Stone Temple Pilots Want to Fly on Their Own Route

Stone Temple Pilots are the hard-rock surprise success of the year. The quartet’s 6-month-old debut album “Core” has sold more than 500,000 copies and is No. 25 on the national sales chart. The L.A.-based group is all over MTV and radio, and has played arenas with Megadeth and toured Europe on its own.

What better way to increase the momentum than to be the opening act on the upcoming Aerosmith tour--a spot that a few years ago helped launch Guns N’ Roses into orbit?

But when STP was offered the high-profile tour, the band turned it down.

“We didn’t feel it would be the right thing for us,” explained Weiland, the band’s single-named, pink-haired singer. “We’ve gotten some flak for it, mostly from people who don’t understand what direction we want to go in. I’d rather we define ourselves as individuals rather than ride coattails.”

But Weiland has a more fundamental reason for the decision.

“I’m a huge Aerosmith fan, but people might think we’re hypocritical to tour with a band who is sort of the epitome of that sex-rock thing. I’ve got nothing against sex, but there’s a big difference between sex and sexism.”

Weiland, 25, is alluding to the band’s breakthrough single, “Sex Type Thing,” a strong statement against date rape. STP, which has invited feminist organizations to speak at some of its concerts, will be headlining a “Rock for Choice” benefit show at the Hollywood Palladium on Friday.

Said Weiland, “People keep asking, ‘Why do you feel so strongly about women’s rights?’ I feel strongly about everyone’s rights.”

The band, which also includes drummer Eric Kretz and New Jersey-born brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo (guitar and bass, respectively), was formed six years ago as Mighty Joe Young, and played mostly in Orange County and San Diego.

STP’s break came when it was spotted in a Hollywood club by a booking agent who recommended it to Atlantic Records. The group signed with the label a year ago and released “Core” six months later.

After nixing the Aerosmith tour, STP hopes to spend the summer on what amounts to a left-field “Lollapalooza.”

“We wanted to create our own summer tour package, something I would want to go to myself,” Weiland said. “We’re putting together a three- or four-band bill. Nothing is etched in stone, but it looks like it will be us and the Butthole Surfers, playing at drive-in theaters across America. The movie screen will have cheesy B-movies playing, and we’ll have weenies and burgers and Elvis impersonators.”

The band blends elements of the DeLeos’ rock influences with Weiland’s alternative leanings. The result is an ultra-heavy, guitar-laden approach. STP is being played on all three major L.A. rock stations--KROQ, KNAC and KLOS--and has often been placed in the now-hot “grunge” category.

That doesn’t sit well with Weiland, who grew up in Huntington Beach as a punk-rock fan and also cites R.E.M. and Jonathan Richman as influences. The singer would like to see STP enjoy credibility in a more alternative, independent musical arena, and he insists that the group will continue to strive for the spirit he observed in the punk bands he followed as a kid.

“It was like, OK, you don’t have to be some pretty-boy, super-mega musician to be in a band,” he said of the philosophy driving STP. “It was like, you can just get a broken-down guitar and amp that you plug into a wall in the garage when your parents are at work during the day and just thrash.”