Rockobit: Scott Weiland

One of the saddest things about music commentary are those deaths where you hear the news, and don't feel even a sliver of surprise. So it is with Scott Weiland, found dead on his tour bus, outside a motel, at the age of 48.

The BBC might need to think of a different way of describing how Twitter reacts in circumstances like these:

Tributes have been paid to US singer Scott Weiland, former frontman with Stone Temple Pilots, following his death while on tour in Minnesota.

Slash, with whom Weiland performed in rock supergroup Velvet Revolver, wrote on Twitter that it was "a sad day".

"RIP Scott Weiland," said Dave Kushner, another Velvet Revolver member.

Neither of those, strictly speaking, are tributes. Kushner's tweet is half a step away from being "Kushner marked a news story about Weiland as 'read'"; Slash's is an acknowledgement, but barely more than that.

Which isn't to criticise either of them - 140 characters to capture the scatterbug life of a person they know isn't going to work, so what can you do? But perhaps the question is whether the report is doing more than saying which of his friends had heard the news.

At times, Weiland could be refreshingly honest. Despite telling Rolling Stone this, in 2013:

As far as Velvet Revolver goes, I'd love it if it happened. But it's not something I can count on, and it's not something that I can control. If it happens, it'll happen. It would be a great thing. I know the fans would love to see it, but I respect that Slash has a solo career and he wants it to succeed the same way that I would like my solo career to succeed. Having said that, whether things work out in a timely fashion, and if it's quarterbacked right by the team and we all work together . . . it's all very sensitive right now, but I'd like to do it. It would be fun.

... his BBC obituary recalls a different story:

Set adrift, he recorded a well-received solo album, 12 Bar Blues, and joined the rock supergroup Velvet Revolver - later admitting he did it for the money. "I can't call it the music of my soul," he told Spin magazine.

Scott Weiland currently at denial stage

Scott Weiland - recently fired again from The Stone Temple Pilots - is finding it as hard to believe he's been canned as the rest of us find it hard to believe the Stone Temple Pilots are still going:

"I learned of my supposed 'termination' from Stone Temple Pilots this morning by reading about it in the press," the band's on-again, off-again lead singer said in a statement obtained by E! News.

"Not sure how I can be 'terminated' from a band that I founded, fronted and co-wrote many of its biggest hits, but that's something for the lawyers to figure out. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing all of my fans on my solo tour which starts this Friday."

Sacked? Who's been sacked?

"No one has ever fired anybody in STP," the 45-year-old rocker continued. "We're like a family. It's also a partnership. I started the band. We've always kept things going. We've taken time off before. They've done their own projects and I fully support that. No one has been fired and I haven't quit. That's all hearsay."

Heh, you just don't understand what the guys are like. They're always with the jokes - 'you're fired, you're sacked, we pissed in that before you came in, here's a restraining order...'

This just in: He's now at the stage where he believes it's a cunning plan:

Weiland said, "STP is not broken up. It's a whole thing to try to boost ticket sales."

Has Scott paused to think through why pretending to break up and dump Weiland would make people more likely to buy tickets?

Stone Temple Pilots fall silent

Stone Temple Pilots have axed their US tour halfway through; Scott Weiland's vocal cords are almost literally in pieces. If they pressed on with this tour, he might never be able to sing again. And that would be a bad thing. (Stone Temple Pilot's perspective only.)

A Singer Must Die, but not yet: Weiland is grounded

Scott Weiland managed to take his flight out the air last night: He suffered a seizure en-route from LAX to MIA, forcing the scheduled American Airlines plane to make a non-scheduled stop at Dallas Fort Worth. Weiland went to hospital; he's fine now. It doesn't say in any of the reports, but we're betting the rest of the passengers mumbled complaints just nosily enough to avoid seeming too harsh-hearted.

VH1 bring back Behind The Music

By the time VH1 axed its Behind The Music series, it was looking pretty tired - reduced to doing a special on Pantera. But, hey, it's been five years or so - surely some exciting new bands have come and given the revived series lots of juicy stories for their wish list? Right?

Lil Wayne and Scott Weiland have signed on to participate, and the network is near agreements with several other performers.

So, no, then. Lil Wayne? Really?

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

Jim Louvau of the Arizona Republic attempts to keep a straight face watching Scott Weiland:

The lengthy set opened with Big Empty from The Crow soundtrack. Dressed in a grey suit Weiland stumbled around the stage and fell into drummer Eric Kretz's drum kit which confirmed he is now officially the Amy Winehouse of rock 'n' roll. When he did sing he often forgot words or changed them. "Conversations Kill" quickly became "Masturbation Kill."

The singer's incoherent rants in between songs were cut off by his band members starting the next song to stop the bleeding. Guitarist Dean DeLeo and his brother bassist Robert DeLeo looked humiliated as they ripped through classics like Wicked Garden, Big Bang Baby and Vasoline.

Revolver pulled

Velvet Revolver's plans to replace Scott Weiland with a reality TV show have been scrapped:

Drummer Matt Sorum reveals several TV producers pitched the band the idea for the show.

He says, "We felt that wasn't the right forum for us to do it, so we got some ideas and we should have that news in a couple weeks... and I think it's going to surprise everybody."

So, then, no network interested, we're assuming.

Weiland makes Doherty look like the Birdman Of Alctraz

Considering the way our papers spluttered when Pete Doherty rolled out of prison after a couple of weeks, how would they react to Scott Weiland's ten-hour stretch?

Weiland is taking advantage of those rules which allow some US criminals to more or less timeshare their chokey, doing a few hours here and there. At this rate, he'll have finished his 192 hours sometime around the time of the 2012 Olympics.

Steve Albini works with Weiland

Has Steve Albini been breaking windows or something? Only surely he'd only be producing Scott Weiland's solo album because a court had ordered him to do so as part of some sort of community service?

Velvet Revolver want you

When Velvet Revolver proudly announced they'd move forward without Scott Weiland, they sounded like a band with a plan B.

And, indeed, they did: they're going to advertise online for a singer:

"The band is actually talking about actually building a website [and] doing some auditions via that, so that's been something that's developing at this point," guitarist Slash told Billboard.com.

They're actually talking about doing that.

Apparently, this could be happening, ooh, "in the next month or so."

Meanwhile, they've got a gig to get through, which they're going to do Have I Got News For You style:

"I'm not gonna name any names, but a bunch of well-known people will get up and sing some songs, and then also bring up a couple people that we think are pretty good and might sing a couple songs," Slash said. "So it'd just be for fun."

The not-naming-any-names gambit is, we're sure, because of contractual reasons and not because they haven't actually had anyone sign on. We're sure the people with tickets to the Vegas gig, though, will be delighted to hear it's "just for fun", which presumably means they'll have their ticket price refunded?

Anything that's kept Weiland in employment has to be bad

Scott Weiland, he doesn't trust the music industry much, does he?

He tells Blabbermouth.net, "I think we're a bit smarter, a lot more wiser. Because the music business has shrunken so much and has eaten itself, those survivors out there, they're a lot more cutthroat.

"You definitely have to watch your back and you have to be smart in order to not get taken advantage of. So I think we've all learned from those experiences."

Actually, if they're cut-throats, you'd have to watch your front, wouldn't you? And we're not quite sure why the music business has managed to shrink and eat itself.

Velvet Revolver: You're all fired

There's a possibility that Velvet Revolver might be calling it a day: Scott Weiland told the Glasgow audience last night that this was the last tour - shortly before having a hissy fit. A blog posting by drummer Matt Sorum today didn't add very much beyond alluding to Weiland's bad mood and some hopeful Bad Newsisms:

"Everybody could see who was unhappy last night, but all I can say is let's keep the rock alive, people!!!! In this life, you just pick up and keep moving. And don't ever let anybody stand in your way."

Four exclamation points, you'll note. That's convincing, that is.

Scott Weiland covers Amy Winehouse

Putting the kibosh on the Velvet Revolver Australian tour, and more disturbingly threatening a round of "I'm clean now" media appearances in the Summer, Scott Weiland has gone into rehab.

Velvet Revolver man heading for jail?

Scott Weiland has been formally charged with DUI, a charge which carries a year in the slammer.

Weiland has issued a statement via his management denying that he was drunk at the time of his road accident, and looking forward to going to court to "clear things up".

Scott Weiland to sign off on autobiography

Scott Weiland has been invited to write his memoirs. No, we can't understand why, either, other than Slash and Nikki Sixx and everyone else seems to have had a go. Naturally, he's not being asked to write it himself, and David Ritz, the man behind "auto"biogs of Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles, will do the difficult bit of changing the 'uh... and then... uh' into something approaching prose of the quality such a book deserves.

Scott Weiland: It was all a spat

Back in March, Scott Weiland and his wife had a bit of a public-falling-out. You might remember she burned all his suits.

Now, though, Weiland's got a record to try and push, and so the line of the day is: all that? It was just a little lover's spat, that's all, and it's a sitcom perfect marriage:

"We get our kids to bed at 8 p.m., we tuck 'em in, we lay down with 'em at night. There's three square meals and the whole shebang. But we also have the ability that we can take them on the road with us and allow them to see other cultures and experience things that other people don't have the opportunity to experience."

Yes. Not everyone has the opportunity to watch Mummy burning Daddy's suits in the front garden, and it's that sort of golden moment they'll have to share with their own children, assuming they're able to form stable relationships, when the time comes.

Mary Weiland: I muddled my meds and spoiled some suits

Mary Weiland has issued a statement blaming bipolar disorder and a botched medication for the recent hotel-and-suit damaging incidents:

With regards to this past weekend's events, it's important to my husband and I that the reports regarding domestic violence, as well as our children's safety, contain facts and not speculation.

"The weekend's difficulties were brought on by a reaction to an imbalance in medications used to treat my bipolar disorder. Reports that we were fighting at the Graciela Hotel are untrue. Scott was simply trying to help calm me down. I want to make it very clear that he did not hurt me in any way. For lack of a better expression, I was unstable and just 'lost it.'

"Payment for the damages to the Graciela Hotel has already been made. The gracious staff and management have accepted our apologies and welcome us back in the future.

"Most importantly, neither of our children were witness to any of these events and they have been in the care of a family member. Scott and I are very involved in our children's lives on a daily basis and we love them unconditionally. We appreciate all your concerns and how supportive people have been.

"After nearly seven years of marriage I am truly grateful to have a loving husband, drug-free for 3-1/2 years now, who is able to care for me during this challenging time.

"We ask that you refer to this statement for the facts and depend on no other source."

Presumably, amongst the "other sources" we're meant to ignore would be, erm, her husband's own website, where he suggested - as Blabbermouth points out - that the kids did see rather more than none of the events:

"My wife locked herself in the adjoining room when that damage was done. I want to make it clear that I called security when I heard the glass being broken from next door. Security was unable to enter until she let them in. I sent my children off to a safe place with my assistant (who witnessed all of the events of the evening, until my wife locked herself in the room), and I left the hotel in order to avoid conflict with my wife."

Mr & Mrs Weiland have another disagreement

No sooner do we hear about violence to hotel rooms than our reader pings again with news that Scott's suits were burned in an impromptu bonfire this weekend.

E! reports that police were called; Mary - who was also burning Scott's shoes - could be looking at an arson charge. She's out on bail right now. Weiland, we imagine, is shuffling round Burbank in his slippers.

Mr & Mrs Weiland have a disagreement

TMZ.com is reporting (although it comes to us via Bravewords and Launch Radio) that Scott Weiland and his wife are being pursued by a Burbank hotel. The hotel claims that the pair had a massive argument, which resulted in a pile of damage to the room. The reports reckon they threw the phones and the alarm clocks at each other, so we hope they didn't have to be up early in the morning.

After their kids had been led away, and Scott left the room, allegedly Mary carried on having the row with the room.

AXL HAS FEELINGS, YOU KNOW

Axl Rose has taken just about all the bitching from Slash that he can. Rose has attempted to keep a dignified silence since the splitting of Guns N Roses - well, apart from replacing Slash with a chap wearing a KFC bargain bucket on his head, perhaps - but the filing of legal actions against him has forced him to break his silence. He had been thinking of getting a six foot clown to dance about wearing a diaper yelling "I am Slash and I smell and the smell that I have is poo and you can smell me coming because of the smell of poo", but instead - having seen what clowns charge for an hour's work - he elected to countersue:

The statement issued in the wake of the suit blasts Axl's former allies, claiming "Slash has continually made negative and malicious statements about Axl [in the press] in order to garner publicity for himself" and that both musicians have made "numerous false allegations about Axl ... [and that] Mr. Rose believes that once apprised of the true facts, the judge or jury deciding these lawsuits will rule in Axl's favor on every issue before them."

The most recent suit filed against Axl, according to the statement, "attacks [his] integrity as Slash and Duff, in a vindictive attempt to aggrandize their own stature, rewrite history through false statements, which have been repeated by the media. Their attacks on Axl stand in sharp contrast to Rose's conduct. Axl has at all times worked diligently to maintain the artistic integrity of the band by choosing with great care which properties to license Guns N' Roses songs to."

Moreover, the statement claims Slash showed up uninvited at Axl's door early one morning in October to offer a truce. "Slash came to inform Axl that: 'Duff was spineless,' '[Velvet Revolver frontman] Scott [Weiland] was a fraud,' that he 'hates [Revolver drummer] Matt Sorum' and that in this ongoing war, contest or whatever anyone wants to call it that Slash has waged against Axl for the better part of 20 years, that Axl has proven himself 'the stronger.' "

"Axl regrets having to spend time and energy on these distractions, but he has a responsibility to protect the Guns N' Roses legacy and expose the truth," Howard Weitzman, Axl's attorney, said in the statement. "Axl believes he has been left with no alternative but to respond to these lawsuits. It would have been Axl's preference to resolve disputes with Slash and Duff in private. The courthouse is not his choice of forum. However, Axl could no longer sit quietly and allow the continuing dissemination of falsehoods and half-truths by his former bandmates."

You see? That's all Axl wants - he's interested in the truth, and not all this bickering.

It's yet to be confirmed that three hours after filing, the courthouse took a call from a gentleman asking how easy it would be to withdraw legal papers if you'd decided to just photoshop someone's head onto a fat woman's body to make posters to put up in his street instead.

music slash guns n roses axl rose velvet revolver