Swinging hard throughout the 1990s, Stone Temple Pilots were one of the biggest bands known for their crunching riffs, complements of the DeLeo brothers (Dean and Robert), and drummer Eric Kretz’s rhythmic rev, along with the lyrics of their songwriting maestro. Catapulted by their 1992 debut Core and hits “Creep” and “Plush,” late frontman Scott Weiland’s lyrics were roaming, raging, and macerated in nostalgia and sentimental songs.
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The band’s 1994 release, Purple, spawned the slippery rock of “Vasoline” and the jilted love story of “Interstate Love Song,” followed by their third album, Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, in 1996 with more Weiland-penned hits, including “Big Bang Baby,” “Lady Picture Show” and “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart.”
Weiland released two more albums with the band — No. 4 in 1999 and Shangri-La Dee Da in 2001 —before they split in 2003. Post-STP, Weiland helped round out the supergroup Velvet Revolver, along with Guns N’ Roses‘ Duff McKagan, Slash, Matt Sorum, and ex-Wasted Youth member Dave Kushner, and released two albums with the band: Contraband in 2004 and Libertad in 2007.
[RELATED: Behind the Band Name Stone Temple Pilots]
By the late ’90s, Weiland also began releasing his own solo material with 12 Bar Blues in 1998, through his fourth, Blaster. The singer reunited with STP for one last album, Stone Temple Pilots, released several years before his death at 48 in 2015.
“It’s always a new thing every time, and every time I get together with a new group of guys and work stuff out, I want to feel the groove,” said Weiland of writing in 2014. “I want to feel the riffs and the beats as the song comes together. That inspires a melody, and then this overall feeling of the melody. And then it’s the song that inspires a lyrical idea. Usually, I’ll have some lyrical ideas that I bring to the table and just work into the song, but it usually starts for me with the melody.”
In honor of Weiland’s epic contributions to the songbook of the ’90s — and then some — here’s a look at three songs he wrote outside the core Velvet Revolver and STP catalogs.
1. “Mockingbird Girl,” Magnificent Bastards (1995)
Written by Scott Weiland, Zander Schloss, Jeff Nolan
On a brief break from STP, Weiland formed Magnificent Bastards with guitarist Zander Schloss and Jeff Nolan on guitars and bassist Bob Thompson, and drummer Victor Indrizzo. The band only recorded two songs, a cover of John Lennon‘s “How Do You Sleep?” for the tribute album, Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon, and an original “Mockingbird Girl,” which appeared in 1995 Lori Petty-starred action film Tank Girl.
She
She flys without no feathers
A fool to try to catch her
Well I don’t know
‘Cause I don’t know
I’m a fool
Yeah, a visionary’s daughter
She don’t care that you want on her
She’ll kill you once, you won’t mind
You’ll ask her twice
Hey hey rocket boy
Gotta lot of life behind her
Hey hey mockingbird girl
Gotta fly don’t let him hold you
2. “Hold On,” Limp Bizkit (2000)
Written by Scott Weiland and Fred Durst
Limp Bizkit‘s third album, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, spurred by the hit “Rollin’.” All lyrics were written by frontman Fred Durst with the exception of a handful of collaborations, including the slow-tempo “Hold On,” which he co-wrote and sings with Weiland.
Set to a brooding melody, “Hold On” was never released as a single but is worth a revisit to catch Weiland and Durst’s flawless harmonization.
You keep your distance, I can’t deny you
I’ve got the feeling, can’t satisfy you
I’ve got your picture on the wall
I got the picture long gone
You keep your wishes, I’ll keep my feelings
There goes another one that kept me breathing
I’m waiting for you, I know you’re leaving
I still adore you, you never leave me
Hold on
I found another way to let you go away
Hold on
You found another way to bleed my soul away
[RELATED: 30 Best Quotes by Fred Durst]
3. “Set Me Free” Hulk Soundtrack (2003)
Written by Scott Weiland, Slash, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, Dave Kushner, and Danny Elfman
Though technically written and performed by members of Velvet Revolver, and featured on the band’s debut, Contraband, “Set Me Free” was also reworked by composer Danny Elfman and featured in the 2003 Marvel action flick Hulk. The band’s Contraband version features an alternate mix and a different ending.
You’re kept alive and polarized with one thing in mind
Metabolize everything that you see
But now and then or a little later
Now I’m gonna take you down with me
Around again
Insane again
She comes again
And sets me free
Scott Weiland Photo by Ebet Roberts/Redferns
