Rock band Creed to return with new album and tour

(CBS News) Fifteen years ago, Creed stormed on to the charts with the release of its debut album, "My Own Prison." Several hits and a Grammy award later, some may be wondering: Where is the rock band now?

It turns out, right where it wants to be: In the studio working on new material and preparing for a U.S. tour.

Creed frontman Scott Stapp is ready to tell his story in more ways than one. Five songs are already written for the next Creed effort, the follow-up to 2009's "Full Circle." And this time, Creed is looking to its fans for guidance.

"They've [fans] really pushed us lovingly in a direction to reconnect with our first two records and do it with them," Stapp told CBSNews.com. Fans are saying, '"Come home, guys,'" Stapp added.

"We need to plant our roots," explained the 38-year-old rocker, who hopes to release the new Creed album by the end of 2012. "We need to further reestablish that we're all on the same page and we're ready to move forward with the same fire and vigor of a rock and roll show and with that artistic expression like we used to do ... So, let's do it."

Stapp, himself, sounds fired up about the new music. The Tallahassee, Fla. natives broke up in 2004, only to reunite five years later. The band's ups and downs, as well as Stapp's highs and lows, are all seeping into the latest crop of songs.

"It always comes out in our music," Stapp said. "That's what our fans are reminding me, 'Hey man, that's what started this relationship. So don't stop doing it.'"

Fans will likely get to hear some of the new material once Stapp, guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips hit the road on April 13 in Chicago.

A new album and tour aren't the only projects Stapp is focused on these days. Also in the works is a memoir, which Stapp describes as a "first-hand narrative of the journey from my roots -- from the day I was born to the present."

Due in October 2012, the book will chronicle everything from Stapp's childhood to the formation of Creed and its rise to music fame.

In 2000, you could barely escape Creed's Grammy-winning song, "With Arms Wide Open." It ruled the radio waves. Later, the band's third studio album, 2001's "Weathered," tied "The Beatles Anthology," for the most consecutive weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 chart. In all, Creed has sold an estimated 35 million albums worldwide.

But with mainstream success sometimes comes backlash, a topic Stapp plans to tackle in his book -- and in a serious way. Online bullying is a subject Stapp knows all too well: Creed faced some online criticism through the years despite all of its success.

"We're seeing these situations happen all over schools, all over the world," he said.

Stapp said he will address what he calls "mainstream media bullying" and how it impacted him as a father and a husband, as well as the lives of his three children.

"There's a line where it's personal, personal attacks from haters," said Stapp, who plans to open up about how those attacks affected him "mentally, emotionally, spiritually and as a professional in the business -- and why it took so long for Creed to come back."

"We were six feet from the edge," he said. "Thinking maybe six feet ain't that far down."

That has all changed now. With a new album, a memoir and a tour ready to go, the Creed today is a lot farther from that edge.