NEW VOCALIST HITS STAGE IN HIS IDOL’S FORMER ROLE
Stone Temple Pilots move ahead after overdose death of singer Weiland
For vocalist Jeff Gutt, playing with Stone Temple Pilots is as much a duty as a pleasure.
That’s not surprising given that the X Factor contestant and former member of nu metal unit Dry Cell started out as a fan of the popular ’90s grunge band, like many aspiring rockers of the time looking to now deceased frontman Scott Weiland as a musical idol.
“I actually get a lot of thanks from people for helping the band to continue,” says Gutt, taking a brief break from the tour that will see Stone Temple Pilots (“elegant bachelors,” according to indierock fellow travellers Pavement) stopping by the Shaw Conference Centre this Friday.
“I understand that, because I feel the same way,” Gutt says. “When I heard that they were having open auditions I was off on another tour and couldn’t do it, but I also felt that it would be great if someone, whether a guy or a girl, would step in and do the job, because we really needed this band to continue.”
The auditioning process took quite some time. Gutt reckons there were somewhere around 20,000 applicants for the job of singing such radio-rock hits as Plush, Interstate Love Song and Out of Time. Luckily the singer had an in, a friend who found himself backstage at a Hollywood Vampires show featuring STP bassist Robert DeLeo.
“I sort of walked into the deal, because my friend told Robert to check me out,” he says with a certain amount of bemusement. “I skipped a whole process because of this, and just kind of landed where I am.”
Gutt found himself moving quickly from ad hoc rehearsals to learning songs for their newest, self-titled album, the band naming him as their new lead singer in November of 2017.
“It was very organic, a natural evolution. They had recorded some new songs, and I went in and came up with melodies for them. I was trying really hard not to think too much about it, or get too far inside my own head, so there was nothing contrived about how it all came together.”
While the core section of Stone Temple Pilots has stayed tight, with Robert DeLeo, guitarist brother Dean DeLeo, and drummer Eric Kretz still on board since coming together in 1989, the lead vocalist position has been problematic. Weiland’s tenure was during the most commercially successful years, and his death by overdose in 2015 after a breakup, reunion, and final split between band and singer was heartbreaking for fans. Chester Bennington of Linkin Park then stepped in, guiding the band to a new EP (High Rise) and a hit single in Out of Time.
Tragedy struck again when Bennington committed suicide only a few years after amicably leaving STP in 2015.
“Yeah, that was tough,” Gutt says. “I knew Chester back when Linkin Park was starting, and I was in a metal band. He would come over for writing sessions, or I’d see him around town or at the studio. We weren’t super close, but we knew each other. The funny thing is that he came out to my first-ever STP showcase gig, this private event. The other guys were looking at my guest list, and they said, ‘ Wait, you know Chester?’ Yup, I do! It was really cool; he asked to come to the show, and I pulled him up to sing with me on one of the songs. That was a really great moment.”
I… get a lot of thanks from people for helping the band to continue. I understand that, because I feel the same way.