Though his past is plagued with substance-fueled meltdowns, Scantlin is ready to stay clean and move on.
Wes Scantlin, the lead singer of the band Puddle of Mudd, is celebrating 11 months sober following his public struggle with substance abuse.
“The last year has been… Getting out of incarceration and then going to CRI-Help in Burbank, California, in North Hollywood, that was awesome — it was really great,” Scantlin said in an interview with Rock Titan. “I’m 11 months sober now almost to the day, and I feel great. And we’re just playing shows and rocking.”
Prior to these clean 11 months, Scantlin was raising all kinds of trouble with the law. Last September he was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for trying to bring on board a BB gun, resulting in being banned from LAX unless he absolutely had to travel for work. In January of 2016 he was arrested for allegedly breaking into a house he used to live in and vandalizing it. Compounding his legal troubles, he managed to miss court dates for both of these incidents.
Scantlin also had a drug- and alcohol- fueled meltdown on stage during a March 2016 concert in England. In a video of the event, Scantlin can be seen sitting on a wooden chair shirtless and flicking off his band mates as they abandoned him on stage. He rambled into the microphone as the crowd, growing increasingly annoyed with his antics, yelled expletives at him. Eventually, someone cut off his microphone but the damage had been done. These meltdowns, which reportedly included the singer taking swigs of liquor from a bottle and bragging about being high on cocaine, were a regular feature of Puddle of Mudd shows during that year, enraging fans and provoking a crowd in Ohio into booing the band off the stage. In Versailles, he was so intoxicated they forced him to sit down and lip sync most of the show.
In 2015, Scantlin was arrested six separate times, including one incident where he led sheriff deputies in Minnesota on a high speed car chase with speeds reaching 100 miles per hour before he was arrested for DUI. The breath test revealed a blood alcohol level over four times the legal limit.
But now that he’s clean, he reflects on where the idea of being a rock star came from.
“I saw Van Halen in 1984, on the ‘Jump’ tour, and I was, like, ‘I wanna do that,’” he said. “But you don’t see all the other stuff that goes with it. So I’ve learned to deal with it. And I’ve got a great family, and they’ve been behind me and supportive the whole time. And all the fans are all supportive. It’s good to stop doing something that’s killing you.”
