Stone Temple Pilots

Stone Temple Pilots is a successful American rock band from California whose popularity stretched from the 1990’s to the early part of the 2000’s. The band’s members included Scott Weiland in vocals, Robert DeLeo in bass guitar and vocals, Dean DeLeo in lead guitar and Eric Kretz in drums and percussion. It was not until 1990 that the band members named the group as such after having considered “Mighty Joe Young,” “Shirley Temple’s Pussy” and “Stereo Temple Pirates.”

The success story of Stone Temple Pilots includes more than 17 million copies of the group’s five albums sold in the U.S. alone, 6 number 1’s of the 15 top ten singles in Billboard’s rock charts, a number 1 album in the pop charts for their 1994 album “Purple” and ultimately a Grammy award in 1994 for the "Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal" for the song “Plush.”

The album “Core” was released in September 29, 1992 and currently has 8x platinum to its credit. The said record features the singles, “Sex Type Thing,” “Plush,” “Wicked Garden” and “Creep.” The said album was such a great success that despite criticisms, the group still gained fans among the rock music crowd.

Stone Temple Pilots’ second album, “Purple,” was released in June 7, 1994 and has already hit 6x Platinum at present. In fact as of October in its release year, the album already sold 3 million copies as the band achieved widespread popularity among rock fans. Popular singles from the record include “Big Empty,” “Vasoline,” “Interstate Love Song” and “Pretty Penny.” The following year however, the band’s vocalist Weiland was arrested for illegal possession of drugs and because of this the remaining members separated briefly.

It was October of 1995 though when Stone Temple Pilots’ got together again with Weiland and worked on its third album. What resulted was the album entitled “Tiny Music… Songs From The Vatican Shop.” The said record is at present 2x Platinum and features the songs “Trippin’ On a Hole in a Paper Heart,” “Lady Picture Show,” “Big Bang Baby” and “Tumble in the Rough.” Again despite the criticisms the album met, rock fans still showed support to the group as was evident in the album’s debut at number 4 in the U.S. charts.

Around 1996 however Weiland’s drug addiction became a problem for the band again that it was not until 1999 when they released their 4th album, “No. 4.” “No. 4” included the singles “Down,” “No Way Out” and “Sour Girl.” Weiland was sentenced to a year in county jail in violation of probation after the album was completed however.

The last Stone Temple Pilots album under Atlantic Records was “Shangri-La Dee Da” and this was released in the summer of 2001. Among the singles included in the record were “Hollywood Bitch” and “Days of the Week.” A year after the release of the said album however, Stone Temple Pilots disbanded after completing its contract with Atlantic.