Scott Weiland

“There was a period of time where I really hated rock music.”

“I can't read sheet music, I have to just listen to it, and then just go for it.”

“As horrible as jail was, there were some first-rate guys in there.”

“I feel lucky to be alive.”

“You can't be seen in your mid-40s wearing leather pants. No leather pants anymore.”

“One thing that has really influenced me with Bowie where I've taken an approach from him is how he changes from album to album and has always modified his sound and his appearance. I think that's an important thing.”

“Not sure how I can be 'terminated' from a band that I founded, fronted and co-wrote many of their biggest hits. But that's something for the lawyers to figure out.”

“I want a performance style that's more cerebral and emotional than physical. I want to be a creative artist, not a whirling dervish.”

“I sang in choir as a kid.”

“But at this phase of my life, I want to write and not have to think about whether a song is going to be a hit. I want to explore the music that inspires me, and I don't want to ape myself.”

“I had always sung in choirs. Even when it was something to be laughed at or made fun of, you know, in school. And I was always the kid who was picked at the Christmas concert to sing the solo, you know, while the other kids snickered in the front few rows.”

“A lot of journalists like to suck up to celebrities, and then as soon as they're a safe distance away at their computers, they take shots. But that's the way society has become, especially in pop culture.”

“I don't want to stay on the road for the rest of my life. I have two kids.”

“Who you are as a person has to do with what you think and how you feel. It has to do with how you love and how you care for people.”

“There was a period when STP and I weren't making music - we weren't getting along very good at all. But I had my studio, so I was writing and recording a lot of music. But something told me not to put it out. It was all stream of consciousness; it was clever, but it didn't really have substance.”

“The great thing about kids is the immediate gratification. As soon as I get home from touring, my wife and kids become my life. There is nothing sweeter.”

“Anytime I feel squeezed into a box, I just lash out. My gut reaction is to strike. It's a different character onstage: there's a whole dark sexuality that's completely different from me. You know, I don't let anybody know who I really am.”

“I was just a kid in 1987 when I heard of the Pixies, the year after I graduated high school. But I had my band together, and my best friend at the time, Corey Hickock, who was the guitar player in the band that would become STP, Mighty Joe Young, turned me on to the Pixies.”

“To be appreciated by a whole 'nother generation of fans, all of a sudden discovering you, it's kind of what I did with the classic bands I love - the ones that influenced me.”

“I've seen guys on the street who look the part of a rock star just as much as any rock star. If you feel it and you believe it, then you can get away with it. Rock on!”