Grammy award winning singer Scott Stapp has a new album coming out. Last year the Creed front man published a deeply personal memoir called ‘Sinner’s Creed’ that revealed his fundamentalist upbringing, battles with addiction and eventual rediscovery of his faith. The album, which is titled "Proof of Life" and comes out on Nov. 5, chronicles the dark times as well as the journey back. The father of three spoke to FOX411 about his troubled times and what God means to him.
FOX411: From the title of the songs on this record it seems that things are a lot better these days.
Scott Stapp: Oh absolutely, I've come out of a really dark place in my life over the last three or four years and just had a real change on the inside, almost to the place where you look back when you're in grade school and you say to yourself when you're older, I don't know why I acted that way or if I knew what I know now and you know in your mind that you're never going back there. You've matured, you've progressed. These types of changes happened in my life.
I call this record 'Proof of Life' because there was a time where I thought my life had become a waste and I'd made such a mess but I found that this mess I had made in my life, through my relationship with God, turned into a message and that it wasn't all lost.
FOX411: At your lowest point you fell from a hotel balcony.
Stapp: From the penthouse of the Delano Hotel in Miami. Thank God there was a ledge about four stories down and I shouldn't have survived that impact. I talked about that scenario in a song called 'Give Me More.'
FOX411: How is life different now?
Stapp: I'm sober; I'm in recovery and really enjoying life. My new meds are getting up and running five miles a day. I'm surrounded by the love of my wife and three children and then my faith. I finally found resolution in my faith and reconciled my doubts and my questions and all these issues that were brought on by the conflict I had that my step-father did in confusing me with what God was all about.
It's just been an amazing and miraculous situation. I hope that through this experience I'm able to give back and help others who are in these places because I've been so blessed and so grateful that I've survived. I just want to give back because when you've found a light that has pulled you out of a darkness, you want to tell everyone else that's in the darkness, 'I got the light, I can show you!' and I think through this record as well I kind of chronicle that, I kind of lay it out in my music, the journey that I was on and I really hope that the music can connect and continue to connect with people who are in crisis moments.
FOX411: Tell me about the doubts sowed by your step-father.
Stapp: He was an abusive man. I was emotionally, physically and spiritually abused and he did it in the name of God and that was very confusing. Trying to reconcile this guy that was supposed to love me with getting beat, my nose broken and other things happening on a regular basis. It was hard to reconcile that when that was done in the name of God, so I began to ask so many questions and doubt my faith and really went through a period where I went in the complete opposite direction because I was like, 'Well if this is what it's all about I don't want anything to do with it.' So I ran to exactly what was the taboos and through that journey I really feel that God stuck by me all the way, through all that confusion and searching.
I found that everything I had been taught was a lie and that the God that I love today is a God that loves me more that I can even comprehend, who loves me as I am and is an accepting God and just wants to teach me how to love and live this life.
FOX411: It was pretty harrowing to read about your step-father.
Stapp: I carried a lot of bitterness and anger and resentment for a long time and one thing I discovered through writing the book and this record that instead of carrying that anger and asking, 'God, why?' I changed my mentality to, you know what? I made it through, maybe I can share my story and help others.
FOX411: Tell us about the song 'Jesus Was a Rock Star.'
Stapp: Going about again to this conflict that I had in my life where it had gotten that I was a rock star but I was also a Christian and I had such conflict too because the two weren't supposed to co-exist but through my journey I began to realize I could continue to be a rock star and a Christian and that's the song on one level. On another level it's you know what? I'm not the rock star. Let me tell you who the rock star is, so there are two different themes going on in that song.
FOX411: When was the last time you had a drink?
Stapp: 2011. I'm an alcoholic and an addict in recovery. I'm very allergic to alcohol. Every time I drink it I break out in handcuffs and end up on the six o'clock news. I'm proud to be in recovery. I'm proud to say that I work a program along with my faith and I meet daily with others who are in recovery. I give my time and service in helping others who are suffering from addiction. I live with the philosophy, one day at a time. I'm sober now and I can do anything in 24 hour increments.
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