I was tagged by Claire @ BrizzleLassBooks for The Playlist Shuffle Tag. I’ve never done a tag like this and I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited to do one either! If you haven’t been to Claire’s blog, please go check it out. You’ll find wonderfully written book reviews, music, blog tours, and more. Claire’s also a great friend and I’m glad to know her.
The Rules
Put your music on shuffle and list the first 15 songs to play (no cheating).
Tag 10 others to do it as well.
Here we go…
My Shuffle
Seether – Driven Under
Alice In Chains – Would?
Stone Temple Pilots – Sex Type Thing
Imagine Dragons – Demons
Pearl Jam – Release Me
I want to talk about this one. This is one of my favorite songs of all time by Pearl Jam and I had plans to use it for Music Monday. I went ahead and picked this alternate video below because the song is in the movie and this movie is at the top for me. If you haven’t seen “Out of the Furnace” yet, you might want to check it out. It is a violent and emotional movie, but great.
Fall to Pieces by Mary Forsberg Weiland is an insightful memoir about Mary and her struggle with mental illness, drug use, and her relationship with Scott Weiland, former singer of Stone Temple Pilots.
My entire life I’ve loved music and my teen years in the 90’s was where music became a necessity for everyday life as I experienced similar issues to what Mary had, although no where near as extreme. Stone Temple Pilots was one of my favorites and Scott remained a favorite singer of mine in STP, Velvet Revolver and even his solo albums. When he passed away in 2015 I was shocked. Another great artist was gone and the horrible comments and accusations about him as a person began. People would call him a junkie, loser, abuser, and careless to name few. These words from people who were obviously not fans and those who don’t understand addiction and mental disease. They also don’t know what Scott experienced in his life. After reading Scott’s book, I wanted to see what Mary had to say.
Firstly, this book has much more content than Scott’s Not Dead and Not for Sale. It won’t highlight everything about Scott, but covers Mary and Scott’s relationship from the beginning until their divorce. Mary starts by discussing her early family life and emancipation at 17 which leads into her modeling career. She talks about her struggle with addiction long before her relationship with Scott started.
Mary obviously loved Scott, but it seemed like their relationship was doomed from the beginning. Scott was heavy into drugs and Mary knew it. They both had issues from the past and despite their mental illnesses, they got married and had kids. Up and down and all around is the best way to describe their journey together. It’s sad at times and at one point Mary pulls a Bernadine from “Waiting to Exhale” on Scott’s wardrobe. There’s a lot here you’ll never know if you don’t read the book. It contains journal entries, photos, and a lot of personal information. I learned about friendships that Mary had with other models, actors and celebrities that I never knew about. Her bi-polar episodes did’t really appear until the last quarter of the book.
What’s sad is that Scott couldn’t straighten up despite Mary’s persistence. Obviously, it’s what she wanted for herself and the kids, but she had her own demons to deal with and it’s sad the kids don’t have their dad to grow up with. I suppose having kids in this relationship was a bad idea, but I love Mary’s “no regrets” attitude. His kids are teens themselves now.
I enjoyed the writing style and the story told in chronological order. It’s an easy fast paced read that’s written well. If you want to know more about Mary and Scott, read it. You won’t be sorry…
When I think of Stone Temple Pilots my most strongest feelings and memories go back to 1992 when they were just getting huge with the new band and I was bickering through my teen years. The album Core takes me back to summer of ’93 and 94′ when I could lay out on the beach of Lake Michigan without a care in the world listening to all my favorite music including STP, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and many more. I can still remember learning to play “Plush” for the very first time on my guitar. Those were the days…
I personally gained interest in Scott Weiland in the very beginning with Stone Temple Pilot’s release of Core, their first album, in the early 1990’s.
