The Next Singer for Stone Temple Pilots

Scott Weiland died too young on December 3^rd of 2015. He’s joined a long list of great musicians that let their addictions get the better of them and now we’ll never hear any new songs featuring his distinctive voice. Best known for his work fronting the Stone Temple Pilots, the remaining members of the band, brothers Dean and Robert DeLeo along with drummer Eric Kretz posted what amounts to a ‘Help Wanted’ ad last night. They’ve invited vocalists to submit recordings of themselves singing along to free downloadable instrumental versions of some of their biggest hits so that they can find a new lead singer.

Could this wind up being a train wreck? Without a doubt. One immediately thinks of INXS picking up J.D. Fortune on the reality show Rock Star, Mark Wahlberg’s fictitious Izzy in the film of the same name, or Journey hooking up with a series of Steve Perry imitators. Not good.

But it’s impossible not to be intrigued. These guys are fantastic musicians. Their band has a large and loyal following of which I’m a member. It’s not their fault Scott died. And it’s not as if they haven’t already made music without him. They’ve done so several times. They cut albums with other singers in the 90s and 00s under the band names Talk Show and Army of Anyone. Most recently, they released an EP with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park. No, none of those efforts compares to the best of STP, but none of them were bad either. All of them were substantially better than any of Scott’s solo records or his work with the Wildabouts or Art of Anarchy.

I’m betting thousands of wanna be rockers will submit their demos hoping for a shot at stardom. Most will probably be awful. Maybe one will turn out to be the real deal. After all, AC/DC replaced Bon Scott with Brian Johnson. Alice in Chains is still making new music with William DuVall who’s proved himself a capable replacement for Layne Staley. Sure, it’s easy to be a naysayer, but you never know.

Anyone that reads this blog regularly is probably aware that I’d kill for a shot at singing with STP. Do I think I’m likely to get the gig? Well, no. But you can bet I’m going to try out.