Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo will never forget the moment that he came up with the title of the song that would become one of the band’s biggest hits. Interstate Love Song, the gripping mid-tempo rock anthem taken from their era-defining second record Purple, would go on to reach number one on the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and its UK release turns 30 this month. For DeLeo, coming up with the name of the song remains one of his most treasured memories.
“We were on the bus, throwing around titles,” he told this writer last year. “This was just before we’d gotten done with the record. Some of the songs had titles but one that was missing a title was this beautiful piece. We’re on the bus and going down the interstate and I was hearing what Scott was saying lyrically and I said to the band, ‘I have a great title for the song. Interstate Love Song. Everybody went, ‘Yeah, alright!’. It was a real nice moment because we were all together on the bus. I was really thinking about where Scott was coming from lyrically and here we were on the interstate, and we were away from home a lot.”
