When the Dallas Cowboys asked Scott Stapp what number he wanted on his jersey, he only had one thing in mind.
It had to be 11.
"That was my number when I played football all the way up through Junior High," he told Kyle Brandt on his show 10 Questions. "And also, there was a little ego behind that number, because it’s double number ones. We were coming off a streak of number ones, so I’m going to own that number. That’s the truth behind the 25-year-old-ego at the time."
It's understandable why that ego was running wild, though, considering the position that Creed found themselves in as Thanksgiving of 2001 fast approached. Having just debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 with their third full-length Weathered, swiftly following the same treatment that 1999's Human Clay had received, there was reason to celebrate. Plus, being asked to play the halftime show for the team he had followed throughout his life - as well as come to practice, meet the players and staff and play a part in one of the landmark games of the season - you would be amiss in allowing him the chance to revel in things a touch.
Yet in the context of life outside of rock music, things had certainly played out a little bit differently than he may have expected them to. The reverberations of the events of September 11 were still being felt in abundance, with the intent of Thanksgiving taking on an even more sentimental feeling than it already had. And when it came to how people would make sense of Weathered as a collection of songs, most notably in the chart-bothering singles My Sacrifice and One Last Breath, Scott realised that their music was taking on a completely different weight. One that they never intended to, but knew they had to work with.
"I definitely think it’s gonna affect perception on some of these songs,” he said in 2001. “Some of them may even seem like they were written because of that, and that’s what kinda freaked Mark and I out."
Internally, Weathered was the perfect way to describe what the then-trio were doing with each other. Things were splintering. Issues both inside and outside the band had tested them to their limits, but the result was resilient songs. Songs about how when you are dealing with life's hardships, you sometimes have to soldier on even if it doesn't feel like you're going anywhere. To then have the weight of national tragedy placed on top of those meanings is enough to send any group a bit west. But what can you do when you've created something so honest?
It was not something that we planned or thought of ahead of time; it just came out," Scott added, telling Spin in 2024. "And that’s how we always wrote as a band. I know that sounds cliché: to be “honest and authentic in your songwriting,” but that’s exactly what we were."
All of these factors met in the middle when it came to taking the stage at the Texas Stadium, home of the Cowboys up until 2008, with the whole affair kicking off the Salvation Army's festive kettle campaign. But even up until they took their places, the band were still entirely in the dark about what was actually about to happen.
"Nobody tells you what's going to happen in the production," Mark Tremonti told Loudwire in 2024. "We didn't know. We just knew, 'Hey, you're going to go onstage. You're going to perform. So we got up there, and I don't even know if we did a full rehearsal with it with the whole production."
Though perhaps that is what makes the performance so incredibly endearing. Because, as the first coins are dropped into that kettle and the rousing notes of 'Higher' burst into life, all of a sudden, the pitch is awash with eyebrow-raising activity. From ballerinas in red leotards to topless acrobats literally flying towards the heavens and floating back down in endless wonder, it is flamboyant, fantastical and fittingly over the top.
For the band, it was more a case of wanting their music to come across the way they wanted it to. For Mark, that meant everyone watching knowing that they didn't turn up to mime.
"My biggest worry about the thing was that when you do live TV like that for the Super Bowl or whatever else, the band is not live. It's the vocals that are live. So I first said, 'No, I don't want to do it. I'm not playing the tracks. I don't want to be known as somebody that plays to tracks and lip syncs or anything like that.' So everybody's like, 'I understand.'"
"They get back to me like, 'You know, there's going to be how many hundred million people watching this thing. You have to do it.' Everybody is telling me, 'You've got to do it. You'd be stupid not to do this for the exposure."
To make sure that people knew that they weren't just showing up for nothing, Mark demanded that two stacks of speakers and his amps be turned on, so that at least those in the stadium were aware of what they were about. Though even with that demand met, it wasn't as smooth as he would have wanted it to be. You can see when watching the footage how concerned Mark looks as things begin, and it's because of the sound of the playback skipping in his in-ear
"I'm like, 'I told you guys, and now it looks like we're faking it.' I was so pissed. But TV has this seven-second thing where they can fix things. So it was fine."
Though what people were seeing on TV would end up being the most compelling factor. As the trio moved into a rendition of 'My Sacrifice', footage of first responders and fire crews making their way through the streets of Manhattan in the aftermath of 9/11 was interspliced with the pagentry on the field. It proved to be the embodiment of what the song represented, shifting so greatly. But for Scott, the fact that something he wrote had any sort of effect on someone was pretty much the whole point of this.
“The idea of those words connecting with people who are also searching for light at the end of the tunnel is gratifying," he told Billboard in 2001. "This band has seen a whole lot of the country over the past few years, and it’s been sad to feel the tension and anger among kids. If one of our songs can help break or relieve some of that tension, that’s a staggering, truly humbling gift."
For many years, the band's performance was a mere footnote in their story. A moment in time that, if you were there, you had a view of it. Though it has taken on a life of its own in recent years, alongside the band's resurgence as a whole, with new generations falling head over heels for them. Now, rather than just a timely appearance at a pivotal moment in history, the halftime show is heralded as an all-time great. Though the sentiment remains the same. An uplifting and invigorating treasure, even though the context in which it is being enjoyed is entirely different.
These days, Creed are playing to upwards of 20,000 people a night. Their songs are constantly viral on TikTok, with Higher in particular capturing the imagination of anyone, no matter their age, who wants to feel that little bit more epic. And off the back of the resurgence of their halftime display, they were even asked to be part of a Paramount+ Super Bowl ad in 2024, performing Higher as Patrick Stewart throws Hey Arnold! like a football, trying to reach the top of a mountain. Because of course.
“My reaction was, ‘Wow! This is incredible! Of course, let’s do it," he told ABC Audio about being asked to star in the ad. "I just felt like it was just an incredible gift that kinda fell into our lap.
“I hate to use the word surreal, I use it too much. But [it’s] just so surreal how everything has just kinda come back around even bigger than it was, almost, when we ended.”
Though, despite the context that people are consuming the footage in 2025 compared to 2001 is like chalk and cheese, the overarching factor that links the two is connection. That in the past, at a time when things felt scary and isolating, the performance provided solace and pride. These days, when despite being even more online than ever before, the disconnect between people has never been wider, the performance serves as a bridge, a reason to communicate and finda middle ground.
As it becomes more and more of a staple for the band, it's a case of using what they have done as a means of making a difference today. It's something that Scott makes sure to talk about whenever Creed play live now, and they are very much words to hold each other up against.
"The only way to make change is to wake up and come together as one, he stated at a show earlier this year. "Focus on what we have in common, which is life, freedom, love, happiness. We find our common ground and we build from there."
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