Scott Alan Stapp (born Anthony Scott Flippen on August 8, 1973 in Orlando, Florida, USA) is a singer and songwriter, and a former member of the band Creed. He is known to have strong Christian beliefs, which is often reflected in his songs. He attended Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee, but was expelled from it for marijuana usage.

When Scott’s biological father abandoned the family when Scott was 5, his mother, Lynda, worked two jobs to support Scott and his sisters, Amanda and Amie. The family barely survived. Scott recalls often that is was often money earned from mowing lawns and other odd jobs sought out by him and his sisters that provided food for the family after mom paid rent and kept the lights on for another month.

Whatever the struggles that besieged the young family, Lynda never stopped taking her children to church. She met Dr. Steven Stapp at church when Scott was 10. Steven was a retired Air Force man and practicing dentist in Winter Park, FL. The couple married within a year, established a comfortable home in Orlando, and Dr. Stapp adopted the three siblings as his own. Scott had so longed for a father in his early years that he practiced writing his newly-taken name of “Scott Alan Stapp” over and over on school assignments, and “instantly fell in love with this guy” who shared Scott’s love of sports, and had even been drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. In addition to the emotional and financial salvation he brought to the family, Steven Stapp was committed to ensuring their spiritual salvation as well. The discipline bar within the household was raised by several notches. Scott was made to copy large excerpts from Psalms or Proverbs as penance for many infractions, complete with commentary on the passage’s personal meaning in his life and a spelling and grammar check by his dad. The family was expected to attend as many as five church services per week, and activities deemed ungodly or worldly were not allowed. Scott felt isolated and confused as he tried to reconcile the aura of the “me generation” of the early Eighties against the doctrines and judgmental attitudes he encountered at church and teachings of the Bible. Scott now credits his father’s practices for teaching him how to write songs and says “he was only trying to guard my heart,” but that was hardly the perspective from the teenage Scott, who longed to escape the restrictions he sensed within his family and religious community.

Spiritual Supergroup

Scott enrolled Lee College in Cleveland, TN to please his dad. The institution had a sound reputation as a Christian place of higher learning, but also put distance between Scott and his family. When Scott was expelled because someone turned him in for smoking marijuana at a party, his dream of studying law ended, and a new one began to take root. Scott began to pour his feelings onto pages of spiral notebooks as he sat in his unfurnished, bare apartment with no working utilities. After some months, Scott made his way back to Orlando, and for the first time, was introduced to classic rock by a girlfriend. The sounds of the Doors, Led Zeppelin, and U2 began to fill his ears and mind, and he knew he had found his calling. After reading about Jim Morrison’s experiences, Scott determined that he would meet his musical destiny in Tallahassee, and so he did. He soon reacquainted with Mark Tremonti, a friend he had as a teenager in Orlando. Tremonti was a heavy metal master on guitar, and quickly added music to Stapp’s notebooks of words. The duo claims they wrote “4 or 5 songs the first night we met”. When Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall were drafted for drums and bass, CREED was born. The band built a fan base one at a time by laying out passionate, scorching live performances. Despite the sloughing off of critics as “Pearl Jam knock-offs” or Christian choir boys, audiences were mesmerized by the deeply spiritual lyrics, intricate, pounding riffs, and sheer presence of this band onstage. Soon they were playing to the largest venues wherever they played. When Stapp lost money the band had saved for their demo recording in a multi-level marketing ploy, they turned to manager Jeff Hanson, who borrowed the $6,000 to record and distribute My Own Prison locally. The band began selling cd’s after their shows, and had managed to move about 5000 copies. When a demo of the title track was played on WXSR one night in Tallahassee, phone lines were jammed before the song ended with demands to hear more CREED and see them in concert. Despite the groundswell of interest, major record label executives dismissed the band’s arena-rock sound and hopeful lyrics as relics of a by-gone era. CREED did however, close a deal as the first signing by an independent label, Wind-Up Records. My Own Prison was released by the label in 1997, and produced a record four Top-Ten rock singles from a debut album, including the #1 title track.

A Child Is Born

Scott Stapp married Hilaree Burns in January, 1998, and in October the couple celebrated the birth of a son, Jagger, named not for the Rolling Stone Mick, but for “being one who carries a message from God” according to a book Scott had read on names and their meanings. Jagger Stapp’s birth proved life-changing not only for Stapp, but also for his band. “With Arms Wide Open” was a prayerful ode of hope and emotional healing offered not just to a newborn son, but to a father seen with new eyes, valuing what was once rejected as a rebellious teen. With Arms Wide Open became CREED’s biggest hit, and was the first of seven #1 singles from the Human Clay album, released in September, 1999, and would win a Grammy as Best Rock Single. The album stayed in the Top 100 rock albums charts for nearly a year, and in 2002, reached the premier Diamond status, selling over 10 million copies, by the Recording Industry Association of America. Weathered, CREED’s third album, was released in November, 2001, and brought record industry sales up immediately in a wake of illegal downloads, selling over 6 million units. An almost year-long tour ensued in January, 2002. Stapp was plagued by a barrage of health issues throughout, including pneumonia, bronchial tumors, spinal injuries, and vocal nodules. The physical and emotional stress of the tour took its toll, and Stapp took a long hiatus along with the other members of CREED. In June 2004, it was announced that CREED had disbanded. With only three album releases, the band had sold 30 million copies.

Back to Faith: New Beginnings

Scott was asked by actor-director Mel Gibson to contribute to a project called Passion of the Christ Songs, a collection of musical impressions by contemporary artists describing the impact of the film on their personal lives. Stapp had returned to his faith during the demise of his band, his marriage, and his health, and spoke honestly and openly about embracing Christianity in numerous print and radio interviews in 2004, saying he had a “heart transplant”. The song “Relearn Love” was released in August, 2004, and in February, 2005, Passion of the Christ Songs received a Dove Award for Best Special Event Recording. Stapp spent most of the past year working on his first solo project, to be released in November, 2005. Still a devoted single parent, Stapp says “people telling me how much songs mean to them and how close they feel to them” means more than any accolade.

Shapiro, Marc. CREED:From Zero to Platinum St Martin's Press, 2000.

"Scott Stapp Finds Himself Alone", United Press International, August 28, 2004.

Credit: en.wikipedia.org