Not Dead & Not for Sale

A Memoir

Scott Weiland, David Ritz

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439199978
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

In the early 1990s, Stone Temple Pilots—not U2, not Nirvana, not Pearl Jam— was the hottest band in the world. STP toppled such mega-bands as Aerosmith and Guns N’ Roses on MTV and the Billboard charts. Lead singer Scott Weiland became an iconic front man in the tradition of Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Robert Plant.

Then, when STP imploded, it was Weiland who emerged as the emblem of rock star excess, with his well-publicized drug busts and trips to rehab. Weiland has since made a series of stunning comebacks, fronting the supergroup Velvet Revolver, releasing solo work, and, most recently, reuniting with Stone Temple Pilots. He still struggles with the bottle, but he has prevailed as a loving, dedicated father, as well as a business-savvy artist whose well of creativity is far from empty.

These earthling papers explore Weiland’s early years as an altar boy right along with his first experiences with sex and drugs. Weiland discusses his complex relationships with his parents, stepfather, siblings, and the love of his life, Mary Forsberg Weiland. Readers learn the fascinating stories behind his most well-known songs and what it was like to be there at the beginning of the grunge phenomenon, as Rolling Stone proclaimed on its cover: “the year punk broke.” Not Dead & Not for Sale is a hard rock memoir to be reckoned with—a passionate, insightful, and at times humorous book that reads with extraordinary narrative force.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Prelude to the Prelude
• Prelude
• A Tale of Two Fathers
• A Tale of Two States
• “Trippin’ as I’m Thinkin’”
• Former Movie Star Ronald Reagan is President of the United States
• What the Fuck Does “Soi–Disant” Mean?
• The Tale of the Pork Chop
• New Kid in Town
• Art School Girl
• High as the Sun
• Summer of Mary
• Summer of Music
• “I See that These are Lies to Come”
• Winter of our Discontent
• Summer Kiss
• Purple Wounds They Ease the Pain
• “What’s Real? What’s for Sale?”
• “Breathing is the Hardest Thing”
• “Confusion Is My Illusion”
• “I’m a Selfish Piece of Shit”
• “Wanna Make a Rock Record?”
• “The Painted Clown”
• “Falling Further with a Flaming Hand”
• Positive Soul Regeneration
• Noah
• The Devil’s in the Sun
• Lucy
• I Was Back Out There
• Wind and Rock
• “Journal of Memories, Feelling Lonely Can’t Breathe”
• Tenacity
• “I Wanna Know Why You Have To Go”
• The Day We Lost Our Lives
• The Smoking Gun
• Parisian Nightmare
• Shoes of a Dark Clown
• Cleaning Jimmy Choos with Holy Water
• Acknowledgments
• About Scott Weiland and David Ritz
• Copyright