“The head of LA’s Mexican mafia was in a cell next to me. He passed me a note and asked for an autograph for his daughter”: The hair-raising adventures of ’90s rock icons Stone Temple Pilots and their doomed singer Scott Weiland

Scott Weiland.

In July 1994, Stone Temple Pilots’ second album Purple entered the Billboard 200 chart at No 1 – and the scale of that success had a dizzying effect on the four band members.

“Everything happened so fast,” said singer Scott Weiland. “Our lives had completely changed. Even our families treated us differently. It was like going to sleep here on Earth and waking up on another planet.”