Some sad news breaking late last night: ex-Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver lead singer Scott Weiland was found dead on his tour bus in Minnesota. He was 48 years old.

He had been touring with a backing band the Wildabouts for the past several months in support of his most recent solo album. In an interview recorded about two weeks ago, Scott floated the possibility of a Stone Temple Pilots or Velvet Revolver reunion, although it’s unclear how likely the prospects were for either, given Scott’s messy departure from STP in 2013 and the subsequent lawsuit.

Scott’s drug issues were well documented over the years.  Having covered similar territory in my Alice in Chains book, it’s sad to think of what he went through and what a struggle it must have been to get and stay clean. There is no official cause of death yet, so I won’t speculate on what (if any) role they might have played.

I was fortunate to have met Scott once several years ago. I was in Miami for a few days in October of 2001 (I remember the date very well because the DC Sniper shootings started while I was there) and staying at a hotel in South Beach.  The night before I was supposed to fly back to Washington DC, I saw a tour bus parked outside the hotel across the street from mine. I walked over to see what was going on, and saw Scott, sitting on a chair outside the main entrance smoking a cigarette with his shirt unbuttoned looking very casual.  I walked over to him and introduced myself.  He was very nice, and told me he and the band were in town to play a surprise show on the beach the next day which was going to be announced on local radio. Unfortunately I was not able to go to the show.  I think they were touring in support of the Shangri-La Dee Da album.  The band broke up or went on hiatus about a year later, after which Scott joined Velvet Revolver.

My condolences to his family, friends and band mates (current and former).