Seven songs that prove Scott Weiland was a generational singer
Scott Weiland was the right man in the right place at the wrong time. Just as Stone Temple Pilots released their 1992 debut Core, grunge exploded into the mainstream. Since the band wasn’t from Seattle and was just a fraction of a second behind the first wave of albums and artists associated with the genre, they were immediately accused of not being the real thing.
Weiland’s voice, in particular, was subject to criticism for too closely resembling the low growls of Eddie Vedder and Layne Staley. Perhaps because of that initial rejection, Weiland spent the next two decades showing off his range. After Core, he largely abandoned the lower baritone voice he couldn’t help but naturally have.
What set Weiland apart was that he wasn’t pulling from the same influences as his fellow grunge singers. Weiland was just as infatuated with David Bowie as Henry Rollins. He embraced his place as the heir apparent to Jim Morrison while his contemporaries were fighting to bury classic rock in the ground.
As Stone Temple Pilots began to diversify their sound, Weiland found that his voice was malleable enough to take on any guise: raspy glam rock, buoyant power pop, languid country, hushed ballads, and gritty hard rock were all modes that Weiland felt comfortable in. With his trademark megaphone by his side, Weiland could treat his voice like an experimental instrument, manipulating the tone and timbre with each new song.
If you think that Weiland was just another grunge warbler, take a look at seven songs that prove Weiland was more than just an early 1990s growler. To show his impressive range over the years, here are seven songs that prove how great of a singer Scott Weiland was.
Songs that prove Scott Weiland was a generational singer:
‘Interstate Love Song’
We all know Weiland’s tone from Core, so even though songs like ‘Creep’ and ‘Plush’ contain some great vocal turns, we’re going to push on through to 1994’s Purple. The calls of fraudulence were already being levelled at Weiland, so he made a conscious decision to take a step back from the lower growls that dominated the band’s first album.
Instead, ‘Interstate Love Song’ finds Weiland going full-throated rock star. More articulate and open than anything on Core, ‘Interstate Love Song’ would have been a trip for any other grunge vocalist to sing. It takes range and a keen sense of pitch, which weren’t always big priorities in the grunge world. Thankfully, Weiland had it in spades.
‘Pretty Penny’
Stone Temple Pilots were already over grunge by 1994. The DeLeo brothers had far more eclectic musical tastes that they wanted to explore outside of the detuned riffs and walls of sludge that the genre was best known for. Sunshine pop, acoustic folk, and even ragtime jazz were starting to inform their writing, and Weiland was right there with them to change up styles.
The stripped-back ‘Pretty Penny’ was a major step forward in Weiland’s evolution as a vocalist. For the first time, he fully abandons his baritone and sticks straight to the upper register of his voice. In the process, he sounds relaxed and hypnotic. ‘Pretty Penny’ also shows off the perfect harmony blend between Weiland and Robert DeLeo, one of the band’s most underrated assets.
‘Big Empty’
MTV: Unplugged was the perfect chance for Weiland to show that he was more than a second-rate grunge vocalist. There was no bombast or histrionics – just Weiland rocking in a chair, gently intoning over his bandmates’ instruments. While recording their episode, Stone Temple Pilots unveiled a new song that had nothing to do with rock music, ‘Big Empty’.
Languid and country-adjacent, ‘Big Empty’ was a sure sign that the band had a deeper understanding of genres like blues and folk. Weiland gets to go big in the chorus, but his hushed verse vocals uncover another surprising wrinkle in his range.
‘Big Bang Baby’
Post-grunge was probably the best thing that could have happened to Stone Temple Pilots. For years, critics had been knocking Stone Temple Pilots for being derivative and late to the grunge party. Now that there were actually derivative bands riding the Nirvana wave, STP looked positively iconoclastic by comparison.
It also helped that they decided to completely change their style with 1996’s Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. Weiland commanded a raspy power pop voice for the album, one that drifted into songs like ‘Pop’s Love Suicide’ and ‘Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart’. But if you want the best example of Weiland’s iconic tone, check out ‘Big Bang Baby’.
‘Adhesive’
Going soft and slow is the quickest sign that you’re looking for a little more respect. Anyone can shout and scream along with a loud rock track, but what happens when the volume is turned down? Can you stay on pitch when there’s no distortion to bury your flaws?
Not only could Weiland hold his own on Stone Temple P’s slower material, but he could also tap into an emotional truth that even the most forthcoming singers might shy away from. The pain and struggle were always apparent in Weiland’s voice, but it wasn’t angry or strained like his contemporaries. It was beautiful and weathered, as can be heard in the practically autobiographical ‘Adhesive’.
‘Fall to Pieces’
Weiland was ready for another challenge, and the ex-members of Guns ‘N Roses had the perfect one for him: could he return to bombastic rock music without losing his uniqueness? The answer was yes, and even though the results were often varied with Velvet Revolver, Weiland never seemed out of place bouncing off of Slash’s titanic hard rock riffs.
Showing once again that there was more to him than the traditional rock vocalist, ‘Fall to Pieces’ could have disintegrated into schlocky nothingness had Weiland not saved it with a truly captivating vocal performance. Weiland reaches up for some seriously high notes during the song, proving that he had the range to hang with guys that were used to major squealers like Axl Rose.
‘Lady Your Roof Brings Me Down’
In his solo career, Weiland avoided anything that could have sounded like Stone Temple Pilots or Velvet Revolver. He sang lounge jazz, reggae, piano ballads, and even beatboxed on record. There was nothing too strange or too out-there for Weiland to handle, not even Tom Waits-style experimental rock.
Sounding like it was beamed straight out of a haunted New Orleans jazz hut, ‘Lady Your Roof Brings Me Down’ has everything from orchestral string arrangements to accordion played by Sheryl Crow. Throughout the madness, Weiland guides that band through chromatic runs with ease. But when the chorus kicks in, Weiland’s familiar raspy howl makes a welcome return.
