What Was Scott Weiland's Cause Of Death?

There's never any easy way to say goodbye to a legend, even if you didn't know them personally, and even if you only heard them through your headphones while trying to get up enough money to go to a concert. However, when Scott Weiland passed away, as confirmed by his Facebook page on Thursday night, the world forced to find a way to deal with their grief once more. The Stone Temple Pilots were one of the defining bands of the '90s, which songs like "Plush" and "Creep" being some of the many that immediately come to mind for the fans whose lives they've touched. Weiland was the singer and frontman for the band until 2013 — with a break from 2003 to 2008, during which he was involved with Velvet Revolver — and he's been steadily releasing music even since then, most recently with his band The Wildabouts. So how did a legend like Scott Weiland die?

The message on Weiland's Facebook page is rather vague. It reads, "Scott Weiland, best known as the lead singer for Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, passed away in his sleep while on a tour stop in Bloomington, Minnesota, with his band The Wildabouts. At this time we ask that the privacy of Scott’s family be respected." So, at the very least, we know that he passed peacefully, but his cause of death can't be immediately ascertained from this statement alone. Update: According to a call obtained by TMZ, which includes communication between the Bloomington, Minn. Police Department and the Hennepin County Sheriff's Department, Weiland may have passed due to cardiac arrest. However, there has been no official confirmation of this claim at the time of publication.

Weiland has struggled with drug problems over the course of his career, including a conviction for buying cocaine in 1995 and a 2008 stint in rehab following a DUI conviction. However, Weiland's brother, Michael, also died of cardiomyopathy (following years of drug abuse, according to The Rolling Stone) in 2007. However, it's worth noting that cardiomyopathy is a kind of heart disease that kind be either acquired or genetic. Perhaps one of these tragic reasons were Weiland's cause of death. Perhaps neither of them were. No matter what, we'll have to wait for the autopsy to know for sure, as anything we could guess before then would just be speculation.

The one thing that we do know in the meantime is that Weiland's music, whether as a member of STP, or a member of Velvet Revolver, or a member of The Wildabouts, or as Weiland himself, has brought so much joy into the lives of his fans. When we sing his lyrics, or just listen to his music, we get to know him on a personal level, as personal as you can get with a stranger. And the loss of his music, of his voice, of his spirit from the world is a great loss indeed.