Late Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland’s former solo band guitarist Doug Grean gave his first interview since Weiland’s December 2015 death on the AlternativeNation.net affiliated podcast Appetite for Distortion, hosted by Brando. AlternativeNation.net reporter and freelance writer Doug McCausland co-hosted the episode. Grean worked with Weiland for 15 years, including recording Happy in Galoshes and The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Their working relationship ended a few years before Weiland’s death.
Grean has a new web series called ‘Starman’, loosely based off his experiences working with Weiland, with the character being a drug addicted British rocker in his 60’s who believes aliens are after him.
“Just one year he got obsessed with working out, he was so obsessed he would work out in the morning, and then we’d go out to lunch and he’s eat a piece of bread, and he’d be liked, ‘I’ve got to go back to the gym.’ I swear to God, I saw him do it several times. It was around the time Velvet Revolver was forming, and I think he just wanted to be super ultra ripped because he was going to be replacing Axl Rose. He was very nervous about that, he was a huge fan. I’ll tell you a story, no one knows this story. I was there in the living room the day The Project sent over the CD, like a messenger had sent over a CD of song ideas from Duff and Slash, to get Scott interested in being the singer. This is 9 months before their first song. He tells me what it is, and I said, ‘’Well you going to do it?’ He goes, ‘I can’t sing with Slash and Duff. I can’t take over Axl Rose’s place, I just can’t do it.’ He didn’t like celebrity that much. He could have hung out with tons of famous people, and he never did. It was a little intimidating to him. Then 9 months later they offered him a super sweet deal on this soundtrack.”
“They threw a huge chunk of change at them to do that cover, and that started it. Scott was very friendly and liked to collaborate, and so once they did one song, that was it, there was a band. But initially, he was intimidated, and didn’t want anything to do with it.”
“He wasn’t very calculating like, ‘Oh, we’re going to milk this one.’ He just felt comfortable doing the first song.”
“They were super sweethearts, so when Scott saw they were super sweethearts, he thought this is cool, let’s do this.”
You can contact Doug McCausland at dmccausland1@gmail.com.
Listen to “Ep. 96 – Doug Grean talks Scott Weiland, Drugs, and SciFi” on Spreaker.
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