With Alter Bridge’s first single, “Open Your Eyes,” causing a stir on myriad modern rock stations, the Creed splinter group may have already avoided the hubris of Talk Show. That band, of course, was Stone Temple Pilots’ haphazard attempt to replace a troubled Scott Weiland with an unknown singer, Dave Coutts, and stay STP’s course. Big mistake.
In the case of Alter Bridge, the group that features three of the original four members of Creed (guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott Phillips and bassist Brian Marshall) and former Mayfield Four frontman Myles Kennedy, it’s addition by subtracting Creed’s most critically derided member and self-styled messiah figure, Scott Stapp.
On Sept. 30, Alter Bridge will play its first show in Chicago since Creed played its now infamous Dec. 29, 2002, show at Allstate Arena that ended with Stapp lying on stage and fans suing the band. RedEye spoke to Tremonti, who grew up in Wilmette, about that horrid performance, Stapp’s replacement and the dissolution of Creed.
How did you hook up with Myles?
His band, The Mayfield Four, opened up for Creed in ’98, and he’s always had the reputation for being the baddest singer out there. When we had heard that Mayfield Four broke up and Creed was coming to an end; he was the first guy on our list to call.
Will you play any Creed material live?
No, we’re gonna do the entire [Alter Bridge] album [“One Day Remains”] and then take requests from our fans online to do covers, but no Creed songs.
The last time Creed played in Chicago, it was a disastrous show at the Allstate that wound up with a civil suit filed by annoyed ticket-holders. Care to tell us what happened that night?
Scott [Stapp] and I have different dressing rooms, and before the show we met in the hall. You could see it in his eyes that he wasn’t himself. I got on him about it and said, “How could you be like this before a show, especially here in Chicago?” He acted like it was nothing and he swore he could do the show. I was pissed, but we went out on stage, and after six songs, he walked off stage. I got on the mic and told the crowd that I’d be right back after I found out what Scott was up to. So I had to go chase him off stage into the dressing room and ask him what he was doing. He thought the show was over. So I said, “The show’s not over. We gotta finish it.” He said, “Oh, sorry.” He follows me back on the stage and lied down for a few songs. … We had lost contact so much before that. I had no idea what he was doing before the show or three shows before that. All I know is we never got any closure out of that.
Was there one point when you said you didn’t want to do this anymore?
We had one conversation where we were supposed to get together one day, and I told Scott, “I think it’s too late.” Scott went off on me a little bit, and then gave me a call back a few months later and we had a talk, and that was the last time we spoke.
Alter Bridge
When: 7 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday
Where: House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn St.
Tickets: Sold out
———-
Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
