JEFF GUTT Believes STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Are Working On New Music, But Says He 'Would Be Fine' With The Band Never Releasing Another Album

In a new interview with Remzi "Jam Man" Yates of Rocking With Jam Man, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer Jeff Gutt spoke about what it has been like to sometimes play entire shows with the band without performing a single song that he has written and recorded with STP during his nine-year run with the group so far. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "You know what? Half the time, that's my idea, just because… Like that song 'Meadow', it's really hard to sing that live, because there's nowhere to breathe, and it's hitting this register which is at a point where, if you hit that too many times, you're gonna blow your throat out. So I've actually done it hundreds, if not more, times. So sometimes when they get to those and they're, like, 'Hey, you wanna do this?', I'm, like, 'You know what? I'd rather do 'Crackerman' or something,' [laughs], 'cause it's just not as taxing. I should have thought about that before I recorded them in the studio. But it's fine. We used to do that 'Six Eight' song and 'Roll Me Under' and stuff like that. It's just, if I have the choice not to do that, half the time I'd rather not do that. [Laughs] STP songs are STP songs, you know what I mean?"

Asked by Yates if there a danger that newer songs can never become classics if audience isn't given enough opportunities to hear them live, Gutt responded: "Well, I think it's a different bag than it used to be. People used to go and buy — they'd save their money, and then they'd go to the store, and they'd buy music, and they'd have it in their hand, and they'd take it home. And whether it's a vinyl or a CD or a cassette or whatever it was, take it and open it up, look at the artwork, look what the band's vibe is, and read along the lyrics to the songs and do all [that]. People don't do that anymore. So it's a completely different thing now. Back in the day, people took more ownership of things, because they had to work for it. They bought it with their money. They spent the time going through it and really looking at every aspect of what the band was trying to do or the artist was trying to do or say, through the artwork, through the lyrics, through everything. And today you get three seconds on Spotify, and that's about it. [Laughs] So it's a different world than it was back then."

As for whether he would be "personally satisfied if STONE TEMPLE PILOTS spent the rest of their career touring the classic catalog but never made another studio album", Gutt said: "I would be fine with that, yeah. I always have to make music. I write pretty much every day. And I have other things that I put energy into. I do a lot of writing with — just working with younger bands that are working with producers that are friends of mine, and I'll go in and work with them and do that. So to me, it's not about my glory or my fame or whatever it is. To me, it's just about the music and the songs that connect and the songs that people love. If someone's gonna yell a song at you every time you play a gig, eventually you're just gonna play that song. [Laughs]"

Asked if the members of STONE TEMPLE PILOTS are actively working toward another album as of now, Gutt said: "You know what? I believe so. I'm gonna give you the honest answer. I believe so. When these things happen and they say, 'Hey, let's make a record,' it happens organically. So it's not, like, 'Hey, in March we're gonna make a record.' They don't really work like that. Robert [DeLeo, STP bassist] has put out a solo record, and Dean's [DeLeo, STP guitarist] put out a couple records on their own, so they have their musical outlets and the things that they do to express their creativity. And we talk about it, and things happen and we work on things at certain times. But as of right now, we're not, 'Hey, we're making this record.' So as of now, there's not, but that could change tomorrow literally."

Regarding whether he is still actively creating music that has nothing to do with STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, Jeff said: "Yeah. My band that I started that I never finished because I had to drop it, and I couldn't tell them why I was basically MIA at a certain point, because they're, like, 'This dude's lost his mind.' And then they found out, 'Oh, he's in STP, but he couldn't tell anyone.' So to go back and finish that record — 'cause I have OCD really bad, and I hate leaving things unfinished. It gives me this crazy, creepy feeling inside, so I have to literally finish things. And so, yeah, that band's gonna be called WE ARE NOT MACHINES, and it's with [EVANESCENCE drummer] Will Hunt. And, yeah, I'm going to [producer] Bob Marlette to go finish the rest of that record soon. So, yeah, looking forward to that. So, yeah, I write a lot of stuff. And I'm always writing. That's a true statement."

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS features three original members — Robert, Dean and drummer Eric Kretz.

Gutt, a 50-year-old Michigan native who spent time in the early-2000s nu-metal act DRY CELL, among other bands, and was a contestant on "The X Factor", joined STONE TEMPLE PILOTS after beating out roughly 15,000 hopefuls during an extended search that began more than a year earlier.

Original STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer 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.

Chester Bennington, who joined STP in early 2013, departed nearly three years later to spend more time with his main band LINKIN PARK. Bennington committed suicide in July 2017.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS released their first all-acoustic album, titled "Perdida", in February 2020. The disc was Gutt's second with STP. His recording debut with the group was on its self-titled seventh album, which arrived in March 2018.