STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Play Rare Acoustic Concert For Charity In Norwood, Massachusetts (Video)

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS played a rare acoustic concert last night (Friday, December 14) at the Norwood Space Center in Norwood, Massachusetts. Fan-filmed video footage of the show can be seen below (courtesy of YouTube users “jimmy shine” and “shawnbrennan1”).

All proceeds from the evening benefited Music Drives Us, a charity founded by Ernie Boch, Jr. 13 years ago.

Money raised by Music Drives Us is earmarked for music and art education in the six New England states.

Boch told Business Jet Traveler about his decision to launch Music Drives Us: “Studies show that if kids take music when they’re young, it makes them more communicative, less violent, better at math, better at learning a second language, and socially more astute. Music can literally rewire the brain. Because of all the budget cuts and all the economic stress on towns, school systems have suffered. The first thing that goes is the music program, so I created a foundation to try and keep music in the schools.”

STP‘s self-titled seventh studio effort was released in March and is the band’s first with new singer Jeff Gutt.

Gutt made his live debut with the band in November 2017 in Los Angeles.

Asked how much freedom he had during the songwriting process for STONE TEMPLE PILOTS‘ new album, Jeff told WGRD: “It was full freedom, but I felt the responsibility of making sure it was an STP record at the end of the day. ‘Cause my whole thing was helping them continue their journey. And I feel like it was less about me; it was more about honoring [late STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer] Scott [Weiland] and honoring [late STONE TEMPLE PILOTS and LINKIN PARK singer] Chester [Bennington] and everyone that has ever been involved in STP and making sure that it just kept going the way it should.”