STAR 98.7

Los Angeles October 14, 2004

Introduction: Broadcasting live from the Star Lounge. Star 98.7.

Jason: You guys ready?

Applause

Jason: It's STAR 98.7, Jason Poland and Lisa Fox. This guy has sold tens of millions of albums. He was the lead singer of one of the most popular rock bands in the past decade. He once said always speak your mind and speak from the heart and do what you love, no matter what anyone says" which is a great mantra to live by, don't you think?

Lisa: It certainly is.

Scott laughs

Jason: What is it about this guy that you like so much?

Audience member: The depth and weight to his music and of course his voice.

Jason: What about you?

Audience member: The voice and he's sexy

Jason: Ladies and gentlemen, we're in the Star Lounge on STAR 98.7. This is Scott Stapp, formerly of Creed.

Applause

Scott: What's up guys?

Lisa: Hi Scott

Scott: Hey, how ya doin' Lisa?

Lisa: I feel like this moment, I mean, is six years in the making. I've been holding my breath (Scott laughs) like, I was the psycho girl, hopefully like many of you in car, my friends would get in the car, put on Human Clay...

Scott: Yeah (laughs)

Lisa: ...and hit repeat, With Arms Wide Open, over and over, Higher, over and over, over and over. You gonna hear it ten times if you get in my car. Know what I'm sayin'?

Scott: Well, now you're gonna hear it today...

Lisa: Excellent..

Scott: ...live

Lisa: I know where gonna here some live music...

Scott: Yeah

Lisa: ...we're gonna hear some Creed stuff, we're gonna hear some new stuff

Scott: Yeah

Lisa: ...from Scott Stapp

Scott: I'm excited to be here. You guys are awesome.

Lisa: Well thanks for stopping by

Scott: No problem

Lisa: Now, first of all we want to ask, you know before Creed really had radio hits, you guys had a really strong following...

Scott: Yeah

Lisa: ...when you first started out. Tell us about that.

Scott: Well, we had actually sold around 5 to 7,000 CD's in Tallahassee, Florida, where we were all going to school, or at least enrolled in school at the time and had started getting radio air play there and actually had success with two singles on two different formats at the time in Tallahassee and then it kinda went regionally and that's how record companies found out about us and then it led to the record deal so, we went around and started a fictitious record company, called Blue Collar Records, and we scrounged up and begged and asked parents for loans so we could go get those CD's made up and you know they looked like legitimate CD's from a record company and we went, took them to the record stores and put them in and kinda was working it ourselves you know in hopes of getting a deal and it ended up working out.

Lisa: Now is this with your family's blessing or was this after you kinda left home at 17 to kinda do it on your own?

Scott: Yeah, this was kinda on my own, you know, I was gonna go to law school, and I was in my senior year at Florida State and you know needless to say at the time my parents weren't too thrilled about the idea, but at that point they had no leverage with me, you know I had paid my way through college, I had been on my own since 17 and I really at that time was kinda, didn't really value their opinions too much and you know, I think being a parent myself it wouldn't be something that...you know I can see their rationale you know hey finish law school and then go do this" but when you're getting ready to get a record deal, you know you gotta go for it.

Lisa: How did all of these great Creed songs come together? Did you do all the writing?

Scott: I did, I wrote the lyrics, vocal melodies, arrangements. Mark was like a riff master, you know he would come up with brilliant guitar riffs and I would be like I like that one, I like that one, I like that one" and sometimes we would just kinda improv write.

Lisa: And that's why as you go onto the solo stuff, it's still a similar sound but very different as far as...

Scott: Yeah

Lisa: ...how you're changing the musical direction

Scott: Yeah, you know I'm gonna hopefully grow as an artist and experiment with different things, but I still like to rock, I still like the big guitar, but you know it kinda affords me, you know it's no longer where you have to make certain compromises here or there and so if I wanna try something and I've vibing on it and I think it's cool then I don't have to have a vote

Lisa: I think we might be ready for some live music. What'd think you guys?

Applause

Scott: Yeah

Lisa: Whatever you wanna play, it's all in your hands.

Scott: Alright, well this one is Higher, it's off of Human Clay. So, we'll kick it with that. So here we go.

Scott sings Higher acoustically.

Applause

Scott: Thank you

Jason: (inaudible)

Lisa: By the way, that's a great PCH song. I don't know if you're familiar, you live in Florida. But...

Scott: Oh yeah, driving down the highway

Lisa: ....PCH is this fantastic road along the ocean. That song, in your car, arms in the air like I just don't care. Thank you for that.

Scott: (Laughs) Thank you

Lisa: And, you know when you think about the lyrics of Creed songs, Scott Stapp songs, so positive. I know, you know the media kinda made a big deal about the Christian label, is it a Christian band..

Scott: Right

Lisa: ..are they not...

Scott: Right

Lisa ...as a band say they aren't. But ultimately it's really about the quality of the music...

Scott: Right

Lisa: ...and I'm all for a positive message.

Scott: Right. Well you know I use music a lot and, unintentionally in the beginning I didn't even really think about why I was writing what I was writing except that I was just expressing my heart on paper, you know, I was writing what I felt. I guess I used it as a way to give myself hope, you know I always would say that I don't write about where I'm at, I write about where I wanna be. So, if it's so positive it doesn't mean that's the way I handle situations, it's the way I wish I did and you know I try to be as honest as I can because when, you know I've been writing since I'm very young and I never knew it was gonna be for millions and millions of people to hear, you know it was just for me to get stuff out and that's the only way I know how to do it and I think, you know, U2 had a big impact on my approach to taking those personal journals (excuse me) and those writings and implying it to my song writing because I really felt like, especially Boy, War and then Joshua Tree, those were real important albums to me and effected how I approached song writing and making it real and true and you know there was never, I am a Christian myself and that's something that I have finally come to grips with in my life over the last couple years, you know I left home at 17 and I kinda ran from that belief and really was just like you know that's something my parents threw on me I really had no choice and you know I was really kinda in rebellion spiritually and with my folks and you know so I think a lot of the songs with Creed that dealt with those spiritual issues were from a struggling person, spiritually, who was more in doubt then belief and even in doubt I found that I couldn't run from my beliefs and that I would always kinda talk myself into something I was trying to prove kinda wrong at some points in time.

Lisa: And at this point were you already a father?

Scott: Yeah. I was a father

Lisa: On top of all that

Scott: Well...

Lisa: Fatherhood

Scott: ...on top of that fatherhood and then I have sole custody of my son, his mother chose not to be involved in his life for whatever reason and so a lot of times too, I was backstage changing diapers and stuff like that, which is a lot of things people didn't know. There's a lot of stuff going on.

Lisa: Now you see that would the camera should be, behind the stage (Scott laughs). That's what we wanna see, the audience members, we wanna see behind the scenes so maybe at the next concert, the next Scott Stapp concert...

Scott: You guys, you guys can all be there backstage, why not?

Lisa: ...we would love to

Scott: You know, definitely

Lisa: Well, your son I'm sure is out of diapers

Scot: He's out of diapers. He'll be six October 21st.

Lisa: We would have loved to have seen that though

Scott: (Laughs) I would have let you change him, if you would have wanted to.

Lisa: Oh, I don't know about that, but I would have offered to help.

Scott: Thank you.

Lisa: That song Arms Wide Open, which I know we could all sing the words (starts singing) I just heard, everybody...

Scott: Yeah

Lisa: ...the news today. When I first heard that song I thought to myself, please tell me this is not some big studio flashy someone wrote this song for this guy" it came from such a wonderful place in your heart...

Scott: Yeah

Lisa: ...about a man who's so happy to about to become a father

Scott: And scared to

Lisa: And scared

Scott: Yeah. I, that all happened, that song so fast ,you know, literally the same day I found out that I was gonna be a father that song was written within hours. It was written at sound check and you know I found out and I really, my feelings were all kinda going around inside and Mark was up on stage and he was just kinda working on his clean sound, kinda just doing some finger picking. And I heard something and I thought it was beautiful and I said Mark keeping playing that, keep playing that over and over and over again" and I just walked up to the mike and I was like I hope they're recording this", which they were, I think I may have even said hey, someone hit record" now that I think about it and I just sang that song, like it is and so that is about as pure as it can come out and you know I may have reworded a line here, there, but you know that's just exactly how I felt and you know it was an emotional thing and I remember looking over at my wife at the time and you know she was crying and we looked around at the band when we were done and we were all...

Lisa: They were crying..

Scott: ...well no..

Lisa: Everyone was crying 'cause it's so beautiful

Scott: ..we were just like, we were torn in a way because we all were like man, that's a special song" but...

Lisa: You're a rock band

Scott: ...we're a rock band

Lisa: We are live in the STAR Lounge with Scott Stapp formerly of Creed, STAR 98.7

Applause

Lisa: And I hate to lead you into Scott, but my arms are wide open

Scott: (Laughs) Yes they are. Alright. You guys just heard the story. This song and any more we play today, they're gonna be coming out on Creed's Greatest Hits at the end of this month, so anyway we'll play it, Arms Wide Open

Scott sings With Arms Wide Open acoustically

Scott: Thank you

Applause

Jason: Scott Stapp is with us, formerly with Creed on Star 98.7. In celebration of the 2004 Star Lounge CD that comes out on Saturday at all Tower Records locations in Southern California

Lisa: By the way I promised myself I was not gonna cry. Who was getting teary?

Scott laughs

Lisa: That is so how we want every, every father to feel about their child so just thank you for sharing..

Scott: Thank you

Lisa: ...very personal moment with us

Scott: Thank you. You know what's funny about that is my son's old enough now, he knows what I do. He's a drummer in a band called The Dead Rats with...

Lisa: He's six or seven

Scott: ...with Yngwie Malmsteen's son is actually in his class, same class, he's in kindergarten, he's five and Yngwie's kid is like a guitar player like his daddy, like a prodigy, so they got together. They're both little rocker kids and they started a band. Their real name is The Griffins, that's the name that I want them to keep because that's a combination of an eagle and lion it's like a Harry Potter character or something. But right now they think Dead Rats is cool. My son's like hey dad how come you can't write, how come you can't say like Bullets is for me. You know, I like the hard stuff, you know like can you write more like a song like that for me." So, hopefully one day he'll appreciate it, you know.

Jason: Give him time, I'm sure he will. Scott Stapp is with us in the Star Lounge on STAR 98.7 and what was it like to meet Mel Gibson? We'll get into that in just a couple of minutes, also music from Passion of the Christ from you Scott Stapp and we wanna talk more about your solo stuff, it's all coming up on STAR 98.7.

Commercial Break

Lisa: All those great Creed songs you can hear on the Greatest Hits CD/DVD release at the end of the month right? October 26th?

Scott: Yeah, October 26th. It's gonna have, I think all of our singles like 13 or 14 songs and then all our videos, music videos and a lot of our live television performances like from the Rio and some award shows and stuff like that. But here we are and I can't wait to get back here in February or March, probably March...

Lisa: With the new stuff

Scott: ...with the new album and a tour so..

Lisa: And that's the kind of rebirth that you went through personally, you went through, you were kinda beat up physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually...

Scott: Yeah

Lisa: ...and that's what it took to write this new album...

Scott: ...and Relearn Love, specifically, the new song...

Lisa: Sure

Scott: But you know I typically always use my life as my inspiration point and my experiences of what I'm going through to write the lyrics of the songs and you know so and unfortunately it takes sometimes drama and struggles and negativity and anger and frustration, all those things to get me inspired, you know I'm not inspired by happiness.

Jason: And tell us about the song that's on The Passion of the Christ soundtrack. How did you get together with Mel Gibson? How did that all come about?

Scott: Well, I got a, I actually wrote the chorus and the music to that song in working on my solo album, prior to The Passion of the Christ and at the time I was really having, I was getting drawn back to my faith and back to my spirituality in my life and basically looking at my son and spending all that time with him seeing the purity of his heart and how he was so naive and he just trusted people and loved people and I wanted that back again because I had gotten to a point in my life where I was basically scared of relationships, couldn't trust anybody, felt betrayed by people that I cared about and loved, you know, been through a divorce and then you know to learn, you know had a couple of best friends that really did me wrong financially and then some other things that happened and so I was like you know, I could either wallow in this or I could pray to God that I can somehow get a heart transplant and that's kinda where I was going and it's a process, it's not going to happen over night, you know I'm still going through that. So the song was born and Mel Gibson called and his people from Icon and asked me to fly out and see the film and then said hey, we want you to write the title track and single for this CD...

Lisa: And didn't you play a part of the demo of the template of the song that you had for Mel...

Scott: Yeah

Lisa: ...and he was like hey I don't know anything about music..

Scott: Exactly

Lisa: ...my kids love your band"

Scott: Exactly. That's exactly what he said. He's like that's what you do great so I trust you to write a hit single".

Lisa: And that's why there's two versions of the song correct?

Scott: Yeah, there's two versions. The version, musically that I had prior to seeing the film, didn't reflect the emotion that I felt musically, sonically speaking, after I saw the film.

Lisa: Which version of Relearn Love would you like to play for us?

Scott: Ah, the one I originally wrote. And I've got it right here, and I'm gonna play it for ya off the CD.

Jason: This is it.

Scott: Alright

Jason: Scott Stapp, Relearn Love on STAR 98.7

Scott: Yeah

Plays Relearn Love from the CD

Jason: Relearn Love, new Star music on STAR 98.7 from the man who's in the Star Lounge right now, Scott Stapp, formerly of Creed. Of course, you're here to help us celebrate the release of the 2004 Star Lounge CD...

Scott: Yeah man

Jason: ...that comes out this Saturday at all Tower Records locations

Scott: Can I have a free one?

Jason: Absolutely, you can have a free one....

Scott: Awesome

Jason: Not only you can have a free one but everybody in the audience gets one

Lisa: So, we'll give you a copy of...

Scott: Yeah, awesome

Lisa: ... the new 2004 Star Lounge CD before you can buy it and also we'll give you Scott's new single Relearn Love...

Scott: Cool

Lisa: ... copy of that as well

Scott: Yeah, awesome

Jason: And hopefully you'll be on there next year man, we'd love to include you on it.

Scott: Yeah, I'd love to, I'd love to. I'm getting back into the swing of things so you know definitely love to come do that

Jason: Thank you so much for everything, we really appreciate it.

Scott: Hey, thank you guys

Jason: It was great meeting you

Scott: You guys were awesome

Lisa: It was a pleasure, thank you so much

Scott: Thank you, thank you

Jason: And Scott you once said rock and roll is my religion, the music has been trying to come out all of my life". Thank you so much for being so religious.

Scott: (Laughs) Hey, thank you man. Thank you man, thanks for having me.

Jason: Scott Stapp everybody

Scott: You guys rock man, I love you guys, thank you.

.Transcribed by Robyn