2008.05.02 - Rolling Stone - Scott Weiland Q&A: Stone Temple Pilots Frontman Talks Axl Rose

Scott Weiland Q&A: Stone Temple Pilots Frontman Talks Axl Rose, STP's Reunion and Tight Jeans

Singer reflects on his past with Velvet Revolver and his new future with STP

By EVAN SERPICK

Midway through March, Scott Weiland told a Glasgow crowd Velvet Revolver was coming to an end. After a brief scuffle with his then-bandmates in the press, Velvet Revolver announced they would be carrying on — without Weiland. One week later, however, Stone Temple Pilots made an announcement of their own: a 65-date reunion tour with Weiland at the mike. Rolling Stone spoke with STP and Slash for Issue 1052; here's an expanded version of the Weiland interview, where he talks about the end of his time in VR, how STP will approach their big tour and knowing when it's time to hang up the tight jeans.

[...]

Did that call from Dean [DeLeo] come at a time when things were already falling apart with Velvet Revolver?

No, things at that time were working quite well with Velvet Revolver and I didn't want to mention it to them until there was a plan and a couple gigs that were actually booked. Slash and I were usually the ones who talked to each other first about things, then we'd go to the rest of the guys. And, unfortunately because of certain people's egos, it... I walked into a situation where there was a lot of baggage. I had a lot of baggage walking into my situation. I was in a band where at the end, it was pretty much three against one. And so I'm pretty sure that it felt that way to Axl as well. I have to say this, and I'm not just saying this now because of my situation I went through, but I heard a lot of great Guns n' Roses stories you guys in the press will never hear. Everyone has made Axl out to be this horrendously crazy person, this bad guy, and I don't know him very well at all. He and I for whatever reason got almost tricked into this little media spat for a moment because one of our band members happened to run into him and said that he said something. So, my point being that having been in a band with Velvet Revolver now for five and a half years, I'm not quite so sure that it was all Axl's fault.

It's like, why does it always have to be the lead singer. Matt Sorum in front of my face, he was the sweetest guy in the world. But there were some times, out of the blue, the guy just randomly hated me. We all carried our own baggage in that band. In a sense, that's why people were intrigued, you know, especially for the first couple of years. Because they were kind of waiting on the trainwreck to happen. They just thought it would happen a lot sooner.

To a certain degree, because there was all that baggage, for Velvet Revolver to pull together two really great albums was impressive.

Yeah, yeah. Especially on the second one. I really feel proud of the second album we made. We put all of our problems aside, egos aside, and we became a band, and it wasn't about being Guns n' Roses and STP. It was about being a completely different band. Not many people are able to say that they had in their professional career the chance to perform in two bands that won Grammys and were multi-platinum bands. But with STP, you know, these were, you know, the best friends of my life. I grew up with these guys while we were teenagers. It's a whole other thing.

[...]

Are you thinking you might miss the old lifestyle when you're on the road again with these guys?

No, not really at all. There were some moments with the Velvets that brought back those days. I mean, you gotta figure that everyone in Velvet Revolver besides [guitarist] Dave [Kushner] relapsed and went to rehab at least two times. So no, I'm actually looking forward to the fact that this band is much more about the music and it's always been that way.

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