Creed | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Tallahassee, Florida, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active |
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| Labels |
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| Spinoffs | Alter Bridge |
| Members | |
| Past members | Brian Brasher |
| Website | creed |
Creed is an Americanrock band fromTallahassee, Florida formed in 1994. Creed was prominent in thepost-grunge movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s, releasing three consecutivemulti-platinum albums.Human Clay (1999), the band's second studio album, receiveddiamond (11× platinum) certification by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Creed has sold over 28 million records in the United States,[1] over 53 million albums worldwide,[2] and was the ninth best-selling musical act of the 2000s.[3]
For most of its existence, the band has consisted of lead vocalistScott Stapp, lead guitaristMark Tremonti, drummerScott Phillips, and bassistBrian Marshall. Creed's first two studio albums,My Own Prison (1997) andHuman Clay (1999), were released to commercial success despite generally unfavorable critical reception. Marshall would leave the band in 2000.Human Clay contained theBillboard Hot 100 number one single "With Arms Wide Open", which won theGrammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2001. The band's third album,Weathered, was released in 2001, with Tremonti on bass guitar. After Creed disbanded in 2004, Stapp pursued a solo career while Tremonti, Phillips, and Marshall founded the bandAlter Bridge withMyles Kennedy.
Creed reunited in 2009, released their fourth albumFull Circle that year and toured before going dormant once again in 2012. After an eleven-year hiatus, Creed reunited again in July 2023 and subsequently announced headlining tours in 2024 and 2025.
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Creed began inTallahassee, Florida in 1994.[4] Founding members vocalistScott Stapp and guitaristMark Tremonti had been classmates in high school and friends atFlorida State University.[5] Stapp and Tremonti realized that they had a mutual love of writing music and performing. After multiple discussions and much time spent writing songs, several of which addressed themes ofChristian theology and spirituality (due to Stapp's background as the stepson of aPentecostal minister), the duo held auditions that led to the recruitment of bassistBrian Marshall, drummerScott Phillips, and rhythm guitarist Brian Brasher. The five-piece band lasted through 1994, with Brasher leaving in 1995. Creed would remain as a quartet through 2004. After Brasher's departure, the four musicians collaborated on four songs that would form part of their chart-topping debut album,My Own Prison. The band found local success, playing shows in bars and small dives in Tallahassee. In 2012, Stapp wrote that Creed first performed under the name "Naked Toddler" at Yianni's in Tallahassee. The name was picked up by Tremonti from a headline in that day's newspaper, but the reaction that night to the name was negative. The group was trying to find ideas for a better name when Marshall said he had been in a band called Mattox Creed. Stapp latched onto the ‘creed’ aspect, and the band agreed.[4][6]
Wanting "a real show at a club", they managed to persuade the owner of a bar in Tallahassee to book them by claiming that they could guarantee an audience of 200 people.[7] Owner and managerJeff Hanson recalled that the band had played mostly cover versions, but two original songs stood out and impressed him so much that he promptly signed them to his management and promotions company and set about developing their act.[8] For their first recordings he matched the band up withJohn Kurzweg, a producer and friend of Hanson's who he felt was an appropriate fit. Together they recorded their debut album for $6,000, which was funded by Hanson.[8] The album, titledMy Own Prison, was initially self-released on their own label, Blue Collar Records in April 1997, selling 6,000 copies throughout Florida.
My Own Prison had been circulating around the music industry for a while when, in May 1997,Diana Meltzer fromWind-up Records heard the album and decided almost immediately that she wanted to sign them to the label,[9] which had creative issues withBaboon over the latter's reluctance to alter their image and sound to suit the label's demands. Meltzer later said that she heard "an arena band".[9] Within the same week, Meltzer, together with Wind-up president Steve Lerner, CEOAlan Meltzer, andA&R representative Joel Mark, flew to Tallahassee to see Creed perform live and decide for certain whether to offer them a contract. "Seeing the energy in the room when Scott Stapp stepped up to the mic, and hearing his powerful voice fill the room, alongside Mark Tremonti's now legendary guitar riffs and that big Creed anthemic rock sound, was all I needed," she told HitQuarters.[9] According to Tremonti in his "Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction" video in 2015, Creed had been rejected by Atlantic and Cherry Universal Records before Wind-up flew down to sign them.[10] The band signed with Wind-up Records in 1997.
My Own Prison was remixed, given a more radio-friendly sound, and re-released by Wind-up Records in August 1997. Four singles were released from the album: "My Own Prison", "Torn", "What's This Life For", and "One". Each of these songs reached No. 1 on theBillboardHot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, making Creed the first band to accomplish such a feat with a debut album.[5] With littleMTV exposure, media coverage, or label support,My Own Prison sold extremely well, moving over six million copies and going six timesplatinum. Creed continued to top year-end charts and was recognized as the Rock Artist of the Year at the 1998Billboard Music Awards.My Own Prison was also the highest-selling heavy music record of 1998 onNielsen SoundScan's Hard Music chart.[11] The band's hit song "My Own Prison" was featured as a live performance on the charity albumLive in the X Lounge in 1998. The band coveredAlice Cooper's song "I'm Eighteen" forThe Faculty soundtrack in 1998.[12] Critical reception towardMy Own Prison was mostly favorable.Stephen Thomas Erlewine fromAllMusic gave it four out of five stars and said that Creed "work well within their boundaries" despite "basically [falling] into the category of post-Seattle bands who temper their grunge with a dose ofLive earnestness."[13] The album lyrically deals with themes of questioning and struggling with faith andspirituality.
With money made fromMy Own Prison, the band started to write for their second album,Human Clay. The album's first single, "Higher", spent a record-breaking 17 weeks on the top of the rock radio charts.[5][14] In 2009, "Higher" was ranked the 95th greatest hard rock song of all time byVH1.[15] The album was released in 1999, whenMy Own Prison was still doing reasonably well.[16] However,Human Clay was an instant and overwhelming success debuting at No. 1 on theBillboard 200 and selling over ten million copies over the next two years, becoming one of the few rock albums to becertified diamond by theRIAA.[5] The album was the band's first to hit No. 1 in the U.S., where it debuted with first week sales of 315,000, and stayed on top for two weeks.[17] After the release of "Higher" and then the album in late 1999, three follow-up singles were released in 2000: "What If", "With Arms Wide Open", and "Are You Ready?". The first three singles topped radio charts, giving Creed a total of seven chart-topping singles.[5] The band would later go on to win aGrammy Award for "With Arms Wide Open" forBest Rock Song in 2001.[18]
Reviews forHuman Clay were largely positive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine fromAllMusic said that the record "does make it clear that there is an audience for post-grunge hard rock, as long as it's delivered without pretension and as long as it meets the audience's desire for straight-ahead, hard-hitting music."[19] The lyrical content ofHuman Clay is a slight departure from that ofMy Own Prison, touching on subjects such as fatherhood ("With Arms Wide Open") andlucid dreaming ("Higher"), as well as darker, more violent themes such assexual abuse ("Wash Away Those Years") andhostility ("What If").[20]
In March 2000, an authorized home video about Creed was announced on the band's website, but never released.[21] During the summer of 2000, bassist Brian Marshall began a spiral intoalcoholism. The band had a meeting with management to discuss Marshall's future. Stapp and Tremonti supported the idea of Marshall going to rehab and attempted to talk Marshall into going, but he refused. Initially, the public thought Marshall was let go because he criticizedPearl Jam frontmanEddie Vedder in a radio interview withKNDD in June 2000, claiming that Scott Stapp was a better songwriter, and criticized Pearl Jam's recent albums for "having songs withouthooks."[22] Stapp later distanced the rest of the band from Marshall's comments and stated, "Yes, we get tired of the PJ question, but there is no excuse for the arrogance and stupidity [of Marshall]. I ask you all not to judge Creed as a band, because the statements made were not the band's feelings, they were Brian's. I'm sorry if Brian offended anyone, and he has already apologized for his comments."[23] Tremonti and Stapp were concerned for Marshall and their collective friendships, but soon after the controversy, Marshall formed a new band called Grand Luxx with his old Mattox Creed bandmates.[5] Stapp stated that Marshall's leaving was his choice and was unrelated to the Pearl Jam comments.[24]Brett Hestla, from the bandVirgos Merlot, replaced Marshall as a touring member of Creed.
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Creed worked on their third album for most of 2001, with Tremonti choosing to play bass on the record to "[preserve] the band's initial core," although Hestla remained in Creed's touring lineup.Weathered was released on November 20, 2001. Six singles were released from the album: "My Sacrifice" (which earned the band a nomination for aGrammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 2003), "Bullets", "One Last Breath", "Hide", "Don't Stop Dancing", and "Weathered". The album was a commercial bestseller[25] and was certified platinum six times over and debuted at No. 1 on theBillboard Top 200. It remained at that spot for eight weeks, a record which Creed notably shares withThe Beatles.[26] The tour to promoteWeathered was met with considerable controversy; it was delayed in April 2002 when Stapp suffered a concussion and vertebrae damage after being involved in acar crash. As a result, in addition to his growing addiction to alcohol, he became addicted to pain medication. This, along with other events, led to a controversial concert on December 29, 2002, at theAllstate Arena inRosemont, Illinois, which ultimately led to the band's disunion. Four disappointed concertgoers filed a lawsuit against the band, claiming that Scott Stapp "was so intoxicated and/or medicated that he was unable to sing the lyrics of a single Creed song."[27] Creed later issued an apology on Stapp's behalf,[28] although Stapp would later deny the claims. Ultimately, the case was dismissed.[27] Stapp later confirmed that he was intoxicated during the concert, but he asserted that he was not incoherent.[24]
Creed disbanded in June 2004, after more than a year of inactivity. Tremonti cited tensions between Stapp and the rest of the band as the reasoning. He said that the relationship with Stapp had become so strained that the creative juices were no longer flowing. The reality was that Stapp was inMaui battling his addiction to alcohol and drugs.[29] Almost simultaneous with the announcement of Creed's break-up, Stapp opted for a solo career. On November 22, 2004, Wind-up Records released Creed'sGreatest Hits album. Stapp released his debut solo albumThe Great Divide in 2005. Tremonti and Phillips reunited with Marshall to form a new band,Alter Bridge, in 2004 with singerMyles Kennedy, formerly of American rock band The Mayfield Four.[30]
While Tremonti referred to Creed as "officially in our past" in 2006,[31] in April 2009, Creed's website announced that the band had reunited for a new tour and plans for a new album. According to Tremonti, "We're all very excited to reconnect with our fans and each other after seven long years."[32] He later added that being in Creed again was "the last thing [he] expected." Phillips also stated: "Our career as Creed came to a very abrupt and unforeseen ending. After reflecting on some of the greatest personal and professional moments of our lives, we've come to realize that we are still very capable of continuing that career and our friendship on a grander scale than ever before."[32] In an interview forPeople magazine, Stapp elaborated on the reunion, saying, "We never felt like we weren't together. We're not looking at this as a reunion. It's more of a rebirth."[33]
In June 2009, Creed performed with Marshall on bass for the first time in eight years onSessions@AOL, showing the band playing four of their hits.[34] In addition, the band performed live onFox & Friends on June 26, 2009.[35] Creed's reunion tour, with touring guitaristEric Friedman, kicked off on August 6, 2009, and concluded on October 20.Full Circle, Creed's first album in eight years, came out on October 27, 2009. Stapp explained the title as follows: "It really defines and articulates, melody-wise and lyrically, what's happened with us. We've come full circle and it's a great place to be."[36] The first single fromFull Circle, "Overcome", was posted on the band's official website on August 18, 2009, the same day the radio premiere started along with its release as a digital download on August 25. The second single, "Rain", was released to radio stations on September 23 and became available on October 6, 2009, as another digital download. The third single, "A Thousand Faces", was released in 2010.
On September 25, 2009, Creed performed a concert inHouston, Texas that was recorded, broadcast via a live internet stream, and subsequently released on December 8, 2010, as a concert film titledCreed Live, the band's first live recording.[37] The performance shatteredJustin Timberlake's world record for the most cameras used at a live music event by using an unprecedented total of 239. The performance also featured the first usage of the "big freeze" technology, popularized by the 1999 filmThe Matrix, in a concert environment.[38] Drummer Scott Phillips also confirmed thatFull Circle will not be the band's final album. The same announcement confirmed that Creed was to go on a world tour in support ofFull Circle between April and September 2010, starting with an Australia/New Zealand tour, followed by South America, Europe, and North America.[39] The tour was called The 20-10 Tour. Tickets for the tour were ten and twenty dollars to stand up against rising concert ticket prices. The first 2,010 tickets purchased for every concert did not include any service fees.[40] Despite these efforts, not every show sold out, and critical reviews were mostly mixed.[41]Skillet joined the tour as main support.
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Creed reconvened in late 2011 and early 2012 to begin work on a potential fifth studio album. A tour was also announced in which the band would perform their first two albums,My Own Prison andHuman Clay, from front to back over the course of two nights, with selected tracks fromWeathered andFull Circle also featured. This tour kicked off with two shows in April 2012, at theChicago Theatre inChicago, Illinois, with the band performingMy Own Prison the first night andHuman Clay the second. They also toured in South America and Indonesia.[42][43]
The band went on hiatus in 2013.[44] In October 2013, Stapp noted in an interview that extensive work was done on a fifth album throughout 2011 and 2012. However, the project was subsequently abandoned.[45][46] Stapp has maintained that Creed is "still a band."[47][48] He also said that he's open to continuing to work with Creed when the time is right.[49]
In June 2015, while promoting his second solo albumCauterize, Mark Tremonti claimed in an interview withKerrang that he "[hasn't] been a close friend of Scott's in 9 years". He did not speak to Stapp throughout the South American Tour in 2012 and plans for their fifth studio album were shelved, and they continued to work with Myles Kennedy in Alter Bridge.[50]
In September 2015, Stapp appeared on theDr. Oz Show. When asked about a Creed reunion, Stapp replied: "I can tell you what, I sure hope so. I love the guys with all my heart and if they're watching, 'Come on guys, let's make a record.'"[51] He later doubled down on the statements by stating that Creed would "definitely" reunite and that he expected new material from the band within "the next two years."[52] When asked about Stapp's statements, Tremonti clarified that he was still busy promoting his solo albums and that Alter Bridge would record and tour in 2016, making it unlikely for him to return to Creed within Stapp's proposed timeline.[53]
On November 20, 2015, Creed released a compilation album, entitledWith Arms Wide Open: A Retrospective. It was aboxed set with three discs: one with hits, the second with rarities, and the third with acoustic versions of hits.[54] In the United States, the album was available exclusively atWalmart.[55]
In 2016, Stapp joinedArt of Anarchy. His first album with the band, titledThe Madness, was released in March 2017. Alter Bridge continued to tour and record, while Mark Tremonti's solo metal bandTremonti released their third albumDust in April 2016, and their fourth album,A Dying Machine, was released in April 2018. Scott Phillips has drummed in the supergroup projectProjected, releasing the albumsHuman (2012) andIgnite My Insanity (2017). Scott Stapp has since bridged away fromArt of Anarchy, having released his third solo album,The Space Between the Shadows, on July 19, 2019.
In November 2020, drummer Scott Phillips announced that a reunion was a possibility.[56]
On July 19, 2023, the band announced that they had reunited and would be headlining the Summer of '99 cruise in April 2024.[57] In their run to winning theWorld Series in 2023, theTexas Rangers players regularly used Creed's "Higher" as motivation.[58] The song became popular with fans and the team alike, to the point that the Texas Rangers had singalongs for "Higher" during games during October.[58] Along with their reunion and the Texas Rangers helping to popularize their music again, Creed's streaming numbers shot up for the first time in years, culminating in Creed attending a playoff game between the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros on October 18, 2023. Following their renewed popularity, on October 30, 2023, the band announced TheSummer of '99 Tour, their first tour since 2012. The tour featured more than 40 shows across the US with support from3 Doors Down,Finger Eleven,Daughtry,Switchfoot,Tonic, andBig Wreck on select dates.[59] This was followed on February 6, 2024, with the announcement of the "Are You Ready? Tour" starting in November 2024 with supporting acts 3 Doors Down,Mammoth WVH, and Finger Eleven.[60] Creed saw a major resurgence in popularity among young men in 2024. Many of their hits, especially "One Last Breath," became popular onTikTok. By June 2024, Creed's return to mainstream popularity was evidenced by a return to fourBillboard charts.[61]
Creed has been described aspost-grunge,hard rock,alternative rock, andalternative metal, and also asChristian rock,grunge,nu metal, andheavy metal.[a]
Stapp's influences includeOtis Redding,Donny Hathaway,Def Leppard,U2,The Doors, andLed Zeppelin.[88][89] Guitarist Mark Tremonti's influences includethrash metal bands likeSlayer,Metallica,Exodus, andForbidden.[90]
According to a 1999 piece inThe Washington Post:[91]
The biblical imagery of singer Scott Stapp's lyrics got Creed typed as Christian rock by early listeners, and the band's denial of any religious objective has unsettled some of its more fervent fans. "We are not a Christian band," Stapp insists on the band's website. "A Christian band has an agenda to lead others to believe in their specific religious beliefs. We have no agenda!"
In 2022, Stapp said in an interview withTheo Von,[92]
I knew I couldn't live the life that someone who was a Christian artist was supposed to live. So Creed was not a Christian band. [...] They didn't want to live with that pressure. And that burden that was not something they signed up for. They signed up to be in a rock and roll band and everything that came with it. [...] I went to the complete polar opposite of what a preacher is, but still, in my writings, could not escape what I knew was right or what I felt was right, and that is to point people to God, to point people to something greater, to point people to a spiritual life in a spiritual realm, which I knew was real, which I had felt as a child, and I've felt on stage thousands of times and continued to, to this day.
Bassist Brian Marshall, who named the band, has noted that Stapp uses spiritual imagery as ametaphor in his lyrics.[93]
Creed was one of the most commercially successful rock bands of the late 1990s and early 2000s.[94] Their first three studio albums,My Own Prison,Human Clay, andWeathered, have all gonemulti-platinum in the United States, selling six million, 11 million, and six million copies respectively.[95][96] The band also won aGrammy Award for Best Rock Song for the song "With Arms Wide Open" in 2001.[18] In 2011,Billboard ranked Creed as the 18th-best artist of the 2000s.[97]
However, Creed has been negatively received by some professional critics, such asRobert Christgau.[98] In 2013, readers ofRolling Stone magazine voted Creed the worst band of the 1990s.[99] Jonah Weiner ofSlate has tried to make the case that the band was "seriously underrated";[100] Joe Coscarelli ofMediaite countered that "most people hate Creed's combination of overwrought power-balladry and Christian-infused testosterone."[101]
Current members
Former members
Touring members
TheGrammy Awards are awarded annually by theNational Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States. Creed has won one award out of three nominations.[102][103]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | "With Arms Wide Open" | Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal | Nominated |
| Best Rock Song[b] | Won | ||
| 2003 | "My Sacrifice" | Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal | Nominated |
Created byDick Clark in 1973, theAmerican Music Awards is an annual music awards ceremony and one of several major annual American music awards shows. Creed has received four American Music Award from seven nominations.[104]
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Creed | Artist of the Year | Nominated |
| Favorite Alternative Artist | Won | ||
| Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group | Nominated | ||
| Human Clay | Favorite Pop/Rock Album | Won | |
| 2003 | Creed | Favorite Alternative Artist | Won |
| Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group | Won | ||
| Fan Choice Award | Nominated |
TheMTV Video Music Awards are presented annually byMTV and honor accomplishments in the music video medium. Creed has received two nominations.
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "Higher" | Best Rock Video | Nominated |
| 2002 | "My Sacrifice" | Nominated |
Established in 1995, theMTV Video Music Brazil awards, commonly known as VMB, areMTV Brasil's annual award ceremony. Many award winners are chosen by MTV viewers.
| Year | Nominated work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | "My Sacrifice" | Best International Video | Nominated | [105] |
| 2003 | "Don't Stop Dancing" | Nominated | [106] |
'What if we just call ourselves Creed?' I asked... At the time it was 1994, my sophomore year.
The post-grunge outfit built up a massive following, which also led to backlash from critics and rock fans who perhaps didn't appreciate the band's righteous music or felt that singer Scott Stapp sounded a little too similar to Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.
...the hard-rock quartet formed by Stapp, guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips...
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