As previously reported, the members of Stone Temple Pilots recently launched a lawsuit against singer Scott Weiland, claiming they had "endured much strife and lost significant opportunities" because of the vocalist. The band have now issued a statement explaining their position further.
Last night (May 30), bassist Robert DeLeo, bassist Dean DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz posted a joint statement on the band's website stating that their suit is not intended "to hurt" their erstwhile vocalist, whose role is currently being filled by Linkin Park's Chester Bennington. Instead, they report that they opted to take legal action once plans for a 20th anniversary tour behind their debut Core had gone down the tubes after Weiland booked the celebration as a solo tour instead.
The statement reads:
You may have read we recently filed suit against our former singer, Scott Weiland. We wanted to clarify a few things:
Our purpose in taking this action is not to hurt Scott. We want to move forward productively, and Scott's choices and actions have prevented us from doing that. We were in the process of putting our 20th anniversary tour together to celebrate the release of our first album, Core. The plan was for a big tour where we'd perform the album in its entirety, along with some other favorite STP songs. So, you might imagine our shock and disappointment when, without any notice, we learned that Scott had seized this tour for himself as his solo tour, and decided to do exactly what we as a group had planned. We found out about it the same way you did—we saw an ad for it.
Without getting into legal details, the band has a binding agreement that clearly states what each of us can and cannot do outside of STP. Unfortunately many of the decisions Scott made violate this agreement, have been harmful to the band, and prevented us from moving forward. When our requests to Scott and his representatives that they abide by the agreement were ignored, we finally had enough. So now, we've made our choice. It was beyond time we made some new music, which was impossible in the dysfunctional environment we were in. We've lived in it long enough and have decided to move forward with STP. We wish Scott well. We're really excited about the new music we've been making with Chester, including the song we just released, "Out of Time."
We love this band and respect everything it means to you. We want to always give you our best and the choice we made is completely in that spirit.
Dean, Eric & Robert
Prior to the suit, Weiland had expressed his distaste for the current lineup of STP, writing on Facebook, "First of all they don't have the legal right to call themselves STP because I'm still a member of the band. And more importantly, they don't have the ethical right to call themselves Stone Temple Pilots because it's misleading and dishonest to the millions of fans that have followed us for so many years."
The singer plans to tour on his own this summer.
Weiland and the other members of Stone Temple Pilots have been in an off-and-on relationship since the '90s. You can check out the Bennington-sung new single "Out of Time" down below.
Last night (May 30), bassist Robert DeLeo, bassist Dean DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz posted a joint statement on the band's website stating that their suit is not intended "to hurt" their erstwhile vocalist, whose role is currently being filled by Linkin Park's Chester Bennington. Instead, they report that they opted to take legal action once plans for a 20th anniversary tour behind their debut Core had gone down the tubes after Weiland booked the celebration as a solo tour instead.
The statement reads:
You may have read we recently filed suit against our former singer, Scott Weiland. We wanted to clarify a few things:
Our purpose in taking this action is not to hurt Scott. We want to move forward productively, and Scott's choices and actions have prevented us from doing that. We were in the process of putting our 20th anniversary tour together to celebrate the release of our first album, Core. The plan was for a big tour where we'd perform the album in its entirety, along with some other favorite STP songs. So, you might imagine our shock and disappointment when, without any notice, we learned that Scott had seized this tour for himself as his solo tour, and decided to do exactly what we as a group had planned. We found out about it the same way you did—we saw an ad for it.
Without getting into legal details, the band has a binding agreement that clearly states what each of us can and cannot do outside of STP. Unfortunately many of the decisions Scott made violate this agreement, have been harmful to the band, and prevented us from moving forward. When our requests to Scott and his representatives that they abide by the agreement were ignored, we finally had enough. So now, we've made our choice. It was beyond time we made some new music, which was impossible in the dysfunctional environment we were in. We've lived in it long enough and have decided to move forward with STP. We wish Scott well. We're really excited about the new music we've been making with Chester, including the song we just released, "Out of Time."
We love this band and respect everything it means to you. We want to always give you our best and the choice we made is completely in that spirit.
Dean, Eric & Robert
Prior to the suit, Weiland had expressed his distaste for the current lineup of STP, writing on Facebook, "First of all they don't have the legal right to call themselves STP because I'm still a member of the band. And more importantly, they don't have the ethical right to call themselves Stone Temple Pilots because it's misleading and dishonest to the millions of fans that have followed us for so many years."
The singer plans to tour on his own this summer.
Weiland and the other members of Stone Temple Pilots have been in an off-and-on relationship since the '90s. You can check out the Bennington-sung new single "Out of Time" down below.
