Synopses & Reviews
In March 2007, twenty-four hours after Mary Weiland dragged her husband Scott's pricey rock-star wardrobe onto their driveway and torched it, she was locked up in a mental hospital. Watching all this were her frightened extended family, a conflicted husband wrestling with demons of his own, and a tabloid industry gone gleeful at the Bonfire in Toluca Lake
To the outside world, Weiland had led what seemed to be an enviable life. A successful international model in the nineties, she married her longtime sweetheart--famed lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots and, later, Velvet Revolver, Scott Weiland--in 2000. Mary was the sane one, went the story--it was the tempestuous, unpredictable Scott who was crazy. In her gripping memoir Fall to Pieces, Mary Weiland reveals that the truth is somewhere in between.
From her earliest days in San Diego, Weiland displayed signs of trouble: a black depression that sometimes left her immobile for days, a temper that sent her into wild rages she didn't understand, an overdose. But her fierce determination to have more led to early success as a model. At sixteen, she fell in love at first sight with Scott Weiland, then an aspiring musician who was hired to drive her to and from modeling gigs. Slowly, her casual relationship with beer and pot grew into an affair with cocaine and heroin that rivaled her love for Scott, who was addicted as well. From rehab to rehab, from breakup to reconciliation to eventual marriage, the couple fought their way back, welcomed the babies they'd dreamed of, and hoped their struggles were behind them. Then came the bonfire breakdown and the full onset of Mary's bipolar disorder, a widely misunderstood and misdiagnosed mental illness that affects more than five million Americans and had been, in fact, stalking Mary Weiland since her teens.
With refreshing candor, innate comic timing, and earned wisdom, Weiland recounts the extreme highs and lows of her life, including an unforgettable love affair with the man she always knew she'd marry, the careers and rock tours that took them around the world, and her fight to finally come to grips with the addictions that could have killed her. In her journey to understand and manage her bipolar disorder, she takes the reader on a wild ride into the dark and back into the light.
Review
“A brutally honest and compelling account of Mary Weilands struggles with addiction and mental illness. Brave, bold and unfiltered, Marys writing injects humor and levity in a way that is both entertaining and necessary. I have no doubt that this important book will help save many lives.” Dave Navarro
Review
“Mary Weiland describes the depths of madness and addiction with surprising clarity. Fall to Pieces is a wild, gripping story, told with intense emotional honesty.” Terri Cheney, New York Times bestselling author of Manic
Review
“Weilands lively, vernacular memoir tells the sadly wasted but ultimately self-directed tale of her meteoric rise as a model from impoverished, half-Mexican roots to a precipitous plunge into drug addiction....Weilands forthright, resilient can-do spirit injects this sad story with a healthy moral.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“A harrowing story of addiction and mental illness.” People
Review
“For all the death and devastation detailed in its pages, this book is surprisingly funny.” Reuters
Review
“A worthy addition to the rock canon.” New York Post
Review
“Mary Weilands beautifully crafted memoir takes the reader through the journey that is so very common today, the slow drift into addiction and mental illness. Honest, clear, and accurate, Fall to Pieces is perhaps the most vivid rendition of this experience I have ever come across.” Dr. Drew Pinsky, host of Loveline and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, author of The Mirror Effect and Cracked
Synopsis
Fall to Pieces is abeautifully written, visceral, roller coaster ride inside bipolar disorder, rock n roll, celebrity culture, and the world of modeling. Mary Forsberg Weiland, ex-wife of the late Scott Weiland, front man for Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, tells a harrowing true story ofdepression, drug addiction, and mental illness with candor and, often, humor. Co-written withveteran journalist Larkin Warren, Fall to Pieces is a blistering, eye-opening memoir of Hollywood meltdown in the bestselling vein of Tatum O Neal s A Paper Life and Valerie Bertinelli s Losing It.
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Synopsis
On the surface Mary Weiland had a fairy tale life. She was a successful model married to a successful rock star--Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland--and a world traveler with a home and two beautiful children. But it wasn't until her rampage in a Los Angeles hotel room and the resulting media frenzy that the world got a glimpse into Mary's inner turmoil, self-destructive behavior, bipolar disorder, and drug abuse.
In Fall to Pieces, she reveals the extreme highs and lows of her life, the volatilty of which long hinted at her bipolar disorder. Weiland tells her story with refreshing candor, unflinching detail, and more than a little humor. Reminiscent of celebrity memoirs from Tatum O'Neill, Brooke Shields and Valerie Bertinelli, Weiland offers a window into the world of modeling and rock'n'roll celebrity while at the same time providing deep insights into a serious and misunderstood mental illness.
Co-written with veteran journalist Larkin Warren, Fall to Pieces is a blistering, eye-opening memoir of Hollywood meltdown.
--Dave Navarro
Synopsis
In March 2007, twenty-four hours after Mary Weiland dragged her husband Scott’s pricey rock-star wardrobe onto their driveway and torched it, she was arrested and locked up in a mental hospital.
To the outside world, Weiland had led what seemed to be an enviable life. A successful international model in the nineties, she married her longtime sweetheart, Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, in 2000. Mary was the sane one, went the story; it was the tempestuous, unpredictable Scott who was crazy. But the truth was somewhere in between.
With refreshing candor, innate comic timing, and earned wisdom, Weiland chronicles her quest to come to grips with the addictions that could have killed her, and to understand and manage her bipolar disorder. Fall to Pieces is a wild ride into the dark and back into the light.
Synopsis
In March 2007, twenty-fourhours afterMary Weiland dragged her husbandScotts pricey rock-starwardrobe ontotheir driveway and torched it, she wasarrested and locked up in a mental hospital.
To the outside world, Weiland hadled what seemed to be an enviable life.A successful international model inthe nineties, she married her longtimesweetheart, Scott Weiland of Stone TemplePilots and Velvet Revolver, in 2000. Marywas the sane one, went the story; it wasthe tempestuous, unpredictable Scott whowas crazy. But the truth was somewherein between.
With refreshing candor, innate comictiming, and earned wisdom, Weilandchronicles her quest to come to grips withthe addictions that could have killed her,and to understand and manage her bipolardisorder. Fall to Pieces is a wild ride intothe dark and back into the light.
Synopsis
Fall to Pieces is a beautifully written, visceral, roller coaster ride inside bipolar disorder, rock n roll, celebrity culture, and the world of modeling. Mary Forsberg Weiland, wife of Scott Weiland, front man for Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, tells a harrowing true story of depression, drug addiction, and mental illness with candor and, often, humor. Co-written with veteran journalist Larkin Warren, Fall to Pieces is a blistering, eye-opening memoir of Hollywood meltdown in the bestselling vein of Tatum ONeals A Paper Life and Valerie Bertinellis Losing It.
About the Author
Mary Forsberg Weiland lives with her two children in Los Angeles, where she is studying for her certification in drug and alcohol counseling, with a focus on co-occurring disorders. This is her first book.
A former editor at Esquire, Lear's, and Good Housekeeping magazines, Larkin Warren was a contributing writer to Addiction: Why Can't They Just Stop?, the companion book to HBO's documentary of the same name, and collaborated with Professor Elyn R. Saks on Saks's bestselling memoir, The Center Cannot Hold, which Time magazine named one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007.