December 3 2018 Marks the 3 Year Anniversary of the Death Of Scott Weiland

December 3, 2018: Three years have passed since the tragic death of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland passed away from a cocaine overdose on his band’s tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota. His death shook the entire rock world as a grunge legend was forever lost. 
On the anniversary of his death, Weiland's widow Jamie, as well as members of his former band Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver and his former Wildabout bandmate Tommy Black have all paid tribute to him online. 

          Scott Weiland's widow Jamie posted a photo writing "Three years."
          Stone Temple Pilots posted on Twitter, Scott, we think of you always and miss you even more. We send our love and know you are looking down at all who love you."
          STP bassist Robert DeLeo posted on Instagram, "Rest easy my Brother..."                                                Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum wrote on Instagram, "Remembering Scott Weiland today December 3rd he left the planet. Thank you for all you left us and your artistry. 1967-2015."
          Duff McKagen tweeted, "Rest in Peace Scott W..."
           Slash posted on Instagram, "RIP Scott Weiland."
            Former Wildabouts bassist Tommy Black who served as the best man at Scott Weiland's wedding to Jamie in 2013, shared a never before seen photo of the two them hugging. Black wrote next to the photograph, "Just three years ago and it seems like decades. What a sad day! Miss you and think of you every day my friend. So many good adventures and so many good songs. Your memory is strong and you are always in all our hearts."
          Former MTV host Matt Pinfield wrote on Instagram, "3 years ago today we lost a friend and one of the best frontmen in rock Scott Weiland. This picture was taken when I did the interview to launch his autobiography. 500 people showed up at the Barnes and Noble at NYC's Union Square location. The day he died I did a 4 hour live broadcast on Sirus XM Lithium and took phone calls from his broken-hearted -fans. It was a sad day."
       Pinfield interviewed Matt Sorum on that broadcast, and Sorum cried on the air mourning his late bandmate. "I don't know how I felt initially. I can't say it was a shock, but it was definitely… I wasn't expecting it because I felt like Scott was gonna be here hopefully longer than this," Sorum said. "When I started to kind of process the feelings-I mean people know that in the end, obviously we had our differences and the band split up. But the wave of emotions that you feel is more like a family member. It's like if you had a family member that maybe you didn't get along with great, but you still love them. That's the feeling, " he explained.

Many fans thought Weiland was clean when he started touring with his last band Scott Weiland And The Wildabouts. Then the tour was scattered with shows where Weiland was struggling to perform the songs live because he was clearly under the influence of something. In Houston, on Tuesday, March 21 2105, Weiland staggered though a performance onstage, where he struggled to stand on two feet, often sitting down by the drum riser to rest. Weiland gave a less than stellar performance of the Stone Temple Pilots 1994 hit “Vasoline” during The Wildabouts show, which caused great concern among fans at the time. “Alright this is a new song. We just worked it out today,” the 47-year old rocker told the crowd before launching into a monotone and lackluster version of the more than 20-year-old tune.

               A rep for Weiland at the time told TMZ that drugs were not a factor in the singer's poor performance in Houston, claiming it was a perfect storm of Weiland being tired and having a few drinks before the gig.

Fast forward a few months to December 3, 2015, and Weiland and his band were still trucking on a U.S. Tour that had them scheduled to play a show at the Medina Entertainment Center in Medina, Minnesota. Then at 8:22 PM police in Bloomington, Minnesota, responded to a call about an unresponsive male on in a Tour Bus. When authorities arrived, they found the man, Weiland, was dead. Initial reports suggested he died in his sleep from cardiac arrest, but toxicology results conducted by The Hennepin County Medical Examiner in Minneapolis and released on December 18, 2015, determined that Weiland died from an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA). The report also mentioned that Weiland had a history of cardiovascular disease, asthma and multi-substance dependence, which may have contributed to his death. 

                  The day Weiland died, police in Bloomington announced that they had found a small quantity of cocaine in the band's tour bus in the bedroom area where Weiland's body was found. Wildabouts bassist Tommy Black was arrested for possession, but released the next day.

                   After learning about Weiland's death his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots (Weiland's most famous band) posted a letter on Facebook: "Dear Scott, let us start by saying thank you for sharing your life with us. Together we crafted a legacy of music that has given so many people happiness and great memories. The memories are many and they run deep for us. We know amidst the good and the bad you struggled, time and again. It's what made you who you were. You were gifted beyond words, Scott. Part of that gift was part of your curse. With deep sorrow for you and your family, we are saddened to see you go. All of our love and respect. We miss you brother- Robert, Eric, Dean." 

                  Weiland had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. In 1995, he was convicted of buying cocaine in Los Angeles, California, and sentenced to a year of probation. Over the next four years, Weiland was arrested for a DUI as well as a domestic violence charge. By 1998, Scott Weiland was in rehab. He spent five months in jail in 1999 after violating his probation on an August 1998 conviction for heroin possession. After Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2002 Weiland claimed to  have kicked drugs following a sour split after the bands Shangri La Dee Da Tour.

              Weiland told Loudwire in September 2013, "Drugs worked for me until they didn't. They were fun until they were absolutely heinously nightmarish. But that's all way in the past. I'd abuse on and off. I'd go through a period of using for awhile, but then I'd go get clean and stop and I'd go through that whole cycle of rehabbing that became very expensive-more so than drugs were."

         In another interview with Loudwire that ran on June 4, 2015 Weiland reiterated that he had been clean for 13 years. The comment came after accusations from Filter frontman Richard Patrick that Weiland was still using.

         Although Weiland was a powerful singer and a charismatic frontman, his problems with drugs uprooted his career on numerous occasions. He fronted Stone Temple Pilots from 1986 to 2002, performing on five multi-platinum albums before his personal issues led to the band's break up.                    After leaving Stone Temple Pilots, Weiland joined Velvet Revolver and recorded two albums with the super group before leaving to reunite with Stone Temple Pilots in 2008. The band released and eponymous album in 2010 and toured through 2012.    

                                                                       

 In February 2013, Stone Temple Pilots fired Wieland for "erratic and irresponsible behavior" and hired Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington. "I had an issue with being late to shows," Weiland said at the time never saying that drugs were the issue. Still Scott did not believe that the rest of the band had to the right to kick him out, so he sued them, and did not win the case. S.T.P. was allowed to carry on without him with Bennington as the lead singer. 

           In addition to his work with Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, Scott Weiland released two solo albums 12 Bar Blues and Happy In Galoshes, as well as the Scott Weiland and The Wildabouts-Blaster record released in 2015, the year that he passed away. He also recorded vocals for the debut Art Of Anarchy album, released on June 2, 2015. It was the final album to feature Scott Weiland before his death. Weiland distanced himself from the record saying it was a cash grab at the time and that he preferred to focus all his work with his band The Wildabouts, with which he had also released an album with in 2015 and was touring with.

                Weiland was buried at a private funeral on December 11th at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. Members of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver were there to honor their former bandmate. On the one year anniversary of his death, the members of Stone Temple Pilots paid tribute to Weiland with the following post. "Here we are. A year has passed since you've been gone. We often think of you and are reminded of you daily with many memories. Then there is the music the four of us carved out allowing us to listen and feel how brilliant you are. There was a time when we looked up to one another. Each wanting one another's approval. the songs we wrote had to have complete impact on us in order for them to shine. When it did... It was unearthly. Perhaps you are in a place now to better describe it. We miss you Scott."

Christopher Thorn Reveals What Blind Melon Song Shannon Hoon Paid Tribute To Kurt Cobain

Blind Melon guitarist Christopher Thorn revealed that the band's song "Soup,"whose lyrics were written by the late frontman Shannon Hoon, paid tribute to Kurt Cobain. The lines at the end of the song, "I'll pull the trigger and I'll make it all go away," were a direct reference to Cobain's recent suicide. Thorn was quoted by Music-Iluminati as saying about the song's recording, "I specifically remember the moment we finished the song "Soup." I wrote the music, and I think Shannon had three-quarters if not more of it finished lyrically and melodically. I just remember finishing the end with him and it was a really heavy moment. Kurt Cobain had died recently, and we were all affected by that, obviously, and that kind of came out in the end of that song. That's probably one of my favorite memories. There's many with Shannon because he kept us entertained quite a bit. I have endless great memories of him." Thorn went on to say, "For me my favorite memory is after we had looped the world a few times, and we had time off after the very first record, when we were getting ready to make the second record. Shannon and I went to Mammoth in California for a couple of weeks. I remember the first week we were there we snowboarded all day and wrote songs. I think a few days later, Rogers (Stevens) came up, and it was just the three of us. It was just a great time/ That was one of my favorite memories with Shannon because I had him all to myself for a bit. It was just me and Rogers and him, and it just was a great time for us to go, "Holy shit! What just happened to us? My God!" You know what I mean? It was like that/ It was like. "Did that really just happen to us, all that stuff, or did we just dream that?"
Every day we snowboarded, and every night we came back, made dinner, built a fire and wrote songs. It was just one of the most amazing experiences. Some of those recordings are on the Internet. I think they're labeled the 'Mammoth Sessions' because I brought in a recording rig. I traveled with--I say portable, but it was literally 5 feet tall--so it was a giant road case that had recording gear in it. So I traveled with that, and I brought that into Mammoth, which is a ski resort in California. It was just a great time."

Severeley Ill Axl Rose Refuses to Cancel Show in Abu Dhabi

Axl Rose was severely ill with the flu and struggled through a Guns N' Roses performance in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The band had been treating their fans to marathon 3-hour-long sets on their current Not In This Lifetime Tour, but with Rose sick the band was forced to cut the set short to just sixteen songs for an hour-and-a-half set. Even so, Guns N' Roses was able to squeeze in many of the classics fans would be expecting to hear kicking the set off with "It's So Easy" and also working in "Welcome to the Jungle," "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "November Rain." "They've got me on IV's and a bunch of injections because I got sick today," Rose stated at the start of the show. "I've been throwing up the last five hours and instead of canceling we're going to do the best show we can for you."
After the show lead guitarist Slash tweeted "Abu Dhabi, you guys were fucking great tonight! Axl was severely ill. But you all were hugely supportive. Thanks for that. We'll see you again next time! Cheers!"
Bassist Duff McKagen also tweeted "Thank you Abu Dhabi! Axl Rose pulled a damn miracle... The man was beyond ill, and pulled off something I've never seen in my 40 years of playing . You all pulled him though. Til next time!

One day after the show Rose took to Twitter again to thank the fans and his bandmates for their support after his illness forced the abbreviated show in the United Arab Emirates. Then before Guns N' Roses November 29 concert in South Africa, Rose wrote, "Felt lame explainin' myself earlier on at the gig, but didn't know how things would play out n' we really wanted to do our best for the fans. Was a great crowd, awesome venue, cool stage, with a gentle breeze in the desert! Thanks again n' hope anyone's not too disappointed, and we look forward to seeing everyone again!"
The Abu Dhabi gig closed out the Asian leg of the Not In This Lifetime Tour, which has lasted for nearly three years now. According to The National, the gig was the 157th night of a 31-month jaunt, which went around the world twice, played to five million people, and is on track to becoming the second highest grossing tour of all time--overtaking even The Rolling Stones. Only U2 have grossed more on a Tour then Guns N' Roses projected earnings of 600 million. Guns N' Roses will play their last show of 2018 on December 8, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In a final Tweet sent out by Axl Rose, "Wanna thank all the fans, the band and everyone for their concern and well wishes! In Johannesburg with plenty of time to be ready for the show! This flu or whatever is a wild ride! Comes in waves. Your ok til your not!"

Ann Wilson of Heart Not Surpised That Chris Cornell Is Dead

Ann Wilson in the 1970s

Ann Wilson the lead singer of the classic rock band Heart has opened up about her relationship with the late Chris Cornell and her thoughts surrounding his death on 5/17/11. "I was not surprised when he died,"she said in a new interview with the radio station Sirus XM. No I was not surprised. I don't know why I say that--it's just something that I feel from Chris. He was so complicated. He always struggled with mundanity. He was really in another dimension, and for him to be normal was really hard."
Cornell died at age 52 by hanging himself in a Detroit hotel room on May 18 2017 following a sold out show with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre. Wilson, despite being a generation older then Cornell, had become close friends with her fellow Seattle musician. She has repeatedly honored Cornell since his death doing a tribute for Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" with Alice In Chains guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell at the 2018 Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame, and more recently she has recorded her own version of Audioslave's "I Am the Highway"(a true Cornell ballad) on her latest album Immortal.
"Whenever I hear "I Am the Highway" I think about Chris a lot, because he was always at odds with his success," Wilson told Sirus. The expectations that were put on him being the voice of a generation and a superstar of the 90's and 2000s, and stuff was too much for him. It was really uncomfortable, and he wasn't just bragging about being uncomfortable, he was. It was too much! He basically was a really pure being-and complicated, but really pure, childlike. He had one foot in wanting to be famous, and one foot in just being so uncomfortable there, that he was caught somewhere in the middle. He was so beautiful and handsome, but tender. He was a really, really, good person. But this world was just too much for him... He went as far as he could go."

Ann Wilson performs a cover of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" as a Tribute to Chris Cornell  on Jimmy Kimmel live on May 20 2017, just 3 days after Chris Cornell's suicide.

Chris Cornell Tribute Concert to Happen on 1/16/19

A tribute concert for the late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell titled "I Am the Highway: A Tribute To Chris Cornell" will be happening in Los Angeles, California, at The Forum on January 16th, 2019. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the concert will feature appearances by Cornell's former bandmates, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Ben Sheppard, and drummer Matt Cameron, as well as special performances by Foo Fighters, Metallica, and Ryan Adams. Each ticket purchased by fans will come with a copy of the new Chris Cornell self-titled album which is a greatest hits of his music with Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, and Audioslave, as well as work as a solo artist. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation, whose mission statement says: "The foundation supports organizations that provide shelter and resources for homeless and abused and at risk youth, children living in refugee  camps and victims of human trafficking."
                  In a recent interview with Forbes, the former lead guitarist of Soundgarden Kim Thayil said, "I suppose it will be somewhat anxious. Soundgarden didn't initially corral this lineup for a project. It was driven by booking agents and Chris's wife Vicky, who really wanted to organize this, and our management. I'm sure it will be just fine and we'll be able to deal with it just fine. They were looking for people the band had a history with, Chris had a history with and people who were supportive of us over our careers and fans of ours who could do some of this material justice."
Asked by Forbes if there are particular songs that he would be excited to play that night, Thayil said:
"I think Matt (Cameron), Ben (Shepherd) and I will collectively decide which songs we'll throw our best fist forward." Kim added that he is excited to be performing some of the Soundgarden catalog again.
                  In a previous Interview with Rolling Stone a month ago Thayil had made it clear why songs that hinted at suicide were left off the 4 disc Chris Cornell Box Set as they set dark undertones considering that is the way Chris Cornell passed away in on May 17, 2017, by hanging himself in his Detroit hotel room. Those songs included 1994 Superunknown cuts like "The Day I Tried To Live" and "Like Suicide," as well as 1997's Down On The Upside standout first single "Pretty Noose."
                For Thayil, a huge consideration when picking out the songs for the Chris Cornell box was how they might be viewed now, given the nature of Cornell's death. "One of my concerns was just making sure there  weren't any difficult lyric or themes. Just keep that off, "Thayil says. There's lyrics, or titles that may not be appropriate to this context. That might be difficult for friends, and family, Thayil said to Rolling Stone. Considering their selectiveness for the Box Set, this will surely mean Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron will be making careful considerations when selecting the songs for the I Am The Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell concert.
              The Seattle Grunge musical legend Cornell was pronounced dead  May 18, 2017, after being found unresponsive and unconscious in his Detroit hotel room around 12:15 am. Soundgarden had played a sold out show earlier that evening at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. The 52-year-old Cornell had sedatives and an anxiety drug Ativan in his system, but he died as a result of hanging himself. His wife Vicky Cornell has sued the drug company Ativan that prescribed  Cornell his anxiety medication saying it affected his decision-making at the time of his suicide. "When we spoke after the show, I noticed he was slurring his words; he was different. When he told me he may have taken an extra Ativan or two, I contacted security and asked that they come check on him before the night was over." The bodyguard that did check up on Chris Cornell found him laying on the floor at 12:15 with an exercise band around his neck and blood in his mouth. Medics were unable to revive Cornell and at approximately 1:30 AM he was pronounced dead.