STONE TEMPLE PILOTS With CHESTER BENNINGTON To Perform On 'The Tonight Show With Jay Leno'

The new version of STONE TEMPLE PILOTS featuring LINKIN PARK's Chester Bennington will perform on tonight's (Thursday, October 3) edition of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno".

"The Tonight Show" airs on NBC TV at 11:35 p.m. EST. Check local listings for details.

Bennington spoke with Rolling Stone about his new gig as lead vocalist for STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, with whom he began working earlier this year after the band booted original frontman Scott Weiland. Bennington said about the band's decision, "This was the choice they had to make, and if it wasn't me it was going to be somebody else. STP is moving forward without Scott 100 percent, whether I say yes or no. So I'm just glad that it's me, because I am such a big fan of the band — I know the songs as well as these guys know the songs, maybe even better than some guys know the songs. And I do my best to honor the legacy of the music."

Bennington added, "I've seen this whole process become fun for these guys again and see the joy that everybody is having when we're doing band-related stuff. So that, to me, is a really great reward."

The LINKIN PARK singer alluded to STP's past problems with Weiland by saying, "It's been interesting for me to see how the normal day-to-day stuff that I'm used to doing with the other guys that I work with is just a complete shocker over here in this camp. It's like, 'Dude, you're here?' Simple things like that, or, 'Let's play this song.' 'OK, cool,' and I just start singing the song."

Bassist Robert DeLeo said, "Dean [DeLeo, guitarist], Eric [Kretz, drummer] and I have been saddled by someone for a long time. We've always looked out for Scott's best interests and tried to be a great friend to someone who really didn't care to be friends with us."

Robert added, "It was a very difficult decision to terminate the face of your band . . . But we really didn't have any other choice."

Dean DeLeo told The Pulse Of Radio that the rest of the band did not take firing Weiland lightly. "This definitely wasn't a decision that was made over six months or even a year or six or 10 years," he said. "It's been something that's been going on for a long, long, long time and, you know, it wasn't really so much about the band, it was more of a quality of life I think we just needed for ourselves, you know. I couldn't do it any more. Look, if I'm gonna carry on inappropriately, there's gonna be a thousand guys in line for my job."

An EPK (Electronic Press Kit) for "High Rise", the debut EP from STONE TEMPLE PILOTS featuring LINKIN PARK's Chester Bennington, can be seen below. The effort will be released on October 8 via 13Star Records.

"High Rise" track listing:

01. Out Of Time
02. Black Heart
03. Same On The Inside
04. Cry Cry
05. Tomorrow

The official lyric video for the song "Black Heart" can be seen below.