Stone Temple Pilots Suing Scott Weiland for Making Them Work with Chester Bennington
Scott Weiland is a dick, which isn’t really that surprising — vocalists are dicks so often that the term “LSD” has actually become commonplace (see, I’m not even going to explain its meaning here, because I assume you already know the definition, or are otherwise a lead singer). But whereas many successful vocalists manage to curb their dickishness just enough for the band to continue to put up with them, some guys, like Weiland and his Bizarro World twin, Axl Rose, that their bandmates just can’t stomach putting up with their shit under any circumstances.
And so the other three members of Stone Temple Pilots — guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo, and drummer Eric DeLeoless — have fired Weiland for the second or eighth time. After the last break-up, when Scott Weiland joined Velvet Revolver, the DeLeo brothers started an awesome new band, Army of Anyone, with Filter’s Richard Patrick, but only ten people ever heard their record because they signed with a label being run by dudes who had no idea how to run a label, and because they didn’t have the STP brand to stand upon. So they’ve learned their lesson — they’ve hooked up with Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, who is even more famous than Patrick was, and despite Weiland’s protests that “the band that played [Stone Templinkin Park] last weekend was not Stone Temple Pilots and it was wrong of them to present themselves as that,” they are now suing Weiland for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, violation of the Lanham Act, declatory and injunctive relief, and, above all else, forcing the band to associate themselves with Linkin Park*.
The suit, which you can read here, claims that the band had planned a twentieth anniversary tour in celebration of their debut album, Core, but couldn’t go through with that tour because Weiland is an asshat:
“Weiland was repeatedly one to two hours late for live performances; sometimes he caused them to be canceled altogether. He missed promotional appearances and disrupted other band activities. Weiland’s behavior escalated to the point that he even refused to have any direct communication with his fellow band members.
“Weiland also refused to commit to a tour schedule…[and] caused STP to lose lucrative business opportunities… which cost the band millions.”
The suit also allegesthat Weiland “wanted to hijack” the band’s tour so that he could “use STP’s name and assets to launch a solo tour at the Band’s expense.” It then goes on to list myriad other ways that Weiland was a total fart knocker, announces that the band plans to record an album with Bennington (and refers to said album as “their seventh” — implying that they do indeed intend to keep the STP moniker), and therefore they want Weiland to stop using the STP name to promote his own shit, and to pay the band a bunch of money.
I actually think trying to get Weiland to not use the STP name is kinda bullshit — I mean, he was very much a part of STP’s success, and should therefore be entitled to perpetually remind people of how talented he can be when other people write songs for him, and that he used to be on MTV sometimes.
But speaking as a fan who once did wait two hours for a STP concert to commence because Weiland couldn’t he shit together, I’m all for punishing him in every other way imaginable. In fact, is it within the court’s legal jurisdiction to make Weiland perform with Linkin Park while wearing a shirt that says “LISTEN TO ARMY OF ANYONE”? Because if it is, that seems pretty fair to me.
[via Metal Insider, The PRP, and The Hollywood Reporter]
*I may have made this part up, but it does seem like a reasonable assumption, no?
