When Creed final headlined New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard in 2000, the rockers had been on a serious roll after releasing their 1999 blockbuster “Human Clay.”
However enjoying the massive daddy of all arenas, frontman Scott Stapp was in a distinct type of fatherly feels.
“I brought my son Jagger out, and I’ll never forget bringing him out as a little boy onstage,” Stapp, 51, instructed The Publish. “And you know, the whole thing ‘If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere’ …. I got to share that memory with my little boy.”
Twenty-four years after that father-son bonding second, Stapp and Creed are lastly making their manner again to the Backyard on their “Are You Ready?” reunion tour that hits MSG on Friday evening.
And the singer is rocking it as a grandfather this time. “Now [Jagger is] 26 years old and married, and I have a grandson, Cash, and another grandson, Colt, about to be born,” mentioned Stapp. “And so it’s crazy how time flies.”
Little question, a lot has modified for Stapp — and Creed — since then. However as this tour celebrates the twenty fifth anniversary of “Human Clay” — a monster album that went diamond with over 11.5 million US gross sales on the energy of hit singles “Higher” and the No. 1 smash “With Arms Wide Open” — the band is again on the largest of levels.
“It’s a full-circle moment, you know?” mentioned Stapp. “And so it’s definitely a surreal experience. And it’s going to be a night to remember.”
After the success of Creed’s 1997 debut “My Own Prison” — which went six-times platinum — the band was hardly worrying about struggling a sophomore droop with “Human Clay.”
“We didn’t have time to think about that,” shared Stapp. “The success happened so fast with ‘My Own Prison’ [that] we literally went from clubs to arenas in 18 months. And during the course of that period of time, we didn’t have enough material to play a headline set, and so we were feverishly just writing songs on tour.”
“Human Clay” was molded out of that write-or-die desperation on the highway. “We were writing songs at sound check and in hotel rooms,” mentioned Stapp of his songwriting spree with Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti.
“I have specific memories of getting inspired and writing and then running to Mark’s room and going, ‘Hey man, let’s do this.’ And then literally debuting them for the first time in front of big audiences, just because we needed to have a longer set time.”
A kind of songs was “Higher” — the lead single from “Human Clay” — which grew to become Creed’s first Prime 10 hit on the Billboard Scorching 100. Stapp’s exploration of lucid dreaming was real-life inspiration in the course of a freestyle one evening.
“I kind of put the band on the spot,” he mentioned, “but Mark kind of rolled with me and started playing something, and the chorus for ‘Higher’ just came out live on stage.”
The Grammy-winning “With Arms Wide Open” was born when Stapp was processing the information about changing into a brand new dad. “I had just found out prior to a club show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in early 1998 that I was going to be a father for the first time,” he recalled. “I went inside to inform the band, and I heard Mark doodling along with his guitar.
“And I said, ‘Dude, just keep playing that over and over and over again.’ And it was the guitar-picking intro for ‘With Arms Wide Open.’ And I stepped up to the mic during sound check and just started singing what was in my heart.”
However after scoring one other multiplatinum album with 2001’s “Weathered” — that includes the hit “My Sacrifice” — Creed broke up in 2004. Stapp went on to pursue a solo profession, starting with 2005’s “The Great Divide,” but in addition struggled with psychological well being issues whereas battling alcohol habit.
“Addiction and alcoholism can also kind of have some side effects, if you will, that can manifest as depression,” mentioned Stapp. “And we had been all so younger, we didn’t actually perceive the components that had been creating this situation.
“It’s very easy for young artists, when you’re playing every night, when you’re having this meteoric rise, and every night’s a party to the audience … that can turn into how you are offstage as well. It can have dire consequences when it perpetuates and becomes something that’s consistent.”
Now having been sober for 10 years, Stapp is hoping that he “can be kind of a light to younger artists if they need help in terms of how to navigate success and how to take care of yourself.”
And he’s inspired by the change that he has seen within the business — and past. “It seems like we live in a society and world today where artists are extended much more grace and understanding and compassion than they were 25 years ago,” mentioned Stapp. “I’m glad that artists today are looked at and cared for and understood a little more deeply than they were back then, and the stigma is off these issues.”
Stapp — who additionally launched a brand new solo album, “Higher Power,” earlier this yr — is bringing his more healthy outlook and perspective to the Creed reunion tour.
“This doesn’t sound very sexy in terms of being in rock ’n’ roll, but I’m out here working, and I have a job to do,” mentioned the singer, who has three different kids along with his second spouse, former Miss New York USA Jaclyn Nesheiwat. (They introduced their plan to divorce after 18 years of marriage earlier this yr.)
“My job is to deliver this music and a performance to these fans that they expect and that meets my standards. And I can’t do that if I’m partying and participating in all the trappings that surround the entertainment business.”
Certainly, Stapp has a brand new, wiser appreciation for the followers — young and old — that he’ll proceed embracing with arms huge open because the reunion tour hits MSG.
“What’s beautiful about what’s going on with Creed today is, you know, we’re getting to experience it all over again at the same level that we ended when the band went on hiatus in 2004 — but with all this knowledge and experience and understanding of how special and fortunate that we were back in the late ’90s, early 2000s,” he mentioned.
“It’s incredible to be able to experience this now with the depth of appreciation and gratitude and just humility that we didn’t have 25 years ago.”
