Scott Weiland, frontman for Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, dies at 48
The Grammy-winning singer, 48, who struggled with addiction, earned post-Pilots success with the platinum-selling supergroup Velvet Revolver. His cause of death was not immediately available.
His wife, Jamie Weiland, a photographer, confirmed his death to The Times in a brief conversation.
"I can't deal with this right now," she said, sobbing. "It's true.”
With a range that thrived in both high and low registers, Weiland was an archetypal rock singer.
He met Jamie in 2011, when she photographed one of his music video shoots. They married in June 2013.
A statement on Weiland's Facebook page posted around 10 p.m. said Weiland had "passed away in his sleep while on a tour stop in Bloomington, Minn."
"At this time we ask that the privacy of Scott's family be respected," the statement said.
Reports of Weiland's death began to circulate after fellow rocker Dave Navarro tweeted: "Just learned our friend Scott Weiland has died. So gutted, I am thinking of his family tonight."
That tweet later appeared to have been removed.
Tom Vitorino, Weiland's manager, also confirmed that the singer died Thursday. He did not provide further details.
Weiland's latest band, Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts, had been scheduled to perform Thursday evening in Minnesota. According to Medina Entertainment Center, the concert was canceled and refunds were to be issued. No reason was given for the cancellation.
This death is the second to hit the band this year. Guitarist Jeremy Brown died of multiple-drug intoxication March 30, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Brown's death came the day before the band released its debut album. He was 34.
Weiland was born Scott Kline in Santa Cruz on Oct. 27, 1967. At the age of 2, his parents divorced. He adopted the last name Weiland when his mother remarried and the family moved to a suburb of Cleveland. His biological father, a soda truck driver, remained in California.
"My childhood was green pastures and bee stings, learning to play baseball and football, living in a nice house, waiting -- always waiting -- for the start of summer so I could go to California and see my dad," he wrote in his 2011 memoir, "Not Dead & Not for Sale."
In a 1998 interview coinciding with the release of Weiland's solo album "12 Bar Blues," he told The Times that he had grown accustomed to the trappings of fame brought by Stone Temple Pilots.
"I used to feel guilty about my success, but I'm over that now," Weiland said. "It's like, hey, some people cook for a living and some people milk cows. I write songs."
He got his start as a rocker in Southern California -- and met future Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo at a punk show in Long Beach. Their 1992 debut album, "Core," has sold over 8 million copies. Over the next four years the band became one of the biggest hard-rock bands in the world.
After Weiland left the band, he teamed with former Guns N' Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum to form Velvet Revolver. With a core band that knew hard rock, Weiland became an '00s icon. He struggled to keep his addictions at bay, though, and was in and out of rehab. He and Velvet Revolver parted ways in 2008.
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FOR THE RECORD
Dec. 4, 12:08 a.m.: An earlier version of this article misspelled Duff McKagan's last name as McKagen.
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He soon reunited with Stone Temple Pilots, but his bandmates ousted him in 2013.
In 2008, days before serving a brief jail sentence for a drunk driving charge, Weiland was unapologetic about his arrests, overdoses and relapses.
"I live my life the way I live my life," he told The Times.
Weiland publicly acknowledged battles with heroin addiction.
"The opiate took me to where I'd always dreamed of going," he told Spin Magazine in 2011. "I can't name the place, but I can say that I was undisturbed and unafraid, a free-floating man in a space without demons and doubts."
Weiland had two children, Lucy and Noah, with his former wife, Mary Forsberg Weiland.
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