Stone Temple Pilots, Billy Corgan Pen Tributes to Scott Weiland
The Stone Temple Pilots and Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan published tributes Friday for Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver ex-frontman Scott Weiland, who was found dead Thursday night in his tour bus in Minnesota. He was 48.
The singer battled heroin and cocaine addiction. The cause of Weiland’s death is still unknown.
Weiland led Southern California-based Stone Temple Pilots, fondly called “STP” by fans, for two decades. Three STP band members, Robert DeLeo, Dean DeLeo and Eric Kretz, shared their condolences in a statement on the band’s website.
“Dear Scott,
Let us start by saying thank you for sharing your life with us.
Together we crafted a legacy of music that has given so many people happiness and great memories.
The memories are many, and they run deep for us.
We know amidst the good and the bad you struggled, time and time again.
It’s what made you who you were.
You were gifted beyond words, Scott.
Part of that gift was part of your curse.
With deep sorrow for you and your family, we are saddened to see you go.
All of our love and respect.
We will miss you brother,
Robert, Eric, Dean”
Corgan shared his memories of Weiland, explaining he thinks Weiland, Layne Staley and Kurt Cobain were the greatest voices of their generation.
“Having just woken to the news of this passing, I feel compelled to put pen to paper and pay my respects to Scott. And in that I will not pretend to know more than I know, or add some sad homily to how he loved his life. At least in that, may I now say he is undoubtably in the arms of grace and eternal love.
May I also offer my humble condolences to his family, friends, and band mates; who have, and are, suffering this great loss. For when anyone as vaunted leaves far too soon, we mourn all that might have been.
As any fan, I find myself reflecting on what I do have in my own treasure chest: in scarce moments where Scott and I spoke as contemporaries or competitors, and got to know each as people other past the footlights and shadows we were so busy casting to the world. It may seem trite in reflection, but I’d try to make him giggle when I saw that the manic whirl of the dumb parties we were at (in Hollywood, no less!) might be causing undue stress.
It was, I’d guess you’d say, my way of apology for having been so critical of STP when they appeared on the scene like some crazy, man-fueled rocket. And not only was the knight up front freshly handsome to a fault, but he could sing too! As any supreme actor gives a real and different voice to each character played.
It was STP’s 3rd album that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I’d been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott’s phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere.
Lastly, I’d like to share a thought which though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I’d say it were he, Layne, and Kurt.
So it goes beyond tragedy to say it is we who lost them, and not the other way round…
William Corgan”
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