The smell of someone else’s success isn’t always so sweet. When success comes quickly and excessively, its aroma can be repugnant.
Take Puddle of Mudd, the most commercially successful modern-rock band of the last two years. Fronted by lead singer Wes Scantlin, Puddle has become a mainstay on commercial radio and MTV since August 2001, when it released “Come Clean,” its debut album.
In the two-plus years since its release, “Clean” has gone multiplatinum (more than 4 million copies sold), and the band has collected enough Billboard and Radio & Records awards to fill the back end of an Escalade.
Last week, Puddle released “Life on Display”–its follow-up to “Clean”–to surprisingly little fanfare.
Despite its breakthrough, Puddle has yet to convince a lot of critics, writers and music fans that it deserves to be one of the most popular bands in the music industry.
In fact, in the absence of Creed, Puddle has become the band that critics, writers and other “discerning” observers love to hate. None of that widespread negativity apparently bothers Scantlin, who’d rather turn the other cheek than join in the Mudd-slinging.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Scantlin said recently, “and there are always gonna be a lot of negative things said about you, no matter who you are.”
Puddle of Mudd was born after Scantlin’s demo tape got into the hands of Fred Durst, who was interested in Scantlin but wanted to replace the rest of the band with his own people, players he knew.
So Scantlin went along with Durst–the door to fame, riches and a certain career. Scantlin’s association with Durst, who gets little love from the press, didn’t endear him to critics. Nor did the notion that Puddle was riding Limp Bizkit’s coattails. Scantlin bristled at that and said Durst was not involved in Mudd’s albums.
“Look, he’s the president of the label [Flawless Records]. He got our foot in the door,” Scantlin said. “But he’s not involved with our music. He’s got his own band to deal with.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Drew Sottardi (dsottardi@tribune.com)
