‘Fall to Pieces’ a raw, emotional rock memoir

  To say rock 'n' roll is a wild lifestyle is probably the understatement of all time. It is survival of the fittest and it has been the downfall of a great many people who thought they were strong.
  Looking at petite and delicately beautiful Mary Forsberg Weiland, one never would imagine that she would be able to come through the fire that is rock 'n' roll and live to tell about it, but she did survive. In her book, “Fall to Pieces: A Memoir of Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll and Mental Illness,” she gives testimony to a dangerous life in the fast lane and how she found an exit ramp just in time to save herself and her family from destruction.
  To the outside world, Mary seemed to have had a charmed life. Despite a rocky childhood, Mary was a successful model who was discovered in her hometown of San Diego, and she rose to be one of the top international models in her teens and early 20s.
  She married her longtime boyfriend, the famed lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots and, later, Velvet Revolver, Scott Weiland, in 2000 and they had two children together. Life seemed good.
  But underneath all the glamour and glitz, Mary struggled with mental illness, alcoholism and a drug addiction to cocaine and heroin so severe that she often was incapacitated for days by depression, or raged at the world in fierce fits of temper. Scott was an addict as well, and the couple swung from rehab facility to rehab facility desperately seeking the answers to their problems for years.
  In this raw, emotional memoir, Mary recounts her incredible adventures and tragedies with a frankness and sometimes even a touch of humor that is astounding for someone who has been through all that she has. To have the ability to look back at past mistakes is a brave step, and though she still struggles with her recovery as well as her diagnosis of bipolar disorder, Mary Weiland has proven she is tough enough to have survived what life has thrown her way. 
  NOTE: As the wife of a musician myself, I first picked up this book out of curiosity as to what this “sister of the road” would have to say about the unusual lifestyle. I knew she had had a rough time, as was evident from the title of the book. (“Fall to Pieces” is taken from a Velvet Revolver song that is based on an incident in which Mary was witness to Scott overdosing in a nightclub.) What I found was the story of a valiant young woman who is determined to right a lot of wrongs. I, for one, hope that Mary Weiland is successful at piecing her life back together, for her sake and for the sake of her two children. Stay strong, Mary.