Scott Weiland

I never met Scott Weiland. I'm sad to say that I never saw him perform live. But I have spent countless hours listening to the music that he wrote and recorded with Stone Temple Pilots, amazing, unpredictable, sometimes challenging music that was always fresh, deeply felt, and never, ever marred by clichés or an adherence to trends. 

Every minute listening to Weiland's music was a treasure. His songwriting was as impactful for its inventiveness as for its emotional gravity. He marched to his own drummer, in the words of Thoreau, and he did it beautifully.

I winced each time I saw one of those headlines: Scott Weiland arrested on drug charges. I feared that one day the news would be worse. 

We lost Scott last night. We lost his person. We lost his talent. But we'll never lose his soul. It pours out of the bits and bytes burned into the CDs that he recorded as a solo artist and with his bands Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Underground. 

"Leaving on a southern train

Only yesterday, you lied

Promises of what I seemed to be

Only watched the time

Go by"

Scott Weiland was 48. 

Copyright © 2015 Daniel R. South 

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