Stone Temple Pilots Fire Scott Weiland

Scott Weiland has been fired from the Stone Temple Pilots, the alternative rock band he has fronted since 1986, the group announced in a one-line statement on Wednesday.

No other information has been given on the termination and a rep for the band has not responded at press time. The band's Wikipedia page has already been altered to refer to Weiland as a former member. Guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz remain.

Weiland, who begins a solo tour on Friday in Flint, MI, seemed blindsided by the band's move. "Not sure how I can be 'terminated' from a band that I founded, fronted and co-wrote many of its biggest hits, but that's something for the lawyers to figure out," he said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon.

STP wrapped a 23-date tour in September that included shows at the Vic in Chicago and Revel Ovation Hall in Atlantic City.The band has not updated its website since Jan. 3, when it posted "New information coming soon."

After forming in 1986 as Mighty Joe Young, the band changed their name to Stone Temple Pilots and released their breakthrough album, "Core," in September 1992. Emerging in the height of Grunge mania, the album contained the hits "Plush," "Wicked Garden" and "Sex Type Thing" and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard 200.

"Core" accounts for 5 million of the band's 13.3 million albums sold in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Six of their albums have cracked the top 10 of the Billboard 200, including the three-week No. 1 "Purple" in 1994. Subsequent albums include 1996's "Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop," 1999's "No. 4" and "Shangri-La Dee Da" in 2001.

The band broke up in 2002 with members scattering to various supergroups, including Velvet Revolver (Weiland) and Army of Anyone (the DeLeo brothers).

In 2008 they reunited, toured and released a self-titled album two years later.

One of rock's most consistent performers, they've placed 21 hits on the Alternative Songs chart between 1993 and 2010. Perhaps surprisingly, the group didn't reach No. 1 on the chart until 2010, with "Between the Lines."