By Katherine Cole

They’ve been together for years and years (minus a  5 year split), but the Stone Temple Pilots have parted ways with lead singer and founding member Scott Weiland.  The band released the news in a terse, one line press release on Wednesday, saying simply “Stone Temple Pilots have announced they have officially terminated Scott Weiland.”

Singer Scott Weiland poses for a portrait at his home studio in Burbank, Calif., (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

No other information is available, so we don’t know if the band will be continuing with a new vocalist. While shocking to fans, this split shouldn’t come as a total surprise.  Earlier this week, Weiland told Rolling Stone that the band had been going through a rocky period, but even as recently as February  26th was denying all rumors that he’d been fired from the group. According to the Rolling Stone story, “the rumors began a couple of months ago when Slash said in an interview that STP had fired Weiland.”

The grunge and hard rock band was formed in the early 1990’s in San Diego, California. Their first CD, 1992’s Core, has sold more than 8 million copies in the US. A year later, their hit “Plush” won the Grammy for ” best hard rock performance with vocal.”

STP took a break in 2003, but reformed five years later, releasing a self-titled sixth album in 2010 and spending much of last year touring.

While he has been axed from his band, don’t expect to see Scott Weiland sitting at home, twiddling his thumbs. He’s got a solo tour booked to begin next month and has announced it’ll feature songs from his now ex-group’s first two albums, Core and Purple.  Weiland has also hinted that this may be the year that we see a Velvet Revolver reunion, too!