Dean DeLeo discussed the 25th anniversary of Stone Temple Pilots’ Core in a new interview with Music Aficianado.
“I think we went five singles deep on ‘Core.’ “Plush” did all right. I can’t say enough about Mr. Weiland lyrically. He was so brilliant. Where he went lyrically on that song is just incredible, how poetic he was and how metaphorically he spoke. Robert wrote that song musically, completely and utterly musically, and Scott wrote the lyrics and melody. Eric contributed to lyrics on that song, too.
The label never picked our singles. We charted out everything. If you notice, ‘Plush’ is track number nine on the record. We kind of buried it on the record. We knew it was a big song, but we wanted to establish ourselves. We felt that ‘Sex Type Thing’ was going to be a great first single and set the plane. Then we had some songs that were going to allow us to spread ourselves out musically. It’s interesting… My wife is notorious for leaving the radio on when I get in the car. I get in and it’s like on 11. About a year ago, I got in and ‘Creep’ had just started. I don’t think that song ever impacted me so much as when I heard it that day. I wasn’t ready for it.”
He also discussed the controversy surrounding the lyrics to “Sex Type Thing.”
“No, it didn’t surprise me. I knew Scott; he just loved that sort of thing. He loved kind of turning people on their heads. He was very antagonistic. His whole thing was like, ‘If people don’t get it, too bad. We know what it is.'”
He also discussed demos recorded before Core and the night STP were signed by Atlantic Records.
“We had a few before ‘Core.’ We had a demo that we did in Robert’s apartment back when we were going by the name of Mighty Joe Young. Then we did another, hoping it was going to be something more than a demo. On that next outing we had Wicked Garden and Naked Sunday and a couple of things that made their way to ‘Core.’
We were playing a lot. We were playing all over between San Diego and Sacramento, just taking any gig we could. I think that’s what possibly turned some heads. Our very dear friend, Tom Carolan, signed the band. He came and saw us at a place way out on East Vermont called the Shamrock. I think there were about 11 people in the club that night, and five of them probably worked there. We had just written Sin, and Scott didn’t have any melody or lyrics to it yet. We were so enthralled with the music that we opened with it instrumentally. Tom told me that he said we played that gig like it was going to be our last day alive.”
