Funny you mention that STP was still a band when Talk Show was up and running.
Wait, they weren't broken up then?
I sure thought they were, at the time. I remember feeling like "ahhh! oh no! it's over".
But if it indeed was, it was a very brief break.
Can you even call it a break up?
Check out the timeline.
STP last played a show on May 25th 1997.
That fall Talk Show hits the road, having released their album in Sept '97
Then with Scott solo...I reference that MTV clip of Scott talking on set of the Barbarella video where he says "we'll be back to save the world..."
His last solo show in the spring was May 31, 1998 (he was busted the next day in NYC).
Fast forward a bit.
On April 5th of '99 they released "Down" and by August 12, 1999, they played that first show at House of Blues in Vegas.
As we know No. 4 was already done by then, so they had to had reconvened in the studio earlier than that. Wiki says No.4 was recorded in 98-99.
So really...how much time were they "broken up" for?
But back then, in the age of less information, i sure thought they were.