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Kerrang Interview
As typed up by Glen5MD and posted at AlterBridgeBand.net:
On december 29th, 2002, Creed's Scott Stapp stepped out onstage in front of 15,000 people at Chicago's Allstate Arena and promptly sank to the floor, where he remained for the next hour. Shortly afterwards, four horrified punters attempted to sue the band for damages, telling Cook County Court that the frontman of America's most successful band had spent the gig "rolling around in apparent pain or distress, so intoxicated and/or medicated that he was unable to sing the lyrics of a single song". It was at that point that Creed's guitarist Mark Tremonti, whose entire family had been at the show, decided he'd had just about enough of "Scott F*&%i*@ Stapp". "He just became impossible on that last tour," shudders the guitarist, who's sitting with his new band Alter Bridge-namely former Creed cohorts Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips, plus a new singer, Myles Kennedy-in a darkened corner upstairs at London's Mean Fiddler. "He couldn't manage his moods. He was the hardest guy in the world to get along with. We'd built up this massive amount of success and we were watching someone day by day pull the bricks off. It's not something I'd want to deal again. Ever." Hence Alter Bridge-the magic combination of Creed's powerful, rumbling dynamics, and the sudden knack of writing great, classic rock songs with massive choruses and Kennedy's Chris Cornell-esque vocals...but crucially, minus the preaching of yore that irked so many. Ah, yes. The preaching. It seems to have irked Alter Bridge's ex-Creed contingent somewhat, too-especially as it may not have been backed up by his actions... Stapp claims his behaviour that night was brought on by prescription anti-inflammatory drugs. Is that true? Or was it something stronger? There's a long silence. The band exchange glances. Mark: "You know, what happens behind closed doors...(long sigh) All I know is that, when you see someone acting like that, you know they're not acting like a normal person. He says the thing in Chicago was a combination of his medication and a shot of Jack Daniel's, but...With Scott you never knew if what he was saying contained an element of truth, or if it was just a bare-faced lie." At this point bassist Brian Marshall enters the conversation for the first time. He looks Kerrang! squarely in the eye. "Scott Stapp," he spits, "is a pathological f*&%i*@ liar." If ever there was a band with an image problem, it was Creed. Their bombastic post-grunge anthems helped them shift 30 million albums in less than six years-an astonishing feat. Yet Stapp's fondness for Christ-like poses and spiritual subject matter led them to being pigeonholed as a Christian rock band. In the conservative heartland of Middle America, that was an invaluable marketing tool. Everywhere else, it just made them a laughing stock. Thing is, lots of bands find themselves as critical pariahs-Nickelback, Alien Ant Farm-but the venom reserved for Creed, in particular Scott Stapp, was something else. This was a real, passionately-felt loathing that even mainstream, non-rocking America joined up for:American alt-comedian Patton Oswalt used to do a routine about his vision of heaven. It involved eating at his favourite restaurant-and every time he took a bite, Scott Stapp got punched in the face. Rock fans were in agreement:the guy was a tool. Turns out the rest of Creed thought so too. Mark:"He had this personality where he'd want to rule the room. We tried to deal with it for years, but it just got worse. He didn't even like music. He used to yell at us for listening to CD's on the bus because he said music was supposed to be our job, not our hobby!" "There was a genuine dislike for Scott Stapp," nods brian. "And we all took the brunt of it for years." Mark:"We were always having to defend him. We had to keep saying, 'No, he's not really like that'. It got to the point where you just couldn't defend him anymore. He had issues with so many people-our management, our label, everyone. You couldn't talk to certain people because Scott had an issue with them. It wasn't just friends either. Even my family got involved. When that happened, it was just like...that's it. You can't go there." He doesn't sound like much of a Christian. "Well the whole Christian thing was an assumtion people made. It was just that Scott wrote the lyrics, and he mainly wrote about Biblical things. So people thought (adopts dumb redneck voice), 'If he's referring to Gabriel in one of his songs he must be a good ol 'Church boy'. But what happens when you go to bars and get in fights, you know? All that stuff was swept under the rug." Yet you wrote all the songs together. You must have had some kind of chemistry. "We hadn't been a team for a long time. We met up for three weeks to write (Creed's final album) 'Weathered'. And that was the only time we wrote together in five years. It was impossible because he never came to soundchecks. Yet he would take credit for music that I had written. and too see credits go to someone who doesn't put in a hundredth of the effort you do...it's very irritating." So who ended it? You or him? Mark:"Scott's very good at trashing you to other people and then letting it get back to you. I heard this same thing that he'd said from four different people, so i was like, 'Look, this is over. I can't deal with you anymore'. He called me a few months later and wanted to get together and write. I told him I had a new band and that Creed was over. That was October 2003. I haven't spoken to him since." Before they could become Alter Bridge, Tremonti and Drummer Scott Phillips first of all had to mend relations with bassist Brian, who actually hadn't been a member of the band since 2001. He'd been booted out by Stapp and forbidden to have any contact with his former colleagues. In fact, Alter Bridge's debut rehearsal was the first time Tremonti and Phillips had been in the same room as their old best friend for nearly three years. Brian is reluctant to discuss his sacking. But it's clear from the way he speaks that there were some truly dark things going on. "There was a long history of Scott and I not seeing eye-to-eye. It just built up and built up. It was unbearable. For me, I had a lot of personal issues at the time." Scott once told MTV:"Brian left the band because if he didn't I don't know if he'd be here right now on this earth". What do you think he meant by that? "I think he's referring to my mental state. I was dealing with a lot. Your talking about drugs, right? Long pause. "I was doing things out on the road I probably shouldn't have done. I was no angel out there, thats for sure." He looks up. "But you know what? Scott wasn't the angel he claimed to be either." Later that night, after an ecstactically received end-of-tour show-and one that suggests Alter Bridge are twice the their former incarnation was-there is the kind of ecstatic joy that comes with relief. There's the feeling that they're finally free. Meanwhile, Mark and Brian are at the bar, buying people drinks and regaling Kerrang! with more-sadly unprintable- Creed stories. "It's like when old prison mates or war vets get together and talk about the old times," explains Mark. "When you watch someone like that throw away all that you've worked for...it was just hell." "But it's funny," he continues, signalling to the barman for another round. "As much as we want to leave all this in the past, it feels almost therapeutic to get it out."
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#2 |
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Is it just me or do they seem to be more anti-creed with every interveiw, I mean im not stapps biggest fan but its getting really blown up in my mind. Either they are just now opening up or they are having fun with this and saying its a little more than it was, or maybe mark shouldnt have reached for the last drink, maybe him and the other guys were a little "loose?".
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#3 |
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I was just about to post that! I, for one, am sick of all the Stapp bashing and anti-Creed stuff that Mark is spewing out in each interview. It's like, enough already. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Mark's, a fan of Scott's and a fan of Philips, but I'm tired of this. We get it, Mark, you're upset with what happened during the Creed days. You don't like Stapp. You've said that in numerous interviews. You've gotten that point across. Now enough already. Stop the Stapp bashing. Remember that saying:if you don't have anything nice to say about a person, don't say anything at all. Mark, judging by this interview, doesn't have anything nice to say about Stapp. So why say anything, Mark? Why not just say "I've already made my opinion of Stapp clear, lets talk about something else." For me, everytime I hear how "terrible" Stapp was during the Creed days(according to Mark, Brian and Flip) it's like it opens old wounds. Right now I'm not thrilled, as a fan, to hear what Mark is saying in these interviews. The only guy, in my opinion, that seems to be handling the interviews well is Stapp.(shocker considering he's such a bad guy) I can say this:at least Stapp is TRYING to put a positive perspective on the whole thing, while Mark and Flip are just being negative in every interview. Kinda annoys me as a fan, but whatever. That's my opinion of it.
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i dont think its Stapp bashing, and I dont think its anti-Creed, or Mark wouldn't be in a band with Flip and Marshall.
Theyre just starting to answer questions about what happened, instead of remaining silent. Apparantly, as Mark said, its therapuetic. Everything they say has some basis in fact, I dunno bout Marshall's pathological liar statement, but then again, I dont know Stapp....
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#5 |
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At first, I didn't have a problem with Mark talking so openly about Stapp. But now that he's only gotten more negative in his comments, it's kinda annoying to me. Like I said, we get that Mark doesn't like Scott anymore. So why does Mark continue to say the same thing, wording it more negatively each time? If it's because he's continually asked about it, he could always say "I've already made my thoughts about Stapp clear and I'd like to move on and stop talking about it" I wouldn't mind seeing that answer for once, or even him saying something POSITIVE about Stapp. That'd be a breath of fresh air if he actually said something positive about Stapp, or stopped talking about Stapp in interviews all together. Again, don't take this as me bashing Mark. I'm a fan of his. But I just don't like seeing all this division, all this Stapp bashing. Likewise, I don't like seeing any Tremonti bashing that goes on at Stapp boards.
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#6 |
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like ive posted before as well, its not stapp bashing if its true, true events that actually happened.....
and what has tremonti done to deserve bashing? it bothers me, because it seems people want equal treatment for two very different people the most interesting part of the article i found was that he said he hadnt spoken to him since 10-2003......
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#7 |
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I really don't know what to say. I've Creed has been my favorite band since the first time I hear My Own Prison. When they split up, It bothered me as much as it did the rest of you. We don't know what really went on behind closed doors, but it seems as if it is three guys from Creed with the same story, and Stapp still acting as if he is an angel or something. I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle of what both sides are saying.
I agree with fluttergirl that it isn't Stapp-bashing, because Mark, Flip, and Brian are among the handful of people that know the actual truth about what went on behind the scenes of Creed. If all that they said about Stapp in this interview is true, I couldn't blame them for having to vent. If it Scott was that bad, then It would kill me inside to have to cover it up to say that it was just creative differences. Stapp has remained rather silent on the matter of the breakup. Apparently he doesn't feel that he needs to go public to defend himself, or to give his side of the story. Either way, I could care less about what has happened. Sure I'm curious to find out what truely caused the breakup. However, the music is what is imporant to me, not the musician's personal lives. Even if I can't respect a man for what he has done with his life, I can respect his music. Do people not respect Curt Cobain's music because he was addicted to drugs? |
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#8 |
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I know. Hasn't he said before that the last time he spoke to Stapp was February of 2004? Or was that Stapp saying it.
I believe that some of what Tremonti says is true. But I also believe some of it is false. Same with Stapp. Like I've said in the past, we don't know Stapp or Tremonti. So we really can't judge what went on. I just don't believe Stapp was this awful person Mark seems to make him out to be. Hearing Mark say negative thing after negative thing about Mark kinda hurts me as a fan of Creed. You don't like seeing this happen to one of your favorite bands, you don't like seeing the members bashing each other. I just wish Mark would be a bit more positive about Creed and Stapp. It just seems like he's being way too negative about the whole thing. And I can already see Stapp-only fans bashing Tremonti after reading this interview. That would be what would warrant the bashing I mentioned. I'm not justifying it, just saying Mark's negative comments about Stapp would warrant Mark bashing. Just as Mark's negative comments in previous interviews have warranted Mark bashing among the Stapp-only fans.
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#9 |
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Stapp has talked about the breakup! Have you heard/read any of his interviews? He's talked many times and hasn't really said a single negative thing about Mark, Brian or Flip.
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#10 |
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thats my point, dear, whats there to say?
that theyre work aholics, love what they do, and fully appreciate their fans?
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#11 |
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Yup, I agree, I think that they all care about their fans(Scott included), love what they do and work hard. Maybe Stapp doesn't put in as many hours as Mark does, but I attribute that to him being a single father and really caring about his son.
But you're right, there's not really much else you can say about the whole Creed thing.
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#12 |
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remember this also was kerrang...the anti-stapp anti-creed headquarters of america...how much of this article stretched and manipulated what the guys said to make it sound more to their style?
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#13 |
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Exactly! Every single AB-related article I've read has been anti-Stapp in some way or another. It isn't Mark's or Brian's fault. It's just the way these things have been written. The problem is that at this point in Alter Bridge's career, there really is nothing else to talk about. The interviewers just keep asking the same thing. And don't expect Mark and the others to back down and remain tight-lipped about what went on. No matter how courteous one thinks they should be regarding the matter, it seems like they've already done that throughout Creed's career. It's time for them to get this crap off their chest. The simple fact is that everyone wants to know what the hell happened. Everyone's just going to have give it time before no one really cares anymore what the deal between them was. |
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#14 |
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lol
isnt kerrang british? ![]()
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#15 |
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When his three former bandmates publically trash him in such a manner its clear there is a reason so many Creed fans no longer respect him, me included.
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