Stone Temple Pilots Detail ‘Difficult Decision to Terminate the Face of the Band’

In a new, detailed interview, Stone Temple Pilots' new frontman Chester Bennington and bassist Robert DeLeo discussed a lot of topics, from the new lineup to the difficult decision to remove longtime frontman Scott Weiland and install Linkin Park singer Bennington as his replacement. The twosome offered a lot of insight into the current STP headspace.

About their former singer, with whom they are embroiled in legal battles, DeLeo mused with Rolling Stone, "We've always looked out for Scott's best interests and tried to be a great friend to someone who really didn't care to be friends with us."

While things are pretty ugly right now, DeLeo tried to put things in context of the whole career and the good times, saying, "I had the complete gift, and so did [guitarist] Dean [DeLeo] and [drummer] Eric [Kretz], of writing music with Scott, and I cherished that for as long as I could. I think now it's time to embrace this and cherish this. I feel very humbled by the fact the guys in Linkin Park are cool with this. All these guys are great dudes. It's not about music -- it's about the humanity of it. They're the kind of human beings you want to be around at this point in life."

DeLeo ruminated that it was "a very difficult decision to terminate the face of your band. There are many paths to the history of certain bands and each one is a little different, but it all kind of turns out the same at the end. But it was a very difficult decision to do that. That's as big as it gets. But we really didn't have any other choice." He declined further elaboration due to the ongoing legal matters.

Taking over for Weiland was not much an issue for Bennington, who is/was an STP fan. He pointed out that he had no control over what the band was doing, since, "STP is moving forward without Scott 100 percent, whether I say yes or no."

He furthered, "So I'm just glad that it's me, because I am such a big fan of the band -- I know the songs as well as these guys know the songs, maybe even better than some guys know the songs. And I do my best to honor the legacy of the music. We just want to go out and f--king play and have fun doing it -- play rock and roll really loud and smile." And while there may be no crying in baseball, there is smiling in rock 'n' roll.

The Linkin Park frontman, who is pulling double duty, believes STP, "is happening at the right time. From an outsider, this is something I expected was going to happen. For us the transition has been about as smooth creatively as a band as possible. And the fact that we all get along so well, we enjoy each other's company, we have the same work ethic and we're all enjoying what we're doing, it's a trip in a lot of ways."

Being in Stone Tempe Pilots is like a bucket list situation for Bennington, who said, "At the same time I have the chance to write songs with two of my favorite songwriters that have ever written, Robert and Dean. Writing songs with these guys, that's something I can check off my list of s--t to do."

The band's 'High Rise' EP is due this October.