“It was in that really cool black sparkle, and it had an 18×24 kick.
“Before making Core, I bought a Yamaha Rock Tour Custom,” Kretz says. The recording of Stone Temple Pilots’ debut predated Eric Kretz’s long relationship with GMS Drums, and the main kit used on the record was a popular choice at the time. But despite the chaos, Eric Kretz managed to leave an indelible impression on drummers who came of age in the ’90s. Sadly, that development paralleled Scott Weiland’s substance-abuse issues, which led to his passing in 2015. And while disagreement continues regarding whether Core should be considered a grunge album, its songs are still played on rock radio today, right alongside those of the band members’ heroes.Ĭore was a commendable start for STP, and the two albums that followed, Purple and Tiny Music: Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop, saw the group develop by leaps and bounds. Echoes of Led Zeppelin can be heard in the chugging groove of “Where the River Goes” (another track cowritten by Kretz) and the phased snare and tom licks of “Naked Sunday.” But STP managed to sell 8 million records while trying to figure out their sound-clearly the group was more than the sum of its influences. Critics grumbled that Weiland mimicked Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, and deep cuts like “Sin” and “Piece of Pie” in particular are strongly reminiscent of Alice in Chains’ Facelift, released two years earlier. The track moved the band into constant rotation on MTV and rock radio and became one of the biggest songs of the ’90s, winning a Grammy and an MTV Video Music Award.Ĭore found Stone Temple Pilots still in the imitation phase of their development. The album’s second single, “Plush,” provided another cowriting credit for Kretz, who composed the lyrics with Weiland while hanging out in a hot tub. Among his noteworthy contributions to the track is the increasingly syncopated kick drum when the verse kicks in, as well as the descending bass line into the chorus, which neatly dovetails with the ascending guitar line. “Sex Type Thing” was the first single, and Kretz comes out of the gate in an effectively washy Phil Rudd mode. To this day it’s one of my favorite songs to play live, because those memories come back to me when I’m performing it.” Then Robert got a hold of that and put together the chords, and it was just so cool, man. “He started, ‘I am, smelling like a rose,’ that whole line, and we’re drinking dollar margaritas, just pounding on the table getting his feel of the song and the timing. Kretz recalls Weiland working out his phrasing at a Mexican restaurant. I just had Scott facing me and singing his ass off.” According to Kretz, “It was purely to get the complete energy that that song needed. The record was mostly tracked live, in this case with Weiland standing about ten feet in front of Kretz, yelling at him like a high school football coach trying to get his team psyched up. Core opening track “Dead & Bloated” begins with singer Scott Weiland barking declarations at no one in particular and Kretz inducing the band into a Sabbath-esque riff with two giant snare flams. Like many of his flannel-wearing brethren from Seattle, drummer Eric Kretz was inspired by riff-heavy ’70s rock. And at that, STP succeeded miles beyond expectations, landing three top-twenty singles.
In actuality, this was simply a group from Southern California attempting to make a great rock record that could be enjoyed from beginning to end. Tellingly, in an issue of Rolling Stone magazine, STP was voted the worst new band of 1993 by critics but the best new band by readers. This timeline meant that the album was measured heavily against the grunge zeitgeist. Core, the debut album by Stone Temple Pilots, was released in September of 1992, one year after Nirvana’s Nevermind.
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