Scott Stapp

Rag Magazine, March 2006

There are a few things that Scott Stapp would like to clear up. The former lead singer-songwriter of Creed talks about how his six year relationship with the multi-platinum rock band ended, as he adamantly states why there should have never been a third Creed album. Stapp annouces his independence with his rock-solid solo debut and how some of his recent run ins with the press have been made to be false with many discrepancies. And, of course, there’s religion. Scott Stapp has been known for writing about abstract spiritual issues on his albums with Creed, and in a very intelligent way. In RAG Magazine Scott will set the record straight in regards to how he differentiates spirituality from religion.

“I can tell you since 1997, not one song has not been written about my personal life,” says Scott. “Every song is a diary or a thought process that goes on in my head or there is a reflection on something that’s happened in my life.” Creed may be long gone, but the music lives forever in Scott Stapp, and those years were some of Scott’s most proud moments in his musical career. But a new journey is on the horizon as Scott takes a great leap towards the future.

Scott Stapp has gone through some life altering events, but he has found a new sense of closure with the release of his first solo offering, The Great Divide. At the time of this interview, Scott was just days away from getting married and set to embark on a new journey. “I think that there are chapters in my life that are permanently closed,” says Scott. “As a human being we all have struggles in our life, I don’t know how to define them and complete the whole spectrum. But I’ve definitely closed some chapters and I’m talking about personally, I’m not talking about anything but things personally in my life.”

The music is fresh, rich in texture, and in terms of volume The Great Divide sounds a lot like Creed. It has that classic guitar sound that sold Scott Stapp millions of records throughout the years. “It should (sound like Creed),” asserts Scott,” I mean that’s my sound. I didn’t write all the guitar parts in Creed, but when I met Mark, he was more into the 1980s high vocalists, and Mark and I really had to work hard together to dial into a sound that would sit good with my voice and that was within my range. That sound is a sound that I helped create and not just with my voice and my lyrics, but the music as well.”

On The Great Divide, Scott tells a story, and he wanted the sound to resonate as if it was recorded live. The writing process was natural, and the songs were recorded in the order that they appear on the album.” I actually didn’t mean to do this,” says Scott, “but lyrically the songs chronologically tell a story, but the story, I haven’t completed, I’m still in the middle of the great divide, my friend. And I don’t know if I ever leave that point, and I speak of this in a spiritual note and as a personal note.”

We all have goals in the type of person that we want to be in life and sometimes we don’t always live up to those goals, and Scott’s problems happened to be painted in the public eye, but that was a decision he made. “The way we (Creed) approached the press early on, I can definitely see why people got the impressions they did because the band resented the fact that we were getting called this Christian band and then that was my fault, of course, being the lyricist and songwriter as well. And there were other factors, but now as a solo artist, I don’t have to react as a team, I am my team.”

And with different philosophies in mind, in various mainstream publications, Scott has been portrayed as a perpetual struggling artist with a drug problem since Creed began. “They make it sound like I’ve just been on pills, in rehab, and drunk for the last eight years, and that was intentional,” says Scott. “After March of 2003, that’s it man, I only did that during after that car accident where I got hit on the highway, from that point to the end of the Weathered tour was the only time that I had to deal with the addictions and the medications. That’s when the medication started.”

A lot of fans expected another Creed record, but that couldn’t have been further from the case. It was almost like everyone was waiting for part four to come out, in reminiscent to Led Zeppelin’s opus, therefore a fourth Creed album would represent the best of the three. “I told the whole world on Weathered that this was my last Creed album,” says Scott. “There couldn’t be a part four to Weathered,” Scott states adamantly. “I did that solely out of my friendship and love for Mark Tremonti, I looked at him as a family member. But that doesn’t mean it’s not honest, it’s straight from the heart, it’s just that I think we knew that it was headed towards the end.”

Therefore Scott and the rest of Creed needed a break from each other, and if anything, Scott has learned that with his solo career he can do it at his own pace. Creed happened so fast, it was non-stop and it wore Scott Stapp near to death – literally, he’s had three doctors tell him that he’s lucky to be alive today because of the medications that were put in his body.

And then there’s religion, which has been indoctrinated in Scott Stapp’s mind since childhood. “I make a conscious choice in my spiritual life and in songs like “Justify” on The Great Divide,” says Scott. “I don’t mean that to come across like anarchy and I can do this and I don’t have to justify my life to you in anyway, no. I’m talking about my spiritual life, what’s private, how I practice my spiritual life. Because it’s been so attacked, it’s been so documented, I’ve been told what I am, I never told anyone what I was. I’ve been told what I am, and I have no agenda in my music, and neither did Creed, to make anyone become [religious] or have faith in any religion or spirituality.”

And although there’s no specific agenda, for Scott there is a sense to share a new level of commitment with his love for creating music. Scott Stapp may be easily misjudged by many, but his talents in the music industry have soared consistently for almost a decade. His vision remains clear and free of past turmoil to help create a new sense of enlightenment. Scott’s new solo offering, The Great Divide, shows that musically Stapp needs Creed a lot less than Creed needs him. “I don’t know if we live in the great divide or what,” says Scott, “but I sure hope for things that are sublime in order for me to reach levels where I can show my son and myself that I can soar.”

.Joseph Vilane