STAR 101.3

October 13, 2004

DON: Star 101.3, Outkast Hey Ya. Don Bleu in the Morning. It's 8:04. In a moment, Scott Stapp in the Bleu Room. Now that Creed has broken up and he is on his own, he's got a great song, well actually some great music he's going to play for us this morning live. I think he's in there warming up right now. We can bring up the volume here in the Bleu Room, see if he's getting set up and all ready to go.

[guitar strumming]

DON: Oh yeah, there he is.

SCOTT: ...said what am I, Prince?

DJ #2: [laughs]

SCOTT: Checking, one, two...

DON: Alright...

DJ #2: [whispers] Don't cuss.

SCOTT: Checking. [deep voice] This goes out to all the ladies in the house.

DJs: [laugh]

DON: You know everybody, when they get a microphone, they just...

SCOTT: ...going to sing this to...

DON: There you go.

DJ #3: Are we going to get some drums?

DON: Yeah, yeah, turn that off. We're taking his privacy away. It's nice enough of him to come here. So we'll be joining Scott Stapp in just a minute. It's 8:05 now...

[next segment begins in the Bleu Room]

DON: Star 101.3. Don Bleu in the Morning here in the Bleu Room.

[studio audience cheers]

DON: Wow, what a beautiful morning. We're under the stars, under the sun this morning. Looking good. Scott Stapp is here with us. Good morning Scott!

SCOTT: Good morning. Good to be here man. This is awesome. Thank you.

DON: And he has brought his one-man band with him, Artistedis.

SCOTT: Artistedis, and I brought my applause sign so thank you guys for being able to read.

[laughter]

DON: He said actually we could call him Arty, but we know that Artistedis rhymes with Milpetas. So it's no problem for us to remember that. And of course he's looking over here going what is Milpetas? [laughter] It's a town nearby.

SCOTT: OK

DON: It's good to have him here. So Scott, here we are now. Of course, the last time that we talked, we were talking to you as Creed.

SCOTT: Yeah, yeah.

DON: And now we're talking to you as Scott Stapp.

SCOTT: Yes, yes.

DON: And the band is no longer. Was one of the guys like cheating and playing with Maroon 5 or something?

SCOTT: Um, no, but that would be cool, I like that band actually. No, to be honest with you, Mark and I had been together since high school and... sound like a couple. [laughter] But we were good friends, you know, and Mark really wanted to front his own thing, and we talked about it since 99 when Human Clay was out, that he wanted to begin writing his own music in its entirety and even sing. And he went and did that. And while he was doing that I've been getting film roles and getting small parts here and there and working on my acting, and also working on solo material. And then basically, Mark's such a phenomenal guitar player, I know you guys know that, he had written a record, had sang the record, turned it in to the label, and they decided, "Hey man, you were shredding on this album, so we need you to focus on guitar." So they brought in another guy to sing because I was already working on something else.

DON: Right.

SCOTT: And then I think that there was some communication breakdown stuff going on. And I think sides thought they had their feelings hurt. And so a little drama got in there. But at the end of the day it was the best experience of my life and as you can see with these guys in here, you know, they give me so much love, and they're wonderful. I'm just glad to be out here working on stuff.

DON: [to the audience] Do you have a little love?

[audience cheers]

SCOTT: Give out a little love. Thank you. So I'm excited about the future. As you know I got Relearn Love on The Passion of the Christ, songs inspired by The Passion of the Christ, and it's my first solo deal, solo thing. And then I got the solo album coming out next year, either late March or late February.

DON: Have you titled that yet?

SCOTT: No I haven't, I haven't. I usually, like I did with the songs I wrote with Creed, is I kind of pick a title from a song that I feel like really is the common theme through the whole album.

DON: Could it be Relearn Love?

SCOTT: No, no. You know what, that's the first time I thought of that.

DON: Yeah, OK.

[laughter]

SCOTT: Maybe, maybe. It could be. It's just, you know, it's funny, there's probably transcripts of me doing interviews in 97 saying [voice changes] "I would never write a song with the word 'love' in it. That's uncool."

DON: See how he sounded in 1997.

[laughter]

SCOTT: Yeah, that probably is how I sounded. But I think with a little maturity and a child, life experiences can change you and your heart. And that's kind of where I was. When we stopped touring in 2002, I was pretty beat up physically as well as emotionally and I took off to Maui for a while and hung out there for a year with my little boy. And really just got to the point where I'd watch him play and just watch how he was with other kids and other people and I just saw the purity in his heart. He didn't go into interacting with people or meeting people with fear, like I had begun to do, afraid of getting hurt. He was just "Here, you want to have this? My dad'll buy me another one."

DON: Even though you didn't.

SCOTT: Even though I didn't. I'm a terrible dad, you know.

DON: How do you work that? Now, you're a single dad.

SCOTT: I'm a single dad, actually I'm raising him on my own.

DON: Your son is what, six?

SCOTT: Yeah. He'll be six at the end of this month.

DON: So, when you're on the road, what do you do?

SCOTT: Well, I haven't had to face that issue until now, right now. Because when we were still doing Creed, he was on tour with me and backstage with me. And so a lot of times when people were like [voice changes] "He just hides by himself and he thinks he's better than everybody", I was changing diapers [laughter] so that was going on.

DON: How about...

SCOTT: So now, I told him... we kind of got together and we pinky swore that any big tours that I'll do in the summer so he can come with me, because he wants to be my drummer. [laughter] He's actually in a band right now with Yngwie Malmsteen's son, you know who that is?

DON: Yes, they've got a...

SCOTT: They started a band called The Griffins, and now they're The Dead Rats. [laughter] And so, they jam. But basically he stays with... my sister also is a single parent, and she has a four-year-old daughter. So, as soon as she was born, we got a house together. We got a house and moved her in. So my son and my neice, who calls me daddy too - you know, father figure in life...

DON: Yes. Uh huh

SCOTT: And so they've been raised like brother and sister. And my sister's "mommy". So it's been real great. And my mom's always there - nana - nana and pa are always there. It's worked out real good. And you know, he's a trooper. For about three days he's cool with daddy being gone, but after that, you know, it's "daddy come home". Fortunately, because of the success of everything I've done so far, it affords me the opportunities to fly home every five days...

DON: Get back there...

SCOTT: ...and come back. Because I also want to be a part of his life, not just from the phone. I want to pick him up from school and take him to school, and go to his flag football practice, and stuff like that. It's a balancing act. And that's another reason that I think Creed was starting to change is because my priorities were changing...

DON: Sure, yeah.

SCOTT: ...and you can't expect three other people without children, at the time, to understand, or know where you're at. But, I think, back on that and to close that all up, it's just inevitable for two songwriters in a band to eventually want to go their own way. You know, I tried everything to keep the band together but when someone's set on going out and doing their thing, you've got to let them go, you've got to let them grow.

DON: Right, I think everybody that's ever been in band...

SCOTT: I think it's a part of loving somebody and being a friend.

DON: Yeah, everybody that's ever been in a band at some point has said "Well, we tried to keep the band together, but..." You know, it's like everything else, it's not going to last forever.

SCOTT: But you know the door is open and I'm sure, I'm sure down the road there'll be another Creed album.

DON: Oooh ahhh

SCOTT: But if people like Creed, they'll like me, you know, I wrote the songs. And Mark wrote those mega-awesome riffs, and I still love that stuff. My new stuff will sound probably like Creed but I'm going to do some different things. I play piano, so I'm sure I'll have a couple of songs, you know, like November Rain-ish kind of stuff. You know, epic... I like to write those epic kind of deals. So we'll see, and it gives me some freedom to do some things that before I might've kept quiet on because you're trying to make sure everybody's happy, you know?

DON: Well let's hear the first release, this is Relearn Love.

SCOTT: Relearn Love.

DON: This is a song, The Passion of the Christ... we'll talk about it after we hear the song, how it kind of came together and how you got involved with all that. So Scott Stapp is here with us this morning on Star 101.3, we're in the Bleu Room and this is Relearn Love and Scott Stapp.

[CD playback of remixed version of Relearn Love]

[applause]

DON: They love it! They love it!

SCOTT: Cool man. Thank you.

DON: It's Relearn Love. Scott Stapp here in the Bleu Room this morning on Star 101.3. So this song now is on a CD. Actually there's going to be both versions of this song on...

SCOTT: Either both versions... I know they're stripping what you just heard onto the album. So the one that's on there currently is the song in its fashion before I saw The Passion of the Christ.

DON: OK

SCOTT: So, it's much more edgy, it's got big rock guitars, it's kind of Led Zeppelinesque in a certain part. And then that version, the one you just heard, was going to be on my album before The Passion of the Christ project kind of came to me. And uh, you know, as I was talking about before, The Passion of the Christ... I got a call from Mel Gibson and his people to fly out and see the film and...

DON: Okay now, did you get a call from Mel?

SCOTT: No, I mean I got a call from his people to fly out and I saw him in his office and you know, he's like Okay, I want you to go write a hit song after you see my movie, about this movie, and I want it to be huge, so it'll sell this record, and we need it in a week, okay? Go see the movie."

DON: [laughs] Small assignment.

SCOTT: And really, you know, I played him kind of a rough demo because I had the chorus done and the music, but I didn't have the lyrics for the verses or the bridge done yet. And so once I saw the film I finally realized I had direction in where I was going. And at the same time in my life I was kind of going through a reconnection to my faith and spirituality and kind of going through a heart transplant, so to speak. And so getting the call and getting kind of commissioned, so to speak, to do this song for this film was kind of confirmation that I was moving in the right direction, spiritually and emotionally in my life. And so it was great and, you know, along with my song, everyone who contributed to the soundtrack gave their A song. I mean, in their mind, they were giving a song to God, you know what I mean? So they were giving their best and so it's a great CD from top to bottom. There's Lauryn Hill, P.O.D, Sara Evans I believe, a big country artist, Bebe and Cece Winans from... there's just a lot of great artists on there. To be honest with you, it shocked me when I started hearing the songs that were coming in, I was surprised that it was so good. And when I played the CD finally all the way through, at the end I was like "man, I am proud to be a part of that".

DON: Were you surprised when you got the call in the first place, when you got the call from Mel Gibson's people?

SCOTT: Oh, completely. And I was surprised that I got to hang out with him and you know he was like Well you know, I picked ya 'cause my kids told me to. I really don't know anything about you."

[laughter]

DON: Yeah that's great. [laughs]

SCOTT: My kids love your band and I'll just leave all the music stuff to you."

DON: Did you tower over him? Is he a little guy? I haven't met Mel.

SCOTT: He's about... I'm not a monstrosity.

DON: Yeah. Scott's about 5...

SCOTT: I'm 5'10", he's about 5'7". You know, he's a little guy.

DON: Lot's of energy though. You could feel it?

SCOTT: Oh yeah, he's a great guy. He was very serious at the time. Because you know that movie was controversial. You know, a lot of people took it the wrong way. I think they took it in a way to... he was just telling a story about what his faith is. He wasn't trying to make any group of people look bad. Because the story's the story.

DON: You can interpret it many ways.

SCOTT: Many ways.

DON: But he was trying to be pretty objective.

SCOTT: Right. So I did what I did. I love P.O.D.'s song on there, Truly Amazing, I think it's amazing. Lauryn Hill's song is great. It's kind of experimental type song for her and it's just a great album and, you know, I think it was a perfect way for me to kind of reintroduce myself...

DON: To go through the transition, sort of.

SCOTT: ...to the next chapter of my life. Yeah. And you know, I think, stepping back, I just kind of feel like it wasn't really my plan or anyone's plan, it was a higher plan for me in the healing process.

DON: You know, Lenny Kravitz was in a couple of weeks ago. His new CD is called Baptism and he was kind of saying similar things, that he's sort of rekindled his faith and spiritually and all of this. He's also decided that...

SCOTT: He's my neighbor, by the way.

DON: Is he?

SCOTT: Yeah.

DON: Yeah, well he's decided that he's going to live a life of celibacy. And I'm just wondering if everybody in your neighborhood's doing that.

[laughter]

SCOTT: He's lying!

DON: [laughs]

SCOTT: He is lying!

DON: I said come on you're Lenny Kravitz, you've got to be kidding me.

SCOTT: Listen, he's just mourning over Nicole. To be honest with you.

DON: Yeah.

SCOTT: But, he's lying!

DON: [laughs] That's not happening, he's seen the parties down the street.

SCOTT: He's been to my parties.

DON: Yeah, I hear ya.

SCOTT: My birthday party, there's kids around.

DON: There's also another Creed CD.

SCOTT: Creed's Greatest Hits is coming out the end of this month. God it's so weird to say that. It feels like just yesterday we started a band. But, it's also going to have a CD or DVD pro on it, where it has all our videos, a lot of live performances, for example, like on top of The Rio, some other live footage and interviews, and it'll probably be the first in a series of stuff. You know, we really didn't put out... we saved - saved, is that a word?

DON: Sure.

SCOTT: We saved all that stuff for a later date and now we have just archives and archives of... you know we have probably two albums worth of music that was never released, anywhere - brand new material. We have B sides that were never released in the states, that were released internationally.

DON: Now, who makes the decisions on this?

SCOTT: Me and Mark.

DON: Does Creed get together?

SCOTT: Me and Mark. Yeah. Me and Mark.

DON: And so you sit down and decide what out-takes or what behind the scenes and some of those...

SCOTT: Yeah we sit down and go through it. We pretty much agree. You know, the only thing we didn't agree on was him doing a side project and me doing a side project. [Scott and Don laugh] I wanted to keep the band together, you know, it was going good. But once I sat back and reflected, you know, I'm excited with the opportunity of going out on my own and branching out.

DON: Well, you're going to be great, no doubt about it.

SCOTT: Thank you, thank you.

DON: Let's hear a little... how about a little Creed music this morning?

SCOTT: Yeah, yeah, we'll play... in honor, in honor...

DON: In honor, ladies and gentlemen.

SCOTT: In honor of...

DON: Scott Stapp, Creed

SCOTT: Yeah, Higher, we'll play Higher. We'll do it acoustic, is that alright?

DON: Sure, that would be great.

[applause]

DON: Artistedis steps up, ladies and gentlemen.

[laughter]

DON: He's ready to go, he's got that guitar flying. Scott Stapp on Star 101.3. Here's Higher.

[Scott sings Higher acoustically]

SCOTT: Yeah

[applause]

DON: Yeah! Scott Stapp on Star 101.3. Creed song, Higher. I'm sure that will part of the Greatest Hits CD. No doubt about that. Everybody of course in the audience this morning that's here, who's experiencing this here in the Bleu Room, it's wonderful. The people that are listening on Star 101.3 - the only thing you're really missing is the way you kind of crinkle your nose up there when you do a couple of those songs, which is...

SCOTT: [Scott stepped away from microphone while speaking]

[laughter]

DON: No, it's cute, it's very cute. You've been very open with us today. It's wonderful to have you here Scott.

SCOTT: It's great to be back in San Francisco. Always had a lot of great memories from here so this is another one. Thank you very much. Thank you.

DON: I wish you the best with the new CD. We'll look for that February, March, somewhere in there.

SCOTT: Yeah, late February, late March. There'll be another probably promo tour like this. You know if I've got to do a tour, then maybe I'll have to get a tutor and bring my little boy with me.

DON: Good idea.

SCOTT: So, we'll do that. But I'm definitely going to be out here on the road and promoting that. And also playing all the songs I wrote while in Creed, you know, all the Creed tracks. So, concerts should be pretty good. If you've seen them before, it'll be a lot like that.

DON: It'll be a lot like that. It's great. Well, wonderful to have you here. It's the Bleu Room this morning on Star 101.3 brought to you by Chevy's Fresh Mex. Here it is. Scott Stapp with a little Creed music, a little personal music and everything else in between. Thank you so much for being here.

SCOTT: Thank you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you guys.

.Transcribed by Robyn