Stone Temple Pilots' 1994 album, Purple, turns 30 on June 7.
The follow-up to STP's 1992 debut, Core, spawned the singles "Big Empty," "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song," and is certified six-times Platinum by the RIAA.
Frontman Jeff Gutt, who joined STP in 2017 following the deaths of former lead singers Scott Weiland and Chester Bennington, remembers when he first heard Purple amid the shift that was happening in rock music during the early '90s.
"It kinda went from dressing like a professional wrestler and singing about girls to singing about things that were maybe darker ... or painful, or something just more real," Gutt tells ABC Audio. "I really gravitated towards that."
"It's weird, 'cause music's never changed like that, where it just completely changed overnight almost," he continues. "It was just a whole new wave of things that were happening. It was such an exciting time to be a part of as a fan."
Gutt was already a big fan of Core when Purple came out, and felt STP had reached new creative heights with their sophomore effort.
"I definitely remember when Purple came out and how different it was from Core, and I was really impressed by that," Gutt says. "'Cause you have success and there's always a lot of pressures from everywhere to just repeat that success, from outside. So I was really impressed by their ability to have success in a way that wasn't expected."
Stone Temple Pilots will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Purple on a U.S. summer tour, launching in August.