Scott Weiland Death — Bloomington, Minnesota

Scott Weiland, the vocalist of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, was found dead on his tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota, on December 3, 2015. He was 48 years old. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled his death an accidental overdose of cocaine, MDA, and ethanol. He had been on tour with his band the Wildabouts and was found unresponsive on the bus before a scheduled performance. His struggles with drug addiction had been public and prolonged, and he had been fired from both Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver in the years before his death.

Scott Weiland's voice was one of the most distinctive of the 1990s alternative rock era — a chameleonic instrument that could channel Jim Morrison's baritone croon, David Bowie's theatrical phrasing, or a raw grunge howl, sometimes within a single song. Stone Temple Pilots' debut Core (1992) and its follow-up Purple (1994) produced hits including 'Plush,' 'Interstate Love Song,' and 'Vasoline,' and the band sold over 40 million albums despite being dismissed by some critics as derivative of their Seattle contemporaries.

Weiland's death on a tour bus in a Minnesota parking lot was a grim end to a career defined by both exceptional talent and relentless self-destruction. He is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, near the graves of Johnny Ramone and Chris Cornell.