Kurt Cobain’s passing has been romanticized to such an extent that, his daughter Frances Bean Cobain had to come up in 2014 and say how ‘the death of young musicians wasn’t something to romanticize.’ Still, those words didn’t change the fact that Nirvana’s sales boomed in April 1994, right after Kurt’s suicide.
It seemed that people loved to buy into tragedies and that also seemed to give Scott Stapp ideas to boost Creed’s popularity in 2003. However, he actually didn’t need to do anything to ‘boost’ the act’s sales, since their then-latest album ‘Weathered’ had already been certified six times platinum.
Still, his reported bipolar diagnosis and addiction-related problems certainly didn’t help, as Stapp started to believe that his bandmates wanted him to become a ‘martyr’ like Kurt Cobain, to bring Creed even more popularity.
He even admitted having ‘suicidal’ thoughts to Rolling Stones in 2007, as the singer recalled how on one lonely night in 2003, he had ‘machine guns’ to his head as Scott believed his management and band wanted him to end it all, saying:
“I wanted to end my life. I had crazy thoughts going through my head.”
However, after seeing a picture of his son, Jagger, the rocker told how he decided to put the guns away and carry on. Then, right after he told this story to Rolling Stones, the coverage blew up and brought Stapp back into the spotlight as a solo artist.
So, when Spin decided to ask the singer about the interview in 2009, questioning whether he really wanted to ‘sacrifice’ himself for Creed and end it all, Stapp wanted to retrace a bit:
“That was mischaracterized a bit. It was just a thought. But when I did an interview and shared the story of that moment, it got blown into something bigger. But I was at a low point. Thank God I didn’t act on it.”
Well, as Frances B. Cobain said, ‘the death of young musicians isn’t something to romanticize,’ and it seems that Scott is pleased that he didn’t ‘act on it.’ So, if you’re also struggling with similar thoughts, just know that you are not alone and, please don’t hesitate to open up to someone you trust and, most importantly, contact a professional.
