ROBERT DELEO On STONE TEMPLE PILOTS' Future: 'We All Feel We Want To Continue'

Robert DeLeo spoke to Billboard about STONE TEMPLE PILOTS' future plans, nearly two years after the passing of the band's original singer, Scott Weiland, and less than two months following the death of Weiland's replacement, Chester Bennington.

"Dean [DeLeo, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS guitarist and Robert's brother] and I are always writing music, whether it's for STP or not," he said. "Hopefully we will find a singer who will be that guy, and represent what we want to do moving forward. I think there's a lot of music to be made, still, and I think we all feel we want to continue — not only that, but also playing songs that we wrote twenty-five, thirty years ago that mean a lot to me, and I think there's people out there who want to hear those songs, too."

Asked when he thinks STP will be back up and running again, Robert said: "When it all comes together, it'll come together. It'll feel right and we'll proceed forward. This is not an overnight decision. This is a series of getting together with someone and really figuring out what they are all about and if that's right for us."

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS last year completed their online open audition submissions for a new singer. Many of the musicians who posted audition tapes also paid tribute to Weiland, who was dismissed in 2013 and who died on his tour bus in December 2015 while on a solo tour. The surviving bandmembers posted on the official STP web site that they had been listening to "thousands" of submissions.

Asked what the process of auditioning new vocalists has been like, Robert told Billboard: "It's been very interesting. You get some interesting scenarios with people. There's been some colorful people, I should say. [Laughs] ... Some of these people, they sing in their bedroom and their mom and dad tell 'em they're great. Then they get into a room with a band that's turned up to ten and expect to lead the band. You can pretty much tell right off the bat that's not happening with certain people. There are a lot of things to look at to really, really choose someone to move forward with."

Bennington ended his time with STP in order to concentrate on his main act, LINKIN PARK, as well as spend more time with his family.

Chester recorded one EP with the band, "High Rise", and did a handful of tours during his tenure.

Bennington died by suicide on July 20. He was 41.

The twenty-fifth-anniversary expanded reissue of STONE TEMPLE PILOTS' debut album, "Core", will be made available on September 29, which is twenty-five years to the day of the LP's original release.