New Stone Temple Pilots singer Jeff Gutt visited late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell’s grave earlier this month.
Gutt discussed joining STP in a new Oakland Press interview.
“I’ve had some time to get used to the idea. I was just sitting on the sidelines watching it all unfurl and knowing what was going to happen before anyone else did. I knew I had a secret I was about to reveal, which was cool.
“It’s a very strange feeling, but at the same time I’m blessed and very honored. It’s like joining the Led Zeppelin of my generation. I feel like I’m living in a movie.”
He later said, “I don’t really feel that pressure,” Gutt says. “I was studying Scott [Weiland] when I was coming into singing myself, and I learned so much from (listening to) him. It was fun to incorporate all those things in my own way and still sing true to Scott’s stuff and really keep that as true as I could.”
New Stone Temple Pilots singer Jeff Gutt discussed his connection to Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell in a new SiriusXM interview with Eddie Trunk. Alternative Nation transcribed Gutt’s comments.
“I was actually in a band called Dry Cell, which was on Warner Brothers around the same time as Linkin Park. That was how I knew Chester, that’s when I first met him, in 2001 when they first came out, and we were signed by the same guy.”
He later discussed singing “Hunger Strike.”
“I never wanted to a singer. I always wanted to be the guy on the side, I never wanted to have the spotlight on me. It always made me a little uncomfortable. But then I realized that I had this natural gift of- I think it’s more listening and being able to hear if you’re in pitch or not, it’s more of your ear than your throat, but I had that ability.
I was always the guy showing the singer which to sing, so at one point, strangely enough the first time I put the guitar down, and just sang and held the microphone in front of people, it was Hunger Strike. It’s crazy, because Chester and Chris Cornell had that version. That was the first time.”
