Despite Social Anxiety, Scott Weiland Rocks On

Rock star Scott Weiland doesn’t let social anxiety keep him out of the limelight. The front man for the Grammy-winning Stone Temple Pilots speaks openly about his social anxiety. He is uncomfortable with crowds, and even crowded rooms full of people he knows well. Weiland uses a variety of tactics to deal with his anxiety.

Fortunately for Weiland, he has no problem performing in front of thousands of screaming fans. “When I’m onstage, I’m a performance artist,” he says. This eases his anxiety because people aren’t staring at “him” – they are staring at a rock star. It’s not personal. However, he still has social anxiety in other situations. “I don’t like going to places where there are a lot of people, like Disneyland,” he said in a recent interview.

His career as a flamboyant vocalist hasn’t suffered. Weiland is listed as #57 on the Hit Parade list of heavy metal’s all-time best vocalists.

Social anxiety has been a major factor in Weiland’s life for decades, since his time with Velvet Revolver. He recalls being in his favorite bar, where he knew everyone, and suffering with the uncomfortable feeling that people were staring at him. Eventually, Weiland self-medicated for his anxiety – with heroin. Suddenly, the paralyzing fright was over. When he was high, Weiland didn’t care who was staring at him. The drug addiction created new problems, and eventually Weiland kicked the habit.

When he got off heroin in 2002, Weiland’s social anxiety returned with a vengeance. Touring was unending misery, because he was packed into a bus with his band mates 24/7. There was no way to escape and be alone, even for a few minutes.

Through a lot of hard work, Weiland developed strategies to address his anxieties without heroin. He doesn’t even share the same studio as the rest of the band. For their most recent album, Stone Temple Pilots, the band recorded the master tracks in the studio. Weiland took the files to his own studio, and added the vocals. This allowed him to be in his own “comfort zone.”

Now when the band tours, they travel separately. Some tour members fly, so they aren’t cooped up together all day, every day. This gives Weiland alone time to rest and recharge, and allows the band to tour longer. That will come in handy this summer, when the band plays concerts in Winnipeg, Denver, Chicago, Boston and Tempe, Arizona.

By Joni Holderman, [email protected], contributing reporter for Mental Health News.