SCOTT STAPP On CREED Reunion: 'I Had No Expectations Of It Ever Coming Back As Big As It Has'

In a new interview with "The Bobby Bones Show", Scott Stapp was asked if he had any idea the CREED reunion would be as big as it has turned out to be. The CREED singer responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I had no expectations of it ever coming back as big as it has. I mean, the last tour was sold out. We were doing 20-plus thousand a night. It was crazy. And I was grateful. There were, moments, man, where my eyes were just watering with gratitude… Just because I know what it's like to have it, and I know what it's like to not. And so there's a much greater appreciation and respect for everything and everyone around me. It takes a village."

CREED's "Summer Of '99" tour was put on sale in November 2023, and exceeded expectations, leading to a fall leg announced in February. The "Are You Ready?" tour will feature 3 DOORS DOWN and MAMMOTH WVH, this time taking in arenas in new markets and some repeats, with many dates selling out immediately, according to Pollstar.

CREED's reunion started in April with a pair of cruises, before the North American trek kicked off on July 17 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

This past August, CREED guitarist Mark Tremonti told Michael Christopher of Vanyaland that he had "thousands" of riffs and other ideas stockpiled for the band's next album. "Literally thousands," he said. "I hoarded my ideas since I was, gosh, since I bought my first little handheld tape recorder — the little micro cassettes — saved my ideas since I was maybe in junior high school, high school."

Regarding the fact that a whole new generation of fans is discovering CREED for the first time and coming out to see the band on the current reunion tour, Mark said: "I think slowly but surely the world's come around and I think people have just kind of aged out of that mind frame with the band. A lot of people went after the personal behind-the-scenes stuff with CREED as well, instead of just listening to the music. I think people just grew up with this music now. They don't care about all that stuff. They don't care about the drama; they just appreciate the music.

"A lot of our fans, the largest base that we have now is under 30, 40 years old, which is very surprising to us," he continued. "When you sell a ticket nowadays, you find out the gender of the person buying the ticket and where they're from, and how old they are. So, when we saw those statistics, we were blown away with the age groups that were buying these tickets. When we play a live show now and Scott asks the crowd, 'How many of you are seeing your very first CREED show tonight?', it seems like almost every hand is up in the air, which blows us away."

With more than 53 million albums sold worldwide, CREED remains one of modern rock's most successful acts. Now, 30 years into their incredible journey, CREED is bigger than ever. In late 2023, the Texas Rangers made "Higher" their unofficial anthem, as it spurred them to their first World Series win. Earlier this year, the song appeared in a high-profile Paramount+ Super Bowl commercial, while a NASCAR Daytona 500 campaign also incorporated the hit single. Along the way, CREED has gained a new generation of fans, thanks to countless TikTok videos that feature their songs.

In the summer of 2023, after an 11-year hiatus, CREED announced its long-awaited reunion — returning to the stage for the first time at the sold-out Summer Of '99 cruise and Summer Of '99 And Beyond cruise. In May, meanwhile, the band's multiplatinum-selling "Greatest Hits" collection made its wide debut on vinyl (via Craft),this month landing the collection back into the Billboard Top 200, as well as hitting Top Hard Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Alternative Albums, and moving up the Top Hard Rock Albums rankings. Originally issued in 2004, the 14-track compilation spans the band's first three albums (1997's "My Own Prison", 1999's "Human Clay" and 2001's "Weathered").