Scott Weiland

• 1. Introduction

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  Scott Weiland sold more than 50 million albums across his bands and collaborations. He was an American singer and songwriter with a flamboyant, chaotic stage persona and an appearance that kept changing. At concerts he sometimes sang through a megaphone to create a distinctive vocal effect. On the 3rd of December 2015, he was found dead on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota. He was 48 years old. How does a singer reach the front of a hit-making rock band, and then lose that place twice? What shaped a voice that was compared to other stars and then changed from album to album? And what did he leave behind for the musicians who followed him?

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• 2. Early Years

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  Scott Richard Kline was born at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Jose, California, on the 27th of October 1967. His parents were Sharon, born Williams, and Kent Kline, and his father had German ancestry. He was raised Catholic.

  At the age of five, his stepfather, David Weiland, legally adopted him, and the boy took the surname Weiland. Around the same time he moved to Bainbridge Township, Ohio, where he later attended Kenston High School. Robert DeLeo, a future bandmate, remembered that young Scott sang in a choir.

  At the age of 12, while living in Ohio, Weiland was raped by an older male who invited him to his house. In his autobiography, Not Dead & Not for Sale, he wrote that he repressed the memory until it returned in therapy decades later.

  As a teenager he moved back to California. He attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and then Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. Before devoting himself fully to music, he worked as a paste-up artist at the Los Angeles Daily Journal, a legal newspaper.

  The man who remembered that choir, Robert DeLeo, would become the bandmate at the center of Weiland's career.

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• 3. Stone Temple Pilots

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  In 1985, Scott Weiland and his bandmates in Soi Disant, guitarist Corey Hicock and drummer David Allin, kept turning up to watch Robert DeLeo play live. They liked his shows enough to decide to track him down. Hicock and Allin were soon replaced by Eric Kretz and by DeLeo's brother Dean.

  Robert DeLeo recalled working at Mesa Boogie on Sunset Boulevard while Weiland worked "across catty-corner" from him. Scott would drop by to share musical ideas.

  One of the band's first opening slots came under the name Mighty Joe Young, supporting Electric Love Hogs. That group's guitarist, Dave Kushner, would one day co-found Velvet Revolver, Weiland's later band. The name Stone Temple Pilots came from the members' fondness for the initials STP.

  The debut album, Core, arrived in 1992 and produced four hits: "Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep" and "Plush". In 1994 came Purple, which gave the band a more distinctive identity. It produced three hit singles, "Big Empty", "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song", and sold more than six million copies. Spin called it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.

  In 1995, Weiland formed the Magnificent Bastards in San Diego with session drummer Victor Indrizzo. Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan played guitar, and Bob Thompson played bass. The group recorded only two songs. "Mockingbird Girl", written by Nolan, Schloss and Weiland, appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack. The other was a cover of John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" for the tribute album Working Class Hero.

  Weiland rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995. Even so, the band had to cancel most of its 1996-1997 tour for its third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. That record sold about two million copies. Weiland was struggling with drug addiction by then, and it inspired some of his late-1990s songs and led to jail time.

  The band regrouped in 1999 and released No. 4. Its hit single "Sour Girl" was promoted with a surreal video featuring Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year Weiland recorded two songs with a short-lived supergroup called the Wondergirls. He also spent five months in jail for drug possession.

  In November 2000, Weiland appeared on VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of the Doors. He sang two of their songs, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots opened the Doors tribute CD Stoned Immaculate with their own version of "Break on Through".

  On the 19th of June 2001, the band released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. That year it headlined the Family Values Tour alongside Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. The partnership did not last. In late 2002, significant backstage altercations between the DeLeo brothers and Weiland led to the band's break-up.

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• 4. Velvet Revolver

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  In 2002, three former Guns N' Roses members were looking for a singer: guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum. With them was Dave Kushner, formerly the guitarist of Wasted Youth. Weiland already knew several of them. He had become friends with McKagan after the two attended the same gym, and he had been in rehab at the same time as Sorum.

  The group sent Weiland two discs of material. He felt the first "sounded like Bad Company gone wrong". The second impressed him more, and he compared it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots. He still turned them down, because his own band had not yet split.

  When Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003, the musicians sent him new music. He took it into his studio and added vocals, and the result eventually became the song "Set Me Free". He delivered it to them himself, yet he remained unsure about joining, even after performing at an industry showcase at Mates.

  The group then recorded two songs with producer Nick Raskulinecz. One was "Set Me Free" for the soundtrack of The Hulk, and the other was a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money" for The Italian Job. Weiland joined soon after. "Set Me Free" reached number 17 on the Mainstream Rock chart with no radio promotion and no record label.

  The band chose its name before a screening of The Hulk at Universal Studios. Slash had seen a movie from Revolution Studios and liked the start of that word, which led him to "Revolver". The word suggested a gun, a revolving door and a Beatles album. Weiland proposed "Black Velvet" Revolver, enjoying the idea of "something intimate like velvet juxtaposed with something deadly like a gun." The band settled on Velvet Revolver.

  The name was announced at a press conference and showcase at the El Rey Theatre. The set included "Set Me Free" and "Slither", plus covers of Nirvana's "Negative Creep", the Sex Pistols' "Bodies" and Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy".

  The debut album, Contraband, came out in June 2004 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. It has sold over three million copies worldwide. "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces" both reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. In 2005, "Slither" won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal. Weiland had won the same award in 1994 with Stone Temple Pilots for "Plush".

  At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Weiland and Velvet Revolver joined Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alison Krauss and Alicia Keys to perform the Beatles song "Across the Universe". On the 2nd of July 2005, the band played Live 8 in London. Weiland was condemned for using strong language before the UK watershed.

  The second album, Libertad, was released on the 3rd of July 2007 and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. Its singles included "She Builds Quick Machines", "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door". Reviews were mixed. Some critics felt the album gave the band an identity of its own. Others called it "bland" and said the group was playing to its strengths.

  After several flare-ups on personal blogs and in interviews, the band announced on the 1st of April 2008 that Weiland was no longer a member. Velvet Revolver reunited with him for a one-off benefit concert for the late John O'Brien on the 12th of January 2012.

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• 5. Reunion and Dismissal

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  On the 7th of April 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date tour of the United States. It would be the first time the band had performed together since 2002. The reunion tour opened at the Rock on the Range festival on the 17th of May 2008.

  According to Dean DeLeo, the reconciliation began with a simple phone call from Weiland's wife. She invited the DeLeo brothers to a private beach party, and the two sides made peace there.

  The tour was a success, and the band kept touring through 2009 while it began recording its sixth studio album. That album, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on the 25th of May 2010. It was the band's first since 2001.

  In 2011 the band toured Southeast Asia for the first time, playing in Manila, Singapore and Jakarta. It then played successful shows in Australia, including sell-out performances in Sydney and Melbourne.

  On the 2nd of January 2012, Weiland talked about marking the 20th anniversary of Core. He promised "a lot of archival footage that we're putting together, a coffee table book, hopefully a brand new album", followed by a box set and a tour. Later that year, tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band caused problems. The fall tour that was meant to celebrate Core never happened.

  On the 27th of February 2013, shortly before his solo tour was due to begin, the band announced Weiland's termination on its website. The group hired Chester Bennington, the Linkin Park singer, as his replacement. Weiland criticized the move. He claimed he was still a member and that the others should not call themselves Stone Temple Pilots without him.

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• 6. Solo Work and Style

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  At the height of Stone Temple Pilots' success in the early to mid-1990s, Weiland sang in a deep baritone that was compared to Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. His voice then shifted as the band branched out. On Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop he sang in a much higher, raspier tone to suit its 60s rock influences. Later albums drew on bossa nova for Shangri-La Dee Da and on blues rock and classic rock for the 2010 self-titled record.

  With Velvet Revolver his vocals ranged from his classic baritone to a rawer style that fit the band's hard rock sound. A New York Post review of Libertad said that "Weiland's vocals are crisp and controlled, yet passionate."

  His first solo album, 12 Bar Blues, came out on the 31st of March 1998 while Stone Temple Pilots were on hiatus. Weiland wrote most of the songs and collaborated with Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau and Jeff Nolan. The sound was described as rooted in glam rock, filtered through psychedelia and trip-hop, a huge shift from his band work.

  On the 25th of November 2008, he released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes. He produced it with his songwriting partner Doug Grean, and it ranged across bossa nova, country, neo-psychedelia and indie rock. He toured to promote it in early 2009.

  On the 30th of August 2011, he put out A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs exclusively through his website. It was first meant to appear with his autobiography. He called it "sort of my Pin Ups", a nod to David Bowie's covers album. On the 4th of October 2011 he followed with The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, made up entirely of Christmas music. He sang it in a crooning style like Bowie and Frank Sinatra, with some reggae and bossa nova, and supported it with a US club tour.

  The Purple at the Core tour by Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts began in March 2013, with the pop and rock band MIGGS opening. In a June 2014 interview with the San Diego radio station KBZT, Weiland said the Wildabouts' debut, Blaster, would arrive that November. It was delayed and finally came out on the 31st of March 2015.

  The day before its release, guitarist Jeremy Brown died. The cause was multiple drug intoxication, with coronary atherosclerosis and cardiomegaly as significant contributing factors. Nick Maybury replaced him in April 2015.

  Art of Anarchy began in 2011, when guitarist Bumblefoot recorded parts for a debut album between tours with Guns N' Roses. From 2012 to 2013, Weiland wrote and recorded vocals as the two traded song files. He joined promotional photo shoots and music videos in October 2014. The self-titled album appeared in June 2015, with 11 tracks and a first single called "Til the Dust Is Gone".

  Weiland distanced himself from it. He said he was supposed to have written only the lyrics and melodies and was paid to do it, and then press releases said he was in the band. In a January 2015 Rolling Stone interview, he and the Votta brothers agreed it was a studio project and that Weiland would never tour with it. After his death, former Creed vocalist Scott Stapp took over as the band's singer.

  In 2006, Weiland and Grean launched a record label called Softdrive Records, which later signed the rock band Something to Burn. On the 19th of December 2008, he signed a publishing deal with Bug Music that covered his share of the Stone Temple Pilots catalog. On the 21st of January 2009, he launched a clothing line, Weiland for English Laundry, with designer Christopher Wicks.

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• 7. Addiction and Family

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  In 1995, Weiland was convicted of buying crack cocaine and sentenced to one year of probation. His drug use did not stop but grew worse, and he moved into a hotel room for two months. Courtney Love was in the room next door, and the pair "shot drugs the whole time" together.

  In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Weiland said his drinking escalated while he played in his first bands as a teenager. He also tried cocaine for the first time then, calling it a "sexual" experience. In 2001 he revealed that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

  In December 2007, he was arrested for driving under the influence, his first arrest in over four years. On the 7th of February 2008, he checked into rehab, and he left in early March. In November 2008, MTV News reported he had not used heroin since the 5th of December 2002. He admitted to a very short cocaine binge in late 2007.

  His younger brother Michael died of cardiomyopathy in early 2007. Two songs on Libertad, "For a Brother" and "Pills, Demons, & Etc", are about him. Weiland also said several songs on "Happy" in Galoshes were inspired by the death of his brother and by his separation from Mary Forsberg.

  Weiland married Janina Castaneda on the 17th of September 1994, and they divorced in 2000. He married Mary Forsberg on the 20th of May 2000. They had a son, Noah, born in 2000, and a daughter, Lucy, born in 2002, before divorcing in 2007.

  In 2005, Weiland and Noah appeared on David Spade's The Showbiz Show in a comedy sketch against music file sharing. Noah had a line telling a little girl, "Please buy my daddy's album so I can have food to eat."

  Forsberg's autobiography, Fall to Pieces, co-written with Larkin Warren, appeared in 2009. Weiland's own, Not Dead & Not for Sale, co-written with David Ritz, followed on the 17th of May 2011. In a November 2012 Rolling Stone interview, he said he was engaged to Jamie Wachtel, whom he met in 2011 while filming the video for "I'll Be Home for Christmas". They married at their Los Angeles home on the 22nd of June 2013.

  Weiland also had hepatitis C, which he may have acquired from intravenous drug use. In April 2015, online footage from a concert raised questions about his health. He looked unsteady and sang out of tune in a slurred voice. A representative blamed lack of sleep, several drinks and a faulty earpiece, not drugs.

  In June 2015, Weiland claimed he had been off drugs for 13 years. He was answering Richard Patrick, frontman of Filter, who had said Weiland was using drugs and that his fans were pushing him closer to death by "sticking up for" him.

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• 8. Final Tour and Legacy

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  The Wildabouts had a show planned that evening in nearby Medina, but it had been cancelled several days earlier. They still planned to play Rochester the next night. Police searched the tour bus and found small amounts of cocaine in the bedroom where Weiland lay dead.

  They also found prescription drugs, including Xanax, buprenorphine, ziprasidone, Viagra and hypnotics, along with two bags of cocaine and a bag of marijuana. Wildabouts bassist Tommy Black was arrested on suspicion of cocaine possession, though the charges were later dropped.

  No underlying cause was given at first. The medical examiner later ruled that Weiland died of an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol and methylenedioxyamphetamine, known as MDA. The report also noted atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a history of asthma and prolonged substance abuse.

  After his death, tour manager Aaron Mohler said he had often seen Weiland use cocaine so he could drink more. His widow, Jamie, acknowledged that he was drinking heavily before the tour. She said he promised to "get it together". She joined him for a week in November and said he was "just killing it" onstage.

  A day after the death, his former Stone Temple Pilots bandmates issued a statement calling him "gifted beyond words". They also acknowledged his struggle with substance abuse, calling it "part of his curse." Peers, fans and critics around the world shared condolences and memories.

  A private funeral was held on the 10th of December 2015 at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. Members of both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver attended. Mary Forsberg and their two children did not attend, and held a private ceremony of their own.

  Critics and peers re-evaluated his career, including David Fricke of Rolling Stone. Life of Agony, Saint Asonia, Umphrey's McGee, Candlebox, Halestorm and Pop Evil covered Stone Temple Pilots songs in concert. Chris Cornell dedicated a performance of "Say Hello 2 Heaven" by Temple of the Dog to him.

  On the Smashing Pumpkins' website, Billy Corgan wrote that Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop had hooked him. He said Weiland's phrasing pushed the music into a unique sound. "If you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I'd say it were he, Layne, and Kurt," Corgan wrote.

  In 2018, Guns N' Roses honored him on the Not in This Lifetime... Tour with the Velvet Revolver hit "Slither", with Slash and Duff on stage. The band has played it regularly ever since.

  In late 2020, his son Noah debuted a band called Suspect208, which included Slash's son London on drums and Robert Trujillo's son Tye on bass. Their debut song, "Long Awaited", was described by Wall of Sound as reminiscent of Purple-era Stone Temple Pilots. Noah was fired for drug use in early 2021, and the band dissolved by May.

  On the 3rd of December 2025, the tenth anniversary of his father's death, Noah held a tribute show at the Garden Amp in Orange County, California. Jakob Nowell, singer for Sublime, who also lost his father Bradley Nowell as a baby, performed too. Noah said, "My old therapist gave me the idea to throw a party, get-together for my father." He promised hits from different eras and some deep cuts, with the setlist kept a surprise.

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