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Drama is the glue that unites Stone Temple Pilots
By JOHN BENSON
These days, Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo is just having fun.
Not only is the sunglasses-wearing bassist, whose look is that of either a secret service agent or a “Miami Vice” drug lord, happy his band reunited two years ago and is now on tour with its first studio effort in eight years, but he’s enjoying the ironic nature of his surroundings.
“I’m in Van Nuys, California, the porn capital of the world,” laughed DeLeo, during a phone call a few weeks ago. “That’s not why I’m here. We’re at rehearsal at this place, not watching or doing porn, but in the place where they shoot porn. It’s a big sound stage.”
So is it apropos that DeLeo and bandmates singer Scott Weiland, guitarist and brother Dean DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz — known for songs “Sex Type Thing,” “Plush,” “Big Empty,” “Interstate Love Song,” “Lady Picture Show” – find themselves in such a place of iniquity?
“No, it’s pretty funny,” DeLeo said. “I have my two sons here, and I’m ready to cut a cake for my 5-year-old son for his birthday. So it’s pretty ironic, but if you asked me that maybe 15 years ago, I would have said, ‘Yes.’”
It was 15 years ago that Stone Temple Pilots found itself at the height of its rock ’n’ roll fame and debauchery with lead singer Weiland’s highly publicized battle with heroin being the talk of the day. Ultimately, the group’s strained relationship would be severed in 2003 when the band members went their separate ways. Weiland eventually landed with ex-Gunners Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum to form Velvet Revolver, while the DeLeos created Talk Show with Filter visionary and Cleveland native Richard Patrick.
After both projects fell apart, Stone Temple Pilots reunited in 2008 with a successful tour, which oddly enough didn’t include any new music.
While some groups may have viewed the reunion publicity as a perfect time (Read: cash grab) to release a new album, this rock act waited.
The decision was simple, said DeLeo. Not only were the band members learning to re-familiarize themselves with each other but from a creative standpoint their best work in the past came from the push-pull dynamic of their friendship.
“We kind of needed to be in each other’s [expletive] for a while, to kind of toss it around and see what’s happening,” DeLeo said. “I think that’s always the best thing that comes out of making a record is just being in each other’s [expletive]. But it’s always eggshells. It’s rock ’n’ roll, man, I didn’t sign up to sit in a cubicle. I think there’s a lot that the public buys into and believes, and for some reason that always happens to be tragedy. So most of the time it’s cool, and when things get a little weird, that’s when you make an album and that’s when you write new songs. And that’s what we do.”
The result is the group’s self-titled effort, which includes hit lead single “Between the Lines” and current radio track “Take a Load Off.” Stone Temple Pilots return to the area for a Sunday show at the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater at Tower City in Cleveland and Aug. 28 at the First Niagara Pavilion in Pittsburgh, with fans seemingly facing a tenuous situation regarding the band’s future. As in, how long is it until Weiland relapses or the band members tire of each other’s (expletive).
“I think we’ll do this as long as we feel it’s valid to do it,” DeLeo said. “It’s funny, you look at interviews of Mick Jagger in the mid-’60s when he was in his 20s and he was like, ‘This won’t last long. We’re going to do this for a little while.’ And here he is almost 70 years old and he’s still doing it. I think something he probably didn’t know back then was the power of the songs. And that’s the thing that really kind of entices me back into doing this. That’s what keeps me playing and working and going out and doing some really cool [expletive] for people.”