With new singer and album, Stone Temple Pilots play at Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg on May 8
From a press release:
Multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning alternative rock band Stone Temple Pilots announced a release date for their highly anticipated new self-titled album, their first with the new lead singer Jeff Gutt, as well as a set of new tour dates.
One of those tour stops will be at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg on Tuesday, May 8 at 8 p.m.
Tickets, which are $28.50 in advance or $31.50 the day of the show, go on sale this Friday, Jan. 26 at 10 a.m. and will be available through the Sherman Theater box office (524 Main St., Stroudsburg), online at shermantheater.com and ticketfly.com, and all Ticketmaster outlets. VIP boxes and sky boxes are available for this show and include eight tickets (VIP box) or 12 tickets (sky box), a fruit and cheese platter, and waitstaff. To purchase box seats, call the theater at 570-420-2808.
Advance ticket purchases also include a digital download of “Stone Temple Pilots,” due for release on March 16.
Stone Temple Pilots are no strangers to change. Unpredictably has shaped the award-winning group since it emerged as one of the bestselling bands of the 1990s. More than 25 years later, the band is reborn once again on its seventh studio album with new vocalist Jeff Gutt, a veteran of the Detroit music scene. Original singer Scott Weiland died of an accidental drug overdose in 2015, and Chester Bennington sang with the band from 2013 through 2015, leaving to focus on his band, Linkin Park, before taking his own life in 2017.
STP founding members Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo, and Eric Kretz introduced Gutt in November, moments before he joined them on stage at the Troubadour in Los Angeles for the band’s first concert together.
The path leading up to that show began in September 2016 when Gutt was invited to join the band after an extensive search to find the group’s third singer. The transition was virtually seamless, Kretz recalls.
“The chemistry was there from the start, and Jeff kept coming up with one great melody after another. We ended up finishing 14 songs, which is the most that Stone Temple Pilots has ever recorded for an album.”
The group recorded over several months in Los Angeles at Robert’s home studio. One of the earliest songs to take shape was “Meadow,” a straight-ahead rocker that became the album’s lead single.
“We’d written several songs before Jeff joined, and he took everything we threw at him and ran with it lyrically and melodically. What impressed all of us is how he lets the song dictate his direction instead of the other way around,” Robert says.
Gutt says the band really clicked after writing their first song together, a track called “The Art of Letting Go.”
“Dean was messing around on an acoustic guitar and I started singing along. Pretty soon, everyone was in the room and all the pieces fell into place. It’s such a beautiful song and something we’re all very proud of.”
Stone Temple Pilots will return to the road for the first time in more than two years for a North American tour starting in March.
“We are thrilled about what lies ahead. The best way for us to honor our past is to keep making new music,” Dean says.
The band does just that on “Stone Temple Pilots.” The first single “Meadow” (currently Top 10 on rock radio) and “Never Enough” channels the gritty guitars and swaggering rhythms that STP perfected on “Core” (1992), “Purple” (1994), and “No. 4” (1999). “Roll Me Under” glides along a nimble bass line before slamming into the chorus, where Gutt’s baritone digs in.
Those who pre-order the album on the band’s website will receive instant downloads of “Meadow” and “Roll Me Under.” Exclusive bundles are also available on the site, including vinyl, t-shirt, and limited edition, hand-signed lithographs by the band. The album will be released on vinyl on May 25.
When asked what to expect on the upcoming tour, Robert says, “With so much time and experience gone by in life, we feel compelled to dig back into a 30-year catalog and really try to reflect and choose what songs haven’t been performed live. We want to give people who have come to see us in the past a chance to hear something they haven’t heard before at previous STP shows. We want to celebrate this time in lives with our performances.”
