WHAT DO YOU MEAN “USED TO TAKE DRUGS,” SCOTTY?

March 16th, 2010 at 10:00am
Axl Rosenberg

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WHAT DO YOU MEAN “USED TO TAKE DRUGS,” SCOTTY? Some Stone Temple Pilots fansite has eighteen seconds of that band’s new single, “Between the Lines,” and what immediately jumped out at me about the clip – besides the fact that I can already tell Vince and I are not agree on whether or not this song blows – is that Scott Weiland sings the line “…when we used to take drugs.” That made me wonder if the titular lines aren’t just subtext (as is usually the case with the expression “read between the lines”) but lines of cocaine, but mostly it made me wonder why the hell Scott Weiland is still trying to convince people that he doesn’t take drugs anymore.

Maybe I’m being unfair. I haven’t seen Weiland perform since the summer of 2008, and a lot can happen in two years. But at that show, the dude was such in terrible shape that I predicted he was on the way out. It wasn’t embarrassing enough that the guy made the crowd wait almost two hours after the support act, Filter, was done playing their set; or that he couldn’t stay on key to save his life; no, mostly it was just horrifying to watch him spend an entire song trying to remove his coat. When you’re so fucked up that taking your jacket off* becomes a Herculean task, it might be time to make sure your will is in order.

But, hey, fuck do I know? Maybe Weiland finally has it together this time. Maybe the lady dothn’t protest too much. Right?

STP’s new, self-titled album comes out May 25 on Atlantic.

-AR

*Huh-huh, he said “jacket off.”

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