Alter Bridge rises from ashes of defunct Creed
By CHRIS FANNING
Get Out

The end was near. Multi-million-selling rock band Creed was breaking up.

“It was sort of inevitable,” drummer Scott Phillips says. “I think that it was just sort of time to call it a day with Creed.”

Instead of lamenting the loss of their group, Phillips and former Creed bandmates guitarist Mark Tremonti and bassist Brian Marshall formed new quartet Alter Bridge with ex-Mayfield Four singer Myles Kennedy. The new band released their debut disc, “One Day Remains,” in August.

“Mark and I were always on the same page musically,” Phillips says. “There's never been any animosity between us and we enjoy working together, so it just seemed like a natural idea to pursue moving in this direction together.”

With a video for their first single “Open Your Eyes” completed and a national tour underway, Alter Bridge is unleashing their retooled sound on fans both old and new.
“Releasing ‘Open Your Eyes’ as a single was a conscious effort to give people a bridge track that will bring people from Creed to Alter Bridge,” the drummer says. “We knew that people would compare it to Creed and people have done that, but a lot of people have taken the time to listen to it and get into it and seem to appreciate what it is and can tell the differences from Creed. We wanted this band to be able to stand on its own two feet without having to rely on its past.”

As for the live show, Alter Bridge is currently playing clubs whereas Creed filled arenas.

“Nobody was expecting it to come out of the gate huge,” Phillips says. “I don’t think anybody was expecting it to flop either. It's right where we want it to be. Hopefully we'll gradually rise to the level that we'd like to see.”

While Alter Bridge tours the country, Creed singer Scott Stapp has been working on a solo project and released the song “Relearn Love” on an album of songs inspired by the film “The Passion of the Christ.” A reunion doesn’t seem likely, but there are still ties between Alter Bridge and Stapp.

“We will always have to have some kind of working relationship together,” Phillips says. “Not that there will be future Creed projects, but we do have stuff in the past that will end up getting released at some point.”