Stone Temple Pilots Announce New Lead Singer & Share Single ‘Meadow’

Stone Temple Pilots unveiled a new lead singer last night during a special private performance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Vocalist Jeff Gutt made his debut fronting the group who also released a new single featuring the revised lineup.

Founding STP members guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo, drummer Eric Kretz and late frontman Scott Weiland found worldwide success following the 1992 release of their debut album Core. After their subsequent 2002 breakup, several reunions with Weiland took place up until his ultimate firing from the group in 2013. Linkin Park frontman, the late Chester Bennington, was a member of STP from 2013 to 2015.

Weiland was just 48-years-old when he unexpectedly died of an accidental drug overdose in December 2015 while touring with his band The Wildabouts. Bennington was only 41-years-old when he tragically took his own life in July of this year.

Gutt was selected to join STP after an extensive worldwide search that saw the DeLeo brothers and Kretz chose 30 singers to audition from over 15,000 online submissions. A member of the Detroit rock scene, Gutt was the only one of the 30 vocalists to tryout who didn’t submit an online audition — his invitation came after Robert DeLeo heard about Gutt while in Detroit for a show with the Hollywood Vampires.

“Talk about a happy accident,” said Robert DeLeo. “It was clear right away that Jeff had the range to sing vocally challenging songs like ‘Piece of Pie’ and ‘Interstate Love Song.’ But we soon discovered that he also has a great ear for melody and knew how to write a song.”

“We wanted someone who would not only do our earlier songs justice, but would also write new songs and carve out a different path forward with us,” Dean DeLeo explained. “It took some time, but we found our guy.”

“No one will ever fill Scott’s shoes and I’m not trying to – he’s a legend,” Gutt said. “But these songs deserve to be performed and people want to hear them. I’m just honored that the guys chose me to help them continue to build this band’s legacy,”

Last night’s concert featured the debut of “Meadow.” The song is the first single recorded by the band with Gutt and will be included on a new album coming out next year. Give a listen to “Meadow” below: