To honor ten years since Scott Weiland‘s passing, If I Could Fly, a previously unreleased track written in 2000 after the birth of his son, is out today on all digital streaming platforms through Primary Wave/Virgin.
This is the first unheard song from Weiland‘s archive since he left us. It is personal, raw and a reminder of the heart that ran through all his work.
Weiland‘s legacy spans Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver, a stack of awards, and more than 50 million albums sold. But it’s songs like this that show why people stayed connected to him for decades.
If I Could Fly bridges two generations of listeners and gives back a piece of Weiland’s that’s been held close for 25 years.
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus in at the age of 48 from a toxic mix of drugs and alcohol. The vocalist was also dealing with self-medication, estrangement from his children, financial difficulties and a steadily increasing drinking problem. The singer was on tour with The Wildabouts in Minnesota when he was found unresponsive on the group’s tour bus shortly before 9:00 p.m. on December 3rd, 2015. They had been scheduled to perform that night at the Medina Entertainment Center in Medina, Minnesota. However, that concert was canceled more than a week earlier because of slow ticket sales, according to StarTribune.com. The group was set to perform in Rochester the following night (December 4th) at the Wicked Moose.
6 Responses
STP was a great sounding band back during Grunge’s heyday. Those first two albums Core & Purple are solid albums.
I love STP, they were least grungy of the grunge bands. Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop had material, such as Big Bang Baby, which is poppy and Interstate Love Song that started out as a Bossa Nova tune.
Speaking of Tiny Music…, I really dig Tumble In The Rough.
Hi Dana, yeah those are good songs. I remember when Scott, the DeLeo bros and Eric stopped into see Howard and played Lady Picture show circa ’96. Of those grunge era bands Soundgarden & AIC have been my core favourties along with STP.
Hi Tasker.
I never liked Grunge, I was forced fed to accept it, because that is all MTV, and most radio stations, would play, at that point in time.
Was there some talent? Sure. I love STP (who I would argue, had some “grungy” elements, but not a true Grunge band), Chris Cornell could clearly sing and Alice In Chains harmonize very well.
However, I found the genre as a whole, depressing and dark. Even with Nirvana‘s short, melodic, and highly overplayed songs, the category was still very moody with gloomy subject matter.
If I am still listening to a band, all these decades later, that is a testament to their music. I hardly listen to any of those grunge era bands. As a matter of fact, I cannot even recall the last time I made a conscious effort, to play any music of that era.
While I know this may offend many, I am still listening to Poison, as opposed to any of those Seattle bands. Why? It’s uncomplicated, fun, light, happy and melodic. That is the recipe to make me smile, and hits my sweet spot, everytime.
Should I desire to listen to slower, grinding, heavier music, both in subject, and sound, I will just reach for the original, Black Sabbath. But, as I always write, to each their own.
I totally forgot about Nirvana. They were short lived for me, as I enjoyed Nevermind when it came out in my early 20’s in ’94, but after that I didn’t really appreciate anything else. I wanted to like the MTvUnplugged release, but as you said, it was just way to melancholy for my tastes.
Not sure why rockers from the PNW who wore flannel and jeans, looked or sounded stoned, got labeled as grunge. I suppose it was to highlight unkempt disinterested youth that weren’t any different than 80’s “hair” metal crowd that dressed with a similar edge as Maiden, Priest and Metallica fans. As far as the grunge genre’, besides the mainstream four -AIC, Soundgarden, Nirvana & PJ – catalogue I’ve enjoyed since the 90’s and still do today. I’ve only listened to a little Mud Honey, Fuzzy Nipples, Buttholes Surfers and Melvins, even Foo Fighters to say, I can take it or leave it. I only own one FF album and I’ve played that under 6 times in the 20+ years of ownership.
He was incredibly talented, its so hard for me to understand the need for heroin, opiates, hard drugs and the active participation in your own demise , addiction is awful . I had a good friend who struggled for 20 yrs with all the same things Scott struggled with, he finally got clean he is doing great married living a wonderful life – and through it all he could never explain it had no reason why he did any of it .. this is a great song I loved his voice his presence on stage – so sad he is not here ~