Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo spoke with Guitar World recently regarding the 25th anniversary edition of the band’s debut album “Core“, which hit stores this past September. The conversation also saw DeLeo share his thoughts on the band’s former singers Scott Weiland, who died of an accidental overdose in 2015, and Chester Bennington (of Linkin Park), who hung himself this past July
Speaking of looking back at old material for the “Core” set and the memories it brought back, DeLeo commented:
“It was very sad digging into those demos. It took me right back to the rehearsal room, and to all the memories. You know, Scott and I were roommates back then. We rented a house out in Highland Park. And we lived together while writing and recording and touring that first record. And…yeah, man, it was such a different scenario from Chester because, Chester, that was very, very sudden. And unexpected. Whereas it was the complete opposite with Scott. It was, you know, a 12-, 14-year suicide.
But I’ll tell you what, man, Scott was just an incredible human being. An incredibly gifted and talented human being. I mean, you saw the guy’s body, right? He was like a genetic masterpiece. So strong. And whatever he did, it was like, “You wanna go hit golf balls?” And he’s hitting them 200 yards, straight. “Let’s go waterskiing.” He’s just shredding it. He was just that guy.
Whatever he did he was really, really good at. And I’ll fucking say this loud and proud: Scott Weiland was one of the best lyricists of our time. His lyrics and his melodies and his delivery…he was the fucking best, man. It was an honor to be onstage with that cat. And it was an amazing place to be there with him while writing a song. I miss that guy. I miss the guy he was. I’ve missed him for about 15 years.”
Regarding Bennington, he offered:
“You know, we lost an angel, man. We lost an angel. [pauses] I loved Chester dearly, man. He was just an exquisite guy. I really, really loved him. And I’m really, really going to miss him for the rest of my days.”
On a different note, DeLeo spoke of the moment “Core” really started to take off and a positive experience touring with Megadeth back in the early 90’s
“We were on tour with Megadeth. It was our first introduction to playing arenas. All of us had been playing clubs from a very young age. In our teens. So we had had our fill of that. And then when STP hit the road we played our fair share of clubs globally. And when we came back we got all these offers to go out with other bands.
Megadeth asked us to go out with them, and I’ll tell ya, Mr. Mustaine was very, very kind to us, man. Very supportive. That was an interesting gig because nobody knew who we were. We were simply the opening band. We would come out to an arena that was only a third full. And then we’re trying to do our thing, and you’ve got little pimple-faced boys with Iron Maiden shirts just giving you the finger all night. Like, “Man, this sucks!” They just wanted to see Megadeth.
But I’ll tell you what, Dave Mustaine would sometimes come out, and he’d grab the mic and go, “Listen, you fuckers. I personally picked this band to be here. Fucking listen!” It was like, “Holy shit!” Mustaine was amazing to us.
But back to your question—we were on that tour when “Plush” came out. “Sex Type Thing” had definitely set a tone, and it was doing its thing for us. But when “Plush” came out, we looked around and realized, “Hey, you know what? The arenas aren’t empty anymore!” The places were full when we went on. That’s when we saw it happen.”
You can read the rest of that discussion at Guitar World. Stone Temple Pilots are expected back onstage later this month with their as-yet unannounced new singer.
Comments