STONE TEMPLE PILOTS On Replacing SCOTT WEILAND: 'We Thought Of CHESTER And That Was It'

With STONE TEMPLE PILOTS moving full steam ahead on a new EP and a full slate of fall tour dates with new singer Chester Bennington, The Pulse Of Radio asked guitarist Dean DeLeo how the group chose the LINKIN PARK frontman for the job in the first place. "We simply did not have a list of guys we were thinking of, we didn't hold auditions, we thought of Chester and that was it," he said. "It's very interesting, honestly, because Chester told me a story that when he was dating his wife about nine years ago, he told her that one day he was gonna get a call from us to be the singer of this band."

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS will release an EP this fall, in conjunction with a North American tour that kicks off on September 4 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and winds down on September 27 in Las Vegas.

This will be the first major run of live dates, as well as the first official recording, since STONE TEMPLE PILOTS fired founding vocalist Scott Weiland earlier this year and recruited Bennington to take over.

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS will release the new EP through their own label. It will contain five songs, including the previously released "Out Of Time".

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS fired Weiland in February and sued him in May, accusing him of using the band's name to advance his solo career, while claiming that his poor performances, late arrivals, and addiction struggles harmed the band's career.

Bassist Robert DeLeo said in a recent radio interview that Weiland's dismissal was a "quality-of-life decision. . . we want to be able to come to town and give you everything we've got and it was getting to a point where we were unable to do that."