Weeks after Scott Weiland's death, his friends, family members and former bandmates are left with the impossible task of making sense out of a senseless loss.

Rolling Stone spoke with Weiland's wife at the time of his death, Jamie, as well as Stone Temple Pilots members Eric Kretz and Dean and Robert DeLeo, and the picture that emerges is one of a man whose dangerous compulsions overpowered his loved ones' countless attempts to save him — and who was dealt a tremendous emotional blow with the death of his guitarist, Jeremy Brown, earlier this year.

Weiland's former manager, Lucas Keller, described the singer as looking "like a ghost" at Brown's funeral, and tried to explain the tangled mixture of personal and professional difficulties dealt by Brown's sudden passing on the eve of an album release. "He's inspired, making a new record and the guitar player dies. It was a lot of stuff at once," said Keller. "This was his best friend. And then we had to have the conversation afterward – where do we go next?"

Brown's death left Weiland "completely destroyed" according to Jamie, who recalled daily conversations about him and added, "He always had tears in his eyes."

For the surviving members of Stone Temple Pilots, who moved on for a period with Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington after parting ways for the final time with Weiland in 2013, the sadness surrounding their former frontman's passing is compounded by the fact that they saw it coming for years, and were powerless to prevent it. "He was so tenacious in his lust for life in the early years," Kretz recalled. "I really hoped he would come back — and have a second chance."

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