@skunkyfunk That's the point I was making -- I don't think John Borja or Jeff Gutt are guilty of "inappropriate self-promotion."
@TheWaterThatYouLeave That would make a lot more sense if the "inappropriate self-promotion" comment was about Scott Stapp. I don't know though, because they said it while discussing Borja and Gutt. (Even though they didn't name them specifically, we all know they are the "guy who was on American Idol or something" and the "Filipino guy.") It's possible that was directed towards Stapp though. It would make me feel a bit better about the whole thing.
I don't know anything beyond what's discussed here, but my theory is that they were maybe very close to choosing a guy and changed course. I think it's also possible this happened more than once. Some candidates, like Einar Vilberg, have come out and explained how they auditioned but were told they didn't make the cut, while others, like Borja and Gutt, haven't.
This could mean a few things:
- Those candidates were told they didn't make the cut yet kept this hidden and continued to milk the situation for self-promotion. (Not likely, because I haven't seen anything from Borja or Gutt that indicates they have really done this.)
- Those candidates were not told they didn't make the cut, because STP chose to pursue other candidates but wanted to keep these guys around just in case they didn't find anyone they liked more.
- Those candidates were told they didn't make the cut but, unlike Vilberg, were told not to tell anyone they didn’t (per NDA), so as not to give any hints to the people following this as to who they had chosen. (Possible, but while we know the candidates signed NDAs, I don't think the STP camp has the foresight to try to control this sort of thing.)
I think the second option is most likely. STP wanted to keep trying other guy(s), but didn't want to say no to these guys, because they didn't want them to suddenly become unavailable had it not worked out with anyone new.
It's also possible they had a situation similar to Scott and VR, where after they had spent a good amount of time auditioning singers and not finding anyone they were totally in love with, someone like Pete Murray suddenly became available, who they felt was a great fit. Maybe someone like Murray had been on their radar all along but was not ready to take the plunge earlier on. So they did the singer search, but their heart was always with someone else.
Or maybe they originally had someone like Murray ready to go before the singer search, but they were not totally in love with him, so they did the singer search to see if they could find anyone better, and when they didn't, they fell back on their original pick.