STONE TEMPLE PILOTS begins the final week of its six-month-long reunion tour on Wednesday (October 22) in Hidalgo, Texas, with the trek wrapping up on October 31 in Pelham, Alabama. According to a posting on the band's web site, "Due to the unfortunate passing of his father, drummer Eric Kretz will be taking a brief leave of absence from the STONE TEMPLE PILOTS tour dates this week in Texas and at the Voodoo festival in New Orleans. Drummer Ray Luzier [KORN, ARMY OF ANYONE, DAVID LEE ROTH] will be filling in for Eric and will be performing with the band at these shows."

The affected dates are as follows:

Oct. 22 - Hidalgo, TX - Dodge Arena
Oct. 24 - New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Festival

Luzier previously played with guitarist Dean DeLeo and bassist Robert DeLeo of STONE TEMPLE PILOTS in the short-lived project ARMY OF ANYONE, which also featured FILTER frontman Richard Patrick. The group released a self-titled debut album in 2006 which debuted at position No. 56 on The Billboard 200 before quickly dropping off the chart.

Video footage of Ray Luzier's audition that landed him the job as the current touring drummer for KORN can be viewed below.

In a recent interview with The Pulse of Radio, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer Scott Weiland stated that he's not sure what will happen after the group's current trek wraps at the end of the month. "I don't know where things are gonna go with STP," he said. "It was sad to find out that we're still in some way locked in a contract with Atlantic Records, which is a travesty, actually. If it ends up being that we have to, you know, make a certain amount of records for Atlantic in order to be free, then I don't know if I have that in me."

Atlantic Records filed a lawsuit in June claiming that Weiland and STP drummer Eric Kretz had threatened to stop performing and wanted to terminate their contract with the label unless it was changed.

The band issued a response saying that it was "deeply disappointed" to see that the label had filed the "surprise lawsuit" during the middle of "what were believed to be cordial and positive discussions about STP returning to the studio to make a new album after five years."

Atlantic stated in the suit that it wanted the group to record up to three more albums.