Weiland wanted STP lineup change

Terminated: Weiland with STP

Scott Weiland wanted Stone Temple Pilots to change their lineup ahead of his sacking.

The band announced earlier this week they’d “terminated” his position with them, leaving the ex-Velvet Revolver frontman shocked and saying he’d only discovered the news in the press.

But the day before STP made their move, he’d been discussing the possibility of modifying the band’s personnel.

Sixteen hours ahead of the announcement Weiland told Rolling Stone: “My personal feeling is that we just need some new blood in the band. It’ll give it new energy, so that we’re not just playing the same greatest hits set we’ve been playing ever since we got back together after I left Velvet Revolver. I’d like to make a new record so it breathes new life into it.”

Weiland also stated he was still hoping for a reunion with Velvet Revolver – despite guitarist Slash’s assertion that the pair would never work together again.

The singer said: “I’d love it if it happened. But it’s not something I can count on, and it’s not something that I can control. If it happens, it’ll happen. It would be a great thing.

“I know the fans would love to see it, but I respect that Slash has a solo career and he wants it to succeed the same way that I would like my solo career to succeed. Having said that, whether things work out in a timely fashion, and if it’s quarterbacked right by the team and we all work together… it’s all very sensitive right now, but I’d like to do it. It would be fun.”

Weiland kicks off a solo tour this weekend, during which he’ll play material from STP’s first two albums with his solo band The Wildabouts.

“I’ve always been good at juggling my musical adventures between different bands,” he said. ‘The Magnificent Bastards, solo projects, STP, Velvet Revolver, as well as doing things with different artists, like Cyndi Lauper and a lot of other people. I think you need to do that stuff as an artist. That’s the way things were done in the Sixties and the Seventies, even to the Nineties. People like collaborations.

“Right now, I’m focused on building my solo career with this group of guys. That’s what feels right.”