like, ‘Dude, you’re bumming Scott out, tell your boy to shut up.’
And my bandmates told them, ‘Do not enable Scott. Tell Scott to go to rehab. Tell Scott to get his shit together.’ So I got his attention but it still wasn’t enough.”
