By Nicolas Henderson

Staff Writer

@happenstance98

It was five years ago this month when my dad informed me of a billboard he saw in Dallas. The billboard promoted a show coming up in the new year, Stone Temple Pilots live at Winstar World Casino.

It had been years since I had heard them, but when I was a little kid, STP and R.E.M. were the first to introduce me to music. I was beyond excited to finally see them live.

February 2011 was filled with excitement in anticipation for the show. I spent the whole month getting familiar with STP’s catalogue, re-discovering Scott Weiland’s iconic voice. The concert was actually my birthday present for that year.

To say it went beyond my expectations would certainly be an understatement. There is only one show opening that I can compare to the first song of the night from Winstar World Casino, and that’s Pearl Jam at Wrigley Field. I remember halfway through the opening song turning to my dad and saying “wow”.

It takes a lot for me to that blown away by a live artist. Weiland’s stage presence was unlike anything I had ever seen before, it is something that you have to witness live to truly appreciate.

That show took me from being a casual STP fan, to as Scott said in his own words when I would meet him four years later, a “superfan”. In April 2011 my dad and I boarded a plane to Birmingham, Ala. to see STP perform at a festival in downtown. It was just two days after the historic tornado outbreak and it was an incredible time to be in Birmingham.

In August 2011 STP graced Texas with back-to-back Austin/Dallas dates, which ended up being two of the greatest shows I would ever see. I was able to attend these shows with both my mom and my dad and I will forever cherish those two shows.

The final time I saw STP with Scott was in Concho, Okla. in November 2011. Conchois literally the middle of nowhere. There

aren’t many artists that I would travel to a place like Concho to see. Like the other four times I saw STP with Scott that year, the show is responsible for many great memories.

STP would go on to fire Weiland in February 2013, but that didn’t hinder him. He formed his own band, The Wildabouts, and continued to do what he loved, performing his music for the fans. He could have made more money outside of The Wildabouts, but Weiland wasn’t about the money, he was about the music.

I saw Weiland in March 2013 in Dallas. The next year I was able to witness him in what appeared to be a slightly healthier period, as he absolutely crushed in an intimate performance at Dallas club Trees. His 2014 tour also brought me to Little Rock, Ark., where he signed my CD from onstage, and Shreveport, La.

Fast forward to 2015. The Wildabouts finally released their debut album Blaster in March of this year. In November, he was scheduled to play a private show at South Side Music Hall in Dallas. I had no plans on going because I didn’t think there was anyway to get in, and I had tickets to see him on Dec. 12 anyway. But I just happened to stumble upon show info on Twitter days before the show.

The ticket agency ended up giving us four free tickets on Friday, Nov. 6. On Sunday, Nov.  8 my dad and I were discussing Scott’s touring schedule and we noted that he had an off day in Dallas. On a whim, we decided to head over to the South Side on Lamar district with seemingly far-fetched hopes of running into him. Thanks to a post on Instagram from Weiland’s drummer Joey Castillo, I knew that the band was staying at the Nylo Hotel, literally across the street from where my dad and I were parked.

We decided to head into the lobby. After 15 minutes with no activity, I was about ready to leave, but my dad wanted to check with the front desk and ask about their rooftop patio before leaving. As the lady at the front desk pointed to the elevators for us, my dad was in the middle of saying “maybe we’ll even run into Scott Weiland” when he began to slow down, I instantly knew what was going on. I turned around and there was Scott Weiland, walking out of the elevator with his tour manager Maxie Williams.

“Hey Scott!” my dad called out. They both proceeded to turn around. His manager informed us that they were in a hurry so we were not able to get a picture, which I will always regret, but Scott graciously signed both discs that I brought with me. As he was signing our CD’s, my dad told him about how much his music means to us and how we have always supported him.

In the process of telling him these things, my dad referred to us as “superfans”. Scott looked up from signing the CD, gave a big smile, and jokingly repeated “superfans”. My dad also made a remark saying that STP has really sunk deep without him. As he walked out the building towards his limo, he remarked “yeah they sunk deep!”.

With that, he walked off. While he didn’t appear to be in the best shape, making him smile, which is hard to do, felt pretty special. This was less than a month ago. After seeing him live ten times my experience as a fan had finally come full circle, I finally got to meet him. This experience was so close to not happening, but it just so happened to work out. I am forever grateful that it did.

In addition to providing the soundtrack to my middle and high school years, and creating countless great memories from traveling to his shows to actually being at his shows, Weiland is also responsible for providing the inspiration for me to create my own band, Around The Sun, and write my own music.

As a band, Weiland is probably our favorite artist, and I am also very grateful to have experienced last month’s show with my bandmates. If we hadn’t gone, our drummer would have never witnessed him live.

Scott Weiland was a man who lived a complicated life, plagued by many personal tragedies and addiction struggles. Though tragically he never found peace on Earth, his genuineness as an artist is what made him so great.

In an entertainment industry full of fakes, Weiland was one of a select few that was genuine, and his passing marks the end of an era. Weiland was the last true 90s rocker with addiction struggles standing, and that era is now officially over. Weiland now joins greats such as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Layne Staley of Alice In Chains as a rockstar gone too soon.

I hope that he has finally found peace.

R.I.P. Scott Weiland

October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015