Another month, another RIP.

[trashcanman]

Not sure how many more stars and legends rock can lose, but here's another one: Scott Weiland.

It's a sad state of affairs when you hear an artist died in their 40's and you don't even ask why, but Scott Weiland's struggles with heroine are well-documented in the media and his music. Just saying. STP was always the most underrated big band of the 90's to me and Weiland was just an incredible frontman. Some of the best songs of the era and one of those rare bands where even lyrics from some of their non-hits become standard issue ("I aaaaaam smellin' like a rose that somebody gave me on my birthday deathbed"). They were just a vital and indispensable band from the years where I was aggressively forming my own taste in music and they were always great. It's a tragedy that Weiland couldn't keep it together so we only got a meager five STP albums in 25 years and my brain hurts thinking that Chester Benington is now likely a permanent fixture. Weiland's feuds with the media and his bandmates are likely a major reason he won't make it into the Hall of Fame, a STP has been disrespected from nearly every angle (as so many amazing bands are in their day) but going on quality of output and influence in one of the most influential eras of rock music, they're always going to be in mine. Rest in Peace, Scott.

Leavin' on a southern train
Only yesterday you lied
Promises of what I seemed to be
Only watched the time go by
All of these things you said to me

[Ben]

Core is my favorite non-AiC grunge album by a wide margin. You nailed a lot of stuff in that short paragraph, Trashcanman. I mean, do we talk about how he's pretty much the least surprising star to turn up dead? It was no more of a shock to read Scott was gone than it was to learn Charlie Sheen's got HIV. It's almost like "well, yeah... it was bound to happen." which is pretty fucking sad in its own right.

But we could also talk about how fucking original and talented and generally rock-ish Scott was. He lived the lifestyle long after most of his peers cleaned up or died. And you're dead on when you mention how some of their non-singles still became staples even non-fans will hear and say "hey, do I know this band?" Piece of Pie, Sin, man there are a bunch of em.

[trashcanman]

STP's catalog is really diverse too. I always thought of them as the closest thing to Zeppelin the 90's had. I mean, every album was just completely different from every other album and their songs ran the gamut from heavy as fuck to moody acoustic to gorgeous orchestration to WTF and anything in between with very little repetition. Also, out of the biggest 5 grunge era singers, we've only got Vedder and Cornell left. Staley, Cobain, and now Weiland are all gone. I don't want to live on this planet anymore.

[The Curmudgeon]

Yeah, sad as it sounds, when I read that he'd died I was more like "oh" rather than genuine shock. Dude had a lot of demons. Billy Corgan called him "the voice of a generation", which when you consider he was around the same generation as the Pumpkin's, for that to come from someone like Corgan means that respect is due.

Stone Temple Pilots never really made much of an impression in the UK, it was more Velvet Revolver who made more of an impact over here. That being said, they were always a band that were namechecked or referenced in the kind of circles I kept. I wasn't a huge fan, but there's no doubting the man's talent. Another sad loss.

[trashcanman]

Velvet Revolver was cool, but felt like a placeholder band until the next STP reunion to me. STP was just the perfect combination of talented musicians who were amazing together but only so-so without each other. I'm really shocked to hear they weren't big worldwide. I mean the media hated them. HATED them. I don't think I ever read a positive thing about them, but they still dominated the 90's airwaves because the music was just that undeniable.