Remembering Scott Weiland who passed away 8 years ago today in 2015
The Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman was one of the most 1990’s Rock singers
Remembering Scott Weiland who passed away 8 years ago today in 2015
Scott Richard Weiland was born in San Jose, California on October 27th, 1967, he was one of the most recognizable voices in Rock music over the last 30 years, together with Stone Temple Pilots, Weiland did some of the most defining and influential Rock songs of the 1990’s. in 1986 Weiland formed formed Stone Temple Pilots with bassist Robert DeLeo and his brother Dean DeLeo. The band came to prominence during the early 1990’s labeled as Grunge, all though they were not part of the Seattle scene. Stone Temple Pilots released their first album “Core” in 1992 which was highly acclaimed by the critic and became a worldwide best seller launching the band as one of the most important in the Alternative Rock scene of the 1990’s. “Core” included the hits “Sex Type Thing”, “Wicked Garden”, “Creep” and “Plush”. In 1994 they release “Purple”, also a successful record in which the band expanded their musical style, including much more diversified compositions and established their distinctive signature sound that differentiate them from other bands labeled as Grunge. “Purple” featured the hit songs “Big Empty”, “Vasoline” and “Interstate Love Song”. Throughout his career, Weiland formed many side projects and bands, starting with The Magnificent Bastards in 1995. During this period, Weiland started to develop a critical drug addiction, much talked in the media, this was the beginning of the tensions between Scott and the rest of the band. In 1996 their third album “Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop” didn’t reflected the same sales success of their previous two albums, and while the band had developed their own sound and style, many people still regarded them as Grunge, which was a style that by the mid to late 1990’s was commercially fading. Still the album generated some hits for the band such as “Big Bang Baby” and “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart”. Scott went on to dedicate some time to his solo projects and in 1999, Stone Temple Pilots regrouped and released “No. 4. “. The album contained the hit single “Sour Girl”, but the increasing drug problems with Weiland made it difficult for the band to go consistently on tour to promote it, during this time period Weiland spent five months in jail for drug possession. In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of The Doors. Weiland did vocals on two Doors songs, “Break On Through (To the Other Side)” and “Five to One”. That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on The Doors tribute CD, “Stoned Immaculate” with their own rendition of “Break on Through” as the lead track.On June 19, 2001, they released their fifth album, “Shangri-La Dee Da” that generated a minor hit “Days Of The Week”.
That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. In late 2002, the band broke up with the DeLeo brothers and Weiland having had significant altercations back stage. In 2002, former Guns N’ Roses members – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner formed Velvet Revolver together with Scott on vocals, the band was commercially successful and begun a new phase on Weiland’s career, during his period with Velvet Revolver he scored hits such as “Slither” and “Fall To Pieces”. Scott won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005 with Velvet Revolver, an award he had won previously with Stone Temple Pilots for the song “Plush” in 1994. In 2007 he was approached by Dean DeLeo his former Stone Temple Pilots bandmate to reform the band, for a while Scott tried to work in both bands simultaneously, releasing in 2010 a new album with Stone Temple Pilots, self-titled “Stone Temple Pilots” that included the moderate hit “Between The Lines”, but by 2012 Velvet Revolver disbanded and relations with Stone Temple Pilots started again to deteriorate; in 2013 it was announced he had been dismissed from the band. Scott went on to form his own band The Wildabouts, that regarding commercial success and popularity were a far cry away from Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver. In 2015, The Wildabouts guitarist Jeremy Brown died of a drug overdose one day before their debut album is released, while Weiland still struggles with addiction despite claiming he’s drug free. During that period, some videos of his performances with The Wildabouts surface on the Internet showing a visibly intoxicated Weiland on stage having problem controlling his vocals. On December 3, 2015, Weiland was found dead on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota, while on tour with The Wildabouts at age 48. The medical examiner later determined it to be an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and MDA; the examiner’s office also noted his atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, history of asthma, and prolonged substance abuse in its report. On the Smashing Pumpkins’ website, Billy Corgan praised Weiland, saying “And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I’d say it were he, Layne, and Kurt.”
Look back at Scott Weiland’s life in photos
Watch Scott Weiland performing live with Stone Temple Pilots, Chicago 2010
Watch Scott Weiland’s very last interview on December 2nd, 2015 just one day before he passed
Also watch Stone Temple Pilots TV Performances 1993-1996
Listen to some of the most memorable Stone Temple Pilots songs with Scott Weiland compiled by Pop Expresso on Spotify
*This article was originally published by Pop Expresso on October 2017 for Scott Weiland’s birthday
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