KISS 108 Boston

October 18, 2004

Matty: Good Morning everybody. I have a big day here on the Matty show with big time singers, Ja Rule was here earlier and Scott Stapp is here right now. Good Morning Scott.

Scott: What's up? Thanks for having me.

Matty: Good to see you.

Scott: Yeah, you too.

Matty: Let's just start with the most superficial thing, because that's basically the level at which I operate most of the day.

Scott: Okay (laughs)

Matty: How many CD's did Creed sell?

Scott: I believe worldwide nearly 40 million.

Matty: Yes! That's what I'm talking about. 40 million

Scott: I know we were over 30 million in the states and that's Sound Scan, so I don't believe that includes all the mom and pop stores that sell them and then, you know, with the rest of the world, you know I assume 8 to 10 million in there and that's actually low 'cause we got a late start with our international careers going, so you know that's kinda still building there, so you know it's been a pretty, pretty blessed ride, so to speak.

Matty: But then you're no more now.

Scott: Yeah, actually, the band, Mark and I were co-songwriters in the band and he played guitar and I did the vocals and the lyrics and a lot of the arrangements and we kinda helped each other in different times. Sometimes he would come up with a cool melody and sometimes I would come up with a cool guitar part. Essentially we had our roles and you know he was growing as a songwriter, as well as I was, but from his point of view I think he wanted to be all in one, you know, he wanted to sing, he wanted to write the songs in their entirety. So we had begun talking about branching off and doing different things since '99 and you know I was getting involved in some acting projects, and that's something I'm still doing, and so I was going to take some time off to do that and then I had ran into some health issues in 2002, just one after the other, started with a car wreck and went to pneumonia, all kinds, callouses on the vocal chords and so I guess that kind of accelerated the plan to do side projects. Initially you know, there wasn't gonna be a break-up, it was just gonna be you know, us doing some side projects and so you know, but sometimes announcing a break-up and stuff like that can make for good publicity for your new project and I think that was a, that might have been some of the rationale on his end, I really didn't think it was necessary but that's neither here nor there, you know it's a

Matty: Well, there's some weird stuff that happened. I mean, there was a lawsuit from fans.

Scott: Two fans. Two fans wanted 2 millions dollars because they had bad seats, pretty much. (Laughs)

Matty: That was one of the weirdest pop music stories I ever heard.

Scott: Yeah

Matty: They said that you guys were not performing properly.

Scott: Yeah

Matty: It was the weirdest story.

Scott: It was kinda weird. They said that they couldn't understand the lyrics and that I didn't sing the lyrics to the songs. I actually have the concert filmed and on video and I will probably be releasing that 'cause I think it's kinda funny to see what we got sued over.

Matty: But you seem like such a nice fellow. How do you get into stuff? Fred Durst got on your case

Scott: Well you know a lot comes

Matty: and Pearl Jam got mad.

Scott: No, no, no Pearl Jam didn't get mad actually a

Matty: Let's go to Fred Durst. What was that?

Scott: Well what happened was, we were doing a radio festival and we headlined the show and Fred apparently was upset that we were headlining the show. Based on the headliner, you do the press junket for that day. So, you know, VH1, MTV, all these various radio stations, they were all, had a little press area out in the lawn and I was actually on my tour bus with my son and Wayne Chrebet, who plays for the Jets

Matty: Yep

Scott: Playing video games and they came and got me, I did my press junket and then went back into the bus, just hanging out and then someone comes on the bus and says Fred doesn't wanna go on stage, he wants to headline" and I said Listen, if it makes it easier for everybody, just let him go, you know I don't care, you know we'll play before him". Instead of solving the problem in his mind I guess it made it worse, or Fred's always been known for interesting marketing ideas (Matty laughs) and interesting ways to get publicity.

Matty: Yeah, I know where you're going with this

Scott: Us being at the time, the largest new rock band in the world, it was a good way for him to get some publicity and usually the frontman takes the brunt of the good and the brunt of the bad and so it's easy to attack the singer in a band, it's easy to say he's an arrogant jerk and he thinks he's this, he thinks he's that. Because I think a lot of people, including myself, you're likely, you're like you can say I bet he is, you know, I mean. It's easy to believe negativity about people in the spotlight and a lot of times I find that it's the people that are making the accusations that actually are that way. But, um you know that was that and then with the Pearl Jam thing that was just simply, Brian Marshall, bass player in our band, kinda got a little overzealous in his loyalty to the band and I guess was upset about some of the early comparisons to Pearl Jam and kinda made an arrogant statement in my defense, kinda saying, you know so and so wishes he could write songs like Scott writes" or whatever and you know I'd immediately came out and said Hey, we don't feel the same way, he was just a little over excited" and you know, I think he was on his boat fishing, having a few beers. I think it might have been beer 30 and so he had a couple few too many. But, that's about it.

Matty: We're talking with Scott Stapp from, well from Creed but now out on his own. You know it's always something with you guys. (Laughs)

Scott: Well it's always something I think with anybody who's reached a certain level of success and I mean probably, you know, everybody in their life has drama but it seems to follow rock bands. I don't know if you saw the Metallica movie and they had a shrink and therapist and all kinds of stuff and you know, it's like a marriage and not only that, in this business, you know I approach it where there's room for everybody, there's room for all genres but some other artists feel like if you're selling records it means you're taking people away from buying their records. And so you know they, boom, they like to stir up a little controversy and you know I think celebrity boxing was invented because of the boxing match I challenged Fred Durst to for charity. It was actually a joke but it actually became public, and a next thing you know celebrity boxing is out so it's kinda funny coincidence.

Matty: That would have been an interesting fight.

(Laughs)

Matty: You and Fred. Well, it would be, you know come from very different places, I mean you do a lot of songs that are, what's a good word?

Scott: Spiritual.

Matty: Spiritually based

Scott: Spiritually based, yeah

Matty: And Fred Durst, many think is the spawn of Satan (laughs) so the two of you together that would be the white hat, black hat thing. Now your new single is from the soundtrack to The Passion of the Christ?

Scott: Yeah, the soundtrack to The Passion of the Christ, um, the one that you guys are actually playing is going to be on my solo album and there's a version of this song that I specifically changed after seeing the film. So the version on The Passion of the Christ is different, it's heavier guitars, more intense, more edgy, more a, just it has its moments of tension and all the feelings that I felt after seeing the film. It completely changed the dynamic of the music and then the single, like I said, you guys are playing will be on my solo album, which is due out in the spring of 2005.

Matty: Now, you're gonna sing for us now.

Scott: Yeah, I thought we'd sing a song, if you'd let me.

Matty: Sure.

Scott: And we've got a

Matty: I don't know, let me run it by my team. Should we let him sing?

(Laughter)

Scott We've got Creed's Greatest Hits coming out in November.

Matty: Oh, there's another 10 million. (Laughter)

Scott: First couple weeks and then I'll be on Leno November 18 doing Relearn Love. So, we've got a lot going on and I just wanted to come by all the radio stations here and kinda let everyone know how much I appreciated what they've done up to this point and then just kinda say hi, so let's play a song here. This song is called Higher, it was off of Human Clay. This is early for me to sing so we'll see how it goes.

Matty: It's early for all of us. You ready, what do you want? You've got your own little do hickey over there - that's a technical term.

Scott: Okay

Matty: How's that?

Scott: Alright

Matty: Is that better?

Scott: Yeah. Alright, here we go with Higher

(Scott sings Higher acoustic)

Matty: Oh wow, that's unbelievable (applause). Scott Stapp. What's amazing is they're sitting here and I'm thinking we must have played that song at least ten thousand times.

Scott: Yes

Matty: on KISS 108, and to see you sing it that's really quite remarkable.

Scott: Thank you

Matty: Man, what a voice. That's really amazing

Scott: Thank you. (Laughs) Awesome.

Matty: 40 million. When you sell 40 million. How do you get per - you get 30 or 40 cents.

Scott: Not... not

Matty: Not Enough

Scott: Yeah, you know what, you know what, it probably does come down to 30/40 cents.

Matty: Yeah, well, maybe a little bit more.

Scott: No, no, no. You wouldn't believe all the different various things. But you know what, it's better

Matty: Alright, let's do the math. Let's call it 35 cents

Scott: It's better then flipping burgers.

Matty: Yeah. Let's introduce

Scott: And then there's managers and splits involved. This is, I get where ya going.

Matty: Let's introduce the guitarist

Scott: This is Artie.

Matty: Artie

Scott: He's a friend of mine. His band is called Gone Blind, they played with Creed and opened for us on tour for a couple years and friends of mine and me and Artie are actually writing some songs for my solo record and the cool thing is, I love to collaborate, other artists bring out things in me that I didn't know were there or help me think about things differently and bring different passions and emotions to things and so

Matty: I would think that the words out Scott Stapp is doing a solo album, I mean there must a gazillion musicians who want to be on it.

Scott: Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, you know what, you'd be shocked, even musicians that are in completely different genres, you know like get a call from Nelly and Little John, all the way to Santana and Jimmy Page and all kinds of

Matty: See, now you're talking royalty now, Jimmy Page.

Scott: Yeah, you know, so I've been honored, you know just to even get the interest.

Matty: Artie, how'd you like to do a couple riffs with Jimmy Page

(Laughter)

Matty: That's amazing. That's just so cool. That's just amazing.

Scott: I appreciate it, you know, it's great to be here this early in the morning. You know, a lot of people think 'oh, he's a rock guy, he's not use to getting up'. I have a five year old little boy, so I'm use to this hour. I'm use to this hour.

Matty: Earlier hours

Scott: Yeah exactly

Matty: Well, listen, what've we got here, we've got time to play a single, 'cause we're running out - we could talk to you all morning.

Scott: You've got time to play Relearn Love.

Matty: We're gonna play Relearn Love, this is the new single from Scott, this we will play the CD version, the full version.

Scott: The one you're playing will be on my solo record and there's also a version directly inspired by the film The Passion of the Christ on The Passion of the Christ soundtrack so check it out.

Matty: So, we'll play this and we'll thank you for coming in.

Scott: Yeah man, thanks for having me.

Matty: Great to meet you.

Scott: Great to meet you. Thank you

Matty: You're a great talent

Scott: Thank you, thank you guys

Matty: This is the new one from Scott Stapp

.Transcribed by Robyn