Dave Mustaine recalls the advice he gave to Stone Temple Pilots

Grunge appeared in the late 80s and became bigger in the early 90s, changing the whole Rock and Roll landscape and also taking the spotlight out of Heavy Metal music. Many artists even consider that it was Grunge that killed Metal music at the time and made the radio, the music business and MTV change their focus to these new groups. Although they were directly affected by that, many Metal musicians actually liked those bands and the Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine really liked Stone Temple Pilots.

As he recalled in an interview with The Big Takeover, he heard them and then invited them to be Megadeth’s opening act. He even had the chance to give them an important advice.

Dave Mustaine recalls the advice he gave to Stone Temple Pilots

In the interview he was asked if he usually gives advice to groups who open for Megadeth and said that only when being asked or when he sees something he likes. So he recalled the advice he gave to Stone Temple Pilots back in the 90s.

“Mostly if they ask. I don’t give free advice because that’s kind of like playing God. If they ask me I’ll say stuff. Or if there’s something I really like that they’re doing, I’ll talk to them about it and say, ‘I really like this.’ I remember Stone Temple Pilots when they first came out, they had that record Core (1992). I heard that first record and I thought, ‘Shit, these guys are good!’ So we took them out. First show, I watched them and they didn’t do very good. I went up them and I said, ‘Guys, can you give me your set list?'”

He continued:

“And I looked at all their songs, and I made a proper set list. So they had a super hot opening. And the only other thing I told Scott Weiland, ‘What is this song right here?’ And he goes, ‘Oh, it’s an instrumental.’ I said, ‘So why are you standing out on the stage? During that part, go off to the side of the stage. Let the musicians who are doing an instrumental be showcased. You’re the frontman. People are going to look at you almost all night anyway.’ So that was the only advice I ever gave them.”

“(…) Yeah, it did (The advice worked)! You know what happened? I was so mad at myself for doing that because that tour only went on about another week. Because after that, we got word that they had exploded and they were leaving the tour to go on a bigger tour. I thought, ‘Fuck, Dave, you shouldn’t have said anything!’ (laughs),” Dave Mustaine said.

Stone Temple Pilots was formed in San Diego, California back in 1989 and released their first album “Core” in 1992. The band was originally formed by Dean DeLeo (Guitar), Robert DeLeo (Bass), Eric Kretz (Drums) and Scott Weiland (Vocals). That original line-up came to an end in 2015 when Weiland passed away. Nowadays they have Jeff Gutt as the vocalist.