Written by: Dave Cantrell

In news just now breaking over Twitter and other social media platforms, Stone Temple Pilot frontman Scott Weiland has passed away, found dead on his tour bus by his manager. At this early stage cause of death is unknown.

Well known and highly respected for his virtuosic – and adventurous – vocal prowess, Weiland was the primary driving force behind the wild success of Stone Temple Pilots, a band he fronted during two separate stints, the first and most notable starting in 1986 and lasting until 2002, a span of time that not only found the band headlining festivals and enjoying significant record sales – Core, Purple, Tiny Music…Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop, and #4 all crashed easily into the Billboard Top Ten, Purple pulling the top spot – but also saw Weiland struggling and often succumbing to crippling drug abuse, the singer caught and convicted for crack cocaine in 1995 for which he received a year’s probation.

Never quite overcoming his addictions until a stint in rehab in 2008, Weiland nonetheless helmed ‘supergroup’ Velvet Revolver featuring Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum as well as Wasted Youth Dave Kushner for five years in the early 2000’s before agreeing to reform STP in 2008, a period that saw great success on the circuit as well as a self-titled album in 2010. Though professing a desire to reform with Velvet Revolver while also keeping Stone Temple Pilots going, the latter nonetheless fell apart in 2012. Overlapping the STP MkII years were solo efforts and the formation of a backing band called the Wildabouts in 2012.

Scott Weiland, against many odds, never stopped working, never stopped reaching for the next band, the next ambitious plan. A crushing loss to the 90’s-born alternative music community, expect a flood of tributes over the coming days.

The singer was 48.