John Borja, who auditioned in person with Stone Temple Pilots in September 2016 and was strongly considered to join the band, has congratulated Jeff Gutt on getting the gig as Stone Temple Pilots’ new frontman. Borja and Gutt both auditioned at Foo Fighters’ Studio 606 in September 2016. Borja also defended Gutt from trolls who have been attacking him online. He wrote on Facebook:
“Good Luck and Best wishes to the new Lead Singer of #StoneTemplePilots.”
“All out support for STP no haters pls. ?”
Dean DeLeo told Rolling Stone he believes they have found a winner in Gutt, who came onto their radar rather late in their search. According to the guitarist, “He was one of the last guys we saw, in the last two days of auditions. And that was just over a year ago – September of 2016.”
He continues, “Jeff wasn’t even part of the singer submissions. But Robert happened to be playing a gig with the Hollywood Vampires in Michigan and somebody came backstage after the show and approached him and said, ‘You should check this guy out. He’s a local guy.’ And Robert called me the next morning and was like, ‘Hey, man …'”
“We did a week of auditions over at Studio 606 in the Valley,” Eric Kretz says. “Three people a day, seven songs with each guy. And the songs we gave people had a really big range, from something like ‘Interstate Love Song,’ which is not a hard-hitting one to sing, to things like ‘Dead & Bloated.'”
“These poor guys,” Dean adds with a laugh. “It went from ‘Big Empty’ to ‘Piece of Pie,’ where you’ve gotta get up to an A, to ‘Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart,’ which is a mouthful.”
“But Jeff came in and did a fantastic job,” Kretz says.
