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Scott Weiland Dismisses Stone Temple Pilots Firing as Publicity Stunt

Stone Temple Pilots, Scott Weiland

Tonight, Scott Weiland kicks off his Purple at the Core tour, where he plans to play some of Stone Temple Pilots’ early-’90s hits. What’s increasingly unclear is whether he’s still a member of that alternative-rock band, which he co-founded. On Wednesday morning, STP unceremoniously announced it had fired the longtime frontman. Later that day, Weiland issued his own statement questioning whether the rest of the group had legal standing to fire him in the first place.

Now, in an airport video interview posted by TMZ, Weiland has made a more definitive statement, denying STP have split up at all. “STP’s not broken up,” he said. “It’s a whole thing to just try to boost ticket sales.” He said the band is contractually prevented from carrying on without him. Asked if he’s still fronting STP, he replied, “I started it.”

Weiland’s solo tour starts tonight in Flint, Michigan, the same city that nearly killed Morrissey, leading MLive.com to ask, “Is Flint bad luck for frontmen?” Weiland has said the tour will include material off of STP’s first two albums, 1992’s Core and 1994’s Purple. And, as he pointed out, thanks to his “termination” from STP, now you’re reading about his solo tour.

Also still left unanswered: When the dogs begin to smell her, will she smell alone?