STP’s Weiland Gets a Year in Jail
The Stone Temple Pilots morphed into something resembling Talk Show
on Friday afternoon (Sept. 3) in Los Angeles Superior Court when
singer Scott Weiland was sentenced to a year in L.A. County Jail’s
Biscaluz Recovery Center for violating terms of his probation.
Weiland was credited for thirty-five days of time already served
dating back to various stints in prison this year, meaning the
singer will be free until early August of next year.
“Mr. Weiland has to be punished,” said Judge Larry P. Fidler. “If
the court makes a pronouncement and somehow fails to follow it, the
public loses faith in the judicial system.” The sentencing is an
exclamation point on a long, drug-related streak filled with jail
time, rehab centers and exile from STP. Weiland’s documented
troubles date back to a heroin bust in May 1995 and concluded with
a heroin overdose in July and subsequent outpatient treatment,
which the judge deemed a violation of Weiland’s probation.
Weiland’s sentence obviously alters any plans the group had for
promoting the forthcoming album No. 4 (due Oct. 26) as a
unit. The first single, “Down,” will go to radio on Oct. 4. A
recently filmed Miller Genuine Draft Blind Date gig at Las Vegas’s
House of Blues on August 12 will provide the only opportunity to
see STP live for some time; a video for “Down” shot during that
performance will go to MTV, according to a spokesperson for the
group’s Atlantic Records label. The remaining members of STP —
Dean and Robert DeLeo (guitar and bass, respectively), and Eric
Kretz (drums) — will conduct press interviews to fulfill
previously held commitments, but whether or not the group still
plans to make future videos sans Weiland or resume the STP spinoff
Talk Show is still unknown.