Former Creed frontman Scott Stapp admitted to his 2014 drug relapse was a ‘public embarassment’ in a new Rock 100.5 interview. Stapp has been clean since the relapse, and is set to release a new solo album called ‘The Space Between The Shadows.’ Ultimate-Guitar transcribed his comments.
“I mean, especially early on and how public my last relapse was… it was tough, dealing with the consequences of the public embarrassment of what I did while under the influence, almost losing my family and dealing with that.
“This [upcoming new solo album ‘The Space Between the Shadows’] all kind of came into fruition with me trying to just come out on the other side of that.
“And it really changed my perspective and helped me continue to maintain my sobriety, knowing that if I can take my experience and my strength, my hope and help someone else who’s going through the same thing.”
I was actually referring to the struggle of doing it again sober now, can you still do that?
“For me, I’ve had many times in my life where I’ve been sober and creating music.
“Almost all my records were created during the time of sobriety, and then the relapses, the binges, those things would happen later on. So, I knew I could do it sober.
“But this is a totally different experience just because of the struggles of having things so publicly and then coming out and addressing that.
“There was a little fear, and a little nervousness about how I was going to approach that, but over the last five years, I’ve come to realize that I’m not alone in this fight; there are other people that have dealt and are dealing with addiction, alcoholism, mental health struggles.”
Tell me about your solo band. Is it mostly the same dudes that you had back on [2013 solo album] ‘Proof of Life’ or do you have a new crew?
“Yeah, I’ve been with my current group of guys, we’re on the fourth year. So during these past five years, we’ve toured quite a bit together; so it’s the same band, ready to bring the rock.”
Are they writing music with you?
“On this particular record, I wrote it without these guys and recorded it. In the future, if we get closer and continue to tour and jam together, I’m sure they’ll be writing in that regard.”
When you’re playing the old Creed songs, are you still able to have fun with it?
“You know, I still love playing those songs and the fans that have been coming to my shows over the last four years love to hear them, so it’s crazy.
“I know some artists say that they want to kind of put those on the back burner and focus on the new stuff, but it’s a part of who I am and I love doing what I do, so it’s a mixture of everything.”
