Jesus Was A RockStar

Album: Proof of Life (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • A track from Creed lead singer Scott Stapp's first solo album, this song finds him reconciling his identity as both a Rock Star and a Christian, something he struggled with once Creed took off. "The two worlds can blend together," he said in our 2013 interview. "These two worlds do have symmetry. They don't have to mean good and evil. They can mean unity. I can be someone that loves the Lord and loves Jesus, and be in a rock & roll band and play music that gets played on Rock & Roll stations."
  • The arms-outstretched, chest forward position is known as the "Jesus Christ Pose." Soundgarden wrote a song about it, and many Rock Stars have applied it over the years - but none like Stapp. At Creed concerts and in videos, Stapp was often seen striking the pose, sometimes with his hair flowing in the wind. It became his signature move, and to his critics, a symbol of his arrogance. This song finds him fully aware of this perspective, and also affirming his Christian beliefs. "In no way was I comparing myself to Christ," he told us. "But for a period in my life I was beaten down for being a Christian. I was judged harshly. Stones were thrown. My life was attacked. And so I was trying to find a connection."
  • Stapp expresses his faith far more overtly on this song then he did on his Creed material, and he finds that liberating. He told us: "You can be a Christian and a rock star because look at me: I'm a rock star and a Christian, and in some regard I'm preaching through this song right now. So, on multiple levels, that song meant a lot to me. But it also brought, finally, this divided part within me that was this huge struggle that caused so many problems in my life early in the public eye. It finally brought it together. And it brought it to a place for me, within my head."

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