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Stone Temple Pilots (often abbreviated as STP) is an American rock band from San Diego, California, that consists of brothers Robert (bass, backing vocals) and Dean DeLeo (guitar), Eric Kretz (drums, percussion), and Chester Bennington (lead vocals). Since the band's formation in 1985, its line-up remained unchanged until the dismissal of lead vocalist Scott Weiland in 2013, who was replaced by Linkin Park lead vocalist Bennington.
After forming in 1985 under the name Mighty Joe Young, the band signed with Atlantic Records and changed its name to Stone Temple Pilots. The band found immediate success in 1993 upon releasing their debut album, Core (1992), and went on to become one of the most commercially successful bands of the 1990s.The band released four more studio albums: Purple (1994), Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (1996), No. 4 (1999) and Shangri-La Dee Da (2001), before separating in 2002, after which the band members partook in various projects (most notably Velvet Revolver and Army of Anyone). The band eventually reconvened in 2008 for a reunion tour, released a new self-titled album in 2010, and have been actively touring since, even after Weiland was fired from the band. The band's first material with Bennington was their debut EP, High Rise, which was released on October 8, 2013 through Play Pen, LLC.
While initially displaying a sound typically identified as grunge early on in its career, further releases from the band expressed a variety of influences, including psychedelic rock, bossa nova and classic rock. The band's evolution throughout the 1990s and early 2000s involved several tumultuous periods of commercial highs and lows, brought about in part by Weiland's well-publicized struggles with drug addiction.