Guns N' Weiland

Looks like Scott Weiland's destined for Paradise City.

The Stone Temple Pilot tells Rolling Stone that after a high-profile tryout, he's been selected to be the frontman for a new band featuring members of the original Guns N' Roses.

"Yeah, I'm in the band...We signed the contract," Weiland confirmed to Rolling Stone during a Marilyn Manson show at Los Angeles's Key Club Monday night.

Welcome to the jungle.

Featuring Slash on guitar, Duff McKagen on bass and Matt Sorum on drums, the heavy metal sort-of supergroup is called Reloaded. While not an official member, former GNR guitarist Izzy Stradlin has chipped in writing songs in the studio.

Working under the pseudonym "The Project," the ex-Gunners put out the word more than a year ago that they were auditioning performers to try to fill Axl Rose's pipes.

Among the high-profiled singers rumored to have been in the running: Courtney Love, Travis Meeks (Days of the New) and A. Jay Popoff (Lit). The short list was ultimately headed up by Weiland and Skid Row's Sebastian Bach.

Bach, who exited the touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar after a spat with producers, was thought to be the frontrunner after posting a tantalizing message on his Website revealing he had been "working with one of the biggest bands in the world and will now pursue that collaboration with full force."

But Weiland wound up with the gig after recording a cover version of Pink Floyd's "Money" with the group (and an assist from Suicidal Tendencies guitarist David Kushner). The track can be heard on the The Italian Job soundtrack, hitting stores next Tuesday.

According to Stone Temple Pilots' Website, Weiland & Co. followed that collaboration up by contributing an original song, "Set Me Free," to the Hulk soundtrack.

"[The tunes] are a good way to start this thing," the STP site quotes McKagen as saying. "Number one, it puts a little bit of money into our thing so maybe we can do our own record and license it out, but it's also a good way to see what it's like in a studio situation with Weiland."

Reps from Weiland's label, Atlantic Records, did not return phone calls seeking comment on the new gig.

After numerous run-ins with law and stints in rehab, the rocker eventually cleaned up his act and went solo, putting out 1998's underwhelming 12 Bar Blues, before reuniting with his STP mates and releasing 2000's tepidly received Shangri-La Dee Da. Aside from the odd concert (STP opened an Aerosmith show last October), the band has been lying low.

While auditioning for Slash and company, Weiland was reportedly working on tracks for his second solo album.

Reloaded plans to release its first full-length album next February.

At this rate, the Reloaded disc will beat Chinese Democracy to the retail racks. The latter is Axl Rose's forever-in-the-works album by his reconstituted Guns N' Roses. Rose, whose infamous temper and lack of patience led most of the original members to leave Guns N' Roses in the early '90s, has been trying to revive the band (he controls the name) with his own backing players for several years.

Axl and his sidemen (dubbed Guns N' Poses by disillusioned fans) embarked on an ill-fated tour last summer. The trek was eventually scrapped thanks to Rose's chronically tardy behavior, which sparked several fan revolts in cities where they played.

The GNR Website hasn't been updated since last fall and there's no word on when, or if, Chinese Democracy will be out. The album has been so delayed, that the Offspring took the title for its latest disc.