DeLeo with his custom fretted guitarron With a career that has accumulated many milestones and tremendous achievements in the span of almost four decades, Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo has just now notched off a new accomplishment at age 56. With the release of Lessons Learned, DeLeo marks his debut as a solo artist through the deeply personal and beautifully emotive album. Though taking the spotlight in this way is a first, songwriting is nothing new to the seasoned bassist, as he has always served as the principal writer for Stone Temple Pilots, alongside his guitarist brother Dean, drummer Eric Kertz, and the band’s latest singer, Jeff Gutt. Stylistically, the album differs greatly from his alternative-rock writing with STP, as energetic riffs, bold bass runs, and distorted lines are traded for warm acoustic tones, folk and roots influences, and at the heart of it all, simplicity. In 2020 Robert was faced with his longest stretch of downtime off the road since he first