Scott Richard Weiland (October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015) was an American singer-songwriter. In 1985, Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California.
After forming in 1989 with Eric Kretz and DeLeo‘s brother Dean under the name Mighty Joe Young, the band signed with Atlantic Records and changed their name to Stone Temple Pilots. In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits (Sex Type Thing, Wicked Garden, Creep and Plush.)
The band’s debut album Core, released in 1992, was a huge commercial success and STP became one of the most successful bands of the 1990s, selling more than 18 million albums in the United States and 40 million abroad.
The band released four more studio albums: Purple (1994), Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (1996), No. 4 (1999) and Shangri-La Dee Da (2001), before breaking up in 2003.
In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of the Doors. Weiland performed 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, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da.
That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. In late 2002, significant backstage altercations between the DeLeo brothers and Weiland precipitated the band’s break-up.
In 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date U.S. tour on April 7 and performed together for the first time since 2002. The reunion tour kicked off at the Rock on the Range festival on May 17, 2008.
According to Dean DeLeo, steps toward a Stone Temple Pilots reunion started with a simple phone call from Weiland‘s wife.
She invited the DeLeo brothers to play at a private beach party, which led to the reconciliation of Weiland and the DeLeo brothers. STP‘s reunion tour was a success, and the band continued to tour throughout 2009 and began recording its sixth studio album.
STP‘s first album since 2001, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on May 25, 2010. STP began to experience problems in 2012 that were said to have been caused by tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band.
On February 27, 2013, shortly before his solo tour was set to commence, Stone Temple Pilots announced on their website that “…they had officially terminated Scott Weiland.”
Scott Weiland – Stone Temple Pilots – Discography
Scott Weiland was the lead vocalist for the band Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008, and recorded two albums with them. Velvet Revolver was an hard rock supergroup consisting of Guns N’ Roses members Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass, backing vocals) and Matt Sorum (drums, backing vocals), alongside Dave Kushner (rhythm guitar) formerly of punk band Wasted Youth, and Scott Weiland (lead vocalist) formerly of Stone Temple Pilots. The band formed in 2002 and was active until 2008.
In 2004, the band achieved commercial success with their debut album, Contraband. With their single Slither, they won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. The band released Libertad in 2007, driven by the release of the single She Builds Quick Machines, and embarked on a tour with Alice in Chains.
In April 2008, Weiland left Velvet Revolver and reunited with Stone Temple Pilots. Velvet Revolver was put on indefinite hiatus and only performed publicly once since 2008, when they reunited with Weiland for a one-off reunion show on January 12, 2012, at a benefit concert. This proved to be their last performance together before Weiland‘s death on December 3, 2015.
Scott Weiland Velvet Revolver Discography
While STP went on hiatus after the release of Tiny Music …, Weiland released a solo album called 12 Bar Blues (1998). Weiland wrote most of the songs on the album and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau, and Jeff Nolan.
On November 25, 2008, Weiland released his second solo album, “Happy” in Galoshes, produced by Weiland and songwriting-producing partner Doug Grean. On August 30, 2011, Weiland released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website.
The album was originally to be released along with Weiland‘s autobiography until he decided to release it separately. On October 4, 2011, Weiland released The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album consisting entirely of Christmas music. Weiland supported the album with a US club tour.
Two promotional recordings were taken from the album, cover versions of Winter Wonderland and I’ll Be Home for Christmas with their respective music videos.
Scott Weiland also recorded an album with another supergroup, Art of Anarchy, an American hard rock supergroup formed in 2011.
The band features twin brothers Jon and Vince Votta on guitar and drums, Disturbed bassist John Moyer, former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal as co-guitarist and producer. The band began in 2011, with Bumblefoot recording parts for the debut album between touring with Guns N’ Roses.
Weiland wrote and recorded vocals after sharing song files with Bumblefoot from 2012 to 2013. His self-titled debut album Art of Anarchy, was tentatively scheduled for spring 2015 and was released in June.
The first single to be released from the album was ‘Til The Dust Is Gone. The album contains 11 tracks. Weiland did not tour with the band to promote their new album.
In July 2015, bandmate Vince Votta sued Scott Weiland for refusing to help the band promote Art of Anarchy‘s debut album. Weiland also refused to participate in music videos after he agreed to write and perform lyrics for all ten songs on the album.
The Blast reports that Vince Votta claims to have paid Weiland $230,000 upfront for his work. The lawsuit filed by Vince Votta was to recover the $230,000 and asked for an additional $20 million in damages. Vince said that the last straw for him was when Weiland called the band a scam.
Scott Weiland sued Vince, accusing the company of illegally using his name and likeness to promote the band. On December 22, 2015, “In Memory of Scott Weiland…”, Art of Anarchy made their album available to their fans for free online, and legal matters between the two parties were dropped.
The last Weiland‘s band was Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts, with them recorded Blaster, the only studio album of the rock band, as well as the final weiland album that will be recorded and released during their life.
The album was released on March 31, 2015 by Softdrive Records. The album was supported by the singles White Lightning, Way She Moves and “20th Century Boy“. Guitarist Jeremy Brown died one day before the album’s release, on March 30, 2015.
During the tour to support the album, Scott Weiland was found dead on the band’s tour bus on December 3, 2015.
Thanks: Scott Richard Weiland ( October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015).
