SCOTT STAPP Doesn't Pay Attention To Critics

CREED frontman Scott Stapp says that he doesn't pay attention to his critics.

The Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum songwriter and vocalist, who will release his new album, "The Space Between The Shadows", in July via Napalm Records, made the decision nearly two decades ago to dismiss the disparaging reviews that have become par for the course in the Internet age.

"I got to a point years and years ago — before social media — that I wasn't gonna read any positive press and I wasn't gonna read any negative press," he told Andy Hall of the Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3 (hear audio below). "That was a decision I made in my mid-20s. And then today, man, I don't read any press that comes out. I'll flip through my social media at times and see what the fans are saying about new material or shows or touring, and through all that, it's been so supportive and positive. So I'm just fortunate."

While Stapp feels "there's a lot of positives" to social media offering fans greater access to their favorite artists, he says that "there is a lot of hate out there that surfaces. And if you come across it, in one ear, or in one eye and out of your head," he said. "In the eyes and out of your head. You can't let it affect you emotionally, and you just focus on the positives."

The visualizer video for Stapp's new single, "Purpose For Pain", can be seen below.

Stapp is known as frontman for CREED (over 50 million albums sold worldwide),and for his work as a solo artist who released the platinum-certified "The Great Divide" (2005) and "Proof Of Life" (2013),which featured his first solo Billboard No. 1, "Slow Suicide".

Stapp went through a highly publicized, drug-inflamed meltdown in 2014, after which he entered into an intensive rehab program. Stapp also lost custody of his three children during this period, while also missing a court hearing and allegedly threatening to kill President Obama.

Stapp is now sober and in intensive therapy. He takes medication for bipolar disorder — a condition that causes unexpected shifts in mood, energy and activity levels — works through a twelve-step program, and meets with a sponsor, saying, "Nothing is more important than my sobriety."

Scott will embark on a cross-country summer tour in late June.