SCOTT STAPP's 'Gone Too Soon' Mourns CORNELL, BENNINGTON, PRINCE And All Who've Departed Before Their Time

Scott Stapp has released "Gone Too Soon", the final advance track from his first album in six years, "The Space Between The Shadows". Thus far, radio single "Purpose For Pain", "Name" (about the cycle of abuse and abandonment),and uplifting rocker "Face Of The Sun" have been revealed to fans, who have responded to the tune of three million plays across global, cross-platform, streams, and socials. The album is available for pre-order and will be released July 19 via Napalm.

"Gone Too Soon" speaks about unexpected tragedies and the solace in honoring those lost, vowing to help others, and the promise of reuniting in the hereafter. The sentiment applies to great voices — Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Prince — as well as near-daily headlines about fallen soldiers and victims of inconceivable violence, PTSD and/or addiction.

Having passed the five-year milestone of his sobriety, these losses weigh heavy on Stapp's heart, who once walked his own razor's edge. As a Grammy-winning songwriter, Scott turned to music for catharsis.

Stapp told Billboard: "Somewhere around the time Chester passed, and we had already been reeling from Cornell's passing, I was flipping through the news and saw the suicide rate for (U.S. military) vets was skyrocketing, and all these people are OD-ing from heroin, drug addictions, opioids. The school shootings. It was just a collection of things that all hit me at once. So it was inspired by a series of events that just came together to impact me as a human being, all at once."

Scott takes his own words to heart — in his daily life he is a mentor to those seeking sobriety and he continues his work with his With Arms Wide Open Foundation, which focuses largely on military members and their families dealing with PTSD.

"The Space Between The Shadows" was co-produced by Scott Stevens and Marti Frederiksen, with additional production on "Purpose For Pain" by Kevin "Thrasher" Gruft. The album was recorded at Sienna Studios and Poppy Studios in Nashville, Tennessee and The Cabin in Los Angeles. It was mixed by Chris Baseford and mastered by Howie Weinberg and features ten original songs and two original bonus tracks.

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 12-step program, and meets with a sponsor, saying, "Nothing is more important than my sobriety."

Photo credit: Jennifer Curtis