Creed Serves Up Rockin' Good Time

Seattle Times July 13 1998

Scott Stapp is this summer's rock-'n'-roll savior

Scruffy, lanky and long-haired, with dark, piercing eyes, he's the dynamic, compelling lead singer of Creed, a punk-edged Tallahassee, Fla., band that's tearing up rock radio.

A serious vocalist who contrasts his growls and screams with melodic, carefully sung passages, in the Jim Morrison tradition, Stapp's powerful, anthemic songs are about battling fears and demons while searching for love, meaning and peace of mind. It's angry, fist-pumping, cathartic music for confused, pent-up adolescents, the kind of aggressive rock that keeps reasserting itself every few years.

Just a few years ago rock was declared dead, as rock album sales dwindled and rock radio stations switched formats. But hard rock has come roaring back this summer, and Creed is on the crest of the wave.

Two songs from the band's "My Own Prison" album are being played heavily on rock radio at the same time -- the title cut, "Torn" and "What's This Life For." The album is selling 40,000 - plus copies a week, has racked more than 1.5 million in sales and is headed for double platinum.

Creed is poised to become this year's Live, a dramatic, serious hard rock band that's capturing young people's imagination with intense songs about finding meaning and purpose.

You could feel the fervor for Creed, as a good sized crowd jammed the front of the stage, moshing and crowd surfing to the hard, crunching rhythms and frenzied vocals.

Without prompting, the audience sang many of the songs along with Stapp. Sometimes he thrust the mike into the audience and let the fans lustily take the leads. Obviously, many in the audience had already memorized the whole "My Own Prison" album.

The religious imagery that crops up in many of Creed's songs - and even in the band's name - comes from Stapp's fundamentalist-Christian background. He's said to be a recent convert to secular hard rock, having been heavily influenced by grunge and Led Zeppelin. He certainly brings a true believer's fanatical energy to his work, contorting his body and shaking his mane of dark hair as he stomps around the stage.