Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo was asked in a new AltWire interview if the band have unreleased material with Chester Bennington.
AW: What would you say really sold the band with Jeff’s audition? Was there something that really stood out right from the start?
Robert DeLeo: He came in and it was his personality and who he was as a person. That’s the first thing. You’ve got to think: you’re going to be on a bus and traveling with this person like family. It’s got to be someone who has had some experience with that and who has been on stage and who has been in these scenarios and situations. Also, they have to be able to sing [laughs] and be a genuinely great singer, which is who Scott was. He was a genuinely great singer and these songs that we have written, and these songs that we are writing; it demands someone who can sing.
AW: You worked on and recorded several songs with Chester in 2015. Were any of those songs re-purposed for the new album with Jeff?
Robert DeLeo: There were, but they were kind of ideas and they didn’t really get too far. Working on a new record with Chester was kind of a notion and it didn’t really go too far before he said he could no longer do STP. We got together and played some ideas and that was about it. So these ideas were sitting there for a couple of years.
AW: Branching off of that, over the years there have been a few projects, performances, or releases that never came to fruition. What was the one you were most disappointed not to see released?
Robert DeLeo: Hmm, I don’t know. I think everything was released, and whether it did well or not in people’s eyes is really out of your control, you know? I’m very proud of the Army of Anyone record that we made and I’m very proud of the Talk Show record, and all the STP stuff. I think we’ve released the best of what we have, and to see a song come from a little idea in your head to an actual song, it’s like building a house. You build it and you hope that someone eventually likes the house and decides to live in it. That’s the way music is for me. People live in music and that’s the beauty of it. I live in music and it’s a huge part of my life, both as a fan and as a listener too, and not only just as a writer and a performer of it.
