Scott's new Creed

Calgary Sun, March 30 2006

Stapp attempting to be a better man

His first solo album may be called The Great Divide, but these aren't exactly great times for Scott Stapp.

The former Creed frontman has been making plenty of headlines since his album's November release, but few of them have had anything to do with the music.

On U.S. Thanksgiving, Stapp got into a fight with the band 311, leading to that group's S.A. Martinez suffering a broken wrist. In December, Stapp showed up drunk for an appearance on Spike TV's Casino Cinema, and shortly afterward went in for a stint in rehab.

On Feb. 11, the day after his wedding to former Miss New York Jacklyn Nesheiwat, Stapp was arrested for public drunkenness at the L.A. airport, though ultimately no charges were filed. A couple of days later the honeymoon was further disrupted by the release of an explicit 1999 video showing Stapp and Kid Rock engaging in sexual acts with four women. The two singers are waging a court fight to keep the video from being sold.

"I can understand how people are like, 'Whoa, what's up with this guy?' " says Stapp, 32, who has a seven-year-old son, Jagger, from his first marriage. "I made a couple bonehead mistakes, man. That's what they were, just some stupid mistakes I wish I could have back.

"But all I can do is keep moving forward."

He is irked by the release of the video, however, calling it an "evil" attempt by someone wishing to sabotage his new marriage.

"I'm going to find out who they are and I'm going to nail their (butt) to the wall -- legally," Stapp says. "You can write that down."

The recent incidents are dramatic turns in a life that has cascaded from multiplatinum highs to disheartening lows, leaving Stapp both loved and lampooned.

"I never claimed to be anything but a normal guy who makes mistakes like everybody else," he says. "I'm in the middle of that great divide, and I'm trying to make the right choices. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, and I've got to pick myself up when I don't and move on."

Stapp was born in Florida as Anthony Scott Flippen and was raised in a strict Pentecostal family with a minister/dentist father who barred his son from rock 'n' roll. The future musician left home at 17 and began drinking, drugging and singing, eventually forming Creed with guitarist Mark Tremonti, a classmate.

The band's debut album, My Own Prison (1997), was made for only $6,000 US but went five times platinum. Human Clay (1999) sold twice as many copies and hit No. 1, thanks to the Top 10 hit Higher and With Arms Wide Open, which Stapp wrote after learning his wife was pregnant.

Dark times loomed, though. Stapp's first marriage broke down and his substance abuse became worse. There was also controversy about his lyrics and the extent to which they reflected his religious beliefs, something that was uncommon in mainstream hard rock.

"I think I've been misunderstood about that my entire career," Stapp says. "I write about what I want to be, not what I am. I don't preach. With this spiritual struggle I've been going through since I was nine years old, that takes shape in some of my songs, but it's never meant to say, 'Hey, this is the way you should be.' "

Things became even more chaotic during the tour to promote Weathered (2001) and Creed disbanded at the beginning of 2004.

"Personal differences outweighed our progress in the band," Tremonti says in a separate interview. "I don't want to point any fingers. People just had different views."

Stapp, however, thinks the religious issue became too much for the others.

"I think I was screwing up their plans for sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll because of how people changed the way they approached the band, and how our fans did because of the (religious) stuff," he says. "They did not understand why this was happening in their rock-'n'-roll career. It was a constant thread of resentment that ran through the band until we broke up."

Stapp feels he's now on the right path, courtesy of some hard-won self-knowledge.

"I'm just one of those people who can't drink liquor," says Stapp, who's working with a sobriety coach on his solo tour.

"And you know what? I'm one of those people who has to find out the hard way.

"But I can't focus on the past," Stapp concludes. "I have to keep moving forward."

.Gary Graff