Scott Weiland (born
Scott Richard Kline on October 27, 1967) is an
American
musician, lyricist, and vocalist, most notably known for his work with
Grammy Award-winning rock band Stone
Temple Pilots, and also for his five-year career with supergroup Velvet Revolver. After a five-year
hiatus, the
STP
reunion tour kicked off at the
Rock on the Range festival in May 2008. He
was the frontman of Velvet Revolver during his time away from STP,
but parted ways with the band on April 1, 2008. Weiland's split
from Velvet Revolver also led to his departure from the
side-project band
Camp Freddy. Weiland's
second solo album,
"Happy" in
Galoshes, was released on November 25, 2008.
Weiland supported the
record with an early 2009 tour of the United States.[45169]
Weiland is one of the most successful frontmen to emerge from the
1990s. He is well-known for his flamboyant and energetic onstage
persona and for constantly changing his appearance and vocal style.
Weiland's life and career have been plagued with
heroin addiction, as well as several
arrests. However, according to
MTV News, Weiland has been free from heroin since
December 5, 2002.
Biography
Early years
Weiland
was born as Scott Kline in Santa Clara County
, California
. His surname was changed after being adopted
by his stepfather David Weiland at age 5.
Around that time,
Weiland moved to Chagrin Falls
, Ohio
, where he
attended the Kenston School
District. He moved to California as a teenager and attended Edison High
School
in Huntington Beach
.
Stone Temple Pilots (1986-1997)
In 1986 Weiland met bassist
Robert
DeLeo at a
Black Flag concert,
and shortly thereafter formed the band Mighty Joe Young with
DeLeo's brother
Dean on
guitar and
Eric
Kretz on
drums and recorded the
Mighty
Joe Young Demo in 1990. After signing with
Atlantic Records it was discovered that
"
Mighty Joe Young" was
already taken so they changed their name to Shirley Temple's Pussy.
Not long afterwards the band's name was changed again to Stone
Temple Pilots, due to pressure from their record label.
Weiland wrote the band's lyrics and performed vocals.
In 1992, they released
their first album, Core,
spawning four hits ("Sex Type Thing",
"Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush") and leading them to becoming one of the
most influential bands of the grunge
movement, the music genre that was started in Seattle
in the late eighties and became rock and roll's
central movement in the early-mid 1990s. The band was widely
accused of imitating bands such as
Alice
in Chains,
Pearl Jam,
Soundgarden and
Nirvana in an attempt to cash in on the
scene's burgeoning popularity. Critics also pointed out that
Weiland's vocal style at the time was very similar to that of
Layne Staley's and
Eddie Vedder's. Weiland has rejected such
comparisons, however, citing
Jim
Morrison and
David Bowie as more
influential on his vocal techniques and sound. Despite negative
reviews from critics,
Core was extremely successful,
eventually being certified 8x platinum by the RIAA.
In 1994, Weiland and STP released their second record,
Purple, which saw the development of a
more distinctive identity for the band. While still a clear
continuation of their previous techniques, the album featured a
more "classic rock" sound, and had a mixture of punk, bossa nova,
and acoustic songs. 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 year prior, STP toured with the
Butthole Surfers and Weiland
developed a
heroin addiction,
claiming Butthole Surfers singer
Gibby
Haynes introduced him to
heroin, which
Gibby denies.
In 1995, Weiland was caught and convicted of buying
crack cocaine. He was sentenced to one year's
probation. Issues with drug use did not
clear up after his sentence. As his drug problems increased, Scott
moved into a hotel for two months with
Courtney Love and claimed to have "shot drugs
the whole time" with her. 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. Although
Tiny Music... was
certified 2x platinum, the canceled tour caused the album to fall
quickly off the charts.
STP Hiatus and 12 Bar Blues (1997-1998)
With Weiland's status in the band uncertain and unpredictable, STP
went on hiatus. The other members of the band created the group
Talk Show with lead singer
Dave Coutts. Weiland, meanwhile, adopted an
androgynous look and 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. The album was a commercial failure
but it managed to achieve some critical acclaim.
It was also during
this time that Weiland was caught in Manhattan
buying heroin, dressed like a pimp, ending his
brief tour. A previous conviction in Los Angeles
, coupled with numerous probation violations, earned
Weiland jail time.
Back with STP (1999-2002)
His period in jail had apparently helped to wean him from his
habit, and once released, he rejoined Stone Temple Pilots. In 1999,
the band released
No.
4. The album contained the
hit single "
Sour Girl" which featured a
strange, surreal music video with
Sarah Michelle Gellar. That same year,
Weiland also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup
The Wondergirls.
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 " 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.
In late
2001, Weiland was arrested on domestic
violence charges in Las Vegas
, apparently for shoving his wife, Mary Forsberg. However, the charges
were eventually deferred upon the couple agreeing to counseling.
Soon after, Forsberg filed for divorce but the couple eventually
reconciled. Weiland's career also took a hit, with an altercation
between Weiland and Dean DeLeo on the final gig of STP's
Shangri-La Dee Da tour,
leading to the band's official demise with much of the speculation
surrounding Weiland's inability to balance personal issues.
Velvet Revolver (2003-2008)
After the
breakup of STP, Weiland was arrested on his birthday on October 27,
2003 in Hollywood,
California
, after a traffic
collision. He was charged with
driving under the influence of
drugs and
alcohol. His charges were eventually dismissed after
he successfully completed rehab and subsequent drug tests.
Around this time, Weiland was asked by former
Guns N' Roses bassist
Duff McKagan to lead a band with Duff and the
former GNR members
Slash and
Matt Sorum, as well as
Dave Kushner. The band used the working title
"The Project". Slash initially suggested the name "Revolver".
Weiland later suggested the name "Black Velvet Revolver", and
eventually the name was shortened to "
Velvet Revolver", after a suggestion by
Slash.
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. That same year, Weiland
appeared on
Last Call
with Carson Daly and performed a new solo song, "The Man I
Didn't Know", a
country-style ballad
that deals with his relationship with his father. "The Man I Didn't
Know" would go on to appear on the deluxe edition of Weiland's
second solo album in 2008.
Weiland and his son Noah were featured on comedian
David Spade's
The Showbiz Show with David
Spade during a comedy sketch about discouraging music
file sharing in 2005. Noah has a line
during the sketch in which he asks a little girl, "Please buy my
daddy's album so I can have food to eat".
At the
2006 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.
[45170]
In 2006, Weiland launched his own record label,
Softdrive Records. Around the same time as
Softdrive Records was launched, he announced plans for a second
solo album, as well as plans to write an autobiography and start
his own clothing line with
Von Dutch.
Weiland also re-recorded the STP outtake "
Learning to Drive", for the 2007
horror film Bug. After an altercation at a hotel,
Weiland's wife,
Mary Forsberg, went
home and torched $10,000 worth of her husband’s clothing in their
front yard. Ironically, Weiland had just announced that his label
signed the up-and-coming rock band, Something to Burn.
Weiland performing live with Velvet
Revolver in 2007
Velvet Revolver released their second album,
Libertad, on July 3,
2007. In an interview with
Rolling
Stone in 2007, Weiland mentioned that the only albums he
has written sober are
Libertad and STP's
Core.
The album sold a little under 100,000 copies during its first week
and has sold over 230,000 copies as of
September 2007, which fell short of
expectations in failing to even meet the first week sales of
Contraband. In December 2007 Scott Weiland was arrested
and charged with DUI, his first arrest in over four years (since
October 27, 2003). On February 7, 2008, Blabbermouth.net officially
reported that Weiland checked himself into rehab. This resulted in
the cancellation of Velvet Revolver's Australian tour (which had
initially been postponed for two months already). The article does
not mention why Weiland, who has claimed sobriety since 2003,
entered the facility. He left rehab in early March, according to
his lawyer.
On March
20, 2008, Weiland revealed at Velvet Revolver's show in Glasgow
that this would be the band's final tour.
Matt Sorum posted a message on his
website the next day discussing the band's situation and said, "You
could tell who was unhappy last night," and "some people in this
business don't realize how great of a life they have." Weiland shot
back by telling Blabbermouth.net, "Well, first of all, the state of
my family affairs is really none of his business, since he is too
immature to have a real relationship, let alone children. So don't
attempt to stand in a man's shoes when you haven't walked his
path." Slash hinted in an interview with
Classic Rock
magazine that, contrary to Weiland's assertions, Velvet Revolver
will continue beyond its current tour. When asked "With Scott
singing?", Slash replied "I have no comment on that", and laughed.
On Tuesday, April 1, it was announced by a number of media outlets
that Scott Weiland would no longer be in Velvet Revolver.
In a
Spin magazine interview Weiland revealed that he's
also not ruling out a Velvet Revolver reunion. "Slash and I always
got on pretty well," he says. "So who knows?"
STP Reunion and "Happy" in Galoshes (since 2008)
After
Weiland split from Velvet Revolver, Stone Temple Pilots announced a
65-date U.S.
tour on April 7, 2008 in Los Angeles 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. STP is expected to record their sixth album sometime in 2009.
Weiland has also confirmed he is writing his autobiography,
Desperation No. 5, with
David Ritz. The book is expected to be released
in February of 2010.
[45171]
On April 28, 2008, Weiland was sentenced to 192 hours in county
jail for his November 2007
DUI. He was also
required to complete an 18-month alcohol program, as well as pay
$2000 in fines, and will be on probation for four years. Weiland
entered a
Los Angeles County jail
on May 12, but was released later that same day..
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. Weiland's first stop on his promo tour was
Austin ,Texas.
On
December 19, Scott signed a
publishing deal with
Bug Music, allowing
Weiland to "receive funding to pursue the development of creative
projects and writers for Bug Music through his co-founded label,
Softdrive Records." The deal
includes Weiland's share of the Stone Temple Pilots catalog and
future solo projects.
[45172]
On
January 21, Weiland announced the
launch of his clothing line, Weiland for English Laundry, in
partnership with designer Christopher Wicks.
Scott stated on
January 25 that the DeLeo
brothers are currently writing music for the
sixth STP record and
that he will add his vocals and melody to it when the material is
ready. STP has toured and will continue to tour throughout 2009 in
preparation for the new album, which will be released in late 2009
or early 2010. Regarding the new STP album, Weiland recently told
Spinner.com in late October that the
album would be finished once STP's current tour was complete, and
that around the album's release, STP would embark on a "long" tour
that would probably stretch over a year. Weiland also stated that
after that tour, he would begin work on his third solo album.
It was announced in March 2009 that
VH1 will
begin airing new episodes of the popular documentary series
Behind the Music, which
originally ran from 1997 to 2006. Weiland, along with rapper
Lil Wayne, have both signed on for their
own episodes.
[45173] However, for unknown reasons, Weiland's
episode has since been indefinitely shelved.
[45174]
Personal life
Weiland married Janina Castaneda on
September 17, 1994, but the couple divorced in
2000. He married model Mary Forsberg on May 20, 2000. They have two
young children, Noah (born 2000) and Lucy (born 2002). However, in
late 2007, Weiland and Forsberg separated and are currently in the
process of getting divorced.
Weiland's younger brother Michael died of a
drug overdose in early 2007. The Velvet
Revolver songs "For a Brother" and "Pills, Demons, & Etc" from
the album
Libertad are about
Michael. Weiland stated in an interview with
MTV News in November 2008 that several songs on
"Happy" in Galoshes were inspired by the death of his
brother and his separation from Mary. In the same article, MTV News
reported that Weiland has not done heroin since December 5, 2002.
Weiland also admitted that he went through "a very short binge with
coke" in late 2007. Despite Weiland's
sobriety from drugs, he admits to still drinking alcohol.
Weiland suffers from
bipolar
disorder, yet according to an interview with
VH1.com, he isn't under medication, consequently
suffering from mood swings. Weiland had a brief friendship with
Courtney Love around 1998 and he
admitted they used drugs together.
Weiland is a
Notre Dame football
fan, as his father is an alumnus. In
September 2006, Weiland performed at the
University of Notre Dame's Legends Restaurant on the night before a
football game. He sang several of his solo songs, as well as
"
Interstate Love Song" and a
cover of
Pink Floyd's "
Wish You Were
Here."
Other works and legacy
- He played guitar with Stephen
Carpenter and sang on the Deftones
album White Pony in the song "RX
Queen".
- He performed with Fred Durst and
Limp Bizkit on the album Significant Other in the song "Nobody
Like You" along with Jonathan Davis
from Korn. He was also tributed in the same album with
the song "Show Me What You Got" along with Eminem, Kid Rock, Jordan
, The Firm, Wu-Tang
Clan, The Crystal Method, and
Staind. In that song, Fred Durst sings
"Scott Weiland, the melody man. If you can't sing it, nobody can."
Weiland was also featured on Limp Bizkit's third album,
Chocolate
Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, in the song "Hold
On".
- Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 believes Scott Weiland is one of the
most underrated frontman, stating that “Scott Weiland in his heyday
was just made of rubber, I’ve never seen anything like that in my
life.”
- Chester Bennington of
Linkin Park has stated that Weiland was
a major influence on his singing. Bennington also performed with
Stone Temple Pilots in concert as a guest vocalist at some shows in
2001.
- Weiland has performed with a number of musicians live,
including but not limited to Steven
Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Cyndi
Lauper, Tim McGraw, Billie Joe Armstrong, The Doors, and Jerry
Cantrell.
- In 2007, Weiland was placed at #57 on Hit Parader's list of "Heavy Metal's
All-Time Top 100 Vocalists."[45175]
Discography
Solo discography
Stone Temple
Pilots discography
Velvet Revolver
discography
Soundtrack
References
- NEW
ROCK 99.7 THE BLITZ
- MTV.com: A Walk On The Weiland Side
- [1]
- Velvet-Revolver.com Band Info: Scott
Weiland
- Stone Temple Pilots Tickets - Stone Temple Pilots
Concert Tour Schedule Show Tickets Broker
- Mundy, Chris "Q&A with Scott Wylan "Rolling Stone". February
10, 1994.
- Dave Ling - Music Journalist
- BLABBERMOUTH.NET - VELVET REVOLVER Singer Says
Family Life Has Kept Him Off Drugs
- Velvet
Revolver | Home
- allmusic ((( Libertad > Overview )))
- Amazon.com: Libertad
- Blabbermouth.Net - Velvet Revolver'S Scott Weiland
Back In Rehab
- Scott Weiland Out of Rehab - TMZ.com
- BLABBERMOUTH.NET - SCOTT WEILAND Fires Back At MATT
SORUM: 'Ego And Jealousy Can Get The Better Of Anyone'
- Slash discusses Velvet Revolver's future
- Velvet Revolver splits with rocker Scott
Weiland
- BLABBERMOUTH.NET Stone Temple Pilots to Record New
Studio Album
- That Was Fast -- Weiland Out of Jail -
TMZ.com
- BILLBOARD.COM New Scott Weiland Solo Disc On The
Way
- [2]
-
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Scott-Weiland-and-Rock-amp-prnews-14112845.html
- http://wfnx.com/blogs/sandbox/audio/podcast/scott_web.mp3
- [3]
- [4]
- VH1.com : Stone Temple Pilots - Rhapsody Music
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