Scott Weiland’s Ex-Wife Writes Emotional Open Letter: ‘Don’t Glorify This Tragedy’

Scott Weiland’s ex-wife Mary Forsberg Weiland has written an emotional open letter on behalf of her two children with the late Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver singer. She recalls Weiland’s battles with mental illness and substance abuse and his coinciding struggles and absence as a father.

“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,” she writes for Rolling Stone.

Weiland and Forsberg have two children together, Noah and Lucy, who are 15 and 13, respectively. The couple divorced in 2007. Following their split, Forsberg says Weiland largely disappeared from his children’s lives, and, consequently, they lost their father long before his death:

Decemeber 3rd, 2015 is not the day Scott Weiland died. It is the official day the public will use to mourn him… The outpouring of condolences and prayers offered to our children, Noah and Lucy, has been overwhelming, appreciated and even comforting. But the truth is, like so many other kids, they lost their father years ago. What they truly lost on December 3rd was hope.

She goes on to implore others to view Weiland’s death as a wake-up call rather than requisite of a rock and roll lifestyle:

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. 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.

“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,” she concludes.

Weiland was found dead on his bus on Dec. 3 while on tour with his band the Wildabouts. The cause of death was cardiac rest. It's still unclear whether or not drugs played a role.