Noah Weiland, the 23-year-old son of late Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland, is opening up about his relationship with his father and the misconceptions about his upbringing.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Noah says, “I’m not a trust fund baby or anything like that,” and that he barely saw his dad after he divorced his mother.
“I always get annoyed when people say that type of stuff,” he shares. “My dad was millions in debt when he died. My mom has always worked a normal job. And truthfully, even if my dad’s estate ever does get out of debt, I don’t even want that money. I want to make a career out of myself as much as possible.”
Like his father, Noah’s career is music. Also like his father, the dissolution of a major musical project was blamed on his drug use.
Noah had been in a band with London Hudson and Tye Trujillo, the sons of Guns N’ Roses‘ Slash and Metallica‘s Robert Trujillo, respectively, called Suspect208. However, he was soon let go from the group, which his former bandmates said was due to his drug addiction.
While Noah maintains that he “wasn’t necessarily an addict at that time,” he was using opioids, which then became an addiction after his firing from Suspect208.
Now, Weiland says he’s clean from opioids, and is making music under his own name, which he describes as “gritty alternative pop” as opposed the hard rock and grunge his father was known for. He adds that his experience with drug use allowed him to “finally understand [Scott’s] situation.”
“It made me realize it wasn’t his fault,” Noah says. “He was just in too deep. He had too many demons. They caught up to him. It actually made me forgive him.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.