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STONE
TEMPLE PILOTS
©
Dave Ling - June 2001
Interviews with Scott Weiland and Dean DeLeo,
previously published in Metal Hammer magazine
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The
firemen clank their way into Room 903 of the plush Metropolitan
Hotel in London's Old Park Lane, looking anxiously around for
the cause of their summoning. Mere minutes earlier, Scott Weiland
and Dean DeLeo's billowing plumes of cigarette smoke had set off
the alarm system. A frantic phone call to Reception later and
the siren was halted, but apparently nobody had the foresight
to inform the emergency services of the false alarm.
"Where's the fire?" the men in uniforms bellow unanimously.
"Er. there is no fire," we reply, somewhat shocked at
the suddenness of their arrival.
"Well, what have you been smoking?"
The irony is not lost on Weiland, who spent the summer of 1999
in Los Angeles County Jail’s rehab facility, throwing the
future of his band the Stone Temple Pilots into disarray for the
umpteenth time. |
After
joking that we had been smoking crack cocaine, the reformed heroin
addict and his guitar-playing buddy quickly convince the firemen
that it was regular cigarette smoke, and the heat from the situation
fades.
Nothing in life, it seems, is simple with the Stone Temple Pilots.
Following the San Diego band’s initial multi-Platinum breakthrough,
their story has only ever become more and more unpredictable,
evermore sordid and tragic. Now a fifth chapter is beginning. |
| “My
mother’s entire side of the family were alcoholics. All
of them are now in recovery,
except for the ones that are dead.”
Scott
Weiland |
| In
the flesh, Scott Weiland is taller and even skinnier that you’d
expect. Earlier that morning he’d taken a six-mile run
through the streets around Hyde Park. Already pipe cleaner thin,
he exercises to focus his mind.
“I need to keep on the right path,” says the singer.
“The more I run, the less chance there is of doing…
other things.”
If they can keep their act together, things are looking hopeful
for Stone Temple Pilots. In recent years the quartet have added
critical acclaim to their vast commercial success. Although
they sold more than four million copies of their debut album,
1992’s ‘Core’, and saw the follow-up ‘Purple’
enter the Billboard chart at the coveted Number One slot, the
US press slaughtered them, claiming they had stolen all their
best ideas from Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and especially
Pearl Jam.
“It was the same for Led Zeppelin, and being musicologists
we had been weaned on that type of rock ‘n’ roll.
They showed us that there could always be light at the end of
the tunnel,” Weiland recalls. “Zeppelin were maybe
six albums into their careers before the critics realised that
they were one of the greatest bands ever. There was a point
where we stopped reading reviews, or even speaking to the press.
It was very disheartening because we knew we had something special.
We were never in this just for one hit album or two; we always
felt we’d make a minimum of a five-album statement. |
| “But
we persevered, and things have gone full circle with other bands,
and with the critics,” he continues. “Many of the bands
we toured with in the early days – even ones we had admired
– were tepid towards us. But it’s amazing to think that
we’ve now sold more than 20 million albums, and we’re
only just starting to peak as a live band and as songwriters.
Our personal lives are starting to take shape, and last summer
we were out co-headlining with the Chili Peppers and we got the
most amazing reviews. It must have been hard to be in the Chili
Peppers and read those reviews; they were the band with the hit
record, but suddenly the magazines that’d slagged us were
all eating crow. In 1993, Spin Magazine had a writers’
poll which said we were the worst band of the year – nearly
ten years later we were being told we were the best live rock
‘n’ roll band on the planet… that must be pretty
unique.” |
|
Nevertheless,
Weiland himself was even blasted at the start by Eddie Vedder,
who claimed he had been “coppin’ his trip”.
“That was tough to take, and also kinda odd because Pearl
Jam went through the same thing when they first came out,”
sighs Scott. “But we’re friends with all the guys from
Pearl Jam, except Eddie. He’s kind of a loner,although Stone
[Gossard, guitarist] and Mike [McCreadie, lead guitarist] always
come to see us when we play Seattle.”
It was during the two-year gap between ‘Purple’ and
1996’s ‘Tiny Music… Music From The Vatican Gift
Shop’ album that Scott Weiland’s life took a turn for
the worse. The Pilots had snubbed the offer of an opening spot
on Aerosmith’s tour and gone out on the road with the more
underground credible Butthole Surfers instead. And so, in New
York in 1994, with Butthole chief Gibby Haynes right by his side,
Weiland took heroin for the first time. How significant that STP
could have gigged with the reformed Toxic Twins, but instead chose
the more treacherous path.
“Who’d want to go out with Aerosmith – those guys
are boring these days,” retorts Weiland, before DeLeo jabs
him in the ribs and reminds him of the band’s significance.
“Scott said that – don’t misquote me about Aerosmith,
man!” he warns. “I cut my teeth with those guys.”
“Yeah,” Weiland corrects the guitarist, “but you
cut your teeth with them when they were speedballing, playing
stuff they actually wrote.”
Meanwhile, back at our story, Weiland explains that various other
addictions had preceded his mid-’90s heroin dependency.
“I come from that type of a family, my mother’s entire
side of the family were alcoholics,” he says. “All of
them are now in recovery, except for the ones that are dead. My
mother is of Swedish royal descent and her family came to America
with millions of dollars, but the entire fortune was lost gambling.
And from that point on, the family struggled with gambling, drug
and alcohol addiction. I drank alcohol from the age of 13, and
I figured that it would probably catch up with me in my fifties
or something… wrong!” |
| "Dean
[DeLeo] met his wife, put down roots and stopped the narcotics.
But not me. I took it all the way until the wheels fell off."
Scott
Weiland |
But
the singer, who in 1995 rightly predicted that it would be necessary
for the band to “deconstruct in order to reconstruct”,
was not alone in his substance abuse.
“After the success of ‘Purple’, we were emotionally
frayed. It was like living in the middle of a whirling dervish,"
offers Scott. "And to combat that, myself, Dean and Eric
[Kretz, drums] took an enormous amount of drugs and alcohol. It
was only Robert [DeLeo, bassist] who abstained, and that made
him feel very isolated. Brazilian jazz music and his collection
of shoes became his only friends.
“Robert is a very strange bird,” Weiland offers as an
amusing distraction, “he used to sit in the back lounge [of
the tour bus] and video tape his shoe collection, then take a
toothbrush and polish them. Then Dean met his wife, put down roots
and stopped the narcotics. But not me. I took it all the way until
the wheels fell off.”
The first disaster struck in early ’95, when the singer was
arrested for possession of heroin and cocaine. He was then forced
into rehab just as the Pilots completed ‘Tiny Music…’,
cancelling all touring plans. Naturally, the other three were
livid.
“Trying to get Scott straight was like pissing up a rope,
man,” sighs Dean. “Our feelings have run the gamut,
but after a while your professional feelings take a back seat.
Every time the phone rang I suspected it would be to tell me that
Scott was dead.” |
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Many
observers felt the band had run its course in 1998 when Weiland
made a solo album, ‘12 Bar Blues’, and rest of the Pilots
recruited another singer, Dave Coutts, to record an album under
the name of Talk Show. Again, Weiland shot himself in the foot
when he was arrested in New York in possession of drugs, scuppering
his solo tour. A $250,000 warrant for his arrest was then issued
after missing two court appearances in as many months.
“Being shackled, thrown into a police car and put back behind
bars is not a natural state for any human being,” he recalls
sadly. “Being temporarily enslaved doesn’t do a lot
for your self esteem.” |
Released
on bail of $10,000, the singer’s first wife picked him up
from jail. When Weiland instructed her to go by his dealer's house,
she refused.
“So I jumped out of the car at 45 MPH, rolled across the
street, found a pay phone, called a cab, went to my dealer's house
and got well,” he later recalled.
Incredibly, STP regrouped for the ‘No.4’ album two years
ago, but plans to tour were yet again thrown into disarray when
Scott was sentenced to a year-long jail term after a probation
violation. Eventually he served 246 days, but the counselling
he received during his incarceration put his life back on track.
Each day he would rise at 5.30am, he received one visitor per
week, the playing of music was forbidden and lights would go out
at 10pm.
“My first week was spent in solitary confinement, because
I’m a person of notoriety – it’s for your own protection.
But being in this tiny white room with no windows was the lowest
I’ve ever been in my life,” he relates. “But it
got better. I made a few decisions that were the right ones, and
I was transferred to an outside programme. There was barbed wire
and it was like a prison yard compound, but you could spend time
outside.”
Each day he would receive an average of ten letters from STP fans.
Without wishing to sound ungrateful, Weiland says they were of
little real help.
“They were kinda depressing. Everybody cares, but people
don’t know who I am. On a professional level it was nice
to know that there was still a lot of love for our music, but
it was the letters from my wife Mary that helped me to survive.” |
| “After
a while your professional feelings take a back seat. Every time
the phone rang
I suspected it would be to tell me that Scott was dead.”
Dean
DeLeo |
| Dean
paid regular visits when he was allowed, although for some strange
reason he reveals: “I used to rub my testicles up and down
the glass that was between us!”
Ahem! Nevertheless, singer and guitarist both insist that throughout
all the group’s tribulations, their long-term future was
never in doubt.
“After ‘Tiny Music…’ the air was very thick
with negativity, and it was so uncomfortable that Robert would
even have his own dressing room,” admits Scott. “But
our solo work saved this band. Management wanted us to make
another record right away and go out on tour, but if we’d
done that we’d have ended up finished – or dead.”
It’s
early days yet, of course, but Scott Weiland doesn’t yet
have the authority of Steven Tyler or Joe Perry when he talks
of being clean. “Shit man, when I feel bad I know what
gets me out of that state – at least temporarily,”
he sighs, almost nostalgically. Weiland also mentions the temptation
he felt running past several London pubs that he had frequented
in the past, and stresses the significance of believing in “something
greater than yourself” in order to defeat one’s demons.
He seems to forget that the arrival of a semblance of organisation
in his life was only forced upon him when he was sent to jail.
“That was all part of the equation. It’s not like
I’m cured yet,” he continues sadly. “There are
times when I feel I need something to help me. It’s just
the fear of what would follow that keeps me from going back.
If there was a way I could take that kind of a vacation and
then climb back onto the horse after a few days, I would do
it. It sucks to not feel comfortable. Each night I go to bed
and just hope I’ll wake up the next day feeling better.”
These days, the singer has a new wife and son and appears completely
changed. But Dean sets those alarm bells ringing once more when
during our conversation about drugs he chuckles: “It’s
a drag that Scott and I can’t party together anymore, man.”
Thankfully, the promotion of an excellent new album, ‘Shangri-La
Dee Da’, and a plethora of live dates should provide a
useful distraction. Inevitably, the lyrics touch upon events
of the last few years, particularly ‘Dumb Love’, which
is about trying to find “a way to live through the shame”.
Yes, Scott Weiland is ashamed of what he’s done.
“I try not to be, but I am,” he sighs. “I traverse
between two lives; one is being who I should be and another
is who I really am. But for the first time I’m expressing
hope.”
In August, the Pilots play their first UK shows in nearly seven
years (see Tour News), before possibly heading out on this year’s
Family Values tour in the States. Last year, STP even gigged
with Godsmack and Disturbed, confirming a crossover appeal with
the nu-metal crowd.
“It’s strange when those bands cite us an influence
because we grew up listening to way different things. My own
rock ‘n’ roll tastes don’t go much beyond 1984,”
admits Dean.
“The bottom line is that we are a rock ‘n’ roll
band, just like Disturbed, Staind and Godsmack,” agrees
Weiland. “These days rock fans just want to hear sheer
volume and raw energy.”
In 1998, Weiland declared he was going to save rock ‘n’
roll. He still feels that is his band’s destiny.
“We bring an element of danger that’s been missing
for a long time,” he smiles morbidly in conclusion. “People
never used to go and see [70s stunt motorcyclist] Evel Knievel
jump… they wanted to see him crash.” |
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