Stone Temple Pilots Will Go Deeper Than Ever Into Catalog on Next Tour
By Andrew Magnotta
June 6, 2018
With a new album, a new frontman and a new lease on its career, Stone Temple Pilots is looking forward to bringing fans a much different kind of setlist on the band's upcoming U.S. tour in July.
In a recent interview with Big 100 Washington's Bodhi from backstage at the Rock on the Range festival in Ohio, STP guitarist Dean DeLeo says the band has been doing some "deep digging" into its catalog with singer Jeff Gutt.
"We're kind of digging through 20 - 24 songs on our [headlining] nights," DeLeo said. "It's been fun to pull stuff out we either have never played live or haven't played live in a long, long time."
Dean's brother, bassist Robert DeLeo, agreed.
"I think we have a chance to get into some material we weren't able to get into, and I think we're becoming a better band because of that," Robert said. "We're really just focusing on the music and [tightening up]...it's been great. I never thought I'd say that after 30 years..."
"We're just starting to get good," Dean interjected with a laugh.
"Still learning: it's not a bad thing," Robert continued. "Well, when you think you know it all, then that's the end of it, isn't it?"
Gutt himself said recently that the band hasn't placed any restrictions on him, in terms of singing material by late-STP frontman Scott Weiland. Although, Gutt clarified that he, personally, has issues with the band's 1999 hit "Sour Girl."
"...I have a particular thing with 'Sour Girl,'" he said, "just because I feel it's written… it's a personal message, so I don't know… To me, that one's a little off limits. But other than that, I'm game."
Weiland wrote in his autobiography that the song was about his marriage to and divorce from his first wife, Janina Castaneda.
Last November, Gutt was formally introduced as STP's new lead singer. In March, the band released its first new studio album in eight years (and second self-titled), Stone Temple Pilots.
Photo: Getty Images