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They're back with the wildly popular Weathered, and Scott Stapp explains how
it's the fans and the music, not the critics or MTV, that matter most to the ever-passionate foursome.
by Jon Wiederhorn, with additional reporting by MTV News' Gideon Yago
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 reed was in the final stages of mastering its new record, Weathered, and as is often the case with hard rockers following up major hits, they were working with their backs against the wall and their final deadline looming. The disc was due the morning of October 19, and the group finished mixing the last track the night before.
When they finally wrapped up the last cut and sent the tapes off, they were feeling invincible. To celebrate their lofty accomplishment, singer Scott Stapp took a long drive in his pickup truck and popped the master of Weathered in the vehicle's stereo. He was horrified by what poured from the speakers. It wasn't the actual songs he was unhappy with Ñ he was appalled that the wrong mix of the single "My Sacrifice" had somehow ended up on the finished album, especially since the track had already been shipped off to radio.
"I tried to stay calm, but I was freaking out," Stapp admitted recently at a New York watering hole. "Mark [Tremonti]'s guitars had been lowered about 3 Db, so what was on the radio was quite a dramatic departure from what we originally approved for the mastered version. It just deadened the song completely. It was a scary moment 'cause those records are forever, and the first pressing was somewhere between 3 and 5 million, so we were gonna have between 3 and 5 million of the wrong versions out there." [Watch Clip]
Stapp pulled his truck over, steadied his breathing and called his manager, producer and record label in time for the mistake to be remedied. Millions of defective copies of the album were removed from imminently departing trucks that were set to deliver them to record stores across the country, and radio stations were rushed the correct version of the
single.
"The record company just happened to have extra trucks standing by," Stapp said, relief clearly audible in his voice. "I guess they planned on something going wrong 'cause it just couldn't go smooth the whole way through."
Maybe not, but it was pretty much the only thing that went sour. The writing and recording process for Weathered was fairly pain-free, which is amazing considering that Creed's last album, Human Clay (1999), sold more than 10 million copies, putting the band under considerable pressure to deliver another successful disc. A lot of groups buckle when contemplating such a follow-up; they procrastinate endlessly or suffer with writer's block. These victims of studio stress often wind up writing and recording for more than a year with little to show for their efforts besides a few good tales of drinking, decadence and debauchery. But Creed are not like most others. They wrote Weathered in a mere three weeks and recorded the disc rather quickly as well.
In fact, when they started working on the album in March, Creed had no intention of releasing anything this year. But when Stapp and Tremonti sat down to begin working on songs, the ideas flowed like water from a bubbling brook. Three-and-a-half weeks after they started jamming together, they had penned all the 11 songs.
"Everything was done in a really off-the-cuff and a freestyle type of environment," Stapp said. "I think it happened so fast 'cause I didn't write any on [the last Creed] tour. I just felt like I needed to live life. I needed to experience everything that was going on around me and soak it in and just kind of have a basis to write from. Mainly everything was written in my living room or on my boat during that three-week period." [Watch Clip]
Although it was created quickly and spontaneously, Weathered doesn't feel rushed or incomplete. Rather, it's Creed's most diverse and developed record. "Bullets," the group's heaviest song yet, is full of rapidly chugging guitars and pummeling beats. "Who's Got My Back?," which starts with a Cherokee Indian chant by historian Bo Taylor, is an epic tale of yearning that starts at a plaintive, atmospheric pace before erupting into a crunching, fist-raising rocker. The first single, "My Sacrifice," is a spiritual, melodic track fueled both by power and passion. And "Don't Stop Dancing" is an emotional cut that alternates between ruminative strumming and high-octane riffing plus features Stapp's sister Amy on background vocals.
"The difference between this record and the first two is that this one is much more diverse," said Tremonti, who for the most part sat silently with his arms crossed while Stapp gabbed. "We have such a different sound from one song to the next. I think people will respect the fact that we can do one style and do it well and then switch gears and do something else just as well. We've always tried to take everybody through a journey of different emotions and different intensities, and I think we've done that the best yet on this album."
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