Rocker Scott Weiland is calling in his lawyers following his dismissal from the Stone Temple Pilots, insisting his bandmates have no right to fire him from the group he founded.

Dean and Rob DeLeo issued a brief statement on Wednesday (27Feb13), confirming that the singer had been "officially terminated", but offered no explanation for his exit.

Now Weiland has hit back at the press release, admitting the news came as a surprise because the DeLeo siblings can't legally fire him from the group.

In his own statement, he writes, "I learned of my supposed 'termination' from Stone Temple Pilots this morning by reading about it in the press.

"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."

Weiland claims he and his high school friend, guitarist Corey Hicock, recruited bassist Rob DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz to start a band in the late 1980s. Hicock subsequently left the group before it became Stone Temple Pilots and the bandmates hired DeLeo's brother, Dean, to replace him.

The singer and the DeLeos have had a tumultuous history which has included numerous bust-ups and break-ups. The trio reunited in 2007 just before Weiland was kicked out of Slash's supergroup Velvet Revolver.