Thread: Stapp Confesses
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Old 01-12-2006, 02:13 PM   #2
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Re: Stapp Confesses

"It's funny," says Tremonti, "how many people come out of the woodwork after a relationship is severed and say how much they hated your singer. Every band that ever opened for us pretty much said, 'Yeah, that tour was great, we loved opening for you guys, but Scott never even looked at us.' The Mayfield Four opened for us on one tour. I was talking to their bass player after a show and Scott came over and asked him to get him a Coke. He thought he was catering."

By this point, the band was more popular -- and more of a target -- than ever. Rock stars who had themselves been the objects of derision were delighted by the appearance of a singer more hated than them, and quickly, somewhat pathetically, piled on: Fred Durst taunted Stapp at a 2000 concert and Dexter Holland of the Offspring began wearing an EVEN JESUS HATES CREED T-shirt.

"That drove them all insane," says Kelsey. "They really, really hated the fact that they were doing something they genuinely loved, yet they caught so much shit for it."

"I'd always said, 'I'm not going to be one of those arrogant, asshole lead-singer guys,'" says Stapp. "But I really let that media stuff affect me. I developed a bitterness, and then I would walk into interviews with a chip on my shoulder. And I started drinking like I never drank before. I might have come across as holier-than-thou, but I was really just a messed-up kid looking for answers who fell back on his faith. It all hurt me, though. I felt like I was the reason these guys' dream wasn't happening. I think their rock & roll dream got screwed over by my lyrics."

Things only got worse when it came time to tour for Weathered. Kelsey, who co-produced the album, says, "We'd have shows scheduled, and then suddenly we'd have a couple of weeks off instead. It was a get-Scott's-act-together kind of thing. I assume he was getting de-stressed-out."

Stapp insists his health problems were very real. When the tour finally resumed, he says he contracted pneumonia and had developed nodules on his vocal cords that could have ended his career. "I showed the band documented medical reports," Stapp says. "But they were being told other things by management, I think, to keep pressure on me to tour. Someone actually stood up at a meeting -- I'm not going to say who -- and said, 'I don't care. I've got an effing house and wedding to pay for.'"

Stapp was having anxiety attacks and had become increasingly isolated. He also alleges shady "rock doctors" were brought on the scene, improperly prescribing meds to keep the tour going. "According to three doctors I've seen since then," says Stapp, "I shouldn't be alive."

Things came to a head at the infamous Chicago show. Says Tremonti, "Fifteen minutes before we went onstage, I saw Scott, staggering, slurring his words. I looked behind him, and there's a bottle of Jack Daniel's, half-drunk. I didn't even look at him again until we were onstage, because I wanted to wring his neck. He got all the words wrong and walked offstage after five songs. I had to get on the mike and say, 'Sorry, I'll be right back.' Backstage, Scott is laying on the couch with his eyes closed. I said, 'What the hell are you doing?' He was like, 'Oh, I'm sorry, dude. I thought the show was over.'"

Upon returning to the stage, Stapp removed his shirt and shoes (but not his socks) and lay on his back. Says Kelsey, "At one point, he was walking backwards while singing and fell over a monitor. You could see his socks flapping in the air."

"He was singing the words of 'Arms Wide Open' to 'Higher,' and the words of 'Higher' to 'Arms Wide Open' -- two of our biggest songs!" says Tremonti. "I don't blame the crowd for being pissed. That was the most embarrassing hour-and-a-half of my life."

"My problems were not what ended Creed," Stapp insists. "Creed was ended by egos and people wanting to do their own thing and poor decision-making. You have family members whispering in people's ears, saying, 'You're not getting enough credit.' In every interview I did, I'd say, 'This is easy to do when you're playing with the best guitar player in the world.' I meant it. And I still think he's a genius. But Mark was never happy. He wanted to do his own thing."

Tremonti, who formed a new band, Alter Bridge, with the other members of Creed, says, "The only reason to do a fourth album would have been to be greedy. We got into this to make music we were proud of, not to be the laughingstock of the entire industry because of our singer. We wanted to help the guy. But we'd been through that game so many times; eventually, you know, you're not your brother's keeper. We had a hundred people in that organization that relied on us. After a while, it's like, 'Are we going to live our lives like this for one person?' Then you decide, 'OK, I'll remove the cancer.'"

After the band's collapse, Stapp checked himself into a rapid-detox facility near Laguna Beach, California, for an expensive, controversial procedure in which all opiates are supposedly drained from the patient's body within twenty-four hours. In 2004, he moved to a waterfront mansion in Miami Beach. "Essentially, I was retired," he says. "I'd fired anyone who was involved with Creed. I didn't want anything to do with the music business. The entire press and industry hated me, so what was the point?" Instead, Stapp coached his son's football team, read film scripts and, while hailing a cab in Manhattan, met his fiancee, Jaclyn Nesheiwat, a pretty Jordanian-American who was Miss New York in 2004.

He also managed to stay sober for a record seven months -- until he returned to the studio. Ironically, it was to record a song for a compilation inspired by The Passion of the Christ. "Demons reared their heads, in terms of partying," he says. "I didn't have any boundaries."

Today, the sober Stapp is friendly and humble. "I think everything worked out the way it was supposed to. Mark's happier. I'm sober. There are still phone calls to be made, people I need to say something to. But everyone from Creed who I've offended or hurt, I ask for their forgiveness."

After his wedding in February, Stapp will launch his first dry tour. (A sobriety coach will travel with him.) Though The Great Divide debuted at Number Nineteen, selling only 315,000 copies so far, Stapp says the album is doing great considering there has been very little promotion. He also says he could foresee a Creed reunion someday. Tremonti says fans shouldn't hold their breath. "I haven't listened to a Creed song in years," he confesses. "I can't stand it. I wouldn't want to play those songs again. It was a complete nightmare. When people from that era get together, it's like a convention of people who went through Nam."

Responds Stapp, "If he served, I served too. No one wins in a war."

the whoel thing was too long for one post.
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