Mark Tremonti: A Musical Odyssey
Delve into the life and career of Mark Tremonti, a virtuoso guitarist and influential figure in rock music. Discover his story, from humble beginnings to global stardom.
Mark Tremonti
Mark Tremonti, known by his nickname “Tru,” was born April 18, 1974 in Detroit. He spent his childhood moving around the United States, including Illinois, Orlando and South Carolina.
His story begins when his parents, of Italian descent and very Catholic, decided to move to Illinois. There, at the age of 11, he had his first contact with music thanks to his older brothers, who never stopped listening to Kiss or Metallica. With 25 dollars he had saved, he bought his first guitar, a fake copy of the famous Gibson Les Paul.
His parents signed him up for guitar lessons, but the teacher didn’t teach him anything he wanted to learn, the guitar parts from Metallica’s wonderful ‘Master of Puppets’ album. He quit the lessons, but kept practicing on his own, so he learned to play by ear and from the occasional book he bought.
One of the first songs he wrote was called “Yesterday, Yesterday”.
In 1989, at the age of 15, his family moved again, this time to Orlando, Florida, where he enrolled in a school called Lake Highland Preparatory School. As fate would have it, there he would cross paths with a very important person in his life, Scott Stapp.
At that time he played in many bands, among them one called “Wit’s End”. It was a very hard period for him because his mother Mary was diagnosed with lupus, telling them that her life was in danger. Luckily, his mother would beat the disease for many years, until 2002 when she finally passed away. When he was in the band Alter Bridge he wrote the song ‘In Loving Memory’ for her.
When she graduated, she moved to South Carolina to study finance at Clemson University. It didn’t suit her well, so after only one year she returned to Florida to enroll at State University. Again the destiny crossed his path, making him meet again with Scott Stapp, with him he would found one of the most important hard rock bands of the 90’s and 2000, Creed.
THE GREATEST ROCK BAND?
Mark Tremonti: The Creed Era
Scott and Mark had not been friends, but they had a mutual love of music. Both were passionate about composing and performing. Scott, who was the stepson of a Pentecostal minister, almost always wrote about Christian themes and spirituality, Mark did not, which caused many arguments between them. The fact is that together they did a lot of songs.
They decided to put together a band, so they began auditions from which they would get bassist Brian Marshall, drummer Scott Phillips and rhythm guitarist Brian Brasher. With this composition of 5 members they would play until 1994, when the guitarist left them and they remained as a quartet.
While studying and rehearsing, he worked as a cook in a restaurant called Chili’s to earn some money.
They began performing in bars and small clubs in Tallahassee for audiences of about 200 people under the name Naked Toddler, but the name did not convince anyone, so when their bassist Marshall proposed to reuse the name of a band he had played in called Mattox Creed, Scott Stapp loved it, although he decided to keep only the Creed part, Credo. Everyone agreed.
The owner of one of the bars where they played named Jeff Hanson, put them in touch with a producer friend, John Kurzweg, financing the recording of their debut album for an incredible $6,000. The album was titled ‘My Own Prison’, with a single of the same name. They sold no less than 6,000 copies throughout Florida.
A lot of their music was about the search for spirituality, but ‘My Own Prison’ was about just the opposite. It talked about them trying to get out of that spirituality.
Creed was a band with a certain name, but they were still a local band. Everything would change for them when in 1997, Diana Meltzer, an executive at Wind-Up Records, heard the album. She instantly decided that she would sign them to her label and release the album nationally.
They released three more singles with My Own Prison throughout 1997, selling over six million copies. The singles were “Torn”, “What’s This Life For” and “One”. All songs reached number 1 on Billboard’s Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, making them the first band to achieve such a feat with a debut album.
By 1999 they had their second and most successful album, Human Clay, Arcilla de Humano, ready. It was an immediate success pulverizing their previous sales figure with 10 million copies. They presented it with Higher, Higher, a song that talks about having lucid dreams. Higher remained 17 weeks at the top of the rock charts.
It was followed by “What If”, a song about hostility and “Are You Ready”.
Although the biggest hit and what we could say is the key song of their discography was ‘With Arms Wide Open’, in which they talked about fatherhood. With this song they won their first and only Grammy for best rock song in 2001.
After a fantastic tour, things in the group began to get tense, especially between singer Scott Stapp and his friend and bassist Brian Marshall. So much so that Marshall left Creed in 2000.
For Mark Tremonti, things did not go badly, and in December 2002, he married his girlfriend Victoria Rodriguez. Together they have three children: Austen, Pearson, and their beautiful daughter with Down syndrome, Stella. They live in Florida, next to the famous golfer Tiger Woods.
In 2002 they released Creed’s third album called Weathered. It would also become a best seller thanks to six singles: “My Sacrifice”, “One Last Breath”, “Hide”, “Don’t Stop Dancing”, “Weathered” and “Bullets”.
Aside from guitars, Mark had to record bass due to the departure of his bassist Marshall. The tour in support of the album was an overwhelming success, but would end with a very difficult gig in Chicago that would eventually lead to the band’s dissolution.
Mark Tremonti: The Alter Bridge Era
The tour to promote their third album ‘Weathered’ got off on the wrong foot. Their lead singer and founder of Creed, Scott Stapp, was in a car accident suffering a concussion and vertebrae damage. This caused him to add painkillers to his growing addiction to alcohol. Musically, the tour was great, but personally, the relationship with Scott was becoming increasingly complex, which would lead to the disunity of the band.
Scott was going through a very bad patch, so much so that in 2003, after drinking a bottle of whiskey, he took a gun from his collection and pointed it at his head. Luckily, when he looked at a photo of his son Jagger, he regretted it. Scott went so far as to say that he was convinced that all the members of Creed wanted him dead so that he could become a Kurt Cobain-like martyr and thus increase record sales. This would not be the only time Stapp came close to suicide. In 2006, while in Miami, he jumped off a balcony and fell 12 meters, fracturing his skull and breaking his hip and nose. He would eventually be diagnosed with bipolar disorder after a psychotic break, which explained much of his behavior. With a lot of hard work and therapy, by 2015, Stapp was back to full sobriety.
In case you’re wondering, Mark doesn’t use at all, they don’t even pose a temptation for him. If he used, he couldn’t play. His six strings would become nine.
As I was telling, Creed had broken up, so in 2004 they released a Greatest Hits, Greatest Hits, and announced their disbandment after selling over 30 million records worldwide in just 7 years, and playing almost 5,000 concerts.
Mark Tremonti felt he needed to return to his rock roots. Creed drummer Scott Phillips was at the same vital point, so they began composing together. They were soon joined by former Creed bassist Marshall, but they lacked a new vocalist for their new band. He suddenly remembered that he had loved the singer of a group called The Mayfield Four, who had opened for Creed years before. The singer’s name was Myles Kennedy. They called him up and asked him to put his voice on a couple of songs they were working on. None of them could remember ever hearing anyone with his voice and passion. As soon as they heard him, they knew he was the person they were looking for. Afterwards, he came to rehearse with them in Orlando and they realized he was one of the most humble and pleasant people they had ever encountered. As a rite of passage, they had Myles go bungee jumping.
The four of them hit it off perfectly. The future was right in front of their eyes. The great thing about Myles is that his guitar style and Mark’s come from different schools. He’s more of a jazz-based musician, he likes classic heavy, while Mark is more focused on metal.
The next thing was the name. For that, Mark thought of a bridge near his childhood home back when he lived in Detroit. The bridge was on a street called Alter Road. Children were not allowed to cross the bridge because there was a lot of crime on the other side, so to them it represented the unknown. That’s where Alter Bridge came from.
His brother Michael became the publicist for Alter Bridge and his brother, Dan, became the creator of the illustrations for all the Alter Bridge albums. He had already done it previously with those of Creed.
With everything ready, in August 2004 they released Alter Bridge’s debut album, One Day Remains, One Day Remains. Although it received mixed reviews, it would be the best-selling album in Alter Bridge’s history for tracks such as Open Your Eyes, Broken Wings, and the biggest hit, Metalingus.
Their relationship with the label Wind-up Records was not good. They didn’t share the vision about the band, so they decided to buy the rights to Alter Bridge from them. They won’t say the exact figure, but they can tell you that it took them a long time to pay for it. But the label wasn’t the only problem, they were getting a lot of criticism for disbanding Creed and pressure to reform. They said that Alter Bridge sounded like Creed with another singer. Mark was so fed up that he declared that Creed would never exist again. Time would make him rectify it.
In 2007 they signed a new contract with Universal Republic Records. They had ready what they consider their best work, Blackbird, Blackbird. Released in 2007, it achieved much success with songs like “Watch Over You, Cuidar de ti”, and especially the title track, Blackbird, whose guitar solo, performed by Mark and Myles Kennedy, was named the best guitar solo of all time by Guitarist magazine in 2011.
They would perform Blackbird on a wonderfully successful world tour, which was saved on a live DVD recorded in 2008 in Amsterdam.
After the tour, they resumed their relationship with Scott Stapp, who had gone solo since the breakup of Creed. They felt they had left Creed unfinished, so together they decided to record a new album. Thus, in 2009 ‘Full Circle, Full Circle’ was born accompanied by three singles, “Overcome”, “A Thousand Faces” and the track that worked best, Rain, Rain.
It was not as good in sales as they expected, but the tour through America, Europe and Australia, during the summers of 2009 and 2010 was a success, being captured in the concert film ‘Creed Live’.
A TOUGH DECISION
Mark Tremonti: Creed or Alter Bridge
In 2008, Mark formed with his brother an online community of musicians, production company and record label called FRET12, with which they released a documentary DVD to teach guitar playing, under the title ‘Mark Tremonti: The Sound & the Story, Mark Tremonti, the sound and the story. It would be the first in a series of instructional DVDs.
While Marshall, Phillips and Mark were touring with Scott Stapp as Creed, Alter Bridge singer Myles Kennedy began working as lead vocalist with Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver lead guitarist Slash.
The idea Marshall, Phillips and Mark had was to alternate touring between Alter Bridge and Creed, and they even got together to work on a fifth Creed album, but things cooled down again. Scott Stapp thought they would leave Alter Bridge and devote themselves entirely to Creed, but that was not their intention. In fact, in 2010 they got together with Myles again to record Alter Bridge’s third album, AB III. It was a concept album that received much critical acclaim.
The lead single, “Isolation, Isolation,” reached #1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, their first single as Alter Bridge to do so. They would re-release a DVD recording of their 2012 concert at Wembley, their biggest show to that point.
Mark is always composing music, both for Creed and Alter Bridge, but some of the songs he was writing didn’t fit for either band, because they had a heavier sound, something closer to trash metal, so he decided that he would take a step forward and form his own band being him the vocalist. He decided to call it with his last name, Tremonti. That way, in 2012, under his record label FRET 12, he released his first solo album, ‘All I Was, Todo lo que era’, presenting it with ‘You Waste Your Time, Pierdes el tiempo’.
The public and critics liked both her compositions and her powerful voice.
The truth is that 2012 was a very full year, apart from finishing the Alter Bridge tour and their debut solo album, they toured again with Creed and at the end of the year they reunited Alter Bridge to release in 2013 their fourth album, Fortress, Fortaleza, released in 2013 with ‘Addicted to Pain, Addicted to Pain’ as the first single.
It is an album full of energy in which they challenged themselves to get the most out of the arrangements.
Mark Tremonti: The Tremonti Era
Mark has always used the American brand PRS, Paul Reed Smith. In fact, he has the honor of being one of the few guitarists in the world to have a PRS guitar designed to his exact specifications, the Singlecut type model.
He was very happy with the performance of his first solo album, so he got down to work and in 2015 he had ready to release his second album, ‘Cauterize, Cauterize’. In it he tried to capture the spirit of the speed metal songs he had listened to all his life. As an example, the single “Radical Change, Cambio radical”.
Another good sample would be the second single Another Heart.
Cauterize was actually the first of two albums he had composed and recorded together, so he gave his fans a surprise and in early 2016 released the second album titled ‘Dust, Dust’, presenting it with ‘My last mistake, My last mistake’.
He missed his Alter Bridge bandmates a bit, so in 2016 he reunited with Myles, Marshall and Phillips to record his fifth studio album, ‘The Last Hero, the last hero’. They would tour the world in 2017, with a very special concert at the O2 Arena, which they recorded and released as their third live album, Live at the O2 Arena + Rarities. During this tour they also recorded two shows they performed at the Royal Albert Hall alongside a 52-piece orchestra.
Mark enjoys meeting little kids after concerts because it reminds him of when he met Dave Mustaine from Megadeth in his childhood. It made him so happy to shake his hand, being able to do that now with a kid seems incredible to him.
Mark Tremonti lives in a mansion in Florida with his wife and three children. Although he doesn’t live a life full of luxuries, he likes to relax when he’s home and rent movies every night. However, he does have one particular quirk: he collects pinball machines, of which he owns several.
In 2018, Tremonti took on a new personal challenge by collaborating with science fiction novelist John Shirley to create his fourth solo album, a concept album entitled A Dying Machine. This album was accompanied by a novel co-written with Shirley, in which they tied up the loose ends of the album’s plot. The album’s title track is Take You With Me.
In 2019, Tremonti and his band Alter Bridge released their sixth album, Walk the Sky. Tremonti described this work as a John Carpenter movie, with an old-school synth vibe. To compose it, he was inspired by some old loops he created and others he randomly found on the Internet. His bandmate, Myles Kennedy, enthusiastically embraced the idea and collaborated on the composition of tracks like Wouldn’t You Rather.
After touring the album, Tremonti refocused on his solo career, managing to release his fifth album as Tremonti, Marching in Time, in 2021. The first single from the album was If Not for You.
In 2022, Alter Bridge returned with their seventh album, Pawns & Kings, released along with the single Silver Tongue.
THE CROONER
Tremonti sings Sinatra?
For years, Tremonti had performed Frank Sinatra songs in private. One night, he came across an old video of Sinatra performing The Song Is You from 1944, which sparked a desire to further explore the iconic singer’s vocal approach. With this inspiration came the idea to record an album honoring Sinatra, tied to a charitable initiative Tremonti had created called Take A Chance For Charity.
Tremonti partnered with the National Down Syndrome Society, an organization he collaborates with because his youngest daughter, Stella, has Down syndrome. He decided to donate the proceeds of this charity project to the foundation. To carry out his idea, he contacted the remaining members of Sinatra’s band, including his musical director, Mike Smith. Although initially hesitant, they were soon impressed by Tremonti’s vocal abilities as a crooner.
In 2022, Tremonti released Mark Tremonti Sings Frank Sinatra. This album reached number one in the categories of current traditional jazz album and independent album on the Billboard Music Chart. Tremonti considers this project to have been the most ambitious and challenging of his career, as it was far removed from his usual genre, rock.
Mark Tremonti today
In 2023, Tremonti continued to explore the classics with the release of a holiday album entitled Christmas Classics Old & New.
That same year, Tremonti announced the reunion of Creed to offer their first concerts together after 12 years. In addition, in 2024 he released the single Just Too Much, as an introduction to his sixth solo album, The End Will Show Us How.
Mark Tremonti: A Living Rock Legend
Mark Tremonti is one of the most important guitarists of our time, as confirmed by the Guitar World Guitarist of the Decade award. He is also one of the most prolific songwriters in rock with more than 20 albums released and 53 million albums sold worldwide. With all this we can only say that Mark Tremonti is a living legend of Rock and Roll.
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