Rock and a hard place

Edmonton Sun/Jam Showbiz July 3, 1998

Creed's Scott Stapp had reached the ripe old age of nine before he heard his first rock 'n' roll recording.

Even more tough luck for the kid - it was a tape of Def Leppard's Pyromania, the now 24-year-old singer recalls.

"I stole it from a cousin or something," he says. "I loved it. I brought it home and my parents threw it away and said it was Satanic ... that was my first exposure to rock 'n' roll."

This incident was just the tip of the iceberg in a strict Pentecostal upbringing that caused the Florida native such anger and frustration that he nearly snapped. Before he left home at 17 with nothing but the shirt on his back - forsaking organized religion but not God - Stapp was forbidden to listen to the demon rock 'n' roll. He was seldom allowed to go out. When he was, he was restricted to an 8 p.m. curfew. He says he could only go to school, play sports and attend church every Sunday. And that was it.

"I had no fun because everything that was fun was wrong, according to the way I was brought up," he says. "So my life was like being in prison. It sucked."

You can hear this anger on Creed's emotionally charged debut album, the aptly titled My Own Prison. Creed is one of 13 bands playing Edgefest at Commonwealth Stadium on Wednesday. While the album may sound more like Pearl Jam than Pearl Jam, Stapp's lyrics have connected with fans across North America, resulting in sudden fame and gangbuster sales. Stapp is not alone.

"We've got the greatest fans," he says. "They know all the words to the songs. It's a great feeling as an artist and a writer to hear other people singing things that you poured your heart and soul into.

"We struck a nerve and we didn't even mean to. We were just four guys doing our own thing. You get so caught up in your own world that you forget that there's millions of other people in this world that probably have a lot of the same experiences you do. I guess we're finding that out right now."

Creed hits the "Bear" stage at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

.MIKE ROSS