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

It sounds like this tour as going to be drastically different from any STP tour in terms of how you will be traveling.
Yeah, well, my kids are gonna be with me, once a month, they're gonna be out with me for a week to ten days.

Are you thinking you might miss the old lifestyle when you're on the road again with these guys?
No, not really at all. There were some moments with the Velvets that brought back those days. I mean, you gotta figure that everyone in Velvet Revolver besides [guitarist] Dave [Kushner] relapsed and went to rehab at least two times. So no, I'm actually looking forward to the fact that this band is much more about the music and it's always been that way.

How was it to play together at the Houdini Mansion when you announced the reunion?
It was amazing. I was really nervous initially because I had just got off a four-week tour with the Velvets and my voice was starting to get a little bit worn out. My concept was let's not go out there and try to just like rip, let's go out there and play some of the songs that are the most musical songs. This band has not had its footing in a long time. To be a great band it's like you have that telepathy. You know when the bass player's in back of you without even looking. You know when your guitar player's coming up to you to lean up to you and sing into your microphone. You just know these things. You feel it. You feel the energy of it. And if we were to try to pull off a rock show, like a real rocking rock show the first off gig, I'm not sure it would have been all that convincing so we kind of started off with some of the more midtempo songs and a couple of tunes that had a little bit of a vibe to them. And then we worked our way into a couple of the midtempo hits like "Interstate Love Song" and then started to bring up the tempo, bring up the volume.

Does that seem like the sort of template you'll use on the tour?
Not at all. Obviously, people want to hear the hits. But I've been playing with another band where it's balls to the wall the whole entire time. What I would like to do is present a show that has a real broad spectrum of music, and also turn some people on, because I think that over the years, what has made the band so special is people know the songs that aren't just the hits. People know songs from the records. We'll have a rotating set list. So there will be those songs that are the classic songs, and there will be the songs that are more acoustic, and then there will be the songs that are more ephemeral and ambient and a little more avant-garde as well.