This morning, Stone Temple Pilots announced the firing of singer Scott Weiland in a brief, straight-to-the-point news release:

"Stone Temple Pilots have announced they have officially terminated Scott Weiland."

No reason was given for the decision.

In 2011, Weiland told Billboard.com that Stone Temple Pilots would begin working on a new album, the followup to their self-titled 2010 album, in the very near future.

"There is another album coming," he said, adding some info about the band's songwriting process: "They usually start before me, just getting some rough ideas together and then putting rough ideas down on ProTools with no lyrics and no melody. And then I start listening to it and see if it's just a straight-ahead rock 'n' roll record or if it's more of a concept album like (2001's) Shangri-La Dee Da was. Once we decide that, it should go full speed ahead."

Last year, Weiland told Rolling Stone, "I think [Stone Temple Pilots] kind of overplayed ourselves by playing the same set over and over. I think the band needs to take some time off and be creative again. I always felt that our creativity and the growth we made within making records as artists was equally as important as we were as a live band. The transformation from Core to where we ended up before we took that time off, when I started with Velvet Revolver, was enormous. I think we need to get back to that. I don't think that touring consistently with a greatest-hits package gets you anywhere. It diminishes things."

Weiland, who released a Christmas album in 2011, is preparing to hit the road to perform tracks from Stone Temple Pilots' first two albums, 1992's Core and 1994's Purple. The Purple At The Core Tour kicks off March 1 in Flint, Michigan.

Stay tuned for updates as we get them.