Back in 1999, Filter’s Richard Patrick was on an alcohol-fueled ride to hell.
Around the time he was putting the finishing touches on Filter’s “Title of Record” album, Patrick caused turbulence on an airline flight by drunkenly stripping off his clothes and wrestling with flight attendants. Jotting down his feelings about the stunt resulted in “Take a Picture,” the unusually melodic song that completed the CD and, ironically,became the otherwise industrial postgrunge act’s biggest hit to date.
“That song was a massive cry for help,” the Needham-born Patrick said from South Carolina a day after Filter’s first official gig in six years. “And it ended up making me a million dollars. Life gives you lemons and you make lemonade.”
Now Filter is heading to the Tweeter Center in Mansfield on Sunday, when the band will play WBCN [website]’s River Rave on a bill that includes the reunited StoneTemple Pilots, Everlast and Pennywise.
Patrick began to straighten himself out in fall 2002, when he scrubbed Filter’s tour plans and checked himself into rehab. The decision saved his life, but it put his band on hold. Attempting a return to work immediately after getting out of rehab, the newly sober Patrick felt out of step with his colleagues. He bought time by releasing a collection of songs written with brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots under the name Army of Anyone. But Patrick knew he had unfinished business.
cw2 “I’m back doing Filter because I love it,” he said. “I repeatedly turned my back on this project when it was huge, and it’s taken me five years to see how retarded that was. I couldn’t function well enough to properly promote the CDs (and) had to cancel an entire tour to go to rehab. In general I feel like I owe this to myself, to the band and to the fans. Filter deserves a second chance.”
If Patrick, now 40, sounds determined, that’s because he is. With nearly six years of clean time under his belt, he says getting sober is the best thing that’s ever happened to him. And he feels blessed to have a new son, (Sloan Patrick, born Feb. 23), a solid marriage and a career full of possibilities.
He’s also pleased to be free of his contract with Warner Bros. and to have had complete creative control over Filter’s new self-released CD, “Anthems for the Damned.” What’s more, the lifestyle differences between Patrick and his band mates are officially a thing of the past: The 2008 touring version of Filter is, its leader aside, an all-new unit of guitarist Mitchell Marlow, bassist John Spiker and drummer Mika Fineo.
“I’ve surrounded myself with people that are normal or are in recovery,” Patrick said. “Luckily I haven’t had to fire anyone yet.”
Patrick says that dissolving Army of Anyone was a mutual decision with the DeLeos, who were already hankering to reform Stone Temple Pilots. Vocalist Scott Weiland has since parted ways with Velvet Revolver, leaving STP to launch a full-scale reunion tour.
But while STP fans are delighted, Patrick was surprised by the turn of events. He says the DeLeos were genuinely shocked at his newfound sober professionalism and chose to reunite with Weiland, whose ongoing, messy substance abuse issues have made him a gossip-page regular. Patrick believes it’s a testament to Weiland’s talent that the DeLeos are willing to risk teaming with their former singer again.
“Robert and Dean love a great vocalist, that’s what it boils down to,” Patrick said. “I think it’s really beautiful that they’re giving it another whirl with Scott. And I know how difficult this is for him. Addiction is a deplorable, degrading mental illness and he’s had a rough road.
“On the other hand,” added Patrick, “if there’s a cat around with nine lives, it’s Scotty Weiland. So, God bless him.”
