Singer Scott Weiland dies in Minnesota at age 48: Facebook statement

[December 04, 2015] By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rock singer Scott Weiland, the troubled ex-frontman for the band Stone Temple Pilots, died during a tour stop with his new band the Wildabouts in Minnesota, according to a statement posted to his Facebook page late on Thursday.

Weiland, 48, died in his sleep while on tour in Bloomington, south of Minneapolis, according to the statement. His death also was reported by TMZ.com and Billboard.

The California-born singer, who had acknowledged a long history of substance abuse, was kicked out of Stone Temple Pilots in 2013 for what his bandmates' attorney called "destructive behavior." He also performed with the group Velvet Revolver for a number of years.

Weiland, known for his growling vocals and shock of dyed red hair, came to symbolize the early 1990s grunge era as lead singer and lyricist for the Stone Temple Pilots. Adept at altering his vocal style, he sometimes sang through a megaphone at concerts.

Weiland's Facebook page gave no details about the circumstances of his death. But celebrity website TMZ, citing an unnamed source connected to the Wildabouts, reported Weiland was found on the band's tour bus on Thursday night.

Bloomington police said in a statement they received a call reporting an unresponsive man in a recreational vehicle on Thursday night and that officers who went to the site found he was dead. Police withheld the man's name, pending an investigation by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office and the local Sheriff's Office.

Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts were scheduled to perform on Thursday at the Medina Inn, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Bloomington, but the show was canceled, the venue said on its website.

Stone Temple Pilots, also known as STP, was co-founded by Weiland in the late 1980s and went on to score such guitar-heavy hits as "Plush" in 1993 and "Interstate Love Song" the following year.

The band broke up in 2003 but reunited five years later only to collapse in acrimony again in February 2013 when Weiland's bandmates - Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz - forced him out.

Weiland is survived by two children with his ex-wife, Mary Forsberg, who wrote in her 2009 memoir "Fall to Pieces" that there was a time when the couple, while beset by drug addiction, took a limousine together to rehab.

The debut album of Weiland and the Wildabouts, "Blaster," was released earlier this year.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Steve Gorman and Toby Chopra)

[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.