It has been 11 years since Scott Weiland, the troubled-yet-glorious frontman for the Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, passed away. For many, it was a shock; for others, the inevitable end to a sad tale of addiction, recovery and further addiction.
A subversive and glamorous figure, Weiland was too glitzy for grunge and too feminine for macho hard rockers. Still, he won both parties over with his blend of intense charisma, panache and undeniable vocal ability. In an age when many rockstars opted to downplay their persona, Weiland turned it up louder than ever and walked the walk like a born superstar.
We've lost a lot of rock stars since Scott left us, from his friend Chester Bennington to his hero David Bowie. Today, I want take a second to look back over some highlights of the man’s artistic life, and celebrate the badass genius that was Scott Weiland…
Contents
Early STP Days in San Diego
Were Stone Temple Pilots a grunge band? For those around at the time, this was a constant question. Grunge was a Seattle thing, so STP weren’t strictly grunge, being from sunny San Diego, a place which isn’t nearly as rainy! Location rules also omitted both Chicago’s The Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr, who hailed from Massachusetts.
Regardless, STP broke out of California and quickly went nationwide with their debut album Core, which contained hard-rocking bangers like Sex Type Thing and Dead & Bloated. There was more than a touch of Guns n Roses in their sound, even back then, but Weiland’s main influence in those days was shamanic Doors frontman Jim Morrison. Whilst never the copycat, you can definitely hear notes of Morrison in Weiland’s grizzled baritone.
STP Hit Big with Purple
Core sold 8 million copies and won a Grammy award, but it was the follow up record - Purple - that really put the band on the map. It would’ve been 32 years ago - 1994 - that the record hit No.1 in the US Mainstream Rock charts, spawning singles such as Interstate Love Song and Vaseline. Even the deep cuts from this album were great, like this fan favourite, Army Ants:
Purple was a strong record for sure, with a sound that clutched onto the Seattle sound without becoming a reductive impression of it. STP always had some extra tricks up their sleeves anyway, as Big Empty showed with its slide guitar passages. If this song’s familiar, it may be because it was used in the original Crow movie soundtrack:
Their followup record Tiny Music…From the Vatican Gift Shop, only added to the eccentric nature hinted at on Purple. Given that they were a big selling mainstream rock band, there were lots of twists and turns to be found on this beguiling and arty album. Check out this sublime ballad And So I Know, for one! Dean DeLeo puts in a career-best guitar performance here with jazzy licks that would make John McLaughlin proud!
Stone Temple Pilots still hinted back to some 1960s influences, but instead of The Doors, this time it was the Beatles, who are clearly manifesting throughout the excellent, catchy single Lady Picture Show.
No.4 was created amid a lot of personal trouble for Weiland. You wouldn’t know it from listening to some of the superlative cuts from the album though, which rocked altogether harder than Tiny Music. Were the band channeling their frustrations through their instruments? I don’t know, but one listen to Heaven & Hot Rods tells you what gear they were driving on at the end of the 90s.
One thing I admired about Scott almost as much as his singing voice was his ability to write melodies. A lot of musicians can either sing or come up with memorable melodies, but far fewer can do both, and certainly not at Weiland’s level. Listen to Glide, and think about the song without his epic, majestic vocal: it’s a pretty bare bed of chords, transformed into a giant eagle of a song, purely by the lead vocals.
Scott’s Solo Albums
Given his flamboyant dress sense and larger-than-life stage persona, it seems that the hard rock of STP was maybe limiting Weiland’s expression at certain points. In 1998 he released the first of four solo albums: 12 Bar Blues was an ironic title because the songs featured on the record were anything but blues. From dramatic space opera (Barbarella) to fuzzed out psych-rock (About Nothing), to Tom Waitsian quasi-showtunes (Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down), 12 Bar Blues was an extremely adventurous listen, and revealed more of Weiland’s deeper influences, from David Bowie to John Coltrane.
Three further solo albums peppered Scott’s musical life, and whilst these didn’t match his bands’ output in terms of sales, they’d often eclipse them in artistic risk-taking and exploration, whilst never forgetting the effectiveness of a well-placed top line melody.
Check out this jazzy, excellently Tom Waitsian track, Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down. It's a perfect vehicle for Scott's voice, and something that's altogether outside the creative eouvre of his band...
Trouble With the Law
Much of Scott Weiland’s personal life was a struggle. Detailed in his 2011 autobiography Not Dead and Not For Sale, Weiland’s substance abuses began at an early age, following sexual abuse from an older teenager. Drinking and cocaine were his main vices until his STP days, when harder substances entered the fray. Various court appearances, rehab programs and even some periods of incarceration ensued, all whilst Weiland was still writing, recording and performing.
Addiction issues plagued him on and off for his entire life, and was the final reason for his departing with Stone Temple Pilots.
Velvet Revolver
In 2004, the rock world had gone through the nu-metal years and into the retrotastic New York scene that gave us The Strokes, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol. What was missing was good old fashioned rock music, and several ex-members of Guns n Roses felt like it was high time to do something about that.
Gathering together Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, drummer Matt Sorum and ex-Suicidal Tendancies guitarist Dave Kushner, this nascent supergroup set about finding a vocal talent that could capably front such an epic lineup.
Dozens and dozens of famous name singers tried out, but of course it was Weiland who scooped up the gold prize. Here’s what Slash had to say about him:
“I just thought he was a great singer, and he'd always been on my mind for Velvet Revolver. He was the one vocalist that I knew had the kind of voice that would serve what we were going to do: he had a John Lennon-ish quality, a little bit of Jim Morrison, and a touch of almost David Bowie. He was the best singer to come out in a long time in my opinion”.
Velvet Revolver were briefly massive, releasing two albums and touring the world several times before it all imploded. GnR reformed with a mostly original lineup, and so did Stone Temple Pilots for a time, before Scott left for good. Their debut single Slither still gets played in guitar shops across the world, thanks to Slash's furious intro riff.
Latter Years
Alongside writing his autobiography and releasing solo records, Weiland also created a cover songs record (A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs) and even an irony-free Christmas album (The Most Wonderful Time of the Year), all featuring his supersonic vocals. This guy could sing anything.
His last musical work was the Blaster album with his band The Wildabouts. It was on the tour for that particular record that Weiland accidentally overdosed on cocaine, alcohol and MDA whilst on his tour bus, slipping away on December 3rd, 2015. He left behind a wife, two ex-wives and two children.
Fellow musicians came out to vocally offer their respect and regards to an artist they considered to be one of the finest of their generation. Billy Corgan had this to say:
"It was STP's third album (Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop), that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I'd been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere. Lastly, I'd like to share a thought which, though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. 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."
Scott has been gone for nine years now, but his music is going nowhere! Blast your favourite STP and Velvet Revolver tunes today in remembrance of an excellent, troubled artist who gave us all so much.
Scott Richard Weiland
October 27th 1967 - December 3rd 2015
