I've started this thread as a tribute to the late, great Scott Weiland. Despite his demons and imperfections, he was an incredibly talented artist/songwriter, and a member of the GNR extended family.  He was taken from us too soon and the world is at a lose without him.

In 1986 Scott met bassist Robert DeLeo at a Black Flag concert in Long Beach, California. The two of them were discussing their love interests, when they realized one of them was the same girl they were both dating. They developed a bond over the incident, and ended up moving into her vacated apartment. They started Stone Temple Pilots with Weiland's childhood friends Corey Hicock and David Allin, both of whom would soon be replaced by Eric Kretz and DeLeo's brother Dean.

In 1992, they released their first album, Core, spawning four hits "Sex Type Thing", "Wicked Garden", "Creep", and "Plush".

In 1994, STP released their second record, Purple, which saw the development of a more distinctive identity for the band. Like Core, Purple was a big success for the band, spawning three hit singles; "Big Empty", "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song".

Purple sold more than six million copies, and the critical response was more favorable, with Spin magazine calling it a "quantum leap" from the band's previous album.

In 1995, Scott formed the alternative rock band The Magnificent Bastards with session drummer Victor Indrizzo in San Diego. The band included Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and Bob Thompson on bass. Only two songs were recorded by The Magnificent Bastards, "Mockingbird Girl", which appeared in the Tank Girl soundtrack, and "How Do You Sleep?" a John Lennon cover, recorded for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon.

Scott rejoined Stone Temple Pilots in the fall of 1995. In 1996 they released their third album, Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, which sold about two million albums. It debuted at #4 on the Billboard top 200 and
had three singles reach #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart", "Big Bang Baby", and "Lady Picture Show".

But STP was forced to cancel most of their 1996–1997 tour in support of the album due to Scott's drug and legal problems.

In 1998, with STP on hiatus, Scott released his first solo album, 12 Bar Blues. He wrote most of the songs on the album, and collaborated with several artists, notably Daniel Lanois, Sheryl Crow, Brad Mehldauand Jeff Nolan. It had two singles, Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down" and "Barbarella", and achieved some critical acclaim though not a commercial success.

In 1999, STP regrouped once again and released No. 4. The album contained the hit single "Sour Girl" which featured a surreal music video with Sarah Michelle Gellar. It also featured the song "Down", which was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the Grammy Awards.

That same year, Scott also recorded two songs with the short-lived supergroup The Wondergirls, "Let's Go All the Way", a Sly Fox cover, and "Drop That Baby".

Around this time, Scott spent five months in jail for drug possession.

In November 2000, Scott was invited to perform on the show VH1 Storytellers with the surviving members of The Doors. Scott did vocals on two Doors songs, "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" and "Five to One". That same month Stone Temple Pilots appeared on The Doors tribute CD, Stoned Immaculate with their own rendition of "Break on Through" as the lead track.

On June 19, 2001, STP released its fifth album, Shangri-La Dee Da. Despite not selling as well as the band's first four albums, Shangri-La Dee Da was certified Gold by the RIAA and the CRIA and was a commercial success for the band.

That same year the band headlined the Family Values Touralong with Linkin Park, Staind and Static-X. In late 2002, the band broke up after a major altercation between Scott and Dean DeLeo during the final show of the Shangri-La Dee Da tour.

In 2002, Scott became a member of the extended Guns N' Roses family by joining  Slash,  Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, as well as former Wasted Youth guitarist Dave Kushner in a new band, Velvet Revolver. The recorded "Set Me Free" for the Hulk soundtrack, and a Pink Floyd cover "Money" for the Italian Job soundtrack.

In 2004 they released their first album, Contraband. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has sold over three million copies worldwide to date. Two of the album's songs, "Slither" and "Fall to Pieces", reached number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song "Slither" also won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal in 2005

They released their second album, Libertad, in 2007. It peaked at number five on the Billboard 200, and had 3 singles "She Builds Quick Machines", "The Last Fight" and "Get Out the Door".  Critical reception to the album was mixed. Some critics praised the album and felt that Libertad gave the band an identity of their own,outside of the Guns N' Roses and Stone Temple Pilots comparisons, while others described the album as "bland

Scott abruptly left Velvet Revolver in 2008 for a reunion tour with Stone Temple Pilots, causing a row with his Velvet Revolver band mates.

Also in 2008, Scott released his second solo album, "Happy" in Galoshes, with songwriting and producing partner Doug Grean, and went on tour in early 2009 to promote the album.

In 2010, Stone Temple Pilots released a self titled album, their sixth, with singles "Between the Lines", "Take a Load Off", and "Cinnamon".?

In 2011, Scott released a covers album, A Compilation of Scott Weiland Cover Songs, exclusively through his website.  The same year he release a Christmas album, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Tensions once again developed between Scott and his STP band mates in 2012.  Around this time Velvet Revolver reunited for a single show, playing three songs, to raise money for the family of recently deceased musician John O'Brien.  Also around this time, Scott made remakes in the media expressing desire to reunite for a new album and tour with Velvet Revolver, but the idea was publicly shot down by Slash.

In 2013 Scott was fired from Stone Temple Pilots.  Around this low point, Scott was also working with another Guns N' Roses musician, Ron "Bummblefoot" Thal, on a new project Art of Anarchy.

In 2015 Art of Anarchy released its self titled debut album with Scott on lead vocals, and with a music video starting him. But Scott distanced himself from the project, and did not tour the album.

Also in 2015 Scott released his final album, titled Blaster, with his new band, The Wildabouts. The album was supported by the singles "White Lightning", "Way She Moves" and "20th Century Boy", a T. Rex cover. Guitarist Jeremy Brown died one day before the album's release, on March 30, 2015.

During the tour to support the album, Scott was found dead on the band's tour bus on December 3, 2015. The band's scheduled gig that evening in nearby Medina, Minnesota, had been canceled several days earlier, but they were still planning to play the next night in Rochester, Minnesota. He was 48. Police searched Scott's tour bus and confirmed there were small amounts of cocaine in the bedroom where Weiland was discovered dead. Police also found prescription drugs, including Xanax, Buprenorphine, Ziprasidone, Viagra, and sleeping pills. Tommy Black, bassist for the Wildabouts, was arrested by police on suspicion of possession of cocaine, although the charges against him were later dropped. Despite the discovery of drugs, no underlying cause of death was immediately given, although the medical examiner later determined it to be an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine(MDA); the examiner's office also noted his atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, history of asthma, and prolonged substance abuse in its report.

News of Scott's death quickly spread throughout the Internet, with many of his fellow musical peers, including his former band members along with fans and music critics throughout the world, sharing their condolences, tributes, and memories. A day following his death, his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots issued a statement saying that he was "gifted beyond words" but acknowledged his struggle with substance abuse, calling it "part of [his] curse". Scott's ex-wife, Mary Forsberg, released an open letter about her ex-husband, his addictions, and not being a good father to their children. Forsberg said, "I won't say he can rest now, or that he's in a better place. He belongs with his children barbecuing in the backyard and waiting for a Notre Dame game to come on. We are angry and sad about this loss, but we are most devastated that he chose to give up. Let's choose to make this the first time we don't glorify this tragedy with talk of rock and roll and the demons that, by the way, don't have to come with it."

A small funeral for Weiland was held at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on December 11, 2015, in Los Angeles. Members of both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver attended. Chris Kushner, the wife of Velvet Revolver guitarist Dave Kushner, wrote on her Instagram page following the funeral, "A very sad day when (you) bury a friend. He was a good man. Don't believe everything (you) read. Remember, we were all there." Mary Forsberg and the two children were not in attendance, later having a private ceremony in his honor.

http://loudwire.com/rockers-react-scott … ead-at-48/

In the wake of Scott's death, several other artists paid tribute to the singer by covering Stone Temple Pilots tunes in concert, including Life of Agony,Saint Asonia, Candlebox, Halestorm, and Pop Evil, among others, while Chris Cornelldedicated a performance of "Say Hello 2 Heaven" by Temple of the Dog to the singer.

On the Smashing Pumpkins' website, Billy Corgan praised Scott, saying "It was STP's 3rd album that had got me hooked, a wizardly mix of glam and post-punk, and I confessed to Scott, as well as the band many times, how wrong I'd been in assessing their native brilliance. And like Bowie can and does, it was Scott's phrasing that pushed his music into a unique, and hard to pin down, aesthetic sonicsphere. Lastly, I'd like to share a thought which though clumsy, I hope would please Scott In Hominum. And that is if you asked me who I truly believed were the great voices of our generation, I'd say it were he, Layne, and Kurt."