Duff McKagan on Scott Weiland's sobriety effort: "Well, it's gonna be a lot of suffering.' And he did it."

From the original interview

“Well, it's gonna be a lot of suffering.' And he did it.”

On the Finding Your Summit podcast with host Mark Pattison, Duff McKagan reflected on Velvet Revolver's early years and on helping singer Scott Weiland attempt sobriety. McKagan captured that moment with the line – "Well, it's gonna be a lot of suffering.' And he did it." – referring to Weiland agreeing to a period of martial-arts training and treatment at a remote camp near Lake Chelan.

That quote sits inside a larger, verifiable account: after forming Velvet Revolver in 2002 with Slash, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner, the group ran an extended singer search and ultimately chose Weiland. According to the interview transcript published by Blabbermouth.net, Weiland was sober during the making of the first album Contraband and the initial tour, but difficulties returned around the second album Libertad, and he was dismissed in April 2008.

The quote and its context

McKagan framed the quoted warning as a realistic appraisal of recovery – a recognition of the hardship involved and of Weiland's initial commitment to trying to get clean. The podcast segment links that effort to the band’s subsequent struggles on the road and to Weiland’s later death in December 2015, which the interview also notes.