14 DAY TRIAL // In strange Stone Temple Pilots news today, Scott Weiland, co-founder and frontman for the band since 1986, has been fired. The STP have confirmed the news in an official statement, but Weiland is saying on Facebook that he has every intention of fighting the decision.
Word of a possible breakup within the band first started making the rounds a few months ago, when Slash said in an interview that he knew for a fact Weiland had been fired.
Just the other day, though, the rocker was putting that rumor to rest, saying that he was still very much part of the STP and hinting that whatever else was said in the press was said because the other band members were working on separate projects.
He was ok with that, he said.
Immediately afterwards came the official announcement from the band: “Stone Temple Pilots have announced they have officially terminated Scott Weiland,” it read, as The Hollywood Reporter notes.
A short while later, Weiland himself issued his own statement, saying that the very idea that he could be terminated from the band that would not even exist had it not been for him, is ludicrous.
“I learned of my supposed ‘termination’ from Stone Temple Pilots this morning by reading about it in the press,” he writes on Facebook.
As far as he’s concerned, all this is now in the competent hands of his lawyers but he doesn’t sound like the kind of man who would go down without a fight.
“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,” Weiland says.
Even with his rather obvious declaration of war, there’s been nothing but complete radio silence from the other STP band members. Whether they’ll be looking for a new lead singer is yet to be announced.