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

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.

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?
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.

It sounds like everybody's down to make new music after this. Are you thinking about that yet?
Yeah, we're making a new record after this. I think that there's a lot to say, and I think that some great music could come out that's inspirational. Great classic music that I've been turned on to has not only inspired and influenced me, but it has had an effect on my songwriting. It's interesting because when our first record came out we were a live band, we played live at least twice a week, and we were writing songs that were based around playing live. So the first record was definitely heavier than the rest of the records. We understand that we have a lot of fans that were into heavy metal, but it was absolutely not what we were. We played some music that was heavy music because it came from certain parts of where our influences were from. But as the records went on, we wore more various influences on our sleeves.

Dean said that he has a ton of material that he has written over the last five years with you and the band in mind. Do you have any idea what direction a new album would take?
I don't have any idea because Dean and Robert [DeLeo] played together consistently, and I haven't played with them in a long time. I played in Velvet Revolver, which is a raw, bombastic blues band with a punk rock edge to it. It's like everything is based around the blues, no matter what the groove is. And the melodies that I write, the lyrics that I write are inspired from a different place. I've also been writing my second solo album, and that's coming out in November, and that comes from a completely different place. That's sort of a no-holds barred experiment where I'm not afraid to use any sort of production, whether it's acoustic sounding, interesting sounding or bad sound.

However I really don't have a great passion or a great desire in moving backwards or in staying stagnant. I'm 40 years old, and I feel like there are only a limited amount of years where you can wear those tight jeans. There comes a point where whether you can wear them or not, you shouldn't wear them. And at a certain point, bands that have the ability to mature musically should mature musically in a graceful manner, and I see the Stone Temple Pilots as being a band that has that capacity.