Stone Temple Pilots have explained their reasons for taking legal action against sacked singer Scott Weiland – saying he turned a planned band tour into a solo trip without telling anyone.
Weiland’s second departure from the band was confirmed in February, even though he’s argued on several occasions that he’s still a member and believes they have a future together.
Last week it was revealed that Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz had recruited Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington as Weiland’s replacement. They later filed a lawsuit against their former colleague.
Now the band explain: “Our purpose in taking this action is not to hurt Scott. We want to move forward productively and Scott’s choices and actions have prevented us from doing that.
“We were in the process of putting our 20th anniversary tour together to celebrate the release of our first album, Core. The plan was for a big tour where we’d perform the album in its entirety along with some other STP songs.
“You might imagine our shock and disappointment when, without any notice, we learned that Scott has seized the tour for himself as his solo tour – and decided to do exactly what we as a group had planned. We found out about it the same way you did: we saw an ad for it.”
They suggest it’s not the first time the vocalist his breached the terms of the members’ legal agreement and say his actions “have been harmful to the band and prevented us from moving forward.”
When Weiland and his representatives refused requests to abide by the contract, STP concluded they had no choice but to pursue the case through the courts.
“It was beyond time we made some new music,” they say, “which was impossible in the dysfunctional environment we were in. We’ve lived in it long enough and have decided to move forward.
“We wish Scott well. We’re really excited about the new music we’ve been making with Chester, including the song we just released, Out Of Time.”
Bennington recently explained that while he remained committed to Linkin Park, joining STP was a “no-brainer.“
-Classic Rock
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