Creed: Stapp On It.

Creed play the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on March 12.

Don’t get mad, get even. By notching up 20 million sales for their first three albums, Creed have become one of the biggest selling acts of all time to come out of America. Obviously this gets up the nose of some people (read: music critics) and rival acts (read: Fred Durst). On their new stage show, the band from Florida exact their revenge by coming up with one mega-stage show. We’re talking huge explosions, Roman Colosseum pillars, and three catwalks into the audience. And Creed insist that it’s mere coincidence that the first three songs in their set – Bullets, Freedom Fighter and What If - are basically fingers-up songs to those who didn’t believe in their mission in the early days.

“It was real important for us to get to number one,” admits drummer Scott Phillips, backstage a few hours before they went onstage at the Milwaukee Bradley Centre.

“We were underdogs always. When Human Clay sold 10 million, people still wanted blood. We were dismissed us as one hit wonders. When Weathered went in at number one and stayed for seven weeks and sold four million, it was real good to make the point that our music speaks for itself and our fans are what matter.”

“We’re working harder than before because of the size of the stage - but I remember that even when we were playing to 15 people, we tried to harness that energy as if we were playing in an arena. Now we’re playing to about 15,000 people a night the energy is awesome. It takes ages to unwind, usually I don’t come down until about five in the morning before I go to bed.”

The first rock show Phillips went to, aged 18, was Jane’s Addiction on their final run of dates, at the Lollapalooza tour.

“They didn’t have a spectacular show, but I was just awed by how loud they played, the aura onstage and how the kids reacted to it. That was the catalyst for what I do now.”

Does Phillips feel weird about the fact that Creed are outselling ten times over the acts that inspired them?

“Yeah, it is strange. It didn’t matter then that they didn’t sell many records, because they were great bands. But when your own band outsells them... I don’t think guilty is the right word but weird certainly is.”

Creed’s appeal comes from their old school rock approach and singer Scott Stapp’s spiritual lyrics (‘We all live under the reign of one king’ from Torn). The three may or may not be Christians. An early biog claimed that Stapp’s Pentecostal parents banned all music from the house, confiscated the first record he bought, and made him write out long stretches of the Bible if he broke these rules. He left home at 17, and wrote the lyrics to their first album My Own Prison while living in his car after dropping out of his law course.

Phillips’ background wasn’t as complicated. He grew up learning piano and sax, and then threatened to give up music unless his microbiology lecturer dad and English school teacher mum let him learn the drums. At college, his room mate who loved the Doors and Zeppelin began jamming with him. One day they were hanging out at a fellow’s house, when Stapp and guitarist Mark Tremonti called around to audition him for their new band. Stapp, Tremonti and the dude worked in restaurants in the same mall. Alas, sometime during the afternoon, Stapp and Tremonti heard Phillips play, and the original dude is lost forever to history.

Nowadays they live in gated communities near Orlando, with manicured lawns, pools and Mercedes sports cars with 19” wheels parked in the driveway. Tiger Woods lives a few street away. Phillips, a golf nut, is musing whether Tiger will exchange free drum lessons for golf tips. “I’ve met him a couple of times, and we got on. But I definitely need some golf tips. People say it’s a relaxing game but I find it anything but. It’s quite competitive.”

During the making of Creed's latest video, My Sacrifice, a scene depicted a city submerged in water. A Bengal tiger was placed on the hood of a car while Stapp was to be calmly row by. But the scene had to be reshot repeatedly because the tiger got restless and threatened to pounce on him. The trainer had to hastily suggest the singer speak to the beast to calm him down.

Chuckles Phillips, “I’d done my part of the shoot earlier that morning and gone home, so I didn’t get to hear about it until the next day. Ya know, no matter how much you love animals, there’s something to be said about being wary of a 500-pound beast that’s looking at you as if you were a chicken sandwich.”