Stone Temple Pilots (often abbreviated as STP) is a Grammy Award winning American rock band from San Diego, California, that originally consisted of Scott Weiland (lead vocals), brothers Dean (guitar) and Robert DeLeo (bass, backing vocals), and Eric Kretz (drums). Since the band's formation in 1989, its line-up remained unchanged until the dismissal of Weiland in 2013, who was replaced by Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington. In 2015, Bennington left the band to focus solely on Linkin Park. On December 3, 2015, Weiland was found dead on his tour bus prior to a performance with his band The Wildabouts. Bennington committed suicide on July 20, 2017. In November 2017, the band hired former X-Factor contestant Jeff Gutt as their new lead singer. After forming in 1989 under the name Mighty Joe Young, the band signed with Atlantic Records and changed its name to Stone Temple Pilots. The band found immediate success in 1993 upon releasing their debut album, Core (1992), and went on to become one of the most commercially successful bands of the 1990s.[7] The band released four more studio albums: Purple (1994), Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (1996), No. 4 (1999) and Shangri-La Dee Da (2001), before separating in 2002, after which the band members partook in various projects (most notably Velvet Revolver and Army of Anyone). The band eventually reconvened in 2008 for a reunion tour, released a new self-titled album in 2010, and have been actively touring since, even after Weiland was fired from the band. The band's only material with Bennington was the EP High Rise in 2013.[8] While initially displaying a sound typically identified as grunge early on in its career, further releases from the band expressed a variety of influences, including psychedelic rock, bossa nova and classic rock. The band's evolution throughout the 1990s and early 2000s involved several tumultuous periods of commercial highs and lows, brought about in part by Weiland's well-publicized struggles with drug addiction. The band's five studio albums have sold over 17 million copies in the United States alone. The band has had fifteen top ten singles on the Billboard rock charts, including six number ones, and one number one album on the pop charts (1994's Purple). In 1993, the band won a Grammy for "Best Hard Rock Performance" for their song "Plush". Stone Temple Pilots were also ranked at number 40 on VH1's The 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. In 2003, the band released the greatest hits compilation Thank You. Around this time, band members began going their separate ways. After the band's break-up in 2003 , original lead singer Scott Weiland became the frontman of Velvet Revolver with former members of Guns N' Roses. The DeLeo brothers formed the band Army of Anyone with Richard Patrick of the band Filter. Kretz founded Bomb Shelter Studios in Los Angeles. The band reunited in 2008 after Weiland split from Velvet Revolver, kicking off the tour at the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio. The band released their self titled sixth album in 2010. Album List: 1992: Core 1994: Purple 1996: Tiny Music... Song from the Vatican Gift Shop 1999: No. 4 2001: Shangri-la dee da 2003: Thank You (Best of Stone Temple Pilots) 2010: Stone Temple Pilots (Self-titled) 2013: High Rise (EP) 2018: Stone Temple Pilots (2018) (Self-titled) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.