Chester Bennington Has Quit Stone Temple Pilots

Chester Bennington has announced his departure from Stone Temple Pilots, nearly three years after replacing Scott Weiland as frontman of the Californian rock group.

The singer, who joined STP back in May 2013, apparently wants to spend more time focusing on his main band Linkin Park, and his family.

He’s released a full statement via Stone Temple Pilots’ website, explaining that he and the band have amicably parted ways. It reads:

“The last few years have been an amazing experience… I got to create and perform with one of the greatest rock bands of our generation, that had so much influence on me growing up. With the amount of time STP deserves, in addition to being in Linkin Park, and with the needs of my family, one of them always seems to fall short. Going in to this, the four of us… Robert, Eric, Dean and myself knew what we were up against. We decided in due fairness to friends, fans and the legacy of STP that it needs more than time was allowing me. And in all fairness to my bandmates in Linkin Park, as well as to myself and to my family, I’m going to focus solely on Linkin Park so I can contribute 100%. It’s been an amazing experience and a dream come true, and I look forward to the future of both STP and Linkin Park.”

The rest of STP have also offered their own statement, adding:

“What an amazing and beautiful few years we’ve all had together. It was our honor to play and see all of you recently on tour. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time together with Chester not only professionally, but even more so on a personal level. Sadly, it was evident that scheduling and time was working against us. Within this, there is a new beginning. There is an abundance of new music written, some of which is already recorded. We have had the fortune of playing with some very talented singers over the last few months and will continue to do so until each of us feels and knows when the right person arrives.”

Guess that means a Scott Weiland reunion is not on the cards.

But in a bizarre twist, Bennington’s mic shall pass to English soul diva Joss Stone for their next scheduled performance.

Right you are. The “Joss Stone Temple Pilots” will perform on late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live as part of the funnyman’s Mash-Up Mondays series, which sees him slap together two different acts to form a one-off supergroup each week.

Stone Temple Pilots only released one record during their time with Chester, 2013’s High Rise EP. They were scheduled to tour Australia in 2014 after being announced on the bill for Soundwave, but prematurely pulled out, with Soundwave citing recording commitments for their new album (which has still yet to materialise).

The band later denied that this was the reason, instead blaming a vague scheduling conflict.

Watch: Stone Temple Pilots w/ Chester Bennington – Black Heart (Official Lyric Video)

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