Illustration by Lusco y Fusco
After a psychotic episode in 2015, rocker Scott Stapp received a bipolar diagnosis. At the time, he told Rolling Stone:
I had a psychotic break that was brought on by alcohol and drug abuse. 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.
At the top of his game, Stapp was the leader of Creed, a popular hard-rock band in the late ‘90s that sold 10 million records, or diamond status per the Recording Institute Association of America.
While I wouldn’t call myself a fan, and I gave a negative (and admittedly snobby) review of one of Creed’s concerts for my college newspaper, I can appreciate a solid guitar riff like on 1999’s “Higher.” However, I did despise Stapp’s Jesus-like mien and the band’s thinly-veiled Christian lyrics. Going to college with a sizeable population of fundamentalist Christians, Creed’s music was a turnoff for me.
But bipolar happens to the best of us. And with creative individuals like Stapp, with every manic or depressive episode comes new revelations, new coping mechanisms, feelings of survival, and the desire to create.
Just posted to YouTube, “The Purpose of Pain” is the lead single from Stapp’s upcoming solo record, The Space Between the Shadows, his first new material since 2013’s solo album Proof of Life. It gives off a Soundgarden vibe, although Scott Stapp will never even come close to beating the Great Chris Cornell.
The high-energy song dives deep into the psyche of Stapp, as he sings,
There’s gotta be more / ‘cause this life is insane / Gotta turn this around / And find the purpose for pain.
“‘Purpose for Pain’ is about seeking a higher meaning, a spiritual mentality when dealing with our struggles and life’s painful moments,” Stapp said in a statement.
“There are unexplainable, dark times that everyone goes through, and that pain is real,” he continued. “If we can dig deep and hold on to hope during the most difficult situations, believing there is a purpose waiting for us on the other side, we can find meaning and clarity that gives us the strength to keep fighting.”
The Space Between the Shadows drops this July.
