Stone Temple Pilots Announce New Singer

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS have selected one-time “The X Factor” contestant Jeff Gutt as their new vocalist. Gutt, who was a runner-up in season three of the reality television music competition show created by Simon Cowell, was announced as the band’s latest singer during a SiriusXM special earlier tonight (Tuesday, November 14) hosted by Eddie Trunk.

Gutt originally auditioned for STONE TEMPLE PILOTS in September 2016 and was officially named the band’s new singer in May 2017. He has spent the last year secretly writing and recording new material in Redondo Beach, California with bandmembers Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz.

A November 2016 article from Entertainment Tonight claimed Gutt was chosen to front STONE TEMPLE PILOTS before the end of last year, but a band representative shot down the report, claiming at the time that “no final decision” had yet been made.

Gutt appeared on “The X Factor” in 2013, where he was mentored by Kelly Rowland and impressed the other judges with his covers of songs like “Creep”, “Dream On” and “Hallelujah”.

Gutt will make his live debut with STONE TEMPLE PILOTS tonight at a special invitation-only concert for SiriusXM listeners at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, California.

A new STONE TEMPLE PILOTS single, titled “Meadow”, has already been serviced to radio and will make its online debut this later this week.

STP had been without a vocalist since November 2015, when Chester Bennington — who joined the group in early 2013 — departed to spend more time with his main band LINKIN PARK.

Original STP singer Scott Weiland, who reunited with the group in 2010 after an eight-year hiatus but was dismissed in 2013, died in December 2015 of a drug overdose while on a solo tour.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS revealed last month that they found “somebody that fits the bill” as the band’s new lead singer, but did not announce who he or she was.

STP last performed live, with Bennington on vocals, for a one-off reunion concert in California in March 2016.