The Night I Made Scott Weiland O.D.

I had never been to a concert before. As I have mentioned in previous writings my parents kept me under wraps for quite a while.
The first concert I tried to go to was Marilyn Manson, during his Anti-Christ Superstar tour. I had my parents convinced that he was a country-folksy musician, and then the local media got the word out to the conservative populus, that he was in fact the Antichrist and he would be visiting to take the souls of teenagers in the area, and offer them to Beelzebub. So after that little fiasco, my parents were so pissed that I tried to pull one off on them, that they said I could never go to a concert while I lived under their roof.

Bush and NoDoubt came and went and I missed the show, all my friends went, and I stayed home watched TV and pouted.

My dad felt bad about the whole deal, so later that year when I asked him if I could go to see Stone Temple Pilots he considered it, then I told him that Cheap Trick was opening up for them, he agreed. He knew that Cheap Trick would more than likely not tour with Satans Magical Mystery Tour and my soul would be in no jeopardy.

I bought my ticket, and rode to Amarillo with a couple of my friends from Muleshoe, Darren and Damon. To be honest, I was not the biggest STP fan, I just wanted to go to a concert so bad, to see what I had been missing out on, I would have gone to see Simon and Garfunkel.

We got to the venue late; I remember as I entered the general admission floor seating Cheap Trick was finishing their set. The level of sound that was emitted by these guys amazed me. Everything sounds better when its loud, even Cheap Trick.

The smell of marijuana was everywhere. Everybody was getting high, then the lights came on and all the pot disappeared. I remember watching the road crew for the band begins to set up for STP, in anxious anticipation for what was about to happen. The lights went down about 25 minutes later, and the crowd roared, I strained my eyes to see thought the fog of smoke to see the stage, but no one was there. The crowd was still screaming and whistling though and I thought for a second that I was looking in the wrong place, there might have been another stage, and I think I was contact high. As I turned to see if there was another stage I heard
“I am smellin’ like a rose that somebody gave me on my birthday death-bed, I am smellin’ like a rose that somebody gave me cause I’m dead and bloated” screaming from a megaphone. I awaited the guitar crunch that followed, but it never came. Instead the crowd went fucking nuts. I looked to the stage and saw Scott Weiland the lead singer, standing at the top of the set that had just been built, his body engulfed by a spot-light, megaphone in hand. Then I heard:
“I am smellin’ like a rose that somebody gave me on my birthday death-bed, I am smellin’ like a rose that somebody gave me cause I’m dead and bloated again, but this time the guitar came in. As soon as the initial guitar came in the lights on the stage blew the fuck up, now I could see all the members of STP that had apparently been hiding in the dark.
“Wanna go up?” this roided up freak asked.
“What?” I screamed over the music.
The next thing I knew the guy had picked me up and threw me over his shoulders onto the top of the crowd, and I rode it all the way to the front. A security guard grabbed me and said
“One more time and you are outta here.”
“Huh” I asked
“If I see you surfing again you are outta here, I got my eye on you” he screamed.

I had never been kicked out a concert before, hell I had never been to a concert before, but here I was 45 seconds into the start of the whole thing and I was already being threatened with being kicked out, apparently friends would tell me later, I kicked a girl in the face when I was coming down, and it busted up her nose

So I ran around the barricade that was set up to keep the fans away from the band, to the back of the arena. As soon as I got to the back I saw a couple of my friends from Muleshoe.

We stood there for a minute or two in a pointless attempt to carry on a conversation, then Mark McGuire, (no, not the bash brother) one of my buddies from high school took a bouncy ball out his pocket and chunked it towards the stage, I tried to follow the ball, but I lost in the crazy array of lights that were on the stage. Mark took another ball out of his pocket handed it to me. I took the ball and put it in my pocket, I was still scared shitless of the bouncer with no –neck that said he had an eye on me. Needless to say I was a pretty big pussy in high school.

Mark threw another couple of bouncy balls and we tried to follow their path but once again we lost them in the lights. I crowd surfed again, making sure to avoid the bouncer that was keeping tabs on me and wound up close to the front, about 10 feet from the stage.

After a couple of songs the band took a break and I scanned the crowd to look for a familiar face. I saw Mark and he made his way toward me. After about 10 minutes the lights went back down and a stage lowered from the ceiling. The band was on a smaller stage now, and they began to play an acoustic set.

About 3 songs in Mark looked at me and said.
“Let me see that bouncy ball”
So I handed him the bright orange bouncy ball and watched. Mark and I were about 10 feet from the stage. He flung the ball toward the stage and hit Scott Weiland right between the fucking eyes.
“Oh shit,” I muttered “Holy shit dude”
Mark started to laugh, and then the music stopped.

Scott Weiland stopped playing and stood up from his chair and began to scream.
“ I DON’T KNOW WHAT KIND OF PATHETIC FUCKING LIVES YOU LEAD IN AMARILLO FUCKING TEXAS, BUT WHEN YOU GO TO A FUCKING CONCERT YOU DON’T FUCKING THROW SHIT AT THE FUCKING BAND YOU PAID GOOD FUCKING MONEY TO STAGE”
Then I saw Mark, flipping him off.
“YOU MOTHERFUCKER, DOWN THERE MOTHER FUCKER, BACK STAGE MY DICK UP YOUR ASS!”
The security guards tried to grab Mark but in their attempt grabbed the guy right behind us and pulled him onto the stage. The band disappeared back stage and remained there for about ten minutes. The sound of Boo’s filled the auditorium.

When the band came back the booing continued. Each member of the band had their shirts ripped off, and they were winded. The boo’s continued and the band left the stage.

I guess I will never know what happened back stage that night, I assume the guy behind us that got taken back stage got the shit stomped out of him, if you read this and know who that guy is tell him I am sorry.

Later that night Scott Weiland overdosed on heroin and the rest of the tour was cancelled.