I Didn't Want To ... But I Had To

Journey without Steve Perry just isn't Journey to me.  Yeah, the guy after him looked just like him, and the current guy sounds just like him.  But they ain't Steve Perry.

It will always be the WWF to me.  Get out of here with that WWE nonsense.  It's the World Wrestling Federation.  I'm still waiting for a Superstar to slip and exclaim that he is "The World Wrestling Entertainment Champion".  Just doesn't sound right.

And all other Rusty's after Anthony Michael Hall were inferior.

So, when I heard that Stone Temple Pilots had "fired" Scott Weiland, I wanted nothing to do with Stone Temple Pilots (with Chester Bennington).  Yes, that's exactly how they are being billed these days.  Chester Bennington is the lead singer for Linkin Park, by the way.

Then, I saw them on Leno.  I was watching with arms folded, in a typical, "Let's see how bad this is gonna suck" mind set.  And something weird happened.  I liked it a lot.  Yeah, the guy sounds like Weiland.  That's probably what they were going for.  I bought the Talk Show record.  It sucked.  I've heard the Weiland solo albums.  Wasn't crazy about them.  But this sounded good.  Really good.

Truth be told, I saw STP live while they were touring Tiny Music ... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop.  I didn't think the live show was anything to call home about.  But I've always liked their studio work.  So, after I saw what I thought was a pretty clean groove on Leno, I bought the EP, closed my eyes, and it felt like the 90s again (or early 2000's).

I've always thought of the vocals as another instrument anyway.  So STP has someone else providing them now.  It sounds pretty good ...

Today's newgazzi track of the day is "Black Heart" by Stone Temple Pilots (with Chester Bennington).