Every story has to start somewhere, and for rock icons Stone Temple Pilots it was in 1985 at the Fender Ballroom in Long Beach, California, where Scott Weiland met Robert DeLeo for the first time at a Red Hot Chili Peppers gig.
Weiland was an aspiring singer, and DeLeo played bass. Both were eccentric characters.
As Weiland recalled in 2001: “I had a little semi-new romantic band since I was 16. I was into that whole Duran Duran thing. Robert lived in a Volkswagen, doing speed and writing songs like Dr Lymph Node’s Duck Butter Brand Butt Wax. He’d also wear the same pyjamas for a week.”
It took a while for them to get a new band together.
Weiland explained: “I didn’t see Robert again for a couple of years until one of the guys in my band dated a girl who was also dating Robert at the same time.”
But eventually they joined forces with Robert DeLeo’s guitar-playing brother Dean and drummer Eric Kretz to form a band that became one of the most successful and influential rock acts of the ’90s.
In 2001, when Weiland and Dean DeLeo were promoting Stone Temple Pilots’ fifth album Shangri-La Dee Da, they spoke to Kingsize magazine and discussed the band’s early days, their formative musical influences and their struggles to get noticed.
Before Dean DeLeo joined the band in 1989, the guitarist was Corey Hicock, and it was Hicock who gave the group the unusual name of Mighty Joe Young.
DeLeo admitted to Kingsize that he had serious reservations about pursuing a career in rock ’n’ roll.
“I was in a scary situation,” he said. “I’d been living in San Diego doing a soul-wrenching job, managing a facility catering to contractors. But I had a home and real nice salary before I moved in with Scott and ate rice and beans. I didn’t make a house payment for ten months. A pretty crazy move!”
Scott Weiland described Dean DeLeo as the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle.
“With Dean we could paint a real heavy sound that was still arty and experimental,” Weiland said. “We were like four children let loose in a scientists’ laboratory.
“Eric was very into prog rock. We’ve always been inspired by provocative music. The Sex Pistols were not musically provocative, but as a band they were incredibly subversive. Early Genesis too.”
DeLeo added: “When we got in a room together for the first time, man, it was as if I grew wings. To this day I can’t explain it. The four of us became one mind. Songwriting is nothing to us. It’s so easy.”
Weiland cited Jane’s Addiction as their greatest inspiration.
“We had been scratching and fighting in an LA club scene dominated by hair metal bands,” he said, “but when Jane’s Addiction hit, anything seemed possible. Jane’s were influenced by the same things as us – sex and drugs and music and art.
“That was a shot of hope. Then Nirvana crashed the door open that Jane’s opened up.”
After signing to Atlantic Records on 1 April 1992, the band were forced to drop the name of Mighty Joe Young before the release of their debut album.
DeLeo recalled: “We were in our artist’s loft in Hollywood, looking at the artwork for the album, and the phone rang. Our lawyer said, ‘You know what, guys? There’s an old blues cat in Chicago that’s been making records since before you were born called Mighy Joe Young.’ We went, ‘Oh fuck!’”
Following a delay of six months, the group’s debut album Core was eventually released under the new name of Stone Temple Pilots.
“I had this little shrine in my room,” Weiland said. “An old wooden Coca-Cola case filled with a pop art collection – Christmas lights, an STP oil can. I was looking at it and within ten minutes we went from Shirley Temple’s Pussy to Stinky Toilet Paper to Stereo Temple Pirates which evolved into Stone Temple Pilots.”
Weiland said of that period: “Making a record, you’re peeling yourself, but that was a time of complete excitement. We had $12,000 apiece in our bank accounts and it seemed like we were rich. The way we were living, $12,000 could last us a year and a half!”
After Core was released on 29 September 1992, Stone Temple Pilots embarked on a club tour before they made the big leap to playing in arenas as the opening for Megadeth.
Megadeth’s leader Dave Mustaine took a liking to STP. Megadeth’s fans, not so much.
As DeLeo remembered: “We went out with Megadeth in the winter, playing to arenas filled with very devout Megadeth fans, pimply-faced young boys wearing Iron Maiden shirts.”
“Beavis and Butt-head,” Weiland laughed.
DeLeo continued: “All through our set these young boys would be giving us the middle finger. Every night we’d leave stage devastated.
“But Dave Mustaine was really cool. He’d go out and say, ‘Listen you fucking little bitches - I handpicked these guys to play with us tonight, so show some fucking respect!’”
However, it wasn’t long before Stone Temple Pilots had lift-off. Their debut single Sex Type Thing was a minor hit. Then came a second single, Plush.
“When Plush hit radio it was like another world,” Dean DeLeo said. “People started coming to see us.”
Core ended up reaching No 3 on the Billboard 200.
With that, the heavy, arty and experimental sound of Stone Temple Pilots was big news.
