Creed was a late ‘90s alternative-rock band with a Christian bent. With the hits “Higher” and “With Arms Wide Open,” they separated themselves from other bands in the genre by having thinly veiled lyrics as opposed to literal references to God in the music, earning them more mainstream success.
The band sold more than ten million records — diamond status according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
(I reviewed their arena rock concert on March 26, 2000, while I was a student at Iowa State University and editor of the arts and entertainment section of the Iowa State Daily newspaper. I didn’t give it a very good review.)
Extreme paranoia gripped Creed lead singer Scott Stapp in November 2014.
Stapp believed his record company had stolen from him. He believed the IRS had frozen his assets because of a clerical error, only to be promised that those assets would be reinstated a whopping nine months later. While he waited, Stapp lived in his truck for two weeks, then took up residence in a Holiday Inn. He said he was penniless and starving.
Stapp made a 15-minute video with his paranoid allegations and posted it on YouTube, pleading for legal help.
“I’ve been harassed, I’ve been stalked, my name, my reputation has been slandered all over the Internet,” he said in the video. “I guess God has a reason for this. I’m maintaining my faith. And I’m trying to keep a positive attitude.”
“When someone can have all their money taken out of their bank account and no one is held responsible,” he continued. “When someone can get targeted by the IRS because of a clerical error. When someone can get completely slandered and lies made up about them and posted all over the Internet and there’s no consequences for those people, there’s a problem.”
Stapp’s wife Jaclyn filed for divorce just days before the video was made, claiming that he was “doing so much amphetamines, crystal meth, and steroids that he has become a paranoid shell who has threatened to kill himself and harm his family.”
But it gets even more extreme.
“I had a psychotic break that was brought on by alcohol and drug abuse,” Stapp told Rolling Stone. “I was hallucinating. I drove around the United States for a month, following an angel that I saw on the hood of my car. In my delusional thinking, I thought my family was involved in ISIS, and that millions of dollars had been taken from me to support terrorism. All of it was nonsense. I was out of my mind.”
During his manic episode, Stapp said he called the White House “two or three times” saying the government was programming him to hurt President Obama. The Secret Service showed up at the house he was staying in as well as at his family’s home in Florida.
The above psychotic behavior is typical of bipolar I disorder.
“I had a very public relapse, and it was extremely humiliating to me, my family and my friends,” the Creed frontman told Billboard. “I took [an excessive amount of a] prescription for a diagnosis I had, had a bad reaction and went into an actual psychosis. I was out of my mind, unstable, and at risk of putting myself in danger.”
That original diagnosis was ADHD.
He had been prescribed Adderall and was taking double the doctor-recommended dose, which in itself can cause hallucinations.
For years Stapp was self-medicating for what would be discovered to be bipolar disorder.
He wasn’t penniless or being swindled by the IRS, he was delusional — manic.
Stapp told ABC News he would pick a random homeless person, get him a hotel room, give him $20, and leave him there. He also told ABC that on a manic drive through Mississippi, he gave away some prized possessions — three Salvador Dalí sketches to a Catholic church.
This is when he went to the Holiday Inn to get his head screwed on straight. He tried to quit the Adderall cold turkey, and what resulted was the 15-minute video.
The Creed frontman got the help he needed, is now sober, and has undergone dual-diagnosis treatment. He’s also working a 12-step program.
Stapp told People magazine that he’s taking his life, as they say, one day at a time: “Nothing is more important than my sobriety.”
