New in the Idolator tips inbox: A press release with the title “Scott Stapp Returns to the Top of the Billboard Album Charts With Creed’s Full Circle Debuting At No. 2.” Huh?


Now, let’s leave aside the whole manner of whether or not the No. 2 spot is really the top of the charts. (I’ll actually let that slide by on a technicality, since this week’s No. 1 album was the This Is It soundtrack, which is mostly old Michael Jackson material.) But a press release solely for Stapp’s achievement, as it were? That’s accompanied by two solo pictures of the recently shorn Stapp leaning against a wall (looking mournful as usual), and no full-band shots? What does it all mean? It’s hard not to wonder if the Voice Of Creed is letting his band’s newfound critical acceptance get to his shaved head just a little bit…


Creed [Official site]

The best sentence I’ve read all day week: “Surrounded by candles, Stapp strummed an acoustic guitar, with an annotated Bible open on the table in front of him, next to a closed copy of The Art of War.” Especially when I think of it in the context of this headline: “Creed’s Stapp Talks Breakup, Make-Up and Shaved Head.” Oh, Rolling Stone, thank you for giving me something to giggle uncontrollably about after a too-long workweek. [RS]

As a way of getting in touch with his fans, greasy yarler Scott Stapp has started up a Twitter, which so far has one update (“im in the studio tracking new music!!”) and 116 followers. But it’s who Stapp is following on the microblogging service that is notable—especially after all the scuttlebutt regarding a reunion of his former band last year.

Sure, talk of the turn-of-the-millennium’s God-and-grunge revivalists getting back together for one last cash-in kind of dissipated after Jimmy Page called off the Led Zeppelin non-reunion, which was going to take Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy away from Mark Tremonti And The Other Guys and open up a place for Stapp to glide right into. (Not in the greasy way.) (OK, sorry, I just grossed myself out with that image, ugh.) But why would Creed have a brand-new, officially sanctioned Twitter now, some five years after they pounded out their last version of “My Sacrifice”? Something tells me that intermittent messages saying “Creed’s Greatest Hits is still available in stores, and even in this time when most albums can’t even get shoplifted, 4,000 people bought it last week!” is not the reason. I’m just saying. (And warning all of you.)

Scott Stapp [Twitter]
Creed [Twitter]

Scott Stapp! Scott Stapp! The name like music to the ears of any red-blooded American. And now, it looks like that Creed reunion is actually going to happen!

Scott Stapp: wife abuser, sex tape maker, drunken lawsuit loser, and fake-date victim. (Remember that? When a bunch of kids in Florida tricked Stapp into coming to a Denny’s in Gainesville in hopes of getting laid? Classic.) Anyway, the point is, Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy might be singing for something that won’t be called Led Zeppelin but will involve John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, so “there are ‘significant dollars’ on the table for a Creed trek, according to sources close to the situation,” according to Billboard—even though we’re now officially in a recession. And “following a recent USO tour performing for American servicemen oversees, Stapp is said to be in prime physical and mental condition,” which means he got a haircut maybe? Of course, this will all probably be very profitable and well-attended and that will be really depressing. Anyway, congratulations Scott, I’m sure you couldn’t be happier.

Creed Hammering Out Reunion Details [Billboard]

Billboard finally got wind of the rumor that Alter Bridge lead singer Myles Kennedy would be filling in for Robert Plant on the “half of Led Zeppelin plus the dead drummer’s son” tour that’ll bill itself as a Led Zep reunion to overly credulous classic rock fans next year, with anonymous “sources” feeding their reporters the same bits of speculation that Dee Snider was more than willing to blab about a few weeks ago. But buried at the very end of the piece is another reunion-related revelation that should chill your bones:

There may be one unintended side effect should Kennedy bolt Alter Bridge, which has released an album each for Wind-Up and Universal. That band features the non-singing members of Creed, who split with frontman Scott Stapp in 2004. But sources indicate there would be big bucks in a Creed reunion tour and that the band may indeed rise again.

The point about there being money in that tour is right on the, uh, money: Did you know that Creed’s Greatest Hits collection sold nearly 3,000 copies last week? And by “last week,” I mean “a week during October 2008″? And that total was actually down 11% from the previous chart? Creed’s 3,000 sales give them a higher one-week sales total than those enjoyed by the following albums:

Amy Winehouse, Back To Black (OK, the sales difference is six copies, but still)
Alvin & The Chipmunks (2,900)
Neil Diamond, Home Before Dark (2,800)
Mariah Carey, E=MC² (2,300)
Pretty much any CMJ-feted band you could think of (trust me on this)

And the Gavin Rossdale solo album only outsold it by 150-ish copies. Creed/Bush ’09? Hey, it could happen!

Has Led Zeppelin Found Its New Singer? [Billboard]

Scott Stapp’s been doing some traveling–to the Middle East, where a few months back the Army was recruiting rock bands, especially rock bands with members who are “recognizable celebrit[ies] nationally or internationally.” Hey, that’s Scott Stapp! Sort of! Anyway, he’s posted some photos on his MySpace blog of himself shopping. If he’s still over there, he might want to hang out a while while the U.S. as a nation, um, works on some things. [Scott Stapp's MySpace Blog]

It’s a day late, but how could I not post this video of Scott Stapp vibing out with the Christmas spirit for the benefit of his fanbase–and our viewership? Especially since it shows him busting a few moves and showing off a piano that he can still apparently afford to house? Those of you who work at radio stations of America that are still playing “Higher” now and again, I ask you to watch this video and ask yourselves if you should maybe be making some playlist-related resolutions for 2008. For real.

Scott Stapp,CREED, ” New Crazy Video” [YouTube]

As we are forcedprepare to join our loved ones and reaffirm the positive things that have happened to us in 2007, take comfort in the fact that former Creed and current Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti is as irritated by Scott Stapp as the rest of world, meaning no future Creed product. Also, Stapp’s one of those creepy exes who can’t stop sending “hey, what’s up?” text messages long after the relationship’s over.

He says, “I’ve got some text messages (from Stapp) here and there wishing us well and stuff. But I’ve seen it all before. I’ve seen him reach out and try to be a nice guy, then the next month he’s saying he was Creed and we were just a bunch of idiots along for the ride.”

“I just can’t trust the guy. And I’m old enough and wise enough now to keep people out of my life that make it worse than it needs to be.”

Or make our lives worse than they need to be, eh Mark? And with that good news, I’m off to get drunk and eat my weight in carbohydrates and bird flesh. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! (Well, the Americans. The rest of you are on your own tomorrow.)

Mark Tremonti Dismisses A Creed Reunion [Starpulse via Buzzgrinder]

At left, the mug shot for former Creed singer Scott Stapp, who is currently on “supervised release” from the Palm Beach County Jail after being accused of assaulting his wife, Jaclyn Nesheiwat, with an Orangina bottle over the weekend. Maybe his cheerful demeanor is the result of him wanting to look a little better than he did in his earlier police photos, but something about the grin he’s wearing in this shot is creeping us out even more than he usually does. (He’s not smiling because someone is actually taking his picture, is he?)

Wife claims former Creed singer threw bottle at her at their home near Boca [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Ah, October baseball; we love its crispness and high stakes, especially when the right teams are fighting their way to the top. But a good game can be tainted by its attendant musical performances–those requisite patriotism-stoking warbles of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America”–if the wrong singer is asked to step in.

In recent years, most haven’t been as outwardly sucky as they’ve been sort of “eh.” However, there have been a few completely jaw-dropping performances of recent vintage, and after the jump, we’ll look back at five of them–the inaugural inductees in our “Hey, It’s Enrico Palazzo!” Hall of Fame, named for the opera singer who Leslie Nielsen impersonated in The Naked Gun. Tune in later this week as we look for 2006 playoff-season singers to add to this exalted list, and feel free to suggest other Hall of Fame candidates in comments.

Michael Bolton (“The Star-Spangled Banner,” 2003 American League Championship Series, Game 4): It’s not Bolton’s proto-yarl that garnered him the top spot on this list. No, it’s the fact that, after he forgot the words, he not-so-discreetly tried to peek at his palm, where he’d apparently decided to write down the national anthem’s lyrics in teeny letters.

Steven Tyler (“The Star-Spangled Banner,” 2004 World Series, Game 1): Tyler’s rendition opens with a presumably “classy” harmonica break and stumbles through a lyric or two, but it’s the “Dude Looks Like A Lady”-esque screamy breakdown on the anthem’s climactic “land of the free” line that really takes this to the lousy level.

Liz Phair (“God Bless America,” 2005 World Series, Game 1): To someone, this pairing must have made sense; Game 1 was in Chicago, Phair’s hometown, and she’s spoken about her love of the National Anthem before. But when Phair trills about America being the land that she loves, you wonder if she’s waxing poetic about patriotism … or if she’s working out some long-dormant Sapphic urges.

Scott Stapp(“God Bless America,” 2004 World Series, Game 4): Is it the punctuating breaths? The fact that he seems to have forgotten how to pronounce the “ve” sound in “love”? His introduction as “the voice of Creed”? Or is it just that he’s Scott Stapp, and even when he’s not inflicting his lyrical Jesus complex on the world, he’s still flat and completely insufferable?

Jimmy Buffett (“Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” 2003 NLCS, Game 1): This is what happens when you’re wasting away in Margaritaville and the organist is trapped in Wrigley Field’s friendly confines.

[Graphic courtesy enrico-palazzo.de]