Creed's Scott Stapp on "how I used to be before the world got ahold of me."

How do you split that focus? Where are you guys on the new album?

We have five out of fifteen ideas we've been bouncing around that we think are really strong. Usually what happens is that out of the remaining ten, some of those are just parts and they end up being combined with other parts to create something special. Right now, we're still searching for the musical direction and the vibe; we're still trying to connect with that. That's another reason we set up this tour, to use it intentionally as a catalyst for our creative process moving forward.

Occasionally, you can get caught up in all the minutiae and all the ruts you need a kickstart to get out of. Once you get out of that rut, you wonder, 'My God, how could I just have stayed there for years?' One thing that's important for us is to just let things go, all the good things -- the awards and the tours and the albums sales and the amazing experiences -- and the bad stuff...the breakup and the emotions and relationships we messed up. We have to leave that behind. None of that crap comes into the present. It goes into the past and it stays there.

In the meantime, though, you're writing a book about that stuff. Your autobiography, Sinner's Creed, comes out October 2. What was the hardest part to write?

You'll have to read the book. That's a great question, but it would spoil some of it. It's definitely been an emotional process. It really helped me to get closure on things and also to get the correct perspective on other things. Sometimes you're so close to something you can't see it. As you get older, you realize you had it all wrong. A lot of that has come out, but there's also been the extreme opposite of that, when you're starting to lay everything out and you realize everything was even worse than you thought it was. There's this emotional pain and this hurt.

It's a real journey through rock and roll, life and spirituality. As long as I don't go off the deep end tomorrow or do something stupid, the story is one of hope and has a resolution, a theme that rides through that is a positive one. I never realized these things about my friends and my life and my faith. In the end, the journey is a lot like a Creed album. It's all the back history, the stuff no one knew. After they read this book, people will hear Creed songs and think, "Now I finally get this one." There's drama and struggle. I have about thirty pages left on my fourth revision, and I'm still resolving it. The best way to describe it is that the Creed fans out there will read it and react just like if they heard a Creed album.

Back in Creed's earlier days, one of the industry's biggest marks of success was a VH1 Behind the Music special. Creed's came out in 2000. If you could add to that story today, where would you want it to end?

I answer that straightforward and with direct honesty in my book. I hate to be like that, but I answer that in my book and don't want to give it away. You'll have to read it.

Location Info

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The Paramount Theatre

1621 Glenarm Place, Denver, CO

Category: Music

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