Mark Tremonti

Mark Thomas Tremonti (born April 18, 1974) is an American guitarist and singer, best known for his tenures with the rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge.

He is a founding member of both bands, and has also collaborated with many other artists over the years.

Tremonti was born on April 18, 1974, in Detroit, Michigan.

He grew up in a Catholic family of Italian descent in Grosse Pointe, just outside Detroit, for most of his childhood before moving to Wilmette, Illinois.

He began to become enthralled with music, and bought his first guitar at the age of eleven.

When he was fifteen, his family moved again to Orlando, Florida, where he enrolled in Lake Highland Preparatory School.

During this time, his mother was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus, which left Tremonti devastated.

After graduation, he moved to Clemson, South Carolina to attend Clemson University to major in finance.

After his freshman year in college, he moved back to Florida to enroll in Florida State University, where he was reunited with his then future Creed bandmate Scott Stapp, whom Tremonti had known since high school.

Before Creed took off, he worked as a cook at Chili's.

Tremonti is a founding member of the American hard rock band Creed.

Creed is recognized by many as one of the major acts of the post-grunge movement of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Tremonti and Stapp have been collectively recognized as one of the most prolific songwriting teams in all of rock music.

He formed the band with lead vocalist Scott Stapp in 1994 with fellow members Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips joining as bassist and drummer, respectively.

The band released their debut album My Own Prison in 1997 to strong mainstream success, selling over six million copies.

Four singles were released from the album: "My Own Prison", "Torn", "What's This Life For", and "One".

Each song reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, making Creed the first band to achieve such a feat with a debut album.

My Own Prison was followed in 1999 by Human Clay, which was an immediate success and certified diamond and eleven times platinum by the RIAA.

The band released four singles from Human Clay: "Higher", "With Arms Wide Open", "What If", and "Are You Ready".

"Higher" spent a record-breaking 17 weeks on the top of the rock radio charts.

Marshall left the band in 2000 due to increasing tension with Stapp and to pursue other interests.

He was temporarily replaced by touring bassist Brett Hestla.

Creed also won their first, and to date only, Grammy Award for Best Rock Song for "With Arms Wide Open" in 2001.

That same year, after a tour, the band released another multi-platinum selling album, Weathered, from which six singles were released: "My Sacrifice", "One Last Breath", "Hide", "Don't Stop Dancing", "Weathered", and "Bullets".

It would be the band's only album without Marshall on bass; Tremonti handled the bass parts himself.

The tour to support this record was overwhelmingly successful but ended with a considerably controversial concert in Chicago that ultimately led to the band's breakup.

The band announced that they had disbanded in 2004, citing tension between Stapp and the other members, Tremonti in particular.

The three instrumental members went on to found Alter Bridge while Stapp opted for a solo career, and Creed released their Greatest Hits in November 2004.

However, after months of speculation, despite early claims from Tremonti that Creed would never return, it was announced that Creed had reunited with plans for a tour and a new album.

The record, Full Circle, was released in October 2009, accompanied by three singles, "Overcome", "Rain", and "A Thousand Faces".

Though a moderate critical success, it ultimately became the band's only album to not be certified by the RIAA.

Creed supported the album by touring throughout North and South America, Europe, and Australia during the summers of 2009 and 2010.

The band released a record-breaking concert film titled Creed Live in December 2009.

Tremonti, Marshall, and Phillips, initially planned to alternate tours between Alter Bridge and Creed with the singers of both bands working on their own projects while the other band is active.

He formed his own band Tremonti in 2011 and has released five albums with them, including A Dying Machine, which was adapted by Tremonti and science fiction novelist John Shirley.

Since his early years with Creed, Tremonti has received positive recognition as a guitarist and songwriter and has received a number of accolades, including one Grammy Award for Creed's single "With Arms Wide Open".

He was also named "Guitarist of the Year" for three consecutive years by Guitar World, and in 2011 he was listed in Total Guitar magazine as the fourth-greatest heavy metal guitarist of all time.

A fifth Creed album was expected in late 2011 or early 2012 according to Tremonti, and in early 2012 the band reconvened to tour and start work on a fifth album which never began production.

In June 2015, while promoting his second solo album Cauterize, Mark Tremonti claimed in interview with Kerrang that he "[hasn't] been a close friend of Scott's in 9 years".

He said that Stapp thought that Tremonti, Marshall and Phillips would return to Creed permanently and forget their work with Alter Bridge.