Scott Philips Alter Bridge Creed Interview

None

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Rex in the morning, I andsee one on one there's Creed and my
sacrifice before that alter Bridge with Risetoday. And which one's your favorite?
Which one? Which one do youlike the best? I've got Scott Phillips
who bangs on the drum for bothbands. Scott, is there a favorite
for you or is it just acompletely different menu item? Oh man,

(00:23):
it's uh, it's definitely two separateanimals. Yeah, you know, both
of them are near and dear tomy heart. Obviously Creed being the baby
that kind of put us all onthe map, and then sort of alter
Bridge spreading our wings a little bitand moving in a different direction. But

(00:45):
yeah, they're both both near anddear, So they're both favorites for you
right there. I mean, Imean, I don't know any I don't
know anybody who isn't a Creed fan. And then when alter Bridge came along,
everybody kind of had to wrap theirmind around what wait a second,
this is this is the same guys, But you know, I either like
this better or I like it thesame. It's uh, they are definitely
different flavors. I love your workwith Creed, obviously, love your work

(01:11):
with alter Bridge. I'm kind ofblessed to be one of those morning guys
that can fiddle with the music,you know, like I don't get a
phone call from the p D.You know if I drop a Smashing Pumpkins
song that I don't want to hear, or another Lincoln Park and I'll put
in alter Bridge and I put inCreed all the time, because you know,
it's it's like stuff that I loveto hit, the stuff that I

(01:34):
love to hear. I know everybody'slooking forward to seeing you guys in Corpus
Christy. You talk about that firstalter Bridge with Seven Dust, Mammoth,
Wolfgang van Halen August nineteenth. Haveyou played with I imagine over the years
you've had to play with seven Dustand what about Mammoth. Yeah, so
both of those guys, I've startwith seven Dust. We met them back

(01:55):
in like nineteen ninety seven. Yeah, we're both completely baby bands and supported
our first record and just hit itoff right out of the gate and have
been friends ever since. Seven toUs did a ton of touring with us
as Creed. Yeah, we madeit a point to make sure that they
were like direct support. We'd lovedbeing around those guys. We you know,

(02:17):
as much as we were fans oftheir music and musicianship, we were
also just buddies, and you know, it's always cool having your buddies out
on the road with you. Sowe we brought them out as much as
possible and had continued to be friendsand support each other ever since. We
did some touring together as alter Bridge. We're alter Bridge. We were opening

(02:42):
up for them, you know,throughout sort of the late One Day remains
kind of early Blackbird era album cycles, and then from there we've you know,
seen each other on the road hereand there for years and years since.
So it's fantastic having them out withus now. We got a chance

(03:06):
to do a shorter or tour earlierthis year together and had had a blast.
It's wild how a band like that, and you know LeJean and the
guys, they are absolutely the friendliestrock stars to hang around. I've been
here forever when you guys started out, and and oh my god, and

(03:27):
Wolfgang when you talk to him,he ought to be doing voiceovers for like
The Animal Planet or something. Heis he is like the sweetest guy ever,
and it is he and all thoseguys, and so it's funny with
that band. Uh, we've knownWolfie since you know, he was a
kid kid. Yeah, we asCreed had the opportunity need to open up

(03:53):
for van Halen in nineteen ninety eight, Wow, and Wolfie was like seven
running around backstage. We only gotto do a couple of shows, but
you know, met him there andobviously got an amazing opportunity to hang out
with his dad for multiple days onend, which was really cool. But
wolf he started coming to shows likewhen we go out to La or wherever.

(04:16):
He'd come out and he'd get upon the drums and play a song
during the show with us and gotto be friends. He was in when
Mark started his solo project Tremonti,Wolfie went out and played the bass on
that. He didn't I don't thinkhe recorded it, but maybe he did
record it, I'm not sure.But ended up being the touring bass player

(04:39):
for that and then recorded the secondrecord. And then van Halen was getting
back together to do things, andso he was like, I, you
know, I gotta go, buthe's been a friend for a long time.
And then the rest of the guysin the band, Garrett Whitlock,
the drummer, was the drummer forTremonti, and we've known Garrett since he

(04:59):
was probably sixteen or seventeen years old. John Jordan, one of the guitar
players, was in Clint's solo project, which toured with us in twenty twenty,
right before COVID shut everything down,so I get to meet him there.
Yeah, Ronnie Facaro, the bassplayer, he's the newest guy that

(05:24):
I think we've all just sort ofmet more recently than everybody else. And
then Frank Sadoras, who's the otherguitar player in the band, is also
in Slash featuring Miles Kennedy and theConspirators, So Miles has known Frank for
years, and we've all kind ofknown Frank for years. So it's a
lot of It's sort of like abig summer camp right now with the three

(05:46):
of us on the road together becausewe've all, in some form or fashion,
have known each other for so long, and it makes it easy to
go on tour with you know,your buddies. Yeah, I mean,
if you're with the it's like you'rewith family when you guys, Hey,
we gotta we gotta work tonight.But during the day we're all going to
hang out and do stuff, whichis great and definitely helps the time go
by so much faster because I've seen, you know, big tours roll into

(06:09):
town and everybody just sort of campsout on the bus so they go get
a bite to eat or to suggestedrestaurant. But it's always it's always fun
when your backstage and you see everybodyjust mixing it up and everybody's hanging out
like a family reunion back there.So I imagine you've definitely got to be
looking forward to that. Tell mea little bit about this cruise. Is
there are there any cabins available?I was just reading about this on loudwire

(06:33):
about the official Reunite cruise that's comingup what April eighteen through the twenty second
and next year. That is correct. That is correct, and unfortunately it
is really sold out. Huh.Anybody's interested. There's a waiting list,

(06:53):
and you know, you sign upfor a cruise nine months in advance,
and then the closure you get maybesomething comes up and you're like I can't
make Yeah, a rumor coomes available, So anybody that's on that list,
there's certainly an opportunity. I'm notat liberty to say much, but Uh,
you know, twenty twenty four isa really long year, so you
never know what else might happen.Yeah, they're talking about all the different

(07:14):
bands that are playing, like BuckCherry and there's several others. It sound
like it'd be a blast appe.You know, Buck Cherry, we got
Three Doors Down, Tantric Fuel,Dishuala, Vertical Horizon, a few other
bands that I'm missing right off thetop of my head. But it's a
nice you know, sort of beingthe summer of ninety nine Crews, we

(07:35):
felt like, you know, thatsound that might not have been that exact
year, but you know that soundkind of has it sounds. Yeah,
and you know, wanted to findbands that uh really encapsulated that. And
I think we've got a really goodblend and mix of of music that's going
to bring everybody back to that ereand should be a really good time.

(07:58):
You're your your music. With bothalter Bridge and Creed, I always talk
about how I like bands that writesongs that actually sort of tell a story
instead of just focusing on a word, you know, and just and hammering
it into the ground. It's kindof nice when you leave that experience of
hearing a four minute song and youand you sort of end up walking through

(08:20):
the day with that story in yourhead if you actually listen to the lyrics.
Is that something that you think youguys plan that way or is it
just you're not one of those bandsthat grabs a word and just repeats it,
you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, i'd agree with you
on that. I mean, Ithink you know, two different lyrical writers

(08:43):
and the kind of three you know, Tremonti's with alter Bridge, yeah,
and with some of the Creed stuff. You know, he contributed a lot
to those lyrics. But uh,you know, Scott's a very prolific writer
in being a storyteller, and Milesin his own way, is the same
way. You know, they're kindof different from each other maybe topically,

(09:05):
but yeah, I think it's importantthat you know when you're writing those lyrics
that you're telling a story that you'reyou know, trying to really draw in
the listener and take them on ajourney as opposed to you know, just
put the words that rhyme together exactlyand you know, at the end of

(09:31):
the day you have the coolest riffin the world, and you know,
the lyrical content doesn't hit the listener, then you you've kind of failed your
mission. And I think both thoseguys really take that to heart. I
always tell people to go back andlisten to some of that older music like
Old Legs Diamond, you know,like listen to listen to nine minutes of
Woman and tell me you don't leavefeeling the way that they felt. You

(09:54):
know, it's a really it's anovel, you know, it's it's just
it's fantastic that music, and Iit's it feels like it's lost to me
sometimes, and so it's nice whenI hear a Creed song or an alter
Bridge, and I think that's whatI think a lot of listeners to your
music, what they like so muchabout it is you didn't just leave with
a word that you leave feeling likeyou went to a movie or or who

(10:18):
heard an audio book of what's reallyhappening with a band or with a life.
Let's these stories. That's really cool. Yeah, I agree. I
mean, that's that's the kind ofmusic that we wanted to make. And
yeah, nothing against other artists thatdo it differently. I mean, sometimes
the listener might just want to puton a you know, a song that
doesn't saying, you know, justthey can just enjoy the music and yeah,

(10:43):
and you know whatever it may bethat that, you know, the
the type of artists that we arein the you know, musicians that we
are, I think we always wantedto be storytellers. That's really cool,
kind of the natural progression of whatwe've done over the years. Well,
man, we're looking forward to seeingyou guys alter Bridge, seven Dust and
Mammoth. That's Wolfgang van Halen Augustnineteenth at Concrete Street, Amphitheater, The

(11:05):
Ponds and King's Tour. Thank youso much for taking some time this morning
and telling us a little story.Absolutely absolutely, we're looking forward to it.
Man. We've we've played that venuea couple of times before and it's
always been a blast, great crowd, so we're really enthusiastic for this upcoming
show. Very cool, ma'am.Thanks for taking the time. Enjoy the

(11:28):
rest of your day and we'll talksoon. Thank you.