Former X-Factor contestant and Michigan native Jeffrey Adam Gutt is heavily rumored to be the new vocalist for Stone Temple Pilots.

Stone Temple Pilots have been here once before, which takes a little bit of the heat off of them this time around. After years of turbulance and internal struggle, the band fired vocalist Scott Weiland in early 2013. While fans understood the move due to Weiland's increasingly unpredictable behavior, news that Linkin Park's Chester Bennington was set to replace him later that year was not met with a great deal of fanfare.

Their outing with Chester Bennington was by no means the disaster some fans feared it might be, but that journey ended in late 2015 when Bennington decided to part ways and focus on Linkin Park. Shortly after that announcement, Scott Weiland died while on tour with his solo project, devastating fans everywhere, and making a second STP reunion impossible.

Stone Temple Pilots announced their search for a new singer in February of this year, which is not an easy process... just ask Velvet Revolver, who have been intermittently (and unsuccessfully) seeking a worthy replacement for Scott Weiland for the last eight years. Several rumors have surfaced about certain vocalists being the frontrunner for the STP gig, but none were as widely reported as the most recent about former X Factor contestant Jeff Gutt.

Many outlets reported that Gutt had the job, based on an Entertainment Tonight "exclusive" that says he has been recording with the band and rehearsing for and upcoming tour. The, at the time, unconfirmed report, prompted the following response from the band's camp:

"The band has been rehearsing with several singers over the past few weeks. They haven’t made a decision yet.”

While it would seem nothing is official just yet, Gutt is obviously a guy they're considering or they would've ruled him out immediately. So, now the question is -- who is Jeff Gutt?

Jeffrey Adam Gutt is a 40-year-old that hails from St. Clair County, Michigan, and graduated from Marine City High School in 1994. He formerly fronted the nü metal band Dry Cell, and worked on a number of other projects. In 2013, he was a contestant on the American version of X-Factor, where he took second place on the strength of well received performances of Radiohead's 'Creep' and Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah.' He didn't cover any STP songs on the show, but that's not really the audience that would appreciate them either.

Check out some of his work below, and let us know if you think he has the chops to front STP in the comments.

Dry Cell -- Body Crumbles (Note: This is from 2002)

Jeff's Acoustic Cover of Plush (Live)

Jeff Performs 'Hallelujah' on 'The X Factor'

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