Credit: hubad.halukay.com
An upcoming Reno concert has been canceled on the saddest of terms. Scott Weiland passed away on Thursday, Dec. 3 at age 48. Weiland had been scheduled to play in the Psychedelic Ballroom at PB&Js in Reno on Friday, Dec. 18.
Weiland was born in San Jose in 1967, and grew up in Southern California. He helped found alternative rock group Stone Temple Pilots in the late 1980s, with Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz. Initially entitled Mighty Joe Young, the band changed its name upon signing with Atlantic Records in 1989.
STP went on to become a highly successful rock group, one of the more prominent acts of the 1990s. The band released three albums and sold millions of records before going on hiatus in 2003.
After separating from STP, Weiland went on to join Velvet Revolver with Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Dave Kushner. The group’s first album, “Contraband,” was released in 2004, debuting at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart. It went on to sell 4 million copies worldwide. The band toured heavily for the better part of two years, before alcohol and drug abuse began to take its toll. Weiland left Velvet Revolver in 2008, driven in part by tension over talk of the singer reuniting with STP.
Stone Temple Pilots did reunite in 2008, playing a 73-tour show that year and releasing an eponymous album in 2010. The band toured successfully for several years, before the chemistry began to sour in 2012. In early 2013, STP officially terminated Weiland, replacing him with Chris Bennington of the band Linkin Park.
Weiland went on to pursue a solo career, forming the band Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts, which played Jan. 31, 2015, during the opening weekend of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Lake Tahoe. The group released its debut album in March of this year.
On Thursday, Dec 4, the singer was found undergoing cardiac arrest at a tour stop in Minnesota. No official cause of death has been released.
South Shore band Strange Weather was doubly devastated by the news, as the group had been in the process of finalizing details around opening for Weiland and his band at the upcoming show.
“We just found out last night, we’re so bummed,” front man Vinny Berry said Friday on the way back from a show at Northstar with guitarist John “Chili” Munroe.
Members of Strange Weather’s are all fans of Weiland’s music with both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, regularly covering Velvet Revolver’s hit “Slither” during their performances. Munroe had seen Weiland perform numerous times, Berry said.
“You know, Johnny just read his book actually just in this last week,” Berry said. “(Weiland) had been struggling pretty hard since day one, since the early ’90s with heroin addiction. It was a shock, but it wasn’t a big surprise. He kind of lost the battle, many people do.”
Munroe and Berry performed a number of Weiland’s songs at their Northstar show on Friday.
“We did some STP songs today,” Berry said. “We just kind of gave a shout out.”
