Scott Weiland’s family pens candid letter: ‘Don’t glorify this tragedy’

As Scott Weiland’s final days are being pieced together, his ex-wife, Mary Forsberg Weiland, penned an open letter for Rolling Stone with help from the two teenage children -- Noah, 15, and Lucy, 13 -- she had with the performer.

With eulogies continuing to arrive in the wake of Weiland’s death, the ex-wife of the former Stone Temple Pilots lead singer is providing a glimpse of the tough reality of the rock star’s long struggles with addiction.

Although the official cause of death for the 48-year-old rocker has yet to be established, police reported finding cocaine in his tour bus, where he was found dead Thursday before a show in Minnesota.

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A member of his band, the Wildabouts, was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance that police identified as cocaine. In a sad twist, in March, the band’s guitarist, Jeremy Brown, died from multiple-drug intoxication the day before the group released its debut album, “Blaster.�

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Scott Weiland, center, at the Huntington in San Marino with his Stone Temple Pilot bandmates on May 16, 1994.

  (Ken Lubas / Los Angeles Times )

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Weiland with STP at Verizon Amphitheatre on Sept. 1, 2000.

  (Kevin P. Casey / Los Angeles Times)

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Stone Temple Pilots in May 1996.

  (Michael Edwards / Los Angeles Times )

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Scott Weiland appears in a Pasadena courtroom in 1995. The band member was facing arraignment on charges of possessing cocaine and heroin.

  (Kevork Djansezian / Associated Press)

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Scott Weiland performs in L.A. after getting out of drug rehab in 1996.

  (Paul Morse / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Weiland, lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, promotes his solo album “12 Bar Blues� in 1998.

  (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Weiland at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim in 2001.

  (Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Weiland, lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, in Anaheim in 2001.

  (Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Weiland with Stone Temple Pilots during the first night of the group’s tour after Weiland’s drug rehab in 1996.

  (Paul Morse / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Weiland performs during a Stone Temple Pilots reunion concert in Columbus, Ohio, in May 2008.

  (Paul Vernon / Associated Press)

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Weiland at the KROQ Acoustical Christmas on Dec. 6, 1997 at Universal Amphitheatre.

  (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

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Slash, left, Scott Weiland, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner (kneeling) of Velvet Revolver in 2004.

  (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Weiland arrives at the premiere of “Hulk� on June 17, 2003, at Universal City.

  (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

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Weiland at Edison International Field for the KROQ Weenie Roast in 2000.

  (Kevin P. Casey / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Weiland spends a day at the Santa Monica Pier with daughter Lucy, 2, son Noah, 4, and wife Mary in 2005.

  (Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Weiland performs with Velvet Revolver at the 944 Magazine Super Bowl party in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Feb. 2, 2008.

  (Matt Sayles / Associated Press)

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Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots at Showbiz Studios in Van Nuys in 2008.

  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Scott Weiland at KROQ’s Weenie Roast at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine in June 2001.

  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

The letter is a poignant reminder that beyond the headlines of a rock star flying off the rails, Weiland was a father stricken by addiction, and although he ultimately lost his life to his disease -- his children lost him long ago.

“We don’t want to downplay Scott’s amazing talent, presence or his ability to light up any stage with brilliant electricity. So many people have been gracious enough to praise his gift. The music is here to stay. But at some point, someone needs to step up and point out that, yes, this will happen again -- because as a society we almost encourage it,� the letter reads. “We read awful show reviews, watch videos of artists falling down, unable to recall their lyrics streaming on a teleprompter just a few feet away. And then we click “add to cart� because what actually belongs in a hospital is now considered art.�

The letter painstakingly details Mary’s efforts to try to help Weiland after they split, sobering him up enough to drop him into the audience at their kids’ talent shows and musicals.

“Those short encounters were my attempts at giving the kids a feeling of normalcy with their dad. But anything longer would often turn into something scary and uncomfortable for them,� she wrote, revealing that it pained her to gloss over so much grief and struggle when writing her 2009 memoir, “Fall to Pieces.�

There is also the stinging revelation that when Weiland remarried, “the children were replaced,� not being invited to his wedding or ever setting foot into his house. The letter ends with a plea to mourn Weiland, the person, and not memorialize the scandal-plagued rock star.

“Let’s choose to make this the first time we don’t glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don’t have to come with it. Skip the depressing T-shirt with 1967-2015 on it -- use the money to take a kid to a ballgame or out for ice cream.�

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