“Stone Temple Pilots have announced they have officially terminated Scott Weiland.” That’s the entirety of an announcement from the alternative-rock band this morning. A spokeswoman said the band has no further comment at this time.
The announcement comes after Weiland said he would perform songs from the first two STP albums, 1992 debut Core and 1994’s Purple, on an upcoming solo tour. Last year, Weiland said he would be playing Core in its entirety with STP on a fall tour that never happened. In other words, maybe we all should’ve read between the lines (your lie-hiiines).
The STP dismissal isn’t Weiland’s first time being fired from a band. In 2008, Velvet Revolver acrimoniously ousted the singer. “The truth of the matter is that the band had not gotten along on multiple levels for some time,” he said then. Weiland later reunited with Velvet Revolver for a one-off, four-song reunion set early last year.
As recently as yesterday (February 26), Weiland told Rolling Stone that he was still a member of STP, denying speculation that he and the band had parted ways. “STP has not broken up,” he is quoted as saying. “I haven’t quit. I haven’t been fired.” Rumors started flying several months ago when Slash, Weiland’s former Velvet Revolver bandmate, said in an interview that the 45-year-old singer had been kicked out of STP.
“Slash doesn’t know anything about STP,” Weiland reportedly told RS. “We’re talking right now about when we want to tour next.” He did add, though, that a lineup change may help the grunge rockers. “My personal feeling is that we need some new blood in the band,” he said. “We’ve been playing the same greatest hits set since we got back together. I’d like to make a new record. It will breathe new life into the group.”
Weiland acknowledged to RS that he and his now-former STP bandmates have had a troubled history. “There were some hurt egos,” he said. “But that’s the way it is. No one has ever fired anybody in STP. We’re like a family. It’s also a partnership. I started the band. We’ve always kept things going. We’ve taken time off before. They’ve done their own projects and I fully support that. No one has been fired and I haven’t quit. That’s all hearsay.”
In the late 1990s, while STP were on hiatus, the band’s other three members — Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo, and Eric Kretz — teamed with Ten Inch Men frontman Dave Coults to form the band Talk Show, which spawned one self-titled album in 1997. Weiland’s first solo album, 12 Bar Blues, followed in 1998. STP regrouped later that year but eventually disbanded in 2002 among reports of in-fighting between Weiland and the DeLeo brothers. In 2008, STP reformed again and, two years later, the foursome released their eponymous sixth album.
