Scott Stapp

I love Scott Stapp. I want to drag him by the collar and slam him against the barnyard wall, beating my fists over his sculpted chest while crying out, "I wish I could quit you!" It was Scott's specter that I envisioned all night during last year's LDOC, when I had a 102-degree fever and Collective Soul's boar-belching was the only thing preventing me from the sweet ecstasy of unconsciousness. All those curmudgeony critics probably had a field day when Creed got sued for their poor showing in Chicago, or when Fred Durst personally questioned Stapp's manhood, or when all Creed's bandmembers abandoned him to start Alter Bridge- but Scott showed them all up by returning stronger than ever.

All those moved like me by his earlier work will be happy to know that nothing has changed. Nothing at all. He maintains his biting originality-copping nothing off Pearl Jam's Ten-and the profundity of his lyrics remains unparalleled. Taking some cues from William Wallace, with whom he watched a private screening of The Passion of the Christ, Stapp donned body armor and face paint for his own Fight Song: "I'm still healing / No I'm not reeling / Yes I'm feeling / This is my fight song." On his sixth song, "Surround Me", he pleads: "I'm down on my knees / Begging you to rescue me / Please stop me." Fortunately for all of us, nothing's going to stop Stapp; nothing except, well, the mutiny of his latest band.