Creed Songs - My Own Prison Lyrics

Creed - My Own Prison

Creed - My Own Prison Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: My Own Prison
Released: 1997

My Own Prison Lyrics

A court is in session, a verdict is in
No appeal on the docket today
Just my own sin
The walls are cold and pale
The cage made of steel
Screams fill the room
Alone I drop and kneel
Silence now the sound
My breath the only motion around
Demons cluttering around
My face showing no emotion
Shackled by my sentence
Expecting no return
Here there is no penance
My skin begins to burn

(And I said oh) So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
(And I said oh) All held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one

I hear a thunder in the distance
See a vision of a cross
I feel the pain that was given
On that sad day of loss
A lion roars in the darkness
Only he holds the key
A light to free me from my burden
And grant me life eternally

Should have been dead
On a Sunday morning
Banging my head
No time for mourning
Ain't got no time

Should have been dead
On a Sunday morning
Banging my head
No time for mourning
Ain't got no time

(And I said oh) So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
(And I said oh) All held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one

I cry out to God
Seeking only his decision
Gabriel stands and confirms
I've created My Own Prison
I cry out to God
Seeking only his decision
Gabriel stands and confirms
I've created my own prison

(And I said oh) So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
(And I said oh) All held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one

(And I said oh) So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
(And I said oh) We're held captive (I created)
Out from the sun (I created)
A sun that shines on only some (I created)
We the meek are all in one (I created my own prison)

Should've been dead on a Sunday morning
Banging my head
No time for mourning
Ain't got no time

Writer/s: MARK TREMONTI, SCOTT STAPP
Publisher: RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

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.

Creed songs were in their happy place on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, where this song went to #2. Their early singles were ineligible for the Hot 100 because they weren't sold as singles, but "My Own Prison" managed to hit #54 on the Airplay chart in March 1998, nearly a year after the album was first issued.

By the time the album's last single, "One," was released, Billboard had changed their rule about Hot 100 eligibility, so that song made #70 on the chart in April 1999, just four months before the first single from Human Clay, "Higher," was issued. This kept a constant stream of Creed on the airwaves, resulting in a backlash as listeners eventually suffered Creed fatigue.