Stone Temple Pilots recently revealed that they’d found their new singer and had started work on new music – but the band have shouted down the claims of individuals who say they’re the chosen artist.

Guitarist Dean DeLeo and bassist Robert DeLeo revealed in a new interview that they’d received 15,000 applications for the job, which has been vacant since the late Chester Bennington left in 2015, following the firing of the late Scott Weiland in 2013.

Blabbermouth reported that online speculation included The X Factor competitor Jeff Gutt, who was rumoured to have rehearsed with the band last year, and John Borja, who’d hinted that he was the new man.

But Robert told Seattle's Rock 98.9 (audio below) that it was “rubbish, rubbish, all rubbish” while Dean added: “It’s been an opportunity for some people to really do some inappropriate self-promotion, is what I should say – and that’s really kind of out of line.”

Confirming that they’d heard the rumours, Robert went on to recount a conversation with tennis icon John McEnroe, whom he met at a Royal Blood concert. “McEnroe goes, ‘Hey man, you didn’t hire that Filipino guy [Borja], did you?’ I go, ‘No, we did not, John.’”

STP recently released an expanded edition of debut album Core, to mark its 25th anniversary. “Things are going really well,” Dean said. “A lot going on right now, a lot of looking back, a lot of thinking about ones who aren’t here any more. It’s been interesting looking back at 25 years, in the midst of looking forward.

“You ultimately want the four members of the band who originally made this record to be here to enjoy it and share in those times that we had back then. Unfortunately Scott isn’t here [but] we did as much as we could to make his memory the best we could.”

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