Scott Weiland photo credit: Corey Hickok
Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo remembered playing with Pearl Jam and Soundgarden at a Lollapalooza 1992 show in Irvine, CA in a new OC Weekly. It was one of their first shows under the Stone Temple Pilots name, after being forced to change their name from Mighty Joe Young for legal reasons. DeLeo in the past has also discussed an infamous moment when he met Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell backstage at one of the Lollapalooza shows.
And to be back in Orange County, CA is really special DeLeo says, as a particular performance at Irvine Meadows marked a high point at the beginning of their career.
“There are a few venues that stick out and Irvine Meadows is one of them,” he says, “Because you know, that’s kind of where we got our start. We did Lollapalooza ‘92 in the daytime there and right after we did that we played a place in Newport Beach called the Roadhouse and then right after that, we left to go on our first tour.”
However, DeLeo’s ties to Southern California go back even further to when he was a young kid growing up in Point Pleasant Beach along the Jersey Shore: surfing, skating and dreaming of rock and roll.
“Back then, in the ‘70s in New Jersey,” he says, “You had to go to the back of Skateboarder or Surfer magazine, I mean that’s how I got my first Vans sneakers, were filling out a little thing and you know sending it to California and waiting two months to get a pair of Vans.”
Robert DeLeo discussed playing a Lollapalooza 1992 gig in Phoenix and meeting Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell in a 2002 KNAC interview.
“I remember the first gig we played as STP, and it was second stage in ’92 at Lollapalooza in Phoenix. I remember after we played, walking up to Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell who were talking together, and I said, ‘Hey’ and introduced myself and talked a little about my band, and those guys just stood there looking at me and didn’t give me the time of day. They just looked at me like, ‘What do you want asshole?’ It was just unbelievable, I guess, at how naïve I was. It’s hard for me to walk around with a chip on my shoulder like a lot of these bands were doing at that time. It’s a different atmosphere now. I feel like we’re the old guys.”
He was then asked by KNAC if he ran into Vedder or Cornell after the 1992 incident.
“No. There are so many nice guys I’d rather talk to. The guys from Staind and Godsmack are really cool.”
