Rock bottom

Detroit News, March 10 2006

Ex-Creed singer Scott Stapp tries to redeem himself

Bar brawls, sex tapes, disastrous TV appearances and embarrassing airplane arrests are all part of being a rock 'n' roll star. But rarely do these events happen to one person seemingly all at once, as they have for ex-Creed singer Scott Stapp.

How bad has it gotten for the rocker, who performs a solo show at Pontiac's Clutch Cargo's tonight?

"We were at the point where if it started raining nails, we'd be like, 'OK, we're just gonna let 'em hit us,' " says newlywed Stapp -- the "we" being he and his wife, former Miss New York Jaclyn Nesheiwat.

"It's like, what are you gonna do? When's it gonna stop?" he says.

Stapp's recent run-ins with the law have kept him in the news, but haven't exactly provided glowing publicity for his recently launched solo career.

With Creed, one of the most popular modern rock outfits of the last decade, Stapp, now 32, sold more than 25 million records and consistently played to sold-out arenas nationwide.

Although fans worshipped them, critics unfailingly lampooned Creed, bemoaning the band's spiritual content and Stapp's often-shirtless, Christ-like posturing on-stage and in music videos.

The megasellers disbanded in 2004, bowing out with "Weathered," which sold 887,000 copies its first week in stores in 2001. Stapp's solo debut, "The Great Divide," has sold only 362,000 copies since its November release.

Still, Stapp -- who's doing both solo material and Creed songs on his current tour -- is not feeling sorry for himself. The performer is excited to be back in front of crowds.

"It's great to be able to get down and look at (fans) in the eyes, and really get back in touch with a lot of people that I'm beginning to realize missed me being gone," says Stapp, on the phone from Atlanta, a day after his first solo tour kicked off in Orlando, Fla. "If things keep going as well as they did last night, it should be a great month.

"I want to do this at my own pace, at my own speed, and right now, this is my speed," Stapp says.

Falling apart

Creed's debut album, 1997's "My Own Prison," immediately shot the Stapp-led Florida quartet into superstardom. Grungy riffs and Stapp's burly, brooding vocals cast the band as a latter day Pearl Jam. The follow-up, 1999's "Human Clay," was even bigger, selling more than 10 million copies.

But by the time Creed toured behind "Weathered," internal strife was tearing the band apart. Stapp says band egos -- coupled with his crippling fear of the media and the "Christian rock" tag the band was saddled with -- eventually caused the members to separate.

(Founding members Mark Tremonti, Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall formed Alter Bridge and released their debut album in 2004.)

Though Stapp says he enjoys the freedom of not being burdened by distractions such as other Creed members' house payments and wedding costs, he says he's not resentful of his ex-bandmates.

"I'm not bitter, dude. I'm hurt. Does that make sense?" says Stapp. "The experience that we had together changed my life. Those guys were my best friends. We were brothers. But situations did happen."

After the band's breakup, Stapp says he went into depression and contemplated leaving music for good. "I was like, 'No one cares, I'm just going to retire,' " he says.

But after releasing his first solo material on the soundtrack to "The Passion of the Christ," Stapp surrounded himself with a "new positive group of people" and rediscovered his inner fire.

He sees the very Creed-like "The Great Divide" as a creative rebirth.

Navigating the great divide

Stapp still has personal problems he continues to work through.

"When I'm in the middle of a situation, I may know the right way to handle it, but that doesn't mean I handle it that way," he says.

"I'll be the first one to tell you I learn things the hard way, and it's usually not the first time or the second time or the third time, it's usually not until I've been knocked around pretty good that it sinks in my head.

"I'm starting to learn a lot about myself and hope to change that aspect of myself."

Stapp's recent string of wild, unruly behavior began with a Thanksgiving bar brawl in Baltimore with rap-rockers 311. He followed it with a drunken, belligerent appearance on Spike TV.

Afterward, he says, he stopped drinking until his wedding night last month, when he had an alcohol-fueled run-in with a stewardess at Los Angeles International Airport, which resulted in an arrest for public intoxication.

Then there's that pesky sex tape, videotaped on a tour bus in Florida in 1999 featuring Stapp, Kid Rock and four females, one of whom has sued Stapp for allowing the tape to fall out of his possession. (Rock, meantime, called Stapp an "idiot" for losing the tape.)

California porn company Red Light District plans to release the 45-minute tape later this year, though lawyers for Rock have sued to stop its release.

"I make mistakes, and I own up to them," Stapp says. "I'm a person that occasionally goes overboard with what they do. It's my nature. And part of becoming a man and growing up is understanding the faults in your nature. I can just tell you I'm aware of it. But being Italian, Cherokee Indian and part Irish, I don't think that's a good mix for alcohol."

Stapp says he been writing about what a "screw-up" he is and not the prima donna he says he's been painted as ever since his first single, "My Own Prison."

Referring back to his current album title, Stapp says he believes he's in the middle of the great divide, which he defines as the middle ground between the right and wrong paths.

"Is the great divide a daily choice, is that what it is? That's what I'm trying to figure out," says Stapp before darting off to sound check. "I want to spend more time in the sublime than I have."

.Adam Graham