Velvet Revolver Unloads "Erratic" Weiland

Gerk · #1 04-02-2008, 11:27 AM

Guess Stone Temple Pilots getting together again also.

LOS ANGELES (April 2) - Four founding members of the rock band Velvet Revolver said Tuesday they were splitting with the group's troubled singer, Scott Weiland, citing his "increasingly erratic" behavior.

The announcement came in a terse statement -- titled "Velvet Revolver to Part Ways with Singer" -- from the group's management company as Weiland, 40, and his recently reunited original band, Stone Temple Pilots, were set next week to announce plans for a highly anticipated summer tour.

"This band is all about its fans and its music, and Scott Weiland isn't 100% committed to either," lead guitarist Slash was quoted as saying. "Among other things, his increasingly erratic on-stage behavior and personal problems have forced us to move on."

Weiland issued his own lively statement Wednesday morning, saying that he "had already claimed the group dead in the water on March 20" at a concert in Glasgow, Scotland.

"In response to Slash's comment regarding my commitment, I have to say it is a blatant and tired excuse to cover up the truth." Adding, "the band had not gotten along on multiple levels for some time."

A public feud between Weiland and Velvet Revolver's drummer already had cast doubt on the band's future when the statement on behalf of Sorum, Slash, McKagan and Kushner was issued.

The Pilots, also known by their acronym, STP, already have confirmed a handful of upcoming dates, beginning with the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio, on May 17-18.

For Weiland, whose career has long been overshadowed by heroin addiction, Rock on the Range will mark his first show with STP since the band played 13 concerts to promote its last album of new material, 2001's "Shangri-La Dee Da."