There once was a time, long, long ago, when Scott Stapp fucked: The lead singer of Creed played sold-out shows at massive arenas around the world; he grunted through the “Star Spangled Banner” at NASCAR races; he somehow convinced the Dallas Cowboys to let Creed play their halftime show, a performance that featured several bald, shirtless men flying through the air while Stapp yarled “CURRRN YEURRR TAKE MEEE HIIIIIGHYEUGH” at the top of his lungs. Then came his fall from grace: a drug-fueled, messy stretch of Stapp-dom that culminated in him going broke, living in a Holiday Inn, and convincing himself that there was a vast conspiracy against him. But now, according to a sweeping profile in Billboard, Stapp has turned his life around—blossoming into, of all things, an extremely well-behaved baseball dad who vapes.
“I’m ‘Coach Stapp’ to my son’s friends,” he told Billboard, speaking glowingly of his 9-year-old’s Little League team. “I love to teach, to keep them fired up, to make them think they’re invincible. I’ve got little nicknames for all of them, and they all respond to different things. Like, I’ve got this one boy, that if I remind him, ‘You’re like the Incredible Hulk, remember that!,’ then he actually thinks he’s the Hulk when he goes up to the plate. It gives him the confidence. Each player has their own little thing that you learn is their little button to push, to get the best out of them.”
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As opposed to putting on leather pants and a white wife beater, getting blacked out on whiskey, and doing this obnoxious thing with his hand all the time, Stapp has settled into the routine, sedate life of a suburban father. He told Billboard he loves to take his wife, Jackie, and their three kids bowling, or to the movies, or to the park. He’s sober. He runs every day. He drinks “plenty of water” and eats unprocessed foods to stay healthy. He quit smoking; now he vapes. A “typical day” in his life, according to Billboard, looks something like this:
Jackie makes breakfast while Scott helps pack lunches, and then he’ll drive Milan and Daniel to school, letting them chatter away in the car. He might spend some time in his home studio after dropping them off, but he also might be on daddy duty, changing Anthony’s diapers back home. After school, there’s practice with Daniel, or maybe Milan has a dance recital, or maybe they’ll all go out to eat as a family. “You know, we’re one of those families that enjoy doing everything together,” he says.
He’s still making music, grunt-mumble-singing to absurdly heavy grunge riffs—he released a new album, The Space Between the Shadows, in July, and he’s currently on a nationwide tour—but from what he told Billboard, it seems like he’s over the whole rock star thing. Instead, he’s apparently content to take pleasure in his daily jogs, teaching fourth-graders how to play ball, ripping his vape, helping out around the house, and generally being a Nice, Upstanding Father.
“In terms of looking back, and then at where we are today and everything that came with it, as weird as it may sound, I wouldn’t change a thing,” he told Billboard.
Good for you, Scott Stapp. Good for you.
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