UPDATE: Scott Weiland, Former Stone Temple Pilots Singer, Dead at 48
UPDATE: TMZ is reporting that Scott Weiland died of cardiac arrest last night. The site has obtained audio regarding the 911 call that claimed Weiland appeared to be dead on his tour bus. Dispatchers said the singer was not breathing and had appeared to have gone into cardiac arrest.
Former Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland has died at the age of 48. According to his official Facebook page, the singer "passed away in his sleep" while on a tour stop in Bloomington, Minn., with his band the Wildabouts.
No cause of death has been revealed. The Bloomington Police Department issued the following statement (via Billboard), describing the discovery of Weiland's body without revealing his name: "On Dec. 3rd at 8:22PM, officers responded to a report of an unresponsive adult male in a recreational motor vehicle located in the 2200 block of Killebrew Drive. Officers arrived and determined the adult male was deceased."
Stone Temple Pilots made a big splash with their 1993 multi-platinum debut Core. They went on to release four more successful studio albums over the next decade, scoring massive hits such as "Interstate Love Song," "Sex Type Thing" and "Plush."
Stone Temple Pilots split up in 2002 amid reports of interpersonal conflict. Soon after, Weiland joined forces with Guns N' Roses veterans Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum in Velvet Revolver. They released two albums, 2004's Contraband and 2007's Libertad, before the singer acrimoniously departed that group in 2008.
He immediately rejoined Stone Temple Pilots for a reunion tour, and the group issued their sixth, self-titled album in 2010. Two years later, he was out of STP again after a messy breakup that resulted in a legal battle over the rights to the band's name. Weiland's former bandmates were allowed to keep the name and recruited Chester Bennington of Linkin Park as their new lead singer. (Bennington amicably left the group last month.)
Weiland famously battled drug addiction several times during his career. Video of an erratic performance in May of 2015 prompted speculation that he had relapsed, but the singer angrily blasted the "a-hole media" while insisting that he was sober: "I’ve been off drugs for 13 years, and to hear people make references to that is very disheartening.”
At the time of his death, Weiland was on tour in support of Blaster, the 2015 debut album by his group the Wildabouts. He is survived by his wife Jamie, and by two children, Noah and Lucy from a previous marriage.
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