Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver Sales Soar After Scott Weiland’s Death

I don’t think this news will shock anyone, since it’s basically what always happens when a famous musician dies, but: Billboard reports that following the death of Scott Weiland almost two weeks ago, sales of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver music has increased a staggering amount.

Staggering to what degree? Well, eight of the top ten titles on the Hard Rock Digital Songs chart are Weiland jams, most notably “Plush,” sales of which have increased nearly fifteen-hundred percent (streams of that same song, alas!, have increased a mere three hundred percent).

Meanwhile, STP’s greatest hits collection, Thank You, has returned to the charts for the first time since its release in 2003, while that band’s seminal debut, Core, is charting for the first time in two decades.

Personally, the Weiland song I’ve been listening to the most since the singer died is “Messages,” which was a bonus track on Velvet Revolver’s sophomore album, Libertad. Written from the point of view of someone stuck in the Towers on 9/11 and saying farewell to his family, some of the song’s lyrics have become especially haunting (“Tell my son I wish I never yelled at him yesterday, ’cause everything’s changed,” “I hope that someday you will be happy without me,” “As for you you made my life worth living,” etc.), serving to amplify the already extremely emotional feeling of the song. I don’t mind telling you that the track has always made me choke up, since I first heard it in 2007; now it’s absolutely devastating.

Unfortunately, “Messages” isn’t available on Spotify, but you can listen to it below, and buy it on iTunes.

Get all the relevant sales figures here.

[via The PRP]