Stone Temple Pilots announce first tour with new lead singer Jeff Gutt

San Diego Union-Tribune

Dec. 4, 2017 12 PM PT

Stone Temple Pilots will tour in 2018 for the first time with its new lead singer, Jeff Gutt.

He replaces Chester Bennington, who in turn replaced the late Scott Weiland, a former Coronado resident, as the front man in Stone Temple Pilots. The band auditioned 29 other singers before selecting Gutt, who was a finalist on the TV show “The X Factor” in 2012.

Bennington, who committed suicide this year and also sang in Linkin Park, left Stone Temple Pilots in 2015.

The 2018 tour is in support of the band’s upcoming new album. It will open March 2 in Santa Clarita and conclude May 20 in Columbus, Ohio, The second date is in San Diego at Observatory North Park. All dates and cities appear below.

Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. Tickets for the all-ages San Diego show are priced at $38.50 each, plus service fee.

Stone Temple Pilots 2018 tour dates

March 2 Santa Clarita, CA @ The Canyon

March 4 San Diego, CA @ Observatory

March 8 Pasadena, CA @ The Rose

March 9 Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues

March 10 Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee

March 12 San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore

March 13 Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades

March 15 Portland, OR @ Roseland

March 16 Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory

March 17 Billings, MT @ Pub Station Ballroom

April 28 Jacksonville, FL @ Welcome to Rockville*

April 29 Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Fort Rock Festival*

May 20 Columbus, OH @ Rock on the Range*

* Tickets do not include digital album

george.varga@sduniontribune.com

Twitter @georgevarga

Music

George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 and 2023 San Diego Press Club awards and a double first prize-winner at the 2022 and 2023 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”