Chester Bennington and Stone Temple Pilots are definitive players within the alternative rock scene. They are largely definitive for the music they made separately, however. Bennington is beloved for his frontman tenure with Linkin Park, and Stone Temple Pilots rose to fame with singer Scott Weiland in the 90s.
Bennington and Stone Temple Pilots are beloved for the respective careers, but the time they spent together often goes undiscussed. The former actually served as the lead singer of STP for two years in the mid-2010s, but subsequently walked away. Why? Was there bad blood?
Chester Bennington quit the band in 2015
Bennington was a Stone Temple Pilots fan who knew the significance of replacing Weiland in 2013. He did not take the role lightly, and brought his typical charisma to STP's shows. The singer packed it up in 2015, however, citing a desire to focus on the band that made him famous: Linkin Park.
Amicable splits can be hard to come by in music, but by and large, the split between Bennington and the rest of Stone Temple Pilots went smoothly. "The last few years have been an amazing experience," the singer wrote in a statement to Rolling Stone. "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."
Stone Temple Pilots, made up of bassist Robert DeLeo, drummer Eric Kretz and guitarist Dean DeLeo, were similarly quick to praise Bennington. "What an amazing and beautiful few years we've all had together," they asserted. "We have thoroughly enjoyed our time together with Chester not only professionally, but even more so on a personal level." They attributed the singer's departure to tour and scheduling conflicts.
Bennington chose to focus on Linkin Park
It's worth noting that Bennington was still the frontman of Linkin Park during the two years he was singing for Stone Temple Pilots. An absolutely staggering workload for any performer, and one that's even more impressive when considering Bennington's intensity on stage. He would go on to release the album One More Light with Linkin Park in 2017.
The only drama that resulted from Bennington's time with Stone Temple Pilots was from the man he replaced, Scott Weiland. The latter was fired from the band shortly before Bennington was brought on, and he criticized Kretz and the DeLeo brothers for betraying the STP brand.
"I’m surprised they did what they did without checking the legality of it, how they just decided to go and use the name and go and hire another singer and start playing shows with a name that I still am an owner of," the singer told Billboard. Weiland did not, however, hold Bennington accountable.
Weiland and Bennington have both since passed away. The former died of a drug overdose in 2015, and the latter took his own life in 2017. Stone Temple Pilots and Linkin Park remain active bands.