Scott Stapp Almost Played Baseball At Vanderbilt, But His Recruiting Visit Turned Him To Music
Hello my friend we meet again,
It’s been a while, where should we begin?
How about here: Scott Stapp is having himself a week. Just after the anniversary of his iconic Thanksgiving game halftime show at Cowboys Stadium…
Stapp now joined Kyle Brandt’s incredible (and still fairly new) podcast 10 Questions. And he dropped a bomb about how Vanderbilt – of all places – is somehow responsible for him getting in to music.
STAPP: Well, I actually went to Vanderbilt University and was gonna play there. I didn’t attend. Sorry, that came out wrong. I went to Vanderbilt University, met the coach, they had offered me a scholarship to play at Vandy, went there with my dad. And when I was getting taken on a tour with a fellow ball player there, I went to a frat party. And I saw this guy singing, you know like a covers band or what not, and I looked up there and just saw the front row. And it was a lot of lovely Vanderbilt University ladies at the time. And I got the rockstar itch right there. And so, my life took a few turns – went to Lee [University], ended up at Florida State, and started a band. And that’s how it played out.
As a Nashville native, I get it. You can’t go anywhere in that town without a singer (famous or not) booked to play a gig. Restaurants, the airport, gas stations. You name it. You want live music at Costco? Some hopeful musician probably has a gig there right next to the travel kiosk where you can purchase half-priced cruise tickets. Every waiter in that town is an aspiring musician with a demo flash drive in their back pocket and a gig booked for tomorrow night at Office Max. So of course there’s going to be some dude at an SEC frat house pulling out a pic in his wallet, with his acoustic guitar on his knee, asking everyone if they wanna hear Wonderwall.
And it was essentially that guy at Vandy who’s to thank (or blame) for Stapp’s career. Is Vanderbilt responsible for Creed? Make that judgement for yourself. Nevertheless, Anchor Down, I guess?
Now obviously this recruiting trip was pre-Tim Corbin days. Way before Walker Buehler and Dansby Swanson. And way before Pedro Alvarez and David Price. Hell, this could’ve been the Scott Stapp era of Vandy baseball. *sigh* What could’ve been.
And look, you can say what you will about Creed or Stapp, but I’m here for this interview. The guy came across as super cool and super self-aware in the podcast. Plus, as you know, KB is a big KB house. We love Kyle Brandt here at Korked Bats. If you like sports, pop-culture, and TRIVIA – Kyle threw the three into a blender (with probably a little whey protein too) to create this awesome podcast. So go check out this podcast – exclusively on Spotify (or on The Ringer’s YouTube) channel. And make sure you stick around for the question where Kyle asks Stapp what his relationship with the Internet is like.
And lastly, can’t talk about Creed without dropping a quick power ranking of top Creed songs. Is this the most basic bitch list of all time? You betcha. Mainly because I was raised on Top 40 radio. So here we go…
5. My Sacrifice
4. With Arms Wide Open
3. Higher
2. It’s Been A While*
(* – I know this is technically a Staind song, but I’m still putting it in my Top Creed songs list.)
- One Last Breath
Damn, if this doesn’t give you NOW: That’s What I Call Music nostalgia, I don’t want to know you.
Also, don’t @ me. This isn’t up for debate.