Hot off the heels of his summer tour with Creed, singer Scott Stapp has opted for a simpler style this fall on his own — an acoustic tour.
Launching from California, the tour hits cities across North America and fans can expect an array of new cuts from Stapp along with classic Creed favourites.
He plays the Memorial Centre Oct. 17.
Stapp, the unmistakable voice of Creed, has long been known as a deeply passionate songwriter. As the lead singer of the Grammy award-winning band, Stapp essentially provided the soundtrack for a generation of rock fans. The band landed sales in excess of 35 million records. Creed received a Diamond certificate with their second CD Human Clay which also promptly hit the Billboard charts at number one. The project also featured the smash hit With Arms Wide Open, a song written for Stapp’s first-born child Jagger Michael.
Creed officially disbanded in June of 2004 and Stapp ventured out on his own, releasing the platinum-selling The Great Divide in 2005.
In the spring of 2009, plans for a reunion tour with Creed and new CD were announced. The guys released Full Circle last fall and toured in support of the project this past summer.
Currently, Stapp is back on his own and truly relishing every moment of being able to closely connect with audiences in comparatively intimate settings.
“I’m stripping down all the Creed hits, as well as my solo material, in a manner that fans have never heard before but have long been screaming for,” he explains.
Music was pretty much an inevitable area of interest for Stapp, explaining that there was plenty of it to be heard during his growing up years. “When I heard a beat, I’d pretty much start moving,” he recalls during a chat from a stop in Louisiana recently. “It was a normal thing – if you were in my family, you played or sang.”
At five, he heard Elvis singing and asked his mom who it was. She told him, and he in turn promised her that if he should ever be like that guy on the radio, he would buy her a new house.
Safe to say that’s likely happened.
In elementary school, he was constantly performing in plays and musical theatres. His first lead role was at eight years old. Church provided lots of chances to refine his flourishing vocal abilities as well.
As to what fans will hear during his show in Red Deer, Stapp is happy to scale things down and enjoy a relatively close-up experience with audiences.
“It’s a very, very unique show and I’m very excited about it,” he says. “It’s playing songs like What If with three acoustic guitars instead of hammering on it. It’s a high-energy re-presentation of the songs – how they were written.
“The setting is also a lot more intimate, and I can share more of my thoughts about the songs. There will be moments of inspiration.”
Alongside his music, Stapp also oversees the Scott Stapp Foundation (www.scottstappfoundation.com).
“I really wanted to help those in need,” he explains. After the Haiti earthquake this past January, Stapp and his charity partnered with the Wheelchair Foundation’s ‘Plane To Haiti’ initiative assisting in relief efforts that provided over three tons of medical supplies and medical staff to the damaged areas.
He saw firsthand the aftermath of the disaster. ‘It was unreal – very devastating,” he recalls.
“You want to help everyone and you get to the point where there aren’t enough hours in a day.” He recalls touching moments when he and his team would return to their base camp, and they’d drive by folks gathering around fires in the nighttime hours singing.
Their resilience and sense of hope was striking, and certainly left a powerful impression on Stapp. “They were singing songs to God, laughing and just being happy,” he recalls.
“It made me re-address my life and realize how thankful I am.”
For tickets to his Red Deer show, call the Black Knight Inn Ticket Centre at 403-755-6626 or 1-800-661-8793 or visit www.blackknightinn.ca.
