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The family pilots his fun these days

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Scott Weiland has spent more than half of his 37 years as a quintessential rock-band frontman. From his Orange County punk days through a hit-making stint with Stone Temple Pilots and then on to his current super group, the STP- and Guns N’ Roses-derived Velvet Revolver, Weiland has bludgeoned a broad swath through the alt-rock landscape.

There were some who thought the once hard-living singer might not survive the journey. But Weiland has emerged from those days with a renewed passion for his marriage, family and career. And once VR returns from a world tour in support of its “Contraband” album, the Toluca Lake resident figures it will be time for a little R&R; -- and that doesn’t always mean rock ‘n’ roll.

Water’s edge

On Friday, we like to plan something we can do as a whole family. We used to have a nanny, but we ended up getting aggravated by the whole experience, and we really wanted to raise our children ourselves and do things with them. Mary and I have two kids, a 4-year-old son, Noah, and a 2 1/2 -year-old daughter named Lucy. We like to go down to the Santa Monica Pier and just hang out, eat, go on a few rides, play a few games. It’s like going to Disneyland, but it’s got such a neat history, and it’s one of the last standing landmarks in Southern California.

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Afterward, we can spend the night at a hotel nearby like Shutters and or someplace in Malibu and make it feel like some real “away” time. It makes us feel young again.

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Weather matters

On Saturday, we might get up early and take the kids to the snow. My parents live in Colorado, and we love it whenever we go there and play around in it, but taking them to the local mountains here is such an easy thing to do. It’s like going to another whole world.

Or if the weather is hot, we’ll go to the beach and surf and maybe stay over at a friend’s house for dinner. But L.A. is full of such fabulous restaurants, so we’d probably go out. Food really interests me. That’s one thing about getting your life cleaned up -- you put down the spoon, and you pick up a fork.

I like Cha Cha Cha [in L.A. and Encino] for the Latin/Caribbean food, and there’s a great Italian place off PCH in Santa Monica Canyon called Giorgio Baldi. Ita-Cho on Beverly has traditional country Japanese food, and Katsu-ya on Ventura Boulevard has very good sushi for about a fifth the price of other places.

And after dinner, that would be about it on a Saturday. My wife and I used to be real night people back in the day, but obviously that’s changed a lot.

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Devoted to family

On Sunday, the brunch at the Four Seasons is one of our favorite places. After that, we’d just stick around home. We used to hang out around L.A. or Hollywood, and we swore that we’d never move “over the hill.” But Toluca Lake is much nicer for families. It’s a nice slice of Americana, and it’s perfect for us.

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Music is everything as far as my creative forces go, but my family is my life, and that’s where the love comes from. As I slipped further into darkness, I lost my ability to create. But now it’s my family’s love that has allowed me to write music again.

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-- Mark Sachs

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