Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts

He was born as Scott Richard Kline at Kaiser Hospital in San Jose, California.[4] His surname was changed after being adopted by his stepfather David Weiland at age 5.[5] Around that time, Weiland moved to Bainbridge Township, Geauga County, Ohio, where he attended the Kenston School District. He moved back to California as a teenager and attended Edison High School in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College.[6]

Career[edit]
1986–2002: Stone Temple Pilots first stint[edit]
Main article: Stone Temple Pilots
In 1986 Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two of them were discussing their love interests, when they realized one of them was the same girl. They developed a bond over the incident, and ended up moving into her apartment. Weiland's childhood friends Corey Hicock and David Allin rounded out the group, both of whom would soon be replaced by Eric Kretz and DeLeo's brother Dean. They took the name to Stone Temple Pilots due to their fondness of the initials "STP".[7] In one of the band's first opening performances as Mighty Joe Young, they opened for Electric Love Hogs, whose drummer Dave Kushner would one day co-found Weiland's later band Velvet Revolver.[8] In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits ("Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush").

In 1994, STP released their second record, Purple, which saw the development of a more distinctive identity for the band. Like Core, Purple was a big success for the band, spawning three hit singles ("Big Empty", "Vasoline", and "Interstate Love Song") and selling over 6 million copies. The critical response to Purple was more favorable, with Spin Magazine calling it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.[9]

In 1995, Weiland formed the alternative rock band The Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo[10] in San Diego.[9] The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass.[10] Only two songs were recorded by The Magnificent Bastards, "Mockingbird Girl," composed by Nolan, Schloss, and Weiland,[11] appeared in the film Tank Girl and on its soundtrack,[12] and a cover of John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?" was recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon.[10][13] Weiland rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995, but STP was forced to cancel most of their 1996–1997 tour in support of their third release, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sold about two million albums. Weiland encountered problems with drug addiction at this time as well, which inspired some of his songs in the late-1990s, and resulted in prison time.[14]

While STP went on hiatus after the release of Tiny Music..., Weiland released a solo album in 1998 called 12 Bar Blues. Weiland wrote most of the songs on the album, and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldau and Jeff Nolan. In 1999, STP regrouped once again and released No. 4. The album contained the hit single "Sour Girl" which featured a surreal music video with Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year, Weiland also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup The Wondergirls. During this time period Weiland spent five months in jail for possession.[14][15][16][17][18]

In November 2000, Weiland was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of The Doors. Weiland did vocals on two Doors songs, "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on The Doors tribute CD, Stoned Immaculate with their own rendition of "Break on Through" as the lead track.[19] On June 19, 2001, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. That same year the band headlined the Family Values Tour along with Linkin Park and Staind.[20] In late 2002, the band broke up with the DeLeo brothers and Weiland having significant altercations back stage.

2003–2008: Velvet Revolver era[edit]

Weiland performing with Velvet Revolver in London
Main article: Velvet Revolver
In 2002, former Guns N' Roses members – guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Matt Sorum – as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner were looking for a singer to help form a new band. Throughout his career Weiland had become acquainted with the four musicians; he became friends with McKagan after attending the same gym,[21][22] was in rehab at the same time as Sorum, and once played on the same bill as Kushner.[3][3][22] Weiland was sent two discs of material to work with, but felt that the first disc "sounded like Bad Company gone wrong."[21] When he was sent the second disc, Weiland was more positive, comparing it to Core-era Stone Temple Pilots,[21] though he turned them down because Stone Temple Pilots had not yet separated.[3]

When Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2003,[23] the band sent Weiland new music, which he took into his studio and added vocals. This music eventually became the song "Set Me Free."[23][24] Despite delivering the music to the band himself, Weiland was still unsure whether or not he wanted to join them,[23] despite performing at an industry showcase at Mates.[25] They recorded two songs with producer Nick Raskulinecz,[26] a recorded version of "Set Me Free" and a cover of Pink Floyd's "Money," for the soundtracks to the movies The Hulk and The Italian Job, respectively.[26] Weiland joined the band soon after,[21] and "Set Me Free" managed to peak at number 17 on the Mainstream Rock Chart[27] without any radio promotion or a record label.[28] It was prior to a screening of The Hulk at Universal Studios that the band chose a name.[29] After seeing a movie by Revolution Studios,[29] Slash liked the beginning of the word, eventually thinking of Revolver because of its multiple meanings; the name of a gun, subtext of a revolving door which suited the band as well as the name of a Beatles album.[29] When he suggested Revolver to the band, Weiland suggested 'Black Velvet' Revolver, liking the idea of "something intimate like velvet juxtaposed with something deadly like a gun."[29] They eventually arrived at Velvet Revolver,[29] announcing it at a press conference and performance showcase at the El Rey Theatre[29] while also performing the songs "Set Me Free" and "Slither" as well as covers of Nirvana's "Negative Creep", Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant", and Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy".[29]

"I just thought he was a great singer, and he'd always been on my mind for [Velvet Revolver]. He was the one vocalist that I knew had the kind of voice that would serve what we were going to do: he had a John Lennon-ish quality, a little bit of Jim Morrison, and a touch of almost David Bowie. He was the best singer to come out in a long time in my opinion."[3]

—Slash on Scott Weiland
Velvet Revolver's debut album Contraband was released in June 2004 to much success. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies worldwide to date. Two of the album's songs, "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces", reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song "Slither" also won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005, an award Weiland had won previously with STP for the song "Plush" in 1994. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Weiland (along with the rest of Velvet Revolver) performed the Beatles song "Across the Universe" along with Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Steven Tyler, Billie Joe Armstrong, Alison Krauss, and Alicia Keys.[30]

Velvet Revolver released their second album, Libertad, on July 3, 2007,[31][32] peaking at number five on the Billboard 200.[33] The album's first single "She Builds Quick Machines" peaked at 74 on the Hot Canadian Digital Singles.[27] The second and third singles, "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door", both peaked at number 16 and 34 on the Mainstream Rock Chart, respectively.[34] Critical reception to the album was mixed. Though some critics praised the album[35][36] and felt that Libertad gave the band an identity of their own,[37] outside of the Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots comparisons, others described the album as "bland"[38][39] and noted that the band seem to be "play[ing] to their strengths instead of finding a collective sound."[32]


Weiland in 2007
2008–2013: Reunion with STP and subsequent departure[edit]
In 2007 Dean DeLeo discussed with Weiland an offer from a concert promoter to headline several summer festivals. Weiland accepted and said he had cleared the brief tour with his Velvet Revolver bandmates. He explained, "everything was cool. Then it wasn't", and said the rest of the band stopped talking to him.

On March 20, 2008 Weiland revealed at Velvet Revolver's show in Glasgow that this would be the band's final tour. After several flares on their personal blogs and in interviews,[40][41] on April 1 it was announced by a number of media outlets that Weiland would no longer be in Velvet Revolver.[42]


Scott Weiland performing with Stone Temple Pilots in São Paulo, Brazil, December 12, 2010.
In 2008, Stone Temple Pilots announced a 73-date U.S. tour on April 7 and performed together for the first time since 2002. The reunion tour kicked off at the Rock on the Range festival on May 17, 2008. According to Dean DeLeo, steps toward a Stone Temple Pilots reunion started with a simple phone call from Weiland's wife. She invited the DeLeo brothers to play at a private beach party, which led to the reconciliation of Weiland and the DeLeo brothers.[43] However, Weiland said in a 2010 radio interview to promote the band's self-titled release that the reunion was the result of Dean calling him and asking if he'd be interested in reuniting the band to headline the Coachella Festival.

STP's reunion tour was a success, and the band continued to tour throughout 2009 and began recording its sixth studio album. STP's first album since 2001, Stone Temple Pilots, was released on May 25, 2010.

In September 2010, STP announced it was rescheduling several U.S. tour dates so that the band could take a "short break." STP toured Southeast Asia for the first time in 2011, playing in Philippines (Manila), Singapore, and Indonesia (Jakarta). Following this, the band played successful shows in Australia, including sell out performances in Sydney and Melbourne.[44]

The band said they were interested in a 20th anniversary tour to celebrate the release of Core with Scott commenting on January 2, 2012, "Well, we're doing a lot of special things. [There's] a lot of archival footage that we're putting together, a coffee table book, hopefully a brand new album – so many ideas. A box set and then a tour, of course."[45] However, while the band did tour in 2012, they did not perform the album in its entirety as promised nor did they release a coffee table book, archival footage, or new album.

In January 2012, guitarist Dave Kushner announced Velvet Revolver would reunite with Weiland for the first time in four years for a one night, three song gig to raise money for the family of recently deceased musician John O'Brien. On what the future would hold for the band and Weiland, Kushner replied "We haven't played together in four years, and so we're really just like, 'Let's see how this goes."[46]

In April 2012, Scott Weiland remarked that he would like to reunite permanently with Velvet Revolver, saying that "if Maynard James Keenan can do it with A Perfect Circle and Tool, then there's no reason why I shouldn't go and do it with both bands".[47] Further in May in an interview with ABC Radio Weiland said that he had reunited with the band permanently for a tour and an album,[48] which however was denied a few days later by Slash in an interview with 93x.[49]

STP began to experience problems in 2012 that were said to have been caused by tensions between Weiland and the rest of the band. Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core,[50] this did not happen. On February 27, 2013, shortly before this solo tour was set to commence, Stone Temple Pilots announced on their website that "[..]they [had] officially terminated Scott Weiland"[51]

Weiland criticized the band after they hired Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington as his replacement, claiming he was still a member and they shouldn't be calling themselves Stone Temple Pilots without him.[52]

2008–present: Solo career and The Wildabouts[edit]
On November 25, 2008, Weiland released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes, produced by Weiland and songwriting-producing partner Doug Grean. Weiland went on tour in early 2009 to promote the album.[53]

On August 30, 2011, Weiland released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website. The album was originally to be released along with Scott's autobiography until he decided to release it separately, stating, "[it] actually turned out so well that we're going to release a single and put it out on its own, 'cause I think it's…it's sort of my Pinups, I guess you'd say."[54][55][56]

On October 4, 2011, Weiland released The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, an album consisting entirely of Christmas music. Weiland supported the album with a club tour of the United States.

In a November 2012 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland said he foresaw 2013 being a busy year for him and his solo band, now called The Wildabouts. Scott Weiland and The Wildabouts plan on possibly entering the studio for a new album and in addition to that, they plan to continue touring after Weiland's small tour at the end of 2012.


Scott Weiland & The Wildabouts perform at The Howard Theater in Washington, DC on March 11, 2013 as part of the Purple At The Core Tour. Photo by: Steve Castano Photography.
Weiland's solo tour "Purple at the Core" with his backing band, now branded as The Wildabouts, commenced in March 2013 with pop/rock band MIGGS as the opening act.[57]

In June 2014, in an interview with San Diego radio station KBZT, Weiland revealed that his debut album with his new band The Wildabouts, titled Blaster, would be released in November 2014.[58] Ultimately, Blaster was released on March 31, 2015.[59]

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