Battled addiction, singer dies at 48
Scott Weiland was frontman for Stone Temple Pilots
Rock has lost one of its most dynamic frontmen.
Scott Weiland — a whirling dervish of a performer with real-life demons he seemed to work out on stage — was found dead Thursday in Bloomington, Minn., on the tour bus of his latest band, The Wildabouts.
The former Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman was just 48 years old.
He was born Scott Richard Kline in San Jose, Calif., but was later adopted by his stepfather, Dave Weiland, when his parents divorced.
After forming his first band at age 16, STP’s lineup later came together in San Diego with Dean DeLeo on guitar, his brother Robert on bass and drummer Eric Kretz in the late ’80s under the name Mighty Joe Young.
The band changed their name to Stone Temple Pilots before its 1992 debut, Core, with a sound that mixed grunge era hard rock with Weiland’s husky vocals often heard through a megaphone in concert.
STP’s breakthrough single Plush scored them a Grammy and best new artist VMA in 1994. Their followup, 1994’s Purple reached No. 1. They put out three more records before they disbanded in 2002, regrouped in 2008, fired Weiland in 2013 and replaced him with Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington.
Between STP stints, Weiland also fronted Velvet Revolver. He also put out four solo albums, 1998’s 12 Bar Blues, 2008’s Happy in Galoshes, 2011’s Christmas record The Most Wonderful Time of the Year and A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs the same year.
The thrice-married, father of two was raped at age 12 in high school by another student (as detailed in his 2011 autobiography, Not Dead & Not For Sale), began drinking and doing drugs as a teenager, battled bipolar disorder, developed a heroin addiction in the ’90s, spent time in rehab, was arrested several times and served jail time.
The final chapter of Weiland’s often turbulent life, while incredibly sad — he leaves behind two teenage children, Noah and Lucy, from his tumultuous marriage to second wife Mary Forsberg — wasn’t a total surprise given his long battle with addiction.