In the early ’90s, grunge was king, guitar solos were nowhere to be found and everyone seemed to be wondering what was coming out of Seattle next. Stone Temple Pilots went against the grain by calling San Diego home, and began to work on their debut album, Core, which was produced by Brendan O’Brien. Although some critics considered them imitators, the album had enough commercial success to allow the band to record a second record. Purple was released in June of 1994 and “Interstate Love Song” became a big hit for the group. The DeLeo brothers (Dean on guitar and Robert on bass) gave the arena rock of the ’70s an alternative edge.

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INTRO
Dean DeLeo begins the tune with an overdubbed slide part with both an acoustic and electric rhythm part underneath. The tune is written in the key of E major and begins with the vi chord (C#m) before settling into the tonic chord in the next measure. The Intro is 12 measures long and effectively sets the stage for the Verse and Chorus. Gtr. 2 begins with the volume knob turned down enough to clean up the tone while the acoustic guitar (Gtr. 1) plays a syncopated pattern over the progression.

The key to playing slide is intonation. A great way to practice this is to play scales with the slide on a single string. You want the slide to be directly over the fret. Most slide players place the slide on either their ring or pinky finger. Some players, like Bonnie Raitt, even use it on their middle finger. With the slide on your ring or pinky finger, use your index and middle fingers to mute the strings behind the slide. This will keep the strings you aren’t playing muted and give the plucked string some presence. At the bottom of the second page, Gtr. 4 enters and, along with Gtr. 2, holds an open E major chord while turning the volume knob up to go from a clean to a more distorted tone.

The signature riff comes in on the third page and is marked Rhy. Fig. 1. Use both your middle and ring fingers to bend the C# at the second fret of the B string up a whole step. In the last segment of beat 4, Gtr. 2 plays the high E while Gtr. 4 plays the G#. Here it is written as a pull-off so both notes can be played by one guitar. Underneath the tab you will notice the indication composite arrangement— this means that Gtr. 2 and Gtr. 4 play nearly identical parts, but break apart later in the tune.

VERSE
Dean DeLeo uses some interesting chord voicings during the Verse. Beginning in the first measure, you see x markings on the tab. These indicate that you are to mute the string with your left hand and then strike the string with your pick. There are also some tricky chord shapes in this section. The first one to watch out for is G#/B# in the second measure. The fingering for this chord and the other chords in the Verse are shown in Fig. 1. The form is a bit unusual as well since it contains seven measures, with one of those being a measure of 2/4.

INTERLUDE AND CHORUS
After the second Verse, the Interlude comes in with the riff from the end of the Intro. Gtr. 2 and Gtr. 4 then play a syncopated pattern over a progression that uses many of the same chords from the Verse, but also adds the chords shown in Fig. 2. During this section, DeLeo turns on the crunch and lets the amp do the work. The let ring indications shows you where the chord shapes change.

Want more? Check out these cool links at guitaredge.com

• Get more Stone Temple Pilots guitar tab at guitarinstructor.com
• Get cool STP gear at oldglory.com
• Download “Interstate Love Song” on iTunes
• Get the Grunge Guitar Bible tab book at musicdispatch.com
• Check out Stone Temple Pilots online at stonetemplepilots.com

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