CBR Book#11: Fall to Pieces: A Memoir of Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, and Mental Illness by Mary Forsberg Weiland with Larkin Warren

Stone Temple Pilots was my favorite band for the longest time. Scott Weiland, the lead singer, was really attractive and I loved the lyrics, hard guitars, and sound of the band. I saw Stone Temple Pilots in December of 1996. It was my first concert and it was after Weiland's run-ins with the law and various drugs. This book was written by Weiland's ex-wife, mother of his children, and (former) partner in crime.



Mary Forsberg was born to parents who married too young and procreated too young as well. Her parents divorced, remarried, and then divorced for a final time. Forsberg moved from place to place at the whim of her parents' relationship woes, causing her to become the new girl at one school after another. Her painful shyness, lack of money, and inability to find a reason to put herself into stressful situations led to her spending most of her time in bed, attempting to block out the world.

Eventually Mary turns to drugs to relax her and help her to interact with the people around her. In another attempt to find relaxation in social situations, Mary enrolls in Barbizon modeling academy, starting her career as a model. Her work takes her to Los Angeles where, as a 16 year old model, she meets Scott Weiland, who is twenty-three. At this point it becomes apparent that Mary is so obsessed with Scott that even Bella Swan would throw a "bitch, please" her way. The rest of the book follows the unrelenting co-dependency that the two create with each other and the drug habits and bi-polar disorder that further enmesh their being into one person.

The book was a quick read and somewhat interesting. The feelings that Forsberg (or is it Warren?) is able to so eloquently share give a lot of insight to the thought processes of her addictions, both to drugs and to a man, and with bi-polar disorder. There are also stories about drug binges, the time she spent as 'the other woman' to Scott's first marriage, and her attempts to stay sober as her husband relapses and her marriage implodes. From there, we have a lot of analytical medical talk and programs that both Mary and Scott entered and usually dropped out of. All in all, not a horrible read and probably one that would speak to those who struggle with addictions but not those looking for a lot of dirt on a serial backslider such as Weiland.