Scott Weiland took a break from Stone Temple Pilots in 1998 to record a very different solo album, 12 Bar Blues, led by this song.

I’ve never heard this song before. I’d never heard of Scott Weiland until I read a magazine article today. But the video – referencing The Man Who Fell To Earth – seems especially apt so soon after the tenth anniversary of Bowie’s death.

The article was by a beauty writer called Anita Bhagwandas (of whom I had also never heard) regretting that she had not seen Weiland play in London ten years ago after trying and failing to find someone to go with her. She eventually bought a solitary ticket but bottled out of going on her own at the last minute… and he died a few months later.

I guess I looked him up because I figured he must be one of those cult artists that inspire devotion among their fans without reaching mainstream attention, though it turns out I was just unaware he had sold 50 million records, most of them with his hard rock band Stone Temple Pilots.

Even more embarrassingly, I now realise that unlike Ms Bhagwandas, I have actually seen him live myself in 2005, when he was the singer of Velvet Revolver, a short-lived supergroup featuring several members of Guns ‘N Roses..

It was at Hammersmith Odeon and I went along immediately after I had interviewed the actor Tim Robbins around the corner at Riverside Studios; something I remember because Robbins (very nice, very tall) said he would have joined me if he had not been onstage that night.

I can’t say I enjoyed the gig much –  a lot of noisy riffing, squealy guitar solos and macho posturing both on and offstage.

Likewise, Stone Temple Pilots had never appealed to me because their brand of hard rock and grunge was never my thing. I had no idea they were so successful, and no idea he had a solo career, though this song comes from a 1998 album called 12 Bar Blues, recorded while STP were on a break. 

It’s very different in style and this song, Barbarella, named after the 1968 sci-fi film with Jane Fonda, is built around a simple drum loop and an acoustic guitar, and features an a capella section later on. 

Its themes of alienation and depression – not to mention its Bowiesque undertones – are reinforced in a spectacular Vegas-shot video heavily based around The Man Who Fell To Earth.