SCOTT WEILAND On VELVET REVOLVER Split - "People Were Kind Of Waiting On The Train Wreck To Happen; They Just Thought It Would Happen A Lot Sooner" Evan Serpick at
www.RollingStone.com recently spoke to
STONE TEMPLE PILOTS frontman Scott Weiland about his recent departure from
VELVET REVOLVER. Following are a couple excerpts from the interview.
Q: You've said the story of STP never really seemed finished and you thought there would be another chapter. Now that it seems to be here, how does it feel to be back with these guys?
Weiland: "It feels great, actually. And I think the reason is because it wasn't planned. I wasn't approached by my manager. I wasn't approached by an agent or a group of promoters. I got a phone call from Dean [DeLeo] when I was on tour with Revolver, and he said, 'Hey listen, are you sitting down? There are a handful of festivals trying to reach out to us, and the money is pretty ridiculous.' I never thought our first reunion would be a tour playing our hits. Although there's definitely nothing wrong with that, that's one of the great things that we've achieved. Ultimately our goal was to create a legacy. When we were in the car driving around together, promoting local gigs, it was, 'One day we will be one of those bands that have a creative legacy.' We've been able to achieve that, but we feel that there is more to say. So we kind of felt it would be through the challenge of making new music. That would be the voice of the STP reunion.
I always felt we were a very interesting live band, that we could deliver the rock when we want to and then delve into these really spacey, trippy places where you weren't quite sure where we were at until we landed back into that big riff again. Then we had these songs that if you took away the volume, sounded quite a lot like Burt Bacharach songs with melodies that were a bit different, and quite a bit more morbid. But that's kind of what made the band sort of unique."
Q: Did that call from Dean come at a time when things were already falling apart with Velvet Revolver?
Weiland: "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."
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