By Richard Wybrow
One of the signature rock voices that helped define the grunge movement of the '90s has died.
Scott Weiland, lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, was just 48.
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus on the same night he was to play a gig in Minnesota with his current band, The Wildabouts.
Officials haven't said what caused his death, but police did say cocaine was found on the bus and Weiland's battles with drugs and alcohol have been well documented.
Born in 1967, California native Weiland formed his first band at the age of 16. But it was in 1992 when the world first heard that husky baritone on The Stone Temple Pilots' debut, Grammy-winning album, Core.
STP sold more than 13 million albums in the US alone before taking a break in 2002.
Weiland then stepped up to front Velvet Revolver, which included three former members of Guns N' Roses, embracing his inner glam rocker.
Battling his addiction his entire adult life, he was arrested several times on drug and alcohol charges, pleading guilty to felony heroin possession in 1998.
Stone Temple Pilots reunited in 2008. Back then, Weiland talked about why he got back into the band.
"I don't want to stay on the road for the rest of my life. I've two kids, but if I'm going to commit, say, the next 10 years of my life to touring, to whatever extend that is, then I want to do it with people I want to make music with."
Halfway through that 10-year plan, in 2013, he was fired from the band because of drugs.
Today, his former STP bandmates wrote:
"We know amidst the good and the bad you struggled, time and time again. It's what made you who you were. You were gifted beyond words, Scott. Part of that gift was part of your curse."
Weiland was 48.
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