New Stone Temple Pilots singer Jeff Gutt told the Oakland Press he is “blessed and very honored” to have been chosen to front the band, which he called “the Led Zeppelin of my generation.” The one-time The X Factor contestant was officially announced as the third frontman in the group’s history on Tuesday evening (Nov 14th) prior to the band giving a special performance at the Troubadour nightclub in Los Angeles. A new STP single, titled “Meadow,” has already been released, with a full-length album to follow in the spring.
Gutt, who said joining the band was “surreal,” explained, “I’ve had some time to get used to the idea. I was just sitting on the sidelines watching it all unfurl and knowing what was going to happen before anyone else did. I knew I had a secret I was about to reveal, which was cool . . . I feel like I’m living in a movie.”
Gutt, a runner-up on The X Factor‘s third season, originally auditioned for STP in September 2016 and became an official member of the band in May 2017. He beat out 15,000 other potential vocalists who made submissions to the band and 29 others who actually auditioned.
He has spent the last year secretly writing and recording new material with band members Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz. Dean said in a statement, “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. It took some time, but we found our guy.”
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. Bennington committed suicide last July. 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.
Gutt said he wants to honor his predecessors’ legacy and bring something new to the band, remarking, “I was studying Scott when I was coming into singing myself, and I learned so much from (listening to) him. It was fun to incorporate all those things in my own way and still sing true to Scott’s stuff and really keep that as true as I could.”
STP recently completed recording their seventh full-length studio album and first since 2010. The as-yet-untitled effort will arrive sometime in early 2018. I don’t know about you, but I think they picked a good one here. Be listening for “Meadow” on both hardDrive and hardDrive XL soon!
In This Moment will headline the Witching Hour Tour early next year with P.O.D., New Years Day and Ded appearing on select dates. The trek kicks off on January 16th in Charleston, South Carolina, weaving its way around North America before coming to a close on February 18th in St. Paul, Minnesota. In This Moment will also play two Canadian shows with Stone Sour along the way.
In This Moment recently released a music video for the song “Roots,” the latest track taken from the band’s recently issued sixth studio album Ritual. “Roots” follows “Oh Lord” as a new single from Ritual, which also includes a cover of Phil Collins‘ “In The Air Tonight” and a duet with Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford called “Black Wedding.”
Blabbermouth reporting Gothenburg, Sweden-based metal heavyweights In Flames have surprised fans by releasing a four-track covers EP, Down, Wicked & No Good. (Bummer, I just completed our hardDrive Under Cover special edition! Why didn’t they tell me this was coming? Grrrr!!!!!!)
To debut their cover of Depeche Mode‘s 1997 hit single “It’s No Good”, the members of In Flames are taking over Depeche Mode‘s Facebook page today, releasing exclusive content and a new video for the song.
The panoptic covers collection also includes cover versions of Alice In Chains‘ “Down In A Hole”, Chris Isaak‘s “Wicked Game”, and a live bonus version of Nine Inch Nails‘ “Hurt”. It sees the Swedish quintet expanding beyond metal to incorporate the group’s varied musical taste and expansive sonic range.
“We’ve been fans of Depeche Mode since we were as young as 10,” says In Flames. “Getting to do our rendition of ‘It’s No Good’ showed us a different side of the song — it brought new meanings to us. We relate to the lyrics and power of the song so heavily that it almost feels as if we could have written it ourselves. They’re a band that we’ve always looked up to. Growing up, you either listened to pop, synths or rock and even though we are a metal band, Depeche Mode inspired a lot of the electronic elements we use in our music today.”
Earlier this week, In Flames kicked off a 25-date co-headline arena tour with American heavyweights Five Finger Death Punch and special guests Of Mice & Men in Helsinki.
In Flames‘ twelfth studio album, Battles, was released in November 2016 via Nuclear Blast in all territories excluding North America and Scandinavia and Eleven Seven Music Group in the U.S.
In Flames recruited Bryce Paul — a member of the Southern California pop-rock outfit Ives — to play bass for the band on most of the “Battles” tour.
Guns N’ Roses was among the winners at Billboard‘s annual Touring Awards and conference in Los Angeles Tuesday night (Nov 15.)
The band’s “Not In This Lifetime” tour was the winner in the “Top Tour/Top Draw” category, beating U2 and COLDPLAY. The group was also up for the “Top Boxscore” award, which went to U2. For a complete list of winners, visit Billboard.com.
“Not In This Lifetime” has reportedly grossed more than $400 million since its launch a year and a half ago.
About seventy people travel with the show in addition to the truck drivers; that number goes upwards of five hundred, including the local workers, by show date once catering, security, etc. are factored in, according to the tour’s production manager, Dale “Opie” Skjerseth.
Guns kicked off its long-rumored and long-awaited reunion tour in April 2016 with a club show in Hollywood and appearances in Las Vegas and at California’s Coachella festival.
The “Not In This Lifetime” tour features classic lineup members Slash (guitar), Duff McKagan (bass) and Axl Rose (vocals) backed by guitarist Richard Fortus, drummer Fank Ferrer, keyboardist Dizzy Reed and new second keyboardist Melissa Reese.
In a related item, sort of, Slash & The Conspirators’ and Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy has decided to put the solo music he has recorded on ice. Myles recently told Lunchbox and Promo Brady of Tulsa radio station 97.5 KMOD‘s DOMKcast podcast, “Late last year, I started chasing down what would be the second solo record — or, I guess, technically the first solo record, [since] the one I recorded years ago probably won’t be released…. There’s something to be said about songs and records having a shelf life to artists, and for me, I kind of felt like that might have expired here.”
Myles heads out on tour with Alter Bridge Nov 24th in Orlando. See Road Rage for the complete list of dates. (Thanks to Blabbermouth for the item.)
Celebrating life this weekend! Today, Richard Fortus of Guns N’ Roses is 51, SNL’ Lorne Michaels is 73 and Martin Scorsese is 75. Saturday, Metallica’s Kirk Hammett is 55, Avenged Sevenfold’s Johnny Christ is 33. Sunday: Tool’s Justin Chancellor is 46, Matt Sorum (Velvet Revolver, Guns N’ Roses, Camp Freddy) is 57 and Larry King is 84.
