Robert Emile DeLeo (born February 2, 1966) is an American musician, best known as the bassist for rock band Stone Temple Pilots. He is part of Delta Deep and he has also played in Talk Show and Army of Anyone. He is the younger brother of Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo. He is also the former bass player for the supergroup Hollywood Vampires.
In 1985, Scott Weiland and his friends in their band Soi Disant – guitarist Corey Hicock and drummer David Allin – first encountered Deleo playing live at various gigs, deciding to track him down after witnessing his shows.[3] Their newly formed band, who would eventually be joined by Eric Kretz and Robert's young brother Dean played many gigs in Los Angeles bars, and were eventually signed onto Atlantic Records in 1992. However, the name "Mighty Joe Young" had already been taken, so the band was forced to change their name and tossed around ideas like "Shirley Temple's Pussy" and "Sticky Toilet Paper" before changing it to "Stone Temple Pilots", which, according to Weiland, has no specific meaning, other than that it retained the STP initials.
During their years of greatest success in the 1990s, Stone Temple Pilots came to be one of the most successful bands of the decade. DeLeo is credited with much of the band's music, including the famous intros for the songs "Plush" and "Interstate Love Song". Although sales of their records exceeded over 30 million, the band disbanded due to Weiland's ongoing problems with drug abuse.
Stone Temple Pilots reunited in early 2008 and released their eponymous sixth studio album on May 25, 2010. On October 8, 2013, they released an EP entitled High Rise with new lead singer Chester Bennington of Linkin Park fame.
Later collaborations, 1997–present
During Stone Temple Pilots' hiatus in 1997 due to Weiland's run-ins with the law, DeLeo, his brother Dean, and Kretz joined with singer Dave Coutts of Ten Inch Men and formed Talk Show. Released in 1997 on Atlantic Records, their eponymous debut album peaked at #131 on the Billboard 200 and was considered a commercial flop.[4] Coutts was eventually fired and the band disbanded. Weiland went into rehab and released a solo album during this time.
After Stone Temple Pilots' break-up in 2003, DeLeo and his brother Dean joined Filter frontman Richard Patrick and drummer Ray Luzier to form the band Army of Anyone. The group met after Patrick contacted the DeLeos about writing material for Filter's fourth album. The band eventually called in Luzier in for an audition, found the formula worked, and the band was formed. The band's self-titled debut album was released in November 2006. The album became a critical success; some went as far to label the album as one of the best of the year. DeLeo summed up his sound on the album as follows;
I kind of combined bass stuff with some guitar stuff to achieve my sound—I've really been going nuts on eBay! I'm still trying to achieve this one bass sound I keep hearing in my head—kind of taking [Motown legend] James Jamerson's feel and mixing that with John Entwistle's or Chris Squire's sound. So it's a funky bottom, with a really aggressive top. The sound on this record is the closest I've gotten to that.[5]
However, Army of Anyone ended up going on "indefinite hiatus" in 2007 after low album sales and Patrick's return to Filter.
In 2007, DeLeo played bass on songs for Japanese rock band B'z, including two on their album Action. He also contributes bass to five songs on their 2019 album New Love, including "Rain & Dream" which also features Joe Perry.[6]
On September 29, 2022, DeLeo announced his debut solo album Lessons Learned and released its lead single "Love is Not Made of Gold", featuring Jimmy Gnecco, the same day.[7]
DeLeo is a former employee of Schecter Guitar Research and built the prototype of what later became his signature model while working there. The Schecter Model T was his primary live instrument during his years with Stone Temple Pilots. The basses original configuration featured a 34" scale neck and Seymour Duncan pickups in a "P/J" configuration. Schecter has since marketed several variants of this theme, including a 5-string model with a 35" scale length, and models with pickups from different manufacturers.[8]
Although he primarily uses the Schecter bass live, for recording purposes he has used a wide variety of basses, and has a fondness for oddball off-brand basses from the 1960s, particularly short-scale hollowbody basses which he strung with flat wound strings.[9] In Army of Anyone's "Goodbye" video, he played a Rickenbacker bass.
Stone Temple Pilots' debut album Core was recorded with a Jazz-type bass prototype version of his Schecter Model-T bass, a G&L L2000, and an Ampeg SVT amplifier with an 8x10 cabinet. Purple, their second album, was recorded with his live rig.[9] DeLeo's usual studio rig for most of Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop, all of No. 4, and all of Shangri-La Dee Da, all by Stone Temple Pilots, was more complicated; he split his signal, bi-amping it to a '67 50-watt Marshall Plexi guitar head with '69 Marshall keyboard 8x10 cabinet, and a '59 Fender Bassman amplifier with a custom 1x15 cabinet. This configuration, which DeLeo noted in a Bass Player Magazine article as being an idea he lifted from Chris Squire of Yes, allowed him to use distorted and clean sounds simultaneously and produce more workable sounds on tape by blending the signals to taste.[9]
^McKeon, Therese. "Flying High", BelowEmpty.com, August 21, 2000. "Robert DeLeo: 98! Actually we were born in Montclair but we grew up down in Point Pleasant Beach – down at the shore (Robert pronounces it 'shaw' in his best New Jersey accent)."
^Voger, Mark. "The Shore roots of Stone Temple Pilots", Asbury Park Press, October 6, 2002. Accessed February 13, 2021. "The DeLeo brothers .- guitarist Dean DeLeo and bassist Robert DeLeo - grew up at the Jersey Shore and played all over the area in their earliest bands. Bassist Robert - a member of the class of 1984 at Point Pleasant Boro High School (and onetime regular reader of the Asbury Park Press) - was born in Montclair and grew up in Point Pleasant Beach."
^Weiland, Scott (2011). Not Dead & Not for Sale: A Memoir. Scribner. ISBN978-0743297165.
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