Exclusive: Scott Stapp on new Creed album: ‘I have no idea’ what happened

Remember that new Creed album that the reunited rock band planned to put out last year? It turns out that you”re not the only one that”s curious about what happened. So is Creed”s lead singer, Scott Stapp.
Liane Bonin Starr and I interviewed Stapp on Thursday (24) about his new solo album, “Proof Of Life,” out Nov. 5 for our podcast, CulturePop. When I asked how the album was going, he expressed his befuddlement at how his bandmates had stepped away from it.

A little back story: Creed, which has sold more than 40 million albums, broke up in 2004, in part due to the difficulties the other band members were having with Stapp.  Stapp went on his way and the rest of the band-Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall, and Scott Phillips- created Alter Bridge, with new vocalist Myles Kennedy. In 2009, after Stapp got sober, Creed reformed, and released “Full Circle,” its first album in eight years.

Things seemed to be going fine and the group started working on a follow-up and toured together.
“In 2012, actually ’11 and ’12, I was under the impression we were making a new Creed record,” Stapp tells HitFix. “I got together with  Mark – I actually stayed at his home- and we wrote a bunch of songs, eight of which we were pretty excited about that were going to make the record.  We even began to play some of the songs in soundcheck in 2012, which was typical of what we would do in the writing process…So it was just as much a shock to me based upon all the writing I was doing and the preparation I was doing for the new Creed record that that wasn”t being done anymore.”

Instead, much to Stapp”s surprise, Tremonti worked on a solo album, which came out earlier this year, and the rest of the band recorded a new Alter Bridge record, which came out earlier this month.

“I had been there, everything was cool, we were on tour, we were doing this, we were getting ready,” Stapp says. “And if you go back and look at the [social media] posts from everybody, that”s what everyone was saying, so I don”t know what happened in there that pushed them in another direction. I know Mark  decided he wanted to do a solo album which was during the time we were supposed to record the new Creed album, and then after that, he went to do another Alter Bridge record, so you guys will have to interview him and ask him because to this day I still have no idea what created the change in plans.”

Alter Bridge is in Europe right now, according to the band”s publicist, who is trying to get a comment from Tremonti. However, in  2012, Tremonti told Billboard, “We got together with Scott and put together a handful of songs and got the arrangements and melodic ideas in place, and now it’s kind of in Scott’s lap to finish off he lyrics and track some demos so we can move on to the next batch,” Tremonti reports. So far, he says, Creed has “a good mix…It’s got one more radio-friendly type song, one rocking tune, one of the more drawn-out, finger-picked, long, five-minute kind of songs — just a little bit of everything people have heard in the past.” He added that the band had not set any “timetables” for release.

This August, Tremonti told Billboard that when he is songwriting, it is usually pretty obvious to him if a tune is a solo turn or for Alter Bridge or for Creed, so it sounds like he still considers Creed an ongoing concern.

Stapp said after communication went silent, he needed to get back to work- “I”ve got three kids  and I”m saving for college for them”-so he began work on what became “Proof of Life.”

When asked if he had directly asked Tremonti what was going on, Stapp said, “Yeah, we”ve done that and I still don”t understand, really, and at this point nor will I ever and nor do I want to. One thing I”ve learned in recovery is my job for me is to keep my side of the street clean and what I can say in this relationship and in this friendship with these guys is my side of the street is clean. And since we got back together in 2009, my side of the street has been clean and my intentions and anything I”ve ever said has come from a place of meaning it and honesty and sincerity, so all I can do is continue to support those guys and love them through whatever and whatever the future holds I can”t say, but I do know I got to make this record now.”

For our full interview with Stapp, turn to CulturePop

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