Scott Stapp is gearing up for a massive reunion tour with Creed, but this year has also been a big one for his solo career. The singer released his fourth solo album, Higher Power, back in March, touching on very personal topics throughout the LP.
Heavy Consequence published the first part of our interview with Stapp focusing on all things Creed as part of our recent “Post-Grunge Week.” In this second part of the interview, Stapp dives deep into his solo album, talking about a harrowing experience that inspired the hit title track, which reached the Top 10 of the Mainstream Rock chart.
The singer also discusses his collaborations with Yiannis Papadopoulos, a guitarist who reached out to him through the Creed Facebook page, as well as the singer Dorothy, who duets with Stapp on the ballad “If These Walls Could Talk.”
Stapp has a couple more solo dates (June 28th in Albertville, Alabama, and June 29th in Warner Robins, Georgia) before embarking on that aforementioned Creed tour, which kicks off July 17th in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and spans two legs in the summer and fall (with tickets available via Ticketmaster or StubHub).
Read part two of our interview with Scott Stapp below, as he discusses his recent solo album, Higher Power, which is available to order at this location.
In the title track to Higher Power, you sing, “Life had forsaken me/ Left me alone to bleed/ I was ready to meet my maker,” before you sing of redemption: “Now I’m alive, I walked through fire/ I survived, I’m burning brighter.” Does the song have anything to do with your very public struggles that happened a decade ago?
Well, that lyric in particular refers to an accident that happened on November 18th, 2006. I talked about it in my book where I had a fall off the penthouse of the Delano in South Beach, messing around, goofing around under the influence, off a balcony. And fell 40 feet and landed on my head and broke my hip. According to doctors, had I landed a millimeter to the left or the millimeter to the right, my neck should have snapped and I shouldn’t be here. And so as I was talking to my maker, I was bleeding out. I couldn’t move. It was quite a heavy experience.
That particular lyric is referring to that. That was one of my nine lives. And I think I’m on 11, but, that was one of my nine. I was fortunate to survive that. And I was found by the rapper T.I., and my life was saved. And the journey began there to try to start changing my life.