Artist of the day - Creed
Nikhil Dev | January 18, 2007 | 5:10 pm
Creed was a post-grunge group that became one of the best selling rock bands of the late 1990s and early 2000s in the US. While the original grunge groups were experimenting with new sounds, Creed adapted grunge into a radio-friendly style.
Creed originally came together in Tallahassee, Florida in 1995 as Naked Toddler when Stapp and guitarist Mark Tremonti, former high school friends, got together and started writing songs. They soon added bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips. Brian Marshall came up with the band name “Creed”, taken from the name of his former band, Maddox Creed.
They then found work at a live music bar, where they impressed owner Jeff Hanson enough to let them play at one of his bigger stores. Hanson liked the band so much that he convinced producer John Kurzweg to produce the band.
Despite the band’s continual dismissals of the label, Creed is sometimes labeled Christian rock due to the fact that earlier albums focus on questions of faith, Christianity, and eternity. The band was never signed to a Contemporary Christian music label, nor did it perform in Christian Music venues or get any widespread regular play on Christian Radio.
Creed was sued in 2003 by four concert goers who claimed Scott Stapp “was so intoxicated and/or medicated that he was unable to sing the lyrics of a single Creed song” at a December 29, 2002 concert in Chicago. The lawsuit was later dismissed. Further trouble ensued for the band as Creed was constantly under scrutiny for relaying religious messages both within their music and videos. Most of these accusations were directed at Stapp although Creed as a whole denied the connection between religion and the band. This was one of the main reasons for the departure of Stapp.
On June 4, 2004, it was announced that Creed had broken up. Stapp began the process of recording a solo album, The Great Divide, collaborating with Roadrunner Records recording artist Goneblind, while the other band members (including former bassist Brian Marshall) formed a new band, Alter Bridge, with Myles Kennedy. Touring bassist Brett Hestla has since joined the band Dark New Day.
Stapp later became the subject of several altercations, including publicly berating Beth Ostrosky, (girlfriend of Howard Stern) and getting into fisticuffs with the band 311 at a bar in Baltimore, Maryland. Further damage to his reputation was had when it was learned that Stapp had accidentally allowed a video tape of himself and Kid Rock receiving oral sex from some female groupies get out into the public domain. This brought harsh criticism from Kid Rock who blamed Stapp for letting the tape get out of his control.
