Rock Star of a New Creed

Thirty million albums ago, a Florida-based rock band named Creed debuted on the American music scene with an album called My Own Prison. Led by singer Scott Stapp, Creed peppered its records with religious phrases and tributes to God and even a condemnation of abortion. One reporter labeled the band "Bible thumping rockers," while another opined that the problem with Creed was that they lacked "the crucial hell-raising and devil-may-care abandon that elevates rock to transcendent heights." These were just some of the many Creed-bashing reviews that would appear in print as the band reached the top of the rock world.

To be sure, Stapp gave his critics plenty of ammunition. After a particularly bad performance which Stapp later blamed on side effects of his having to take the prescription drug prednisone for vocal problems, his band was sued by angry fans. Soon after, Creed disbanded, and Stapp began solo work while the other members formed a new band, Alter Bridge.

More recently, Stapp has been in the news for several mishaps: the day after his marriage to Jaclyn Nesheiwat, he was arrested for public intoxication. Later that week, a porn video distributor released excerpts of a video that it planned to sell, which featured Stapp and fellow rocker Kid Rock receiving sexual favors from eager fans in 1999. The charges were later dropped and an injunction kept the video from being sold.

The Great Divide is Stapp's first full-length solo effort and gives the listener a clear sense of the contribution he made to Creed. While Alter Bridge's lyrics are spiritually vague, Stapp fills his solo outing with clear and unambiguous references to his faith like this one on the title track, "The Great Divide:"

I've been on heaven's doorstep with the door open, one foot inside / I cried out, 'God give me answers' 'Please hush child, I'll tell you why... You have loved me when you were weak. You have given unselfishly. I kept you from falling, falling, everywhere but your knees.

Creed fans who bought the album thinking it was going to be a collection of hook-laden choruses may be in for a surprise. While there are traces of hit songs like "Higher" which made the band a household name, Stapp's solo material is surprisingly low key, even brooding in spots, revealing a complex side both to his songwriting and in his delivery. Stapp is at his best on the dark and foreboding "Justify," which he opens with two seduction scenes — one straight and one gay — that the singer resists:

I met a man in New Orleans wore a half suit with dark blue jeans / Kicked his heals together winked at me real nice / …"Hey boy...have you seen the other side" Yeah...in this man I saw the devil's hand so I looked at him man to man said 'This time it's gonna be a fight.' I saw her from across the room with diamond eyes she's heaven's jewel / Dropped two aces smiled and threw my cards back.

Though Stapp isn't the first, nor likely the last, rock star to be torn between the spirit and the flesh, few have so succinctly captured the rock star lifestyle as poetically as he does in the bridge of "Justify"

We fly around like we were superman live in another trance a different way to dance with dark romance you get another chance to do that dirty dance without consequence…..Yeah I've been that man who lives deceit, surrounds himself with worldly things.

By the end of the song, Stapp is ready to confess: "I guess you probably noticed / I've been living a double life."

It is the high point on an above average album that is filled with songs that are a gentler form of the kind of arena rock that Creed fans have come to expect, but it is still effective.

Though he stumbles briefly on the ho-hum "Sublime," Stapp recovers nicely on "You Will Soar," and closes the album off with a confessional number, "Broken."

Scott Stapp is unlikely ever to win the praise of most rock critics, but the fact that criticism of this record has been relatively muted is a sign that it was not the dud that many expected and/or hoped for. If he can continue to stay out of trouble, Creed's former lead singer may very well develop a solo career that will keep him busy for years to come.

Editor’s Note: Mark Joseph produced The Passion Of The Christ:Songs record on which Scott Stapp appeared.

Mark Joseph is the author of two books, Faith, God & Rock 'n' Roll, The Rock & Roll Rebellion, and producer of the Passion Of The Christ: Songs.

Creed's music has pulled me out of some pretty dark holes in my life. I truly believe music like this has the ability to touch and turn around young peoples lives. I wish Scott Stapp the greatest of success with this album, so he continues to bring light to a dim and dismal place. The Music Industry.

I was at that Chicago show.

Whoa. Shades of Jim Morrison.

Good inside information -- rest of band was very, very unhappy about his prima donna BS and this was the last straw.

Too bad. Maybe he'll find redemption in his new work?

Sounds to me that he might have realized you are right. I wish him well if he truly has changed.

Contemporary Christian all the time for me. If you played it to a kid and told them to ignore the words, they wouldn't know the difference between it and more mainstream. Then you spring the words on 'em and bam....healthy entertainment

Every one stumbles and falls, but the message in his music is one of the things that brought me back to Christ. So regardless of how you feel about him, he has done some good in the world. He figuratively, and literally saved my life a couple of years ago, so I will find it in my heart to forgive him.

What his probelm is, is he has to be more open, more outspoken, do interviews whatever instead of posing. I have never seen that guy in an interview or even speak so naturally people are going to put labels on him, and I think those labels are what screwed him up in the head. He doesn`t stand up to them. Humor is a good way to confront it, for example making fun of yourself. You can`t get too serious because the public will think you are fat headed. Look at Tom Cruise, the guy just will not lighten up about his sexuality or Scientology and he just keeps digging himself a bigger and bigger hole everytime he opens his mouth, so much so that if he breaks up with Katie Holmes now, he is going to be compared with the sham marriages of Michael Jackson. His publicist must be going out of his mind, he makes $20 mill a picture plus profits, Mega cash, and the guy is totally destroying it all because he won`t lighten up. One appearance on Saturday night live making fun of himself and he could fix his career.

It would be nice to hear him speak about his Faith in an open and frank manner. He has always seemed to take what the anti-Christian media has said about him to heart. Also no one should fool them selves into believing that the same media would love nothing more than to end his career, and silence the message. To them he is nothing more than another eeevill Christian, forcing his beliefs upon us.

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