Photo credit: Corey Hickok
Stone Temple Pilots singer Jeff Gutt revealed why STP are currently deciding not to play the Shangri-La Dee Da classic “Wonderful” in a new Metro Times interview.
Looking to the future, there are a few STP songs that haven’t made it onto the setlists because, for Gutt, it’s personal. “Sour Girl,” Gutt admits, is tough for him because of where Weiland was in his life when it was released. “Scott had just got out of jail,” he explains. “It’s about one of his ex-wives and he’s calling her a ‘sour girl’ — to sing that is a little uncomfortable for me.” And 2001’s “Wonderful” remains off the table because it feels too much like Weiland’s autobiography.
“There’s enough hits that we can sustain ourselves for a little while before we do something special for Scott,” he says. “Other than that, I’m not really trying to go out of my way to get to those yet.”
What is perhaps most remarkable about Gutt’s journey isn’t so much how he got here or how long it took, but moreso it’s the task he has been entrusted with — and the fact that in only a few short months, he has proven himself not just worthy but fully capable.
“We are finally looking forward to hope and creativity rather than being tragic,” Robert DeLeo says of STP’s future with Gutt. “Great things come out of tragedy.”
STP have only played “Wonderful” live a handful of times, with the last performance being on April 23, 2002 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. STP played the song live in 2001 with Scott Weiland and Chester Bennington on vocals.
