I first encountered Creed in 2008 with their single “One Last Breath” from their 2001 album, Weathered. Scott Stapp’s voice, rich with a sea-like depth, paired with Mark Tremonti’s deft guitar work—from soothing fingerstyle passages to thunderous riffs—captivated my young soul. Both the guitar-works of Tremonti and the lyrical depth sounding from Stapp's golden pipes motivated me. Inspired, I set out to master the guitar parts of this song and discern the meaning of the songs. Years later, after much practice, I’m glad to have tamed most of the notes in some of their hits. Tremonti himself admits that this song is challenging to play and sing simultaneously—and it truly is. With regards to their songs, as I age new colors come out of it.
Stapp and Tremonti were high school friends who attended Florida State University, where they discovered a shared passion for music and songwriting. Their lyrics melded themes of Christian theology, life’s struggles, and hope, leading them to form Creed in 1994 in Tallahassee, Florida. With each of their first three albums going multi-platinum in the U.S.—including Human Clay, which achieved diamond status—the band took the post-grunge scene by storm in the late ‘90s, even earning a Grammy along the way.
However, their rapid success also drew harsh criticism. Rolling Stone’s poll once labeled Creed the “worst band of the ‘90s,” and Slam magazine dismissed them as “overwrought power-balladry with Christian-infused testosterone.” These critiques felt less like artistic criticism and more like backlash against Creed’s unapologetic use of Christian imagery and values. For many critics, a straight, white male singing about protecting the unborn and rejecting sexual immorality was unfathomable. Their lyrics—such as the “distant lion with a key roaring in the darkness” and references to ultimate hope grounded in Jesus—challenged the secular pluralism of the era and were perceived as intolerant. Living by divine guidance, in their view, felt constraining compared to non-theistic freedom.
In his memoir, Sinner’s Creed, Stapp admits that his meteoric success led him down a path of moral and sexual transgressions, further fueling the backlash. Critics were quick to label this as hypocrisy, given Stapp’s Christian convictions. Trapped in a mix of adoration and animosity, Stapp’s life began to unravel. By the late ‘90s, he struggled with substance abuse, depression, and bipolar disorder. Self-medicating with a mix of alcohol and Xanax, he experienced repeated breakdowns that ultimately led to the band’s dissolution. Tragically, Stapp found himself estranged from his family as he battled his inner demons.
As Stapp so poignantly expresses in one of his lyrics:
I hear a thunder in the distance See a vision of a cross I feel the pain that was given On that sad day of loss A lion roars in the darkness Only he holds the key A light to free me from my burden And grant me life eternally
Reflecting on his journey, Stapp put it best: “God can take our mess and turn them into a message. He can take our pain and give it a purpose.”