Tag: death

Scott Weiland, Former Stone Temple Pilots And Velvet Revolver Frontman Dies At 48

Scott Weiland, the former frontman of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, died in Minnesota on Thursday December 3, 2015. According to a statement on his Facebook page, he “passed away in his sleep while on a tour stop.”

According to the statement, Weiland died in Bloomington, Minn.on tour with his band, The Wildabouts. Other details, such as the cause of death, were not revealed, citing his family’s desire for privacy.

I personally got to see Scott perform only once, with Stone Temple Pilots at the Pershing Center in Lincoln, NE in 2010. I had heard lots of talk about how Weiland wasn’t very good live, and that he couldn’t hit the notes anymore. They couldn’t have been more wrong. I’ve seen a LOT of live shows in my time, and that STP show in 2010 was absolutely phenomenal! Weiland was perfect. He sang with such force and grace. The songs sounded very, very good, but he gave them a special flair live. It was truly one of the best shows I have even seen, and I’m happy that I got to see him in that light, and in all his glory. He will be missed….

Weiland, whose career was marked by both Grammy Awards and drug and alcohol abuse problems, was the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots, which had numerous hits in the 1990s, and of Velvet Revolver, a supergroup that paired him with former members of Guns N’ Roses.

At the time of his death, Weiland had been touring with his new band, The Wildabouts. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the band’s Thursday night show “was canceled nine days ago because of slow ticket sales.”

It was a far cry from the heights of Weiland’s career, when he became famous both for reeling off chart-topping rock songs and for his wide-ranging fashion sense — from shirtless to shirt-and-tie. Over his career, Weiland sold tens of millions of records worldwide.

His struggles with heroin and other drugs often derailed Weiland over the years, even as he kept performing. Visits to rehab and police stations were also a distraction from the singer’s powerful voice, a gravelly bass that he tamed to sing rock ballads such as Velvet Revolver’s “Fall to Pieces” — a song about a singer struggling with demons, and whose video includes the depiction of a seeming drug overdose.

In 2012, Weiland published a book called Not Dead & Not for Sale, in which he described being the victim of rape as a schoolboy, and in which he detailed his struggles with addiction.

From the prelude:

“Every time I try to catch up to my life, something stops me. Different people making claims on my life. Old friends telling me new friends aren’t true friends. All friends trying to convince me that I can’t survive without them.

“Then there are the pay-for-hire get-off-drugs professionals with their own methods and madness. They help, they hurt, they welcome me into their institutions … and, well, their madness.

“Welcome to my life.”

Portions of this article excerpted from this NPR article : Singer Scott Weiland Dies On Tour At Age 48