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."