Alter Bridge Interview in Guitarist Magazine

[aussiecreeder]

Quote: (Originally Posted by uncertaindrumer)

What the HECK? Anyone can sit in a shed practice eight hours a day and be able to shred. That is not where greatness lies.

Creativity and originality and making it all work is what makes a guitarist great, and that's what Hendrix is. (Not to mention he had the shredding down pretty good as well!)



That is ridiculous. I don't care if you sell a billion albums, that doesn't make you great. Is eminem now a great musician because he sold 15 million albums?! NO! Don't even bring album sales up. That's childish.

Creed didn't blow ANYONE'S minds. For all their coolness they weren't a super original change the face of music band. What Tremonti is doing ahs been done before. He does it very well but he isn't super creative/innovative, and I say that as a HUGE Tremo fan.

They sold 30 million albums because they pandered to the masses with radio friendly chord progressions. Don't mean to diss Creed here but that's true. "Bullets" was basically the only single that didn't do very well, because it wasn't a simple radio friendly song--despite the fact that it was probably one of, if not THE best riff Tremonti wrote with Creed.

Album sales mean NOTHING. We live in a world where the dumber and simpelr the music is, the more it sells.

can't argue with this.......

[titan9]

Quote: (Originally Posted by uncertaindrumer)

Finally, on topic, I LOVE that article... Stapp couldn't even play the guitar with it strung all open.... ROFL!

Lol, hey, that's nothing to laugh at. Guitar is quite tough at first. You really gotta dedicate yourself to learning to even become remotely good at it. Perhaps Stapp just didn't feel like taking it up........

[uncertaindrumer]

Quote: (Originally Posted by titan9)

Lol, hey, that's nothing to laugh at. Guitar is quite tough at first. You really gotta dedicate yourself to learning to even become remotely good at it. Perhaps Stapp just didn't feel like taking it up........

Dude, come on, there's defending Stapp, and then there's THIS. I just recently started playing guitar and I know what it's like. I also know that in some of the songs for my band, when my guitarist hands me a guitar with everything strung open so I just need to fret the string, it is freaking EASY.

He didn't need to learn how to shred, just how to strum! And obviously if he had really applied himself (like, by, ya know, putting fifteen minutes into it ), he could have gotten it. I still think its hilarious.

[tremonti4life04]

Well hey, just to say it, so you cant say that i didnt. An opinion is an opinion, (about hendrix). And i expressed an opinion. I know there are a great deal of people out there that think hendrix is the greatest guitar player ever, but I'm not one of them. Stapp is the greatest guitar player ever.........Ok, now im just being retarded, but anyway. Its funny that stapp cant play guitar that was tuned so all he had to do was play the rythm on open strings. I couldnt imagine doing that tho, i need variety, and i love shredding and making something up as i go along. Ive been playin guitar for a long time, and finally starting to dive headfirst into the more complex pieces of the guitar world. Guitar is pretty hard at first, because you are scared to break strings, then you dont know how much the strings can take, or how hard to push down onto the frets, and all that stuff, and you have the general stiffness that comes along with unstretched fingers, and the fact that you dont have callouses, but at the same time, what the hell did stapp do on the tour bus the whole time! God, i would have been playing guitar the entire time, for lack of better things to do! If i didnt know how to play, i would have learned. Im glad that i can play guitar tho, because as a singer, you find a lot of bands that want to be a 4 piece like creed was, cuz they dont want to split the money or whatever, so singing and playing guitar has its advantages there, and makes it easy to get into a band, but at the same time, playing guitar and singing at the same time might take away from your singing, and then you have problems. So, what might creed have been like had stapp sang and played guitar on stage? I bet it would have messed with his vocals, its hard to get that stuff down sometimes, takes years of practice, but pays off in the end.

[titan9]

Yeah, which is what I've been trying to say. Playing and singing, that's restrictive. Stapp's the kind of lead singer that likes to move around alot. If you're playing guitar and singing, you can't really move around that much. And as you pointed out, it might have messed with his vocals. I'm actually glad he didn't start playing and singing in concert. I think it would have lessened the actual quality of the show. As I said earlier, if they really needed a second guitarist, why not bring in someone? Lots of other bands have brought in guys just for the tour, Creed could have as well. They did it for Bass, so why not guitar? Just something I've thought of.

I was half-joking, half-serious in my earlier post, Uncertain. You're right, if Stapp had taken some time, he could have done basic things on Guitar. But maybe he just didn't want to? Maybe he really dug his heels in and fought it. Not defending Stapp, just saying some of the possibilites. Anyone who takes up Guitar has to have a motivation for doing so. Otherwise, there's gonna be a lack of desire to practice and get better. You just can't take up guitar for the hell of it, there's gotta be a reason and a motivation. That goes for anyone, Stapp included. I don't think Stapp had much of a personal reason to take up guitar, and that led to a lack of desire to practice(on the tour bus, as you mentioned) which led to him just not playing at all. It's understandable. I don't think Stapp is "guitar" challenged, I believe there just wasn't much of a desire to take it up, considering he already sang and did lyrics, and that's a big contribution to a band. But maybe I'm wrong and maybe he is "guitar" challenged. Who knows?

[uncertaindrumer]

Quote: (Originally Posted by titan9)

Yeah, which is what I've been trying to say. Playing and singing, that's restrictive. Stapp's the kind of lead singer that likes to move around alot. If you're playing guitar and singing, you can't really move around that much. And as you pointed out, it might have messed with his vocals. I'm actually glad he didn't start playing and singing in concert. I think it would have lessened the actual quality of the show. As I said earlier, if they really needed a second guitarist, why not bring in someone? Lots of other bands have brought in guys just for the tour, Creed could have as well. They did it for Bass, so why not guitar? Just something I've thought of.

I was half-joking, half-serious in my earlier post, Uncertain. You're right, if Stapp had taken some time, he could have done basic things on Guitar. But maybe he just didn't want to? Maybe he really dug his heels in and fought it. Not defending Stapp, just saying some of the possibilites. Anyone who takes up Guitar has to have a motivation for doing so. Otherwise, there's gonna be a lack of desire to practice and get better. You just can't take up guitar for the hell of it, there's gotta be a reason and a motivation. That goes for anyone, Stapp included. I don't think Stapp had much of a personal reason to take up guitar, and that led to a lack of desire to practice(on the tour bus, as you mentioned) which led to him just not playing at all. It's understandable. I don't think Stapp is "guitar" challenged, I believe there just wasn't much of a desire to take it up, considering he already sang and did lyrics, and that's a big contribution to a band. But maybe I'm wrong and maybe he is "guitar" challenged. Who knows?

"guitar-challenged"... That's hilarious. Anyway, yeah, but he didn't really need to sing and play at the same time. Mark really jsut wanted it for the solos, where there wouldn't be any singing anyway. So that excuse doesn't work to well.

I don't think he was like an idiot for not learning the guitar (plenty of other reasons to call Stapp an idiot... lol), I jsut think its kinda funny. Either way, thank goodness for Myles. Two shred capable guitarists on the same stage. Very nice. NOW IF I COULD JUST GET TO ONE OF THOSE STAGES! GRRRRR!

[titan9]

Lol, I admit, I did laugh a bit when I read that about Mark 'teaching' Stapp how to play. And yeah, you're probably right about Mark wanting it for the solos. But, again, if they really wanted/needed another guitarist, I'm sure they could have easily brought one in.

I agree, it's awesome that Alter Bridge has two perfectly capable guitarists. I haven't seen'em in concert yet, so I feel your pain. Hopefully if they ever come back to Detroit, I'll get a chance to see'em.

[Trem24Fan]

Quote: (Originally Posted by titan9)

I second that. Tremonti is definitely better than a number of guys on that list. I also agree with the Creed hate being the reason he isn't on the list. It's so stupid and I'm so sick of seeing so much Creed hating going on in the media.(well, it's kinda stopped now that they've broken up but I still see some) I guess I should be used to it, though.

It really pisses me off about how Creed was so popular but also so hated - mainly I think because of Stapp. The beginning of the end though was that VH1 behind the Music they did on Creed. It should've been called Behind the Stapp because it was all about him, not to mention how they focused on his religious crap and his strict parents etc. That sucked and I think was the beginning of people turning on this band and it probably also helped give Stapp a bigger ego.

It also pisses me off that Mark's legacy / whatever, has this baggage, so to speak. You can't say enough about Mark and what he's done and I feel like
more people would see that if it wasn't for the Scott Stapp / Creed negative crap.

This is a band hitting on all cylinders right now and I think they are going to get better and better. Mark is an absolute animal and what we are witnessing right now is him, hopefully, just hitting his prime. As a huge AB / Tremonti fan, you just have be excited right now. These guys are something special.

And take it from this life long EVH fan, Mark played about 8-10 seconds of Eruption at the Chicago show a couple weeks ago, and having been to 7 Van Halen conerts over the years, I never heard Eddie play Eruption better than Mark played it. It was just awesome.

[titan9]

Everybody keeps talking about the Behind the Music episode featuring Creed. I never saw it(and probably never will, unless I download it from somewhere) so I can't comment on that. I don't think Stapp is completely to blame for the Creed hate, but, hey, when you bash a band, you typically bash the lead singer first. Creed was no different, as alot of critics bashed Stapp. The real people to blame for the Creed hate are the haters themselves, for usually being pretty ignorant with what they said.

I agree, I don't like the fact that Mark has this baggage. But I think Mark is proving in Alter Bridge that he is a great guitarist. And I think Alter Bridge is proving alot of people wrong.(the people that said Alter Bridge would be just another Creed)