Jeff Gutt has brushed shoulders with royalty, baptized his son in the River Jordan, and has, on more than one occasion, performed for millions of people on national television. And this was all well before he was tasked with filling the lead role within the hit-making musical institution Stone Temple Pilots.

The All-American singer hailing from a Detroit suburb near Mount Clemens, Michigan, caught the music bug early. He specifically recalls falling asleep with headphones on one night and being ready to rock when he woke up the next morning. As Jeff tells it, “That music just took me somewhere.” He recalls the moment: “When I woke up, I wanted to play guitar, and I wanted to write songs. Something just clicked. To me music is being able to take people on a journey into this imaginary land; that’s where I like to live.” In late 2017, following the death of Scott Weiland and subsequently his replacement, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park fame, Gutt reportedly beat out as many as 20,000 other hopefuls to become the new voice of Stone Temple Pilots. Jeff being no stranger to live performances before audiences in the millions and on national television, embarked on a national tour with STP in 2018.

Before his current standing with Stone Temple Pilots, Gutt’s 20 plus years of playing in bands such as Dry Cell, Dragonfly, Acrylic, Band With No Name and Innerfaith prepared him and has cemented his stake in music. It was with Dry Cell, that Jeff traveled West to Los Angeles and also spent time in New York where the group signed a developmental deal with Warner Bros. Most notably, for Dry Cell, was the recorded song “Body Crumbles”, featured both in the movie “Queen of the Damned” and the video game Madden NFL 2003, as well as other third-party media. Once Dry Cell was no more, Jeff moved back to Michigan in order to be closer to his young son, Talon. However, Jeff didn’t hang up his guitar. To the contrary, being home only made the connection to his music deeper and his ambitions more intense. Gutt was more determined than ever to bring his music to the world!

In 2012 Jeff first appeared as a contestant on season two of the American reality television series The X Factor. Returning in season three the following year, he made it all the way to the finale, coming in second place. Fox Weekly placed Jeff at the “Top of the most influential X Factor contestants of all time”, accurately calling out that “Jeff’s big moment is on the verge.” During his time on the show, he quickly became a fan favorite, with more than 50 million YouTube views.

After the X Factor, Gutt formed the band Rival City Heights. RCH embarked on a world tour in 2015. They are widely popular in the Middle East, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, Finland, and Australia, and all over the globe where Gutt has been embraced as a bona fide star. The band’s debut self-titled album showcases Gutt’s talents as well as his vocal abilities and musicality.

As predicted by Fox Weekly, Gutt was on the verge as he performed for the first time with STP, during a secret performance at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. After writing and collaboration as a group, and just four months after the Troubadour performance, STP released their first album in eight years. The band’s self-titled re-introduction stormed the rock charts (peaked at 24 on the U.S. Billboard 200) and included the single “Meadow” — a song that Gutt helped pen on his first day in the studio with the band.