Stone Temple Pilots discussed a 9-year old fan named Vedder Gabriel sing “Dead and Bloated” at a recent show in Phoenix.
Dean DeLeo told WMMR, “I thought he was just going to sing the intro.”
Jeff Gutt added, “That kid has sang with everybody, he’s got quite a career going. His name is Vedder, he has sang with everyone from Chris Stapleton, to Thirty Seconds to Mars, to Green Day. He’s a great little kid, he’s well on his way.”
Vedder is the namesake of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. STP and Pearl Jam have rarely talked about each other in the press in recent years, but Scott Weiland told Metal Hammer in 2001 that he and STP were friendly with some members of Pearl Jam, even after their initial criticism of the band. “That was tough to take, and also kinda odd because Pearl Jam went through the same thing when they first came out,” sighed Scott. “But we’re friends with all the guys from Pearl Jam, except Eddie. He’s kind of a loner, although Stone [Gossard, guitarist] and Mike [McCready, lead guitarist] always come to see us when we play Seattle.”
Dean DeLeo and Jeff Gutt of STP were recently interviewed by Shroom of the Cincinnati-based radio station WEBN. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):
On how Jeff is adjusting to the spotlight since being named the group’s new frontman:
Jeff: “I just do my thing. I sing, I hit the stage and that’s about it. I’ve been doing it a long time. When I wasn’t in Stone Temple Pilots, I was playing gigs to pay my rent, so sometimes, I had to play six nights a week. I didn’t really have a choice.”
Dean: “We’re such fans of music. We were built for this. It’s interesting, because I’ve had friends over the years, they express to me, ‘Oh, man, I’d love to come out and spend a few days on the road.’ I send them an itinerary; they say, ‘I think this will be a good place for me to fly in. I’ll fly out here.’ And after 48 hours on the road, they’re like, ‘I think I’m getting the flu, man. I’ve got to go home.'”
Jeff: “It’s like camping a lot.”
Dean: “It is. It’s just an interesting lifestyle. It’s like the circus, really – you’re just traveling from town to town, and going into town and entertaining and having fun and sharing music and having a blast.”
On whether competing on TV’s “The X Factor” helped to prepare Jeff for the gig:
Jeff: “I’d been through the music industry machine before that, sadly. But it was a great education for me, and it really helped me understand how things work. When I went on TV years later, there was different reasons for that — it wasn’t the one that most people do it for. I did it because I saw it as a way to get my name out there in the biggest way possible, and that worked. When the red light goes on you know there’s tens of millions of people there and it’s live, that will get you ready for anything.”
On deciding not to use a megaphone when performing STP’s “Dead & Bloated”, as Scott Weiland did:
Jeff: “There’s a guy with a button behind the curtain somewhere that can megaphone my voice. There’s a lot of things that were special to Scott, and that he was very innovative in, and that’s just one of those things that is probably better left with him.”
