Creed - Tour report

Rolling Stone May, 2000

Creed's relentless touring over the past three years finally took its toll on singer Scott Stapp this winter. During a three month hiatus, Stapp was treated for a callus developing on his right vocal chord. "It was weird trying to sing and have nothing come out," he says. "It scared me." The problem arose during the final week of the band's last US tour. "I pretty much let the crowd sing the shows," says Stapp, who's now fully healed. "It was very fortunate to have the audience know all the songs-they carried me through."

It is appropriate that Creed's fans would bail out the band. The Florida-bred quartet's albums My Own Prison, and Human Clay, have gone multi-platinum, largely on the strength of its performances. Thanks to his strict religious upbringing, Stapp didn't see a live show before he was twenty, but he knows what it takes to excite an audience. "We want the fans to know what they're paying for," he says, referring to this tour's arena-rock packaging, which will include a catwalk, pyrotechnics and colorful backdrops that the band helped design.

For recreation on the road, the band brings out a ping-pong table, and basketball hoop and a well stocked fridge. Before each show, guitarist Mark Tremonti religiously downs a couple of beers to settle his pre-performance jitters. "He still gets nervous," says Stapp.

On this tour-which will feature Sevendust in the opening slot-Tremonti is opening Creed's set with the riff to "Ode." "We like to start things really high energy," says Stapp, "and continue through peaks and valleys." He says the songs that rock the hardest are not the most obvious choices: Album cuts such as "Faceless Man," "With Arms Wide Open" and "Say I" are some of the set's highlights. The band is also rearranging mid-tempo headbangers "Sister", "Illusion" and it's current single, "What If." "We just didn't like the way we recorded them," Stapp says. Coverwise, on any given night Creed might pull out their crowd-pleasing version of "Riders on the Storm," which the band played at last year's Woodstock, accompanied by Doors guitarist Robby Krieger. "Eighteen" by Alice Cooper might also pop up; the frontman says that the boys are also working out a metal version of "The Devil Went Down To Georgia." "There's not a downer song in the set," he says. Of course, the high point, according to Stapp, is the end of the show-specifically, the last song of the set and the two encore songs. "You don't think it's going to get any better after the crowd responds to 'What's This Life For,'"he says, "but then we come back and hit 'em with 'One.' and then 'Higher' just takes it over the top. It's been a great way to end the show. I'm so amped up when I walk offstage, it's amazing."

.Austin Skaggs