Update! Earlier today, I received an email from STP’s publicist. It was a one-sentence statement from Stone Temple Pilots on the “termination” of Scott Weiland as lead singer. It read, “Stone Temple Plots anounce they have officially terminated Scott Weiland.” And I just received a press release from Scott Weiland’s publicist that says, “I learned of my supposed ‘termination’ from Stone Temple Pilots this morning by reading about it in the press. Not sure how I can be ‘terminated’ from a band that I founded, fronted and co-wrote many of its biggest hits, but that’s something for the lawyers to figure out. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to seeing all of my fans on my solo tour which starts this Friday. – (signed) Scott Weiland.” So let the litigations begin! Sad news all around, especially since when this band is ON, there is no one who’s better! Unfortunately, this is not the case any longer. STP-RIP….. Pulse Content reports Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has opened up about his years of drug and alcohol abuse, his onstage meltdown last fall in Las Vegas and his rehab stint in a new interview with Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands on Friday (Mar 1st). In an excerpt posted at the magazine’s website, Armstrong spoke about the many nights he spent high and/or drunk over the years, saying, “I couldn’t predict where I was going to end up at the end of the night. I’d wake up in a strange house on a couch. I wouldn’t remember how. It was a complete blackout.” Armstrong’s issues came to a head at a festival in Vegas, where he smashed his guitar and screamed obscenities at the promoters for reportedly cutting Green Day’s set. He said he recalls little of that incident, admitting, “I remember tiny things. The next morning, I woke up. I asked (my wife) Adrienne, ‘How bad was it?’ She said, ‘It’s bad.’ I called my manager. He said, ‘You’re getting on a plane, going back to Oakland and going into rehab immediately.‘” Meanwhile, the band has added some intimate club dates including stops in Pomona, Tempe and El Paso. See Road Rage for complete deets….Papa Roach have announced a new run of dates for April and May with Otherswise and Escape the Fate. See those in Road Rage, too!……I like this item: Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith will head to Washington D.C. next month to lobby Congress on behalf of music education. According to Audio Ink Radio, Smith will join up with representatives of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) to meet with members of the government on the subject of funding music education programs in public schools. Did you attend music education classes in school? If so, what influence did it have on your life? Could you have lived without it? Let us know via the email link on the home page and Lou Brutus will use it on the air on the XL!….Speaking of Lou, we’re posting a picture of him in Johnny K‘s Groovemaster Studios in Chicago with Mr K and Leigh Kakaty of Pop Evil. Be listening for his interview soon on the air!…Heard some new music yesterday I really liked! Eve to Adam is back with a new track called “Straitjacket Supermodel” and the new Escape the Fate song, “You’re Insane” is also coming, from their next album, Ungrateful, due May 14th. Good stuff on the horizon!
