This week has been a chaotic one for Stone Temple Pilots. Founding member and vocalist Scott Weiland was officially fired from the group, much to his surprise, leaving the DeLeo brothers and drummer Eric Kretz without a singer. However, in a new interview with TMZ,  Weiland is insisting that he is still a member of Stone Temple Pilots, and that his firing was a publicity stunt to bring attention to the act.

Rumors of Weiland's firing from Stone Temple Pilots actually started in December 2012 when Slash, who teamed up with Weiland to form Velvet Revolver in 2002, claimed during a radio interview that Weiland was booted from Stone Temple Pilots. Nearly three months after Slash's assertion, STP's representatives sent out a press release announcing Weiland's firing, of which Weiland was apparently oblivious.

Just yesterday, TMZ caught up with Weiland at an airport for a blitzkrieg interview, and the vocalist had some interesting claims concerning his apparent release from Stone Temple Pilots. “STP is not broken up," says Weiland. "It’s a whole thing to just try to boost ticket sales … There’s a thing written in our contract, no one can be fired … I haven’t talked to them for a while, but they were trying to get shows put together but we [Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts] already had our [Purple to the Core] tour … They’ve done a lot of stuff like that [Weiland's firing] in the past before, it’s just kind of the way they roll."

When the interviewer questioned Weiland about his sobriety, the vocalist batted away substance abuse issues as the reason for his dismissal. “I haven’t been doing any of that bad stuff in a long time," claims Weiland, "I drink some, but I don’t drink and drive. I’m fine, I’m all good.”

Watch the entire TMZ video interview here, and stay tuned for more on Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots as news continues to break.

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