Posted on 12/04/2015 1:25:29 AM PST by Monty22002
Scott Weiland, the dynamic stage presence and instantly recognizable voice behind Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, has died. He was 48. Weiland's manager confirmed the news to Rolling Stone. The details surrounding the singer's death will be released Friday
(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...
IIRC he had/has major drug issues. STP put out a few pretty good songs. I really like the acustic version of Plush. sad
When it comes to Grunge music or other top hits of that era, I’m like Col. Klink on Hogans Heroes; “I Know Nothing!!”
I was in my early college days then. Nirvana and STP were awesome. Sad to see Scott go. Really sad, he made it this long, and still died.
I was a casual fan, but I really liked Plush and Interstate Love Song. His drug problems were well-documented, and it’s probably more a surprise he lived this long. He beat Layne Staley by 13 years, and Layne painted a pretty frank, unglamorous picture of drug abuse before he died:
“This f***ing drug use is like the insulin a diabetic needs to survive,” he said. “I’m not using drugs to get high like many people think. I know I made a big mistake when I started using this s***. It’s a very difficult thing to explain. My liver is not functioning and I’m throwing up all the time and s***ting my pants. The pain is more than you can handle. It’s the worst pain in the world. Dope sick hurts the entire body. I know I’m near death. I did crack and heroin for years. I never wanted to end my life this way. I know I have no chance. It’s too late.”
I guess there were a few popular songs that got my attention, but I would find out about them, maybe 10 years after release. I would hear these songs used as “hooks” or theme music before a commercial break on radio’s George Noory’s Coast to Coast.
One newer song I discovered late that I love is by Coldplay; Viva la Vida. That is one hell of a composition, orchestration and performance. It makes the sweetest earworm ever.
That wasn’t Klink. That was Schultz.
My favorite of all the so called “grunge” era acts. I like(d) Stone Temple Pilots more than Nirvana or pearl jam or even Soundgarden and Alice in Chains even though they were groundbreaking sounds and songs, STP had a wholly different artistic sensibility. Critics said it was too pop compared to the others and they meant it derogatorily, but if it was pop at all it was only in their aesthetic sensibilities, like Warhol or Bowie in style and substance. Pop as an art form. RIP Scott.
STP was my favorite band of the 90's era. I own 4 of their CDs. RIP, Scott.
Sound Garden was one of my favs. I saw them live at Lalapoloza I think 96, and they played Black Hole Sun which is a great song. I couldn’t make it out at all, was a mess.
But STP was a great band and I’m really saddened by Scott’s death. I’m almost 42, and he wasn’t that much older, but he made it a lot longer than most ‘suicide band deaths’ at around 27.
Was it maybe in 1994?
Layne Staley was great. Did you ever hear the Mad Season? It was a mix of Alice and Peal Jam musicians who did it as a side project. There is a studio album and a live version of the whole album are available). In his prime he was the epitome of a virile rock star; tall, blonde, muscular with a powerful voice and unique lyrical sensibility. But his fate was tragic. He was a committed junkie who just accepted he would not recover and that he would ultimately die from drugs. His heroin (and crack cocaine) addiction was so powerful he could not take the physical pain of withdrawal. He spent the last years of his life holed up in a condo, refusing to see or work with most of his Alice in Chain bandmates, and rejecting nearly all visitors except for drug suppliers who delivered stuff every day and had his ATM card to collect, and a few close friends who were fellow drug users. He refused to talk to almost anyone including his girlfriend who resorted to prostitution to pay for her habit. Layne’s managers only knew he was alive by seeing the ATM withdrawals on bank statement. Layne died in his armchair, multiple needles in his arms, 85 pounds, with several makeshift heroin syringes loaded and ready for injection on a side table, and one found that he presumably dropped between his legs when he fell asleep that laid under his body when he died.
John Baker Saunders was also a Mad Season member who died from drug overdose shortly after Layne passed. Mike Starr, Layne’s bandmate in Alice in Chains, is rumored invriably to have either witnessed his death, been the last to see him alive, or perhaps came into his apartment and left when he realized Layne was dead. Starr was on the rehab show with dr drew and Bob Forrest - Forrest had been a musician in the Los Angeles band Thelonious Monster who had a local following (I was a fan of them but I was relatively young and naive at the time). Forrest is alleged to have been a supplier to many in the music scene before cleaning up and becoming a drug counselor. River Phoenix died at the Viper Room I think right after a Thelonious Monster show). I have no evidence of this, but heard that Robert Downey Jr got hooked on Forrests supply. Starr relapsed and died from prescription drug overdose a few years after Layne.
what were STP’s catchy tunes?
anything in the top40?
Already mentioned... Plush and Interstate Love Song. I really liked their song from the movie “ The Crow” called The Big Easy.
I always thought his one of the best rock voices ever. IIRC, last year he fronted a new band and the lead guitarist died just before they released their first album.
Too bad. STP was my favorite grunge band.
RIP.
Oops that’s Big Empty.
Yes I like Soundgarden a lot. I liked Audioslave even more. Chris Cornell (singer for both bands, a solo artist and collaborator in Temple of the Dog) is imo the perfect rock band vocalist, none of that falsetto common in lesser artists, and tons of testosterone that makes great rock music so, well, great.
I actually like Janes Addiction even more (but of course its hard to say who is ‘better’ they were all great and each had their own qualities that I appreciate) but I’m sure I’m in the minority on that opinion. But the lyrical rebellion well spiced with sarcasm and humor just appealed to me more. It’s self aware and sincere yet doesn’t take itself too seriously all without compromising its rock and roll credentials. Janes Addiction’s singer Perry Ferrel (a stage name, you could pronounce it ‘peripheral’ which speaks to that sarcasm, how can the potent front man of a rock band call himself peripheral?) is the founder of the Lalapalooza festival and makes a fortune from it every year. Perry also has a very individual/unique view of life expressed in his music (also founder of the band Porno for Pyros) and he has a backstory - one that is almost certainly fictional about being a junkie male prostitute in New York - pushed by his promoters in the early days of Janes Addiction’s formation.
Promoters and A&R people tend to leak all kinds of sensationalism to build interest in their acts. One of the all time great BS stories was the one about how the two sisters in the band Heart were incestuous lesbian lovers. They did a promotional photo session and towards the end of the shoot the photographer suggested they do some topless black and white stills (hey, it was San Francisco in the 60s). So they took off their tops and stood back to back to back in what is now a (in)famous album cover. But that photograph was the basis to support the silly rumor. Heart is also a great and groundbreaking act.
I know you probably know most of what I posted on this thread, I’m not trying to be condescending but I figure other Freepers might be interested in this stuff. If not, well, I enjoyed writing it anyways :-).
All I know about Stone Temple Pilot “Sour Girl” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxS4lqppZ6Y
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