Stone Temple Pilots bring rock ‘n’ roll to event benefiting behavioral health

Iconic rock band Stone Temple Pilots are coming to Spokane on Friday to headline the annual Heart Strings fundraiser for the MultiCare Inland Northwest Foundation, injecting a bit of rock and roll into the effort to raise money for behavioral health programs.

Heart Strings will begin at 8 p.m. Friday at the McCarthy Athletic Center on the Gonzaga University campus. Tickets start at $50 and are available online at www.multicareheartstrings.org. A VIP dinner scheduled before the concert is sold out.

Stone Temple Pilots lead singer Jeff Gutt said the band is looking forward to being on stage in Spokane after taking a few months off early this year. As a longtime supporter of suicide prevention initiatives, Gutt said he’s pleased that the concert is raising money for behavioral health.

The band came onto the music scene in 1989 and their first album, “Core,” was released in 1992. The band had two lead singers before Gutt signed on in late 2017. Gutt acknowledges that he had big shoes to fill.

“I just wear two pairs of socks,” he said. “It helps.”

Gutt said he has loved his time with Stone Temple Pilots, whose first album convinced him to put down his guitar and focus on his singing when he was 16. He said he’s still in awe about being able to work with guitarist Dean DeLeo, bassist Robert DeLeo and drummer Eric Kretz.

“It’s crazy to be in that position, to write and do things with guys who were basically my heroes when I was younger,” he said. “They’re great guys and I’m definitely privileged to work with them.”

Gutt said he has problems picking his favorite song to sing.

“It changes all the time,” he said. “I really love the stuff off their first record. That was when I was learning how to sing.”

People can expect to hear a mix of songs going back to the band’s first album during their Heart Strings performance, Gutt said.

“There’s songs on there that people love that I grew up listening to,” he said.

The Heart Strings event began in 2019 and benefits a different aspect of health care each year. Carolyn Kadyk, executive director of the foundation, said the foundation wanted to do something a little different as its signature fundraising event. Heart Strings was designed to be like a songwriter’s event, with four to five musicians playing acoustic versions of their music and then talking about the songs they wrote.

“It’s a pretty magical, intimate experience,” Kadyk said.

This year’s concert will include that type of songwriting event in addition to the headline performance by Stone Temple Pilots.

“This year is our biggest yearly event,” she said. “We’re rocking the Kennel with a full band, but we wanted to keep the songwriters round.”

Award-winning musician and songwriter Bryan White has been participating in Heart Strings since it was launched. White said he was booked for the event, and expected it to be like any other event where he would show up, play and then move on. Then he became friends with Kadyk backstage that first year and his involvement continued.

“We found some common ground backstage during the show,” he said. “I just became invested in the cause. I didn’t anticipate being so involved and here we are five years later.”

White, a contemporary country singer, grew up in Oklahoma to parents who were musicians. He was initially drawn to country music and his inspirations include Steve Warner, Vince Gill and Ronnie Millsap. But he was also exposed to soul, pop and other genres of music.

“I kind of had a wide, eclectic sound in my house growing up,” he said. “I guess I’m a hodgepodge of all those things.”

White said he doesn’t know which of his songs, six of which hit No. 1 on the charts, he will highlight during Heart Strings.

“I have no idea,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t know until I’m literally stepping on stage.”

In years past, the fundraiser has helped pay for a neonatal intensive care unit and programs at the Pulse Heart Institute. The last time Heart Strings raised money for behavioral health, in 2021, the money was used to help open the MultiCare Behavioral Health Clinic in Hillyard, which opened in 2023.

The money raised this year will also go toward behavioral health programs, but Kadyk said nothing is set in stone.

“This year the most urgent need is expansion of our mental health programs,” she said. “We have some thoughts and plans internally that we’ve been discussing with partners to address gaps.”

Kadyk said she hopes the greater visibility that the Stone Temple Pilots will bring to Heart Strings will help pass on the message that it’s OK to not be OK and seek assistance with mental health.

“We wanted to have a space to have that important conversation,” she said. “We wanted to reach more people with that message.”