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Old 12-14-2009, 12:41 AM   #206
Dark_Knight
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Re: The Official Creed Press/TV Thread

Thanks to PBF for finding this article.

http://www.torontosun.com/entertainm...43226-qmi.html

Quote: Following New Creed

Scott Stapp got straight, got sober, and then got his band back together for new album
Scott Stapp says he's come Full Circle, which is also the name of Creed's first album in eight years.

The singer of one of the most critically reviled if commercially successful rock bands of the last decade acrimoniously split from Creed in 2004 after a drug-and-alcohol-fuelled downward spiral.

Stapp's lowest moments read like a National Enquirer cover: He contemplated suicide in 2003; was involved in a Baltimore hotel bar brawl in 2005; had a near-death experience after accidentally falling four stories from a Miami hotel balcony in 2006; and he was charged with domestic battery against his wife in 2007, although charges were later dropped.

But Stapp, a Christian who says reading the Bible every day ultimately saved him, claims he's now a changed man.

"I think having the reality check of immortality and then having a strong woman in your life draw the line, I think the combination of that was the main thing," said the Florida native, 36, in Toronto recently.

Stapp says his problems began in 2002 during the last four months of Creed's tour for their third studio album, 2001's Weathered, when he was taking an anti-inflammatory steroid to treat injuries resulting from a car accident and calluses on his vocal chords.

"That was kind of the start of all of it for me because I was introduced to things that I didn't ever know about and one just complicated the other, in terms of chemicals in my body," said Stapp. "I wouldn't say I lost my mind but I wasn't myself. (I was) very isolated, depressed, stayed on my bus, began drinking all the time, because I was waking up with this massive anxiety, heart racing and stuff like that. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I didn't know what to do. One morning I was freaking out and sweating and there was a bottle of Jack (Daniels) on the bus counter, and I pounded it, and all of a sudden I calmed down."

Next thing Stapp knew he was drinking daily, putting booze in his coffee to counter the side effects of the drugs.

"It was mixing with the medication, and so after two or three drinks I would be just obliterated and making a fool out of myself and being mean. (The mixture) turned me into someone, that when I hear stories, I don't even know. To be honest with you, by the end, I was pretty much blacked out by noon really."

Stapp released a solo album in 2005, and then about a year and a half later he reached out to his Creed bandmates -- guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott Phillips and bassist Brian Marshall, who had formed Alter Bridge with singer-guitarist Myles Kennedy -- and apologized for his behaviour.

"Literally, within an hour and a half we're playing acoustic guitar, sharing ideas," said Stapp. "And I think that was kind of our way to handle probably any kind of fears or worries or nervousness. The way we've always communicated the best is through our music."

The group, who have sold 35 million albums worldwide and had such hits as With Arms Wide Open and My Sacrifice, played their only reunion show in Canada at a Toronto club back in late October.

That date followed a summer/fall reunion tour of amphitheatres and arenas in the U.S. which is documented in the group's first live DVD, out last week. Another spring tour is expected in 2010.

As for the critical reception to Full Circle, which debuted at No. 2 in the U.S. and No. 8 in Canada, Stapp said the group, often trashed as a poor man's Pearl Jam, felt it hadn't been so bad.

"It's really been a welcoming return," he said. "I think the whole band is a little surprised 'cause we kind of felt like we were sometimes jabbed at, back in the day. It just seemed a little too personal but I've learned to have thicker skin. But I've really felt like we're getting a second chance to make a first impression."

Scott Stapp makes a bald statement

What happened to Creed frontman Scott Stapp's trademark long locks?

Stapp said he impulsively shaved his head to prove to his wife that he was serious about staying clean and sober after a seriously rough five-year stretch of boozing and drugs.

"I said, 'What can I do to let her see what I'm becoming and not who I used to be,' " Stapp said.

"Every day, my hair, everything, the way I look, is a reminder to her of someone that was so great to her at one point in time but then hurt her because of abusing alcohol. And I was like, 'Baby, I'm shaving it off.'"

At first, Stapp's wife -- former beauty queen Jaclyn Nesheiwat -- was less than thrilled by the gesture.

"I go into the bathroom and 'I'm like, 'Where are my buzz clippers?' And she's like, 'Don't do that!' I think it kind of scared her. But I was just so adamant about it.

"And I remember just mowing it off and then taking like a deep breath and looking at myself and I'm thinking in my mind, 'Gosh, I feel lighter. I just feel like two thousand pounds came off my back.' And while I was shaving it, I almost felt like I was going to war or something. And then I got a little emotional."

Thankfully, Stapp's 11-year-old son Jagger provided some much-needed levity.

"My son comes in and goes, 'Dad, at least you don't have a mis-shaped head.'"
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