Stone Temple Pilots' Jeff Gutt reflects on friendship with Chester Bennington

Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots (Image credit: Michelle Shier)

Stone Temple Pilots singer Jeff Gutt has spoken about the friendship he had with the band’s late vocalist Chester Bennington.

Bennington, who died in July last year, fronted STP between 2013 and 2015, with Gutt revealing that the singer was present when he gave his first performance with the band at a secret industry showcase in Los Angeles in November 2016.

Gutt tells Yahoo Entertainment: “I knew Chester – I’ve known Chester since 2001. I was in a band called Dry Cell, and we were signed by the same guy that signed Linkin Park, so that’s how I knew him.

“He would come to some of our writing sessions and rehearsals – I’d see him in the studios that we were at. When we were recording, they’d be recording there. We just had a good friendship.”

Gutt adds: “It my first private audition with STP, and he called and asked if he could come. He wanted to be there for that first show.

“So, I put him on my guest list. It was very cool that he could be there for that.”

Stone Temple Pilots have also released a stream of their new track Never Enough, which has been taken from the band’s upcoming self-titled album which is set to arrive on March 16.

Find the single, along with the album artwork and tracklist below.

Stone Temple Pilots tracklist

  1. Middle Of Nowhere
  2. Guilty
  3. Meadow
  4. Just A Little Lie
  5. Six Eight
  6. Thought She’d Be Mine
  7. Roll Me Under
  8. Never Enough
  9. The Art Of Letting Go
  10. Finest Hour
  11. Good Shoes
  12. Reds & Blues

Stone Temple Pilots stream new track The Art Of Letting Go

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.