MXTV Creed Interview

October 1998

Statistic: 99.4% of MTV viewers say they have a strong belief in God

Chris Seay: There's a spiritual current that the church hasn't tapped into, that bands like Creed are."

Interview:

Q: Why did you grant this interview (out of hundreds of other requests)?

Scott Stapp: I don't know why. Maybe it's because it's my first Christian" interview…..I've never done an interview with any religious publications….in the secular media…..90% of them have no background in religion, so they wouldn't even understand some of the answers that I give them or even some of the lyrics….I just wanted to see what you guys were all about and kind of get a feel of how the Christian community….what they were thinking….the rational" Christian community, the normal" Christian people, if you can call Christians normal."

Scott's Story

SS: At one point in my life, I thought I was called to be a minister. I think that was around 9 or 10 years old.

SS: I became disillusioned by a lot of things that happened to me by Christian people…I wanted to get away and try to figure out things on my own, through my own study and my own search, and I'm still there. I haven't come to any resolutions.

SS: I felt like….no one else is thinking this way or feeling this way or has ever wanted to do this (search). I felt like I was some big, evil sinner and I was the only one (searching) because on Sundays everyone put on their suits and sat in the front row and acted like they were perfect and had the perfect families and the perfect lives and their kids were great and everything was perfect….For me, to have these feelings and thought and have no one to identify with just isolated me more in an environment where I was supposed to feel love, understanding and compassion…..It's refreshing to hear you say that there are churches that aren't like that.

SS: I wish that I could get a hold of one youth pastor that was very influential on me…he was real. He was a real guy and you could tell he had been through some real things.

SS: Someone asked me if I was a Christian….I don't know…I still have a lot of questions that I wish I had answers for. That's why I don't want to tell anybody that I'm a Christian, first of all because I don't know if I am, but second of all, is that I have a lot of questions about that and I can't sit here and tell you guys by the letter of the law whether I am a Christian or not.

SS: I know that I believe in God and I speak to him every day and I have a relationship with him and I feel like he speaks with me and I feel like he's instrumental in everything I do.

SS: Maybe the whole struggle and the whole search and the whole desire to ask questions and find the truth is what makes us Christians.

Q: There are Christian singers who sing whole albums and don't say a thing about God and they're sponsored by Christian radio stations and Christian festivals and then you guys, sponsored by whoever…you sing about God every third song. What do you say to people who ask, Are you guys a Christian band?"

SS: I say we're not…the other three guys in my band…they don't believe the same way I do. I write all the lyrics, so they're just kinda thrown into these beliefs. They just got in the band to be rock stars in the classic sense of the word. Now all of a sudden, they're hit with all this stuff that they didn't ask for.

SS: And this responsibility….if they (the band) want to drink beers or whatever I'm like, Will you please pour that in a cup before we go to the autograph session? Not in a clear cup, I just don't want you to influence some little kid and he thinks we are a Christian band….I don't want to be a stumbling block for him." Whether we are (a Christian band) or not….Now all of a sudden, they have a responsibility, and they didn't ask for it. They wanted to be a rock star. Because of the lyrics, it's kinda thrust a lot of responsibility on three other guys who totally didn't ask for it and they just wanted to be….any other typical rock band.

SS: There's been this underground, I think they're a Christian band, or they may not be." That's really inhibited us…usually when a band sells 2 million records, usually a rock band, you know every single one of them, they're like all over MTV, they've done Letterman, they've done Saturday Night Live, they're in Rolling Stone, there's usually a lot of media attention to them, but because of the Christian" thing, we haven't gotten it.

(Commentary)

Chris Seay: One of the songs really touched me. It's about a friend of Scott's that committed suicide. It connects with the despair and helplessness that a lot of people feel in a life without Christ to the point that you sense there's no reason to go on.

Interview

SS: That song (What's This Life For?) was all about trying to reach out….this is what I would have said to him if I could have talked to him an hour before or a day before. I wasn't trying to reach people who had their life together with that song. I wasn't trying to reach Christians. You have to think about who you are trying to reach. The people that I'm trying to reach will understand that (song), and that might make them go, Whoa," and they'll hear that (song) and they'll identify with that anger and they'll identify with that feeling and it will make them listen.

SS: There's an answer (in the song) right after, but we all live under the reign of one king." This guy came up to me and he said, I turned your album on and I just finished writing my suicide letter and I was sitting on my bed with a gun and I was gonna blow my head off, and I got to ‘What's This Life For?' and I just started crying. And thank you."

SS: I don't want to be this man or this writer that people don't understand. I want people to understand what we are doing. I think a lot of people who write…a lot of critics will be like, Wow, this is wonderful writing, so eclectic and great." The writer is like, But what does this mean?" No one has any idea what it means. I think by writing that off is that person being creative or artistic is an excuse for not being able to express yourself properly.

(Commentary)

Chris Seay: There are going to be Christians who know Christ today that are going to be searching for meaning, like King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. He spent his whole journey trying to find purpose in anything but God. The best part of my talk with Scott was his understanding of the way God is using him now as he tried to run from the truth, but many of you know…You can't run from the truth.

Tim Bisagno: …how Scott spoke the truth, and how he was so darned honest and I think that's a great characteristic and I think that our generation seeks and longs for honesty and true character…I think that's what makes Scott's testimony real.

Interview:

SS: You can't run from the truth, as much as you want to run. You can't run. When God has a calling in your life…one of the things I used to tell my dad is, I'm not going to be a missionary. No way I'm going to some third world country, no way. Okay, God you hear that? I'm not going to be a missionary." And I think that I was running and I think partly I'm still running to some degree. The ironic thing is that I'm running, and I ran right into Him and I'm doing the same thing that I'd be doing if… I mean, I've affected so many people on accident, just like I was a minister…The message of salvation is in My Own Prison and I didn't think about it until after it was done. How many people who would never have stepped into a church hear, My Own Prison every day?

SS: I asked God for this but then I didn't want it anymore. And I would ask God for things…."God give me the wisdom of King Solomon," or Give me the spiritual strength of Samson." I would ask him for all of these things and I would be like, Please help me understand and use me…." And then all of a sudden, I didn't want it any more. But, he gave it to me anyway. And he's like, Well, I gave you all this stuff and you're gonna use it whether you want to or not." I think that's how it's developed. My songs on this album…there was a lot of Listen man, I know what's right…I've been told," but there was still something missing.