Medical examiner: Scott Weiland died from toxic mix of drugs
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Former Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland died of a toxic mix of drugs that included cocaine, according to a medical examiner’s office in Minnesota where he was found dead on his tour bus in early December.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Friday the 48-year-old Weiland had cocaine, ethanol and the amphetamine MDA in his system. The medical examiner also noted a history of cardiovascular disease, asthma and multi-substance dependence.
Weiland was found dead on his tour bus in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington Dec. 3. The report said the time of death was 8:27 p.m. and the death was accidental.
Weiland’s three-decade career in music also included solo albums and a spot in the supergroup Velvet Revolver.
He rose to fame with Stone Temple Pilots, which became one of the most commercially successful bands to come out of the early 1990s grunge rock movement. The band’s 1992 debut album, “Core,” sold 8 million units. Stone Temple Pilots broke up in 2003, and Weiland went on to front Velvet Revolver, alongside rock luminaries Slash, Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses.
The Stone Temple Pilots reunited in 2008 and split again in 2013.
Weiland’s current band, Scott Weiland & the Wildabouts, were scheduled to play a show in Medina, Minn., Dec. 3, but it was canceled a week earlier because of poor ticket sales.
Police said they found a small amount of cocaine in Weiland’s bedroom and elsewhere on the tour bus, and arrested a California man who was traveling with Weiland on tentative drug possession charges. The man was released.
Weiland had a long string of drug-related arrests and stints in rehab. In 1995, he was arrested after deputies found him carrying crack and heroin. He pleaded guilty to felony heroin possession in 1998. And his arrests for drug possession and stints in rehab led the Stone Temple Pilots to cancel tour dates and contributed to their 2003 breakup.