Has there been a better comeback story than Creed these last few years? Even while they were at their most popular in the late '90s and early 2000s, there were no shortage of people that couldn't stand their music. A guy I know said their entire catalogue belongs on the subreddit r/Im14andthisisdeep, which is a hilarious thing to say and many people have much more, shall we say strongly held opinions on the rock band from Tallahassee, but without question public sentiment has had a come to Jesus moment of late and fans are again rejoicing at dive bars while "Higher" blares from the TouchTunes. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3qEHlxgHnP/?igsh=MXU2cjVreng4Z2w0Zw%3D%3D The band had actually broken up in 2004, with frontman Scott Stapp going solo and the others forming Alter Bridge with Myles Kennedy, but they got back together in 2009. After releasing their fourth studio album and going on a few tours, they again went their separate ways in 2012, and we all expected them to remain apart this time, but the wonderful world of the internet got their popularity back to sky-high levels and after an 11 year hiatus, they reunited one again last July and subsequently
announced a headlining tour that runs through this year. While we should probably thank the social media algorithms for pushing Creed memes and videos out at giant scale, a fair bit of credit needs to go to some professional sports teams. Kirk Cousins and the Vikings rallied around Creed music during their midseason run last year before Kirk blew out his Achilles and the Texas Rangers rode the power of Creed to a World Series victory. https://twitter.com/MikeLeslieWFAA/status/1711909100915941751?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1711909100915941751%7Ctwgr%5Ee19c59e1e0698deeb5aeca5ecba88deec26069e9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2F2023%2F10%2F30%2Fcreed-announces-summer-of-99-reunion-tour-with-3-doors-down-and-the-world-is-fired-up%2F Well, the
Summer Of '99 tour is now in full swing and Creed played The Woodlands Pavilion in Texas, and while I'm sure fans sung their hearts out to "With Arms Wide Open" and "One Last Breath", they were treated to a rant from frontman Scott Stapp discussing the divisiveness in today's culture and pointing the finger at those he blames for our problems:
"It's my opinion that that's exactly what the powers that be, that's what they want. They want us divided, they want us separate, they want us compartmentalized, in our own little niches, in our little groups. "We're right, they're wrong" ... You know why? To keep us distracted from holding them accountable. They start dividing us and programming us in kindergarten, friends. They teach us about how to be good slaves to authority. About how to do this and do that and think this way and think that way, all conforming us into this divided group of assets and pawns. Wake up. Wake up! WAKE UP! It's divide and conquer, we said we're doing it everywhere else but it's happening right here at home. Everything, nearly everything we accuse every other country of doing we're going right here. Your civil rights are being violated every minute of every single day. And what do we do about it? Oh, we focus on what divides us and we argue about this and we argue about that, we're keyboard warriors. And we go to our entertainment and we become perfect little citizens then go buy the latest trends. Everything to keep us distracted from what's happening right in front of our eyes. The only way to make change is to wake up and come together as one. Focus on what we have in common, which is life, freedom, love, happiness. We find our common ground, we build from there and as we're building that common ground we start keeping the powers that be accountable. We start reminding them of what our Constitution says. We start reminding them of what our Bill of Rights says. We start reminding them that we are a Constitutional Republic built upon the Bible and the word of God and not a democracy." https://twitter.com/RealAbs1776/status/1835202109689467133 There's certainly a lot in that statement... Most of us will agreed with the unity message and I think a solid majority of people will agree that the government often goes a bit too far and there needs to be responsibility of those in charge to take credit for the bad, not just the good, but of course, his last line is going to draw a lot of commentary. He's not wrong, the United States is not a direct democracy and federally we are a Constitutional Republic, but any time you start saying things like that there's a large portion of the country that's going to get uncomfortable. Already there's been a slight outcry from the video, though the overwhelming amount of comments are positive. https://twitter.com/mylodachef/status/1835504569176211709 https://twitter.com/LocalSoundwave/status/1835395857442570736 https://twitter.com/iamchrismays/status/1835697409982144838 https://twitter.com/spennyislennie/status/1835535748306457048 https://twitter.com/johnlark26/status/1835311915112751498 https://twitter.com/kevsqt/status/1835413995656036794 https://twitter.com/Punkness1/status/1835208897625211007 Well, at least we all know where Scott Stapp stands now. I just hope people keep liking Creed for the fun music and not twist this into some token symbol of conservatism in music. Calling for unity shouldn't really be controversial, but almost every single artist that gets wrapped up in the Red vs Blue game comes away lesser than they once were. And while there's nothing wrong with having and standing by your opinions, when you start cultivating your entire act in support of a political party, creativity goes out the window and it's a straight shot to being a caricature of what you once were.
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