PITTSBURGH — SAVNT took on a self-improvement program called the 75 Hard Challenge and ended up in a stadium opening for The Rolling Stones.

OK, there were a few steps in between for the singer of Ghost Hounds — a bluesy rock band formed by a Pittsburgh billionaire — but not that many in the grand scheme of things.

Before this wild trip, the 29-year-old SAVNT (Born Stephan Marcellus in New Jersey) was a contestant on “The Voice” in 2011 who went on to record a few EPs.

In 2023, he took on the 75 Hard Challenge, a rigorous health program that calls for two 45-minute workouts per day (inside and outside), a strict diet plan, a gallon of water, 10 pages of inspirational reading and zero alcohol.

“If you miss one day,” he says, “you have to start completely over.”

Part of being in this “super-intense mindset” was putting his best-case scenario outcome down on paper.

“Because I'm like, a little bit extra,” he says, “instead of doing it just one day, I wrote it down every night for like 90 days. And so I would put ‘Stephan is grateful that he starts his full-time career in music on January 1, 2024.’ And I kid you not, that is exactly what happened.”

On that New Year’s Day, he flew to Pittsburgh for an audition to replace Tre’ Nation as the lead singer of Ghost Hounds, formed in 2019 by guitarist and songwriter Thomas Tull, who’s also a movie producer and part owner of the Steelers.

The opportunity arose when Nation, who had just departed the band, saw SAVNT at a Sofar Sounds gig in Brooklyn in December 2023.

“I was doing my last show in New York before I was moving to Denver with my fiance,” SAVNT says. “They invite a whole bunch of people out and you just sing. And so I got there; I felt completely unprepared. It was raining like crazy. Everyone missed soundcheck. It was a terrible day, OK? I was like, ‘Just get up and sing, that's all they're asking me to do.’ So I did that and me and my guitarist, we absolutely killed it.”

Nation came up and congratulated him on the performance.

“Next thing I know, a day later, I'm getting reached out to by the band,” SAVNT says. “Tre’ was the one who alley-ooped me. He installed me. He was like, ‘You guys need this guy. He's amazing.’ So, I was brought into the band, and with nothing but love from the previous singer, which was amazing.”

SAVNT auditioned first with keyboardist Joe Munroe and when he hooked up with the band, “the chemistry was immediate,” he says. “We rehearsed, sun up to sundown.”

In February 2024, he debuted with Ghost Hounds at the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks.

A month later, they opened for Luke Bryan at the American Rodeo in Houston and then played three stadium dates with the Stones — Tull’s biggest influence — in June and July.

“That was my first time doing a stadium,” he says, “and that was insane because that was the first time, during soundcheck, that I was able to hear myself in a room that big. And I was like, ‘Yeah, this is I want to do this for the rest of my life.’ ”

The Stones’ energy, he says, “was insane.”

Not only did he meet the band, but they also dropped a live clip of Ghost Hounds on their Instagram.

In August, the members of Ghost Hounds settled into its suburban cabin to begin work on the band’s newly released fifth album, “Almost Home.”

Now, the label of “seven-piece, country-rock ensemble” is being tossed around to describe Ghost Hounds based on the record adding more Southern twang to the band’s heavy, churning guitar-driven sound. Nation was right about SAVNT, who fits in seamlessly and displays stunning passion and range with his soulful, smoky voice on an album with a rich narrative flow.

“I sit down with him and really listen to his words, and the way that Thomas writes is very much like a story,” SAVNT says. “So he knows exactly what this guy had for breakfast, when he goes to work, things like that. And I get to take on that character and become a conduit for those words. That's what makes me build-in different dynamics for the songs. I'm trying to figure out, ‘OK, what does this guy want to say and how does he get it out?’

“What I received is that this is a story of a relationship, from ‘She Runs Hot,’ about the chaotic butterflies feeling that you get, to ‘House a Home,’ where you're building this home together, to ‘Before You Leave,’ where it's about to collapse past the point of rescue — and then something like ‘You'll Never Find Me,’ which is kind of just setting it all on fire.”

Speaking of fire, he generates a lot of that on “Before You Leave” with country sensation Lainey Wilson, who popped into the studio the day after playing a show in Pittsburgh.

“She is a complete sweetheart,” SAVNT says. “She would sing something and we would go back and forth. It was a really cool collaborative space and it just felt really open, like two artists having fun.”

Patty Griffin, whose most high-profile duet was with former partner Robert Plant, sent her vocal in for closing track “Long Ride Home” and “it was perfect,” he notes.

Throughout the process, the singer has enjoyed getting to know Pittsburgh for the first time.

“I actually love the city,” he says. “I always describe it as like, there's just random castles everywhere, which I think is dope.”

Castles?

“Yeah, I went on a walk with somebody, and there was actually, like, a castle, like a fort. And then there’s that glass building that you guys have that looks like an actual castle. For a sci-fi kid like me, I love it.”

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