Scott Weiland Dead: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Scott Weiland has reportedly died at the age of 48. (Getty)

Musician Scott Weiland was found dead Thursday at the age of 48, his wife told the Los Angeles Times.

Fellow musician Dave Navarro was among the first to break the news about Weiland’s death, tweeting, “Just learned our friend Scott Weiland has died. So gutted, I am thinking of his family tonight.

Weiland is best known as the lead singer of the Stone Temple Pilots, which he fronted from 1986 to 2002 and again from 2008 to 2013. He was also part of the supergroup Velvet Revolver from 2003 to 2008. He was most on tour with Scott Weiland and The Wildabouts at the time of his death.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Weiland Was Found Dead on His Tour Bus in Minnesota

Weiland in 2015. (Getty)

Weiland was found dead on his tour bus in Minnesota, according to TMZ. Weiland is on tour with his band, The Wildabouts. He was found at about 9 p.m., the website reports.

A message was posted on Scott Weiland’s official Facebook page saying, he, “passed away in his sleep while on a tour stop in Bloomington, Minnesota, with his band The Wildabouts. At this time we ask that the privacy of Scott’s family be respected.”

The band was scheduled to play Friday night at the Wicked Moose Bar and Grill in Rochester, Minnesota. According to KNAC.com, he was found by his personal manager. The radio station first reported Weiland’s death.

A show scheduled for Thursday night in Medina, Minnesota, had previously been cancelled, according to the Medina Entertainment Center’s Twitter. The show was cancelled because of slow ticket sales, Jon Bream of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune said on Twitter.

No cause of death has been announced.

2. The Singer Battled Drug Addiction for Several Years, But Said Earlier This Year He Was Clean

Weiland in 2001. (Getty)

The singer struggled with drug use for several years, but he told Loudwire in June that he stopped using drugs years ago.

The interview came after rumors he had been using drugs again, with other musicians and fans citing strange behavior at shows. In April, after performing an odd rendition of the Stone Temple Pilots classic “Vaseline” at a show, Weiland’s representatives denied he was using drugs. They told TMZ Weiland was tired and had a couple drinks before the show, and then his earpiece went out during it.

Weiland also denied using drugs in 2014, telling Blabbermouth, “”Past demons are past demons; that’s stuff that I dealt with 14 years ago,” he said. “I mean, I guess Keith Richards gets asked about [his past drug use], so why shouldn’t I? But it’s not something that I think about, ever. Those days of my dope abuse, and use, are long since by me.”

Weiland was convicted in 1995 of buying crack cocaine and sentenced to one year of probation, according to a MTV.com article. In 1997 and 1998 he was arrested on felony heroin possession charges, and he was treated for an overdose in 1999. In 2003, he was arrested in Los Angeles on drug possession charges. He was charged with DUI in 2007, his first arrested since 2003, and then went into rehab in 2008.

Weiland told MTV in 2008 that he stopped using heroin in 2002, but admitted to a “very short binge with coke” in 2007.

3. The Guitarist for Weiland’s Band Died Earlier This Year

Musicians Tommy Black, Jeremy Brown, Danny Thompson and Scott Weiland. (Getty)

Jeremy Brown, the guitarist for Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts, died in March at the age of 34, just a day before the debut of the group’s album, Blaster, Rolling Stone reported at the time.

“We received a call today about my friend Jeremy Brown that has shaken me to the core. We were all concerned this afternoon when Jeremy didn’t show up for a long-scheduled rehearsal for tonight’s album release show at School Night,” Weiland wrote on Facebook, announcing Brown’s death. “An hour later, Jeremy’s family called us to say that he had passed away. I am in shock right now; everyone that knows him is devastated. It is a terrible loss that goes beyond words. He is one of my best friends, a truest friend and one of the most gifted guitar players that I’ve ever known. A true genius.”

Brown’s death was ruled as accidental in May, the result of intoxication from multiple drugs, KSHE-95 reported.

His brother, Michael Weiland, died of a drug overdose in 2007, according to Reuters.

4. Weiland Is Survived by His Wife & 2 Children

(Facebook)

Weiland is survived by his wife, Jamie Wachtel, a photographer he married in 2011.

He was previously married to Janina Castaneda from 1994 to 2000. He married model Mary Forsberg in May 2000. They divorced in 2007. He has two children from his relationship with Forsberg, Noah, born in 2000, and Lucy, born in 2002.

5. He Was Born in California & Started His First Band in High School

Weiland was born on October 27, 1967, in Santa Cruz, California, according to Biography.com. After spending part of his childhood living in Ohio, Weiland moved back to California as a teenager.

He started his first band while he was a student at Edison High School in Huntington Beach.

Weiland and Robert DeLeo formed the band Mighty Joe Young in the late 1980s, and it would evolve into the Stone Temple Pilots.