STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Drummer Hints At 'New Way Of Touring' In Support Of Upcoming Album

Eric Kretz says that STONE TEMPLE PILOTS will adopt "a whole new way of touring next year" to promote the band's upcoming album.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS recently completed work on a new disc. The effort, which is not expected to arrive before 2020, will be singer Jeff Gutt's second with STP after joining the band two years ago. His recording debut with the group was on its self-titled seventh LP, which arrived in March 2018.

Speaking to Meltdown on the Detroit radio station WRIF, Gutt stated about the forthcoming album: "On this one, I kind of put my stamp on that one a little bit more than on the last one. The last one was us getting to know each other as songwriters and everything, it was kind of a feeling-out process and understanding how they write and how to bring in ideas and how everyone deals with each other. It's a very intimate thing — it's like being married to three dudes at the same time.

"They gave me a lot of rope to do my thing," he continued. "So I have to give them credit for that. They weren't, like, 'Hey, sound like this.' I just followed what I felt like STONE TEMPLE PILOTS should be, as a fan. It was a great experience."

According to Gutt, he and his bandmates "were only supposed to record a few songs" for STONE TEMPLE PILOTS's next project. "And then it ended up becoming a whole record, because we just had so much going on — we had so much inspiration happening at the time," he explained. "So it ended up becoming a whole record, which changed the whole plan of everything we were doing."

Added Kretz: "It was supposed to be an EP. But once we got going on it, we just continued to do a whole album. And that's gonna change to a whole new kind of way of touring next year for us as well to promote it. So it's all gonna be different."

Asked to elaborate on what he means by "new way of touring," Eric replied: "Well, you're just gonna have to wait and find out, aren't you? It's not Christmas time yet — you've gotta wait till we wrap those presents."

Although Gutt had previously referred to STONE TEMPLE PILOTS' upcoming album as an "acoustic record," he recently clarified to "Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon" that there were "no rules on it having to be acoustic or anything, [but] it has a vibe to it, and it's beautiful. It's all new songs," he said.

The band, which will reissue "Purple" later this month in commemoration of the album’s 25th anniversary, will wait a few months before releasing the new LP.

Describing the new STONE TEMPLE PILOTS music as "definitely different," Gutt said: "It's a very beautiful record. And I'm really happy with it."

Back in December 2018, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS played a rare acoustic concert at the Norwood Space Center in Norwood, Massachusetts.

Gutt, a 43-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 in 2017 after beating out roughly 15,000 hopefuls during an extended search that began more than a year earlier.

Original STONE TEMPLE PILTOS 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 and RIVAL SONS are at the end of a co-headlining a North American tour. The trek kicked off in Baltimore on September 13, with stops in Philadelphia, New York City, New Orleans and more, before wrapping up in STONE TEMPLE PILOTS' former hometown of San Diego on October 9.