Scott Weiland made it pretty clear that his “termination” from Stone Temple Pilots came as a surprise to him. Now the singer is claiming it’s all part of a publicity stunt to boost ticket sales for an upcoming tour.
TMZ caught Weiland at the Los Angeles airport prior to the launch of his solo tour. You can watch video of the interaction, but he straight out said “STP is not broken up. It’s a whole thing to try to boost ticket sales.” He further stated that even though they haven’t talked about said tour in a while, STP legally can’t fire him due to contract clauses. This comes shortly after Rolling Stone posted an interview with Weiland (originally conducted the day before the firing) where he further claims that STP have not broken up. “My personal feeling is that we just need some new blood in the band. It’ll give it new energy, so that we’re not just playing the same greatest hits set we’ve been playing ever since we got back together after I left Velvet Revolver. I’d like to make a new record so it breathes new life into it. Right now, I’m focused on building my solo career with this group of guys. That’s what feels right,” Weiland told Rolling Stone, also claiming that they’ve been talking about touring plans.
So we can take Weiland’s claims one of two ways: either his bandmates really do have a weird sense of how to do PR, or the singer is simply in denial that he’s been booted from the band. Either way, we doubt this will be the last we hear about the matter (let’s not forget, the remaining members of STP have yet to make a more detailed statement). We’re just hoping that this doesn’t lead to two versions of the group (Stone Temple Pilots and Queensryche co-headlining tour anyone?).
