My Own Prison

Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti wrote the music to this song, and lead singer Scott Stapp composed the lyrics, which are about his struggles with life at a time when he was questioning his faith. He realized he had created a prison within his own mind. After Creed became wildly popular (and at the same time, reviled), Stapp created another kind of prison for himself with drug addiction, alcoholism, and a series of unflattering incidents the tabloids lapped up. In 2012, he was able to take an honest look at his life and re-evaluate his priorities, which he wrote about in his memoir Sinner's Creed. When we spoke with Stapp the following year, he explained, "Any time we have reconciliation in life, and any time there's balance brought back into life and perspective, at the end of those things, you find peace and joy and contentment, and that's where my life is today."

This was Creed's first single. It was a great example of the confessional songwriting that would become Stapp's hallmark. The singer says that expressing his deepest emotions and his vulnerabilities in his songs is cathartic for him.

The album was initially released on Blue Collar Records, a local label that distributed it around Florida, where the band formed. It sold well and got the attention of the BMG label Wind-Up Records, which signed Creed and issued a new version of the album remixed by producer Ron Saint-Germain. Wind-Up pushed the band by distributing this song to radio stations as a promotional single and supporting it with their first video, which was directed by Stephen Scott. The combination of radio and MTV airplay set Creed on their path to success, and Wind-Up fulfilled demand by following up with three more promotional singles from the album: "Torn," "What's This Life For," and finally, "One." None of these singles were sold in America, which drove up sales of the album at a time when $16 CDs were still commonplace. My Own Prison eventually sold over 6 million copies Stateside, a huge total that was nearly doubled by their next album, Human Clay.