Stone Temple Pilots

What are the odds of striking up a conversation with a complete stranger only to discover the two of you are dating the same girl. Stranger still, what if ambition trumped testosterone and resulted in the birth of one of the most successful rock bands of all time. Makes for a compelling case in support of Jung’s theory of synchronicity, no?

When vocalist Scott Weiland met bassist Robert DeLeo in 1986 at a rock concert, not only did the two men discover they had a lady in common, but that they shared similar musical aspirations. After the two-timing girl left town, Weiland and DeLeo took up residence in her newly vacated apartment and went about building a band.

They recruited DeLeo’s older brother Dean on guitar and Eric Kretz on drums, and the group recorded a demo under the name Mighty Joe Young. Before the band had cut their first album, though, they were forced to change names when Mighty Joe Young had already been claimed by a blues man. The group renamed themselves Shirley Temple’s Pussy for a short time before changing names yet again under pressure of their label. Keeping the initials STP, they settled on Stone Temple Pilots.

Stone Temple Pilots exploded onto the music scene in 1992 with the release of their debut album, Core. With four killer singles behind it, including the brooding, self-reflective “Creep” and the Grammy-winning “Plush”, Core peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200. Although the album was a hit among their ever-burgeoning fan base, their critics weren’t as enthusiastic, dismissing STP as wannabes riding the grunge wave of hot Seattle bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Alice in Chains. So polarized were the two camps that in a January 1994 Rolling Stone poll, STP were simultaneously voted Best New Band by Rolling Stone’s readers and Worst New Band by the magazine’s music critics.

Unlike so many of their peers of the time, Stone Temple Pilots managed to hold their own through much of the ‘90s and change their critics’ misperception of them, album by album. Their second effort, 1994's Purple, shot straight to #1 its opening week on the back of the singles “Vasoline”, “Big Empty”, and what is considered to be one of STP’s biggest hits, “Interstate Love Song”. According to Weiland, the lyrical themes of “Interstate Love Song” deal with honesty and lack thereof as they relate to the heroin habit he allegedly acquired while out on the road in ‘93 with Butthole Surfers. Four months after its release, Purple had sold three million copies.

In May 1995, Weiland was busted for possession of heroin and cocaine, a charge to which he pled not guilty. He faced up to three years in prison. Following his arrest, Stone Temple Pilots took a brief hiatus before beginning work on their third album.

Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop was released in 1996 and with its more psychedelic sound, marked a drastic change in direction for the band. Fan support drove the album to #4 in the U.S., but as Weiland’s behavior became increasingly more erratic, plans for a tour were put on hold.

Weiland was ordered into a rehab facility where he completed five months of a drug treatment program in lieu of jail time for his possession charge. When he relapsed shortly after his release, Weiland checked himself back into rehab.

Scott Weiland’s stays in rehab, both voluntary and involuntary, resulted in the band having to scrap most of their tour in support of Tiny Music. The album quickly fell off the charts, and Stone Temple Pilots again went on hiatus, this time for the better part of a year.

Weiland and the other members of STP used the time off to work on solo projects. While out stumping for his solo album, 12 Bar Blues, Weiland was caught buying heroin in Manhattan and was sentenced to a year in a Los Angeles county jail shortly after STP put out their fourth album, No. 4.

Stone Temple Pilots would release a fifth album in 2001 called Shangri-La Dee Da, but despite the modest hits “Days of the Week” and “Hollywood Bitch”, the album was a disappointment. Tensions were running high in the group as Weiland’s problems continued to sabotage the band’s success, and during the final show of STP’s Shangri-La tour, things finally came to a head when Weiland and DeLeo got into an onstage altercation. The incident marked the end of the goup. Stone Temple Pilots officially disbanded in 2003.

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Scott Weiland is as famous for fronting Stone Temple Pilots as he is infamous for his hardcore drug habit. Busted repeatedly for possession of heroin and cocaine, jailed and rehabbed, Weiland’s drug dependency had become unmanageable to the point of derailing the very band he co-founded. With an addiction that spanned nearly a decade, it is widely reported that Weiland has been free from heroin since December 5, 2002, despite his being arrested in 2003 for driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol and again in 2007 when he was charged with a DUI that landed him back in rehab. Weiland has also admitted to “a very short binge with coke” in late 2007.

In the years after the demise of Stone Temple Pilots, the members of the band each went onto various other projects. Most notable was Weiland’s hookup with former Guns N’ Roses members Slash, Matt Sorum, and Duff McKagan to form the supergroup Velvet Revolver. The band generated quite a buzz and released two very successful albums, Contraband (2004), which won the group a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock performance with Vocal in 2005 for the song “Slither”, and Libertad (2007). But a chance reconciliation between Weiland and DeLeo in 2007 led to Weiland's abrupt departure from Velvet Revolver to reunite with STP, a move that didn’t sit well with his Revolver bandmates or with fans.

Stone Temple Pilots embarked on a 65-date U.S. tour in May 2008, marking the first time the group had played together in nearly 6 years. The band will continue to tour throughout the remainder of 2009 in preparation for a new album that is expected to drop in early 2010. Weiland has also confirmed he is writing an autobiography called Desperation No. 5. The book is expected to be released in February 2010.

As for the future of Stone Temple Pilots, a band that grew out of a love triangle, Scott Weiland is optimistic. He has put the band somewhere in the middle of their career, insinuating STP intend on staying together for some time to come.