My Own Prison is the debut studio album by American rock band Creed, released in 1997. The album was issued independently by the band's record label, Blue Collar Records, on April 14, 1997, and re-released by Wind-up Records on August 26, 1997. Band manager Jeff Hanson matched Creed with producer John Kurzweg, and My Own Prison was recorded for $6,000, funded by Hanson. Creed began recording music and released the album on their own, distributing it to radio stations in Florida. The band later got a record deal with Wind-up.
At the time of My Own Prison publication, Creed were compared to several bands, including Soundgarden (especially the Badmotorfinger era), Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Hootie & the Blowfish, Tool, and Metallica. Influenced by heavy metal and 1970s stadium rock, My Own Prison music has been described as grunge, and "slightly heavy metal, slightly alternative". The album's lyrics cover topics such as emerging adulthood, self-identity, Christianity and faith, sinning, suicide, unity, struggling to prosper in life, pro-life, and race relations in America. Vocalist Scott Stapp and guitarist Mark Tremonti said their early adulthood inspired lyrics to the title track and "Torn". Stapp was inspired by music by U2 (particularly The Joshua Tree), Led Zeppelin, and the Doors. Tremonti, who brought heavy metal elements into Creed's music, credits influences such as the thrash metal bands Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, and Forbidden.
Creed released four singles from the album: the title track, "Torn", "What's This Life For", and "One". Despite only peaking at number 22 on the Billboard 200, strong radio airplay propelled My Own Prison to become a commercial success. All singles aired on rock radio in the United States and, with the exception of "One", had music videos broadcast on MTV. My Own Prison was eventually certified sextuple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and by 2009, sold over 6,000,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album received mixed reviews, which complimented its guitar riffs and music but criticized its similarity to 1990s grunge bands.
Background, writing, recording, and production
For the band's debut release, manager Jeff Hanson matched them up with John Kurzweg, a producer friend who, with his unobtrusive production style and talents as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, he felt was a great fit. The album, funded by Hanson, was recorded for $6,000. My Own Prison was originally released independently on the band's own label, Blue Collar Records, in 1997. It was distributed to Florida radio stations, and their enthusiasm for the record helped it sell 6,000 copies during the first two months in that state alone. Guitarist Mark Tremonti said that in the band's early days, he was working as a cook at Chili's and Stapp was a cook at Ruby Tuesday's. Drummer Scott Phillips was managing a knife store at a mall and bassist Brian Marshall was the only one without a job, and, according to Tremonti, Marshall "was also the only one who ended up getting his degree before it was all said and done".]]
My Own Prison is a lot heavier and more grunge-oriented than other Creed albums. Its lyrical themes include Christianity, faith, sinning, and
[[file:Scott Stapp crop.jpg|thumb|130px|right|alt=Photo of a man smiling|The vocals of Stapp (pictured) have often been compared to those of Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder.
The track "What's This Life For" is about a best friend of Tremonti's who committed suicide, and the guitarist has described it as "a song about suicide and kids searching for that meaning of life". "One", a more catchy and upbeat-sounding track, "Torn", written by Tremonti, is autobiographical. Prior to Creed's success, the guitarist held various jobs to pay for college, including washing cars and working as a cook. "One day, I came home from work at about 3 in the morning," he said. "I was all dirty and stinky and hating my life, so I just wrote a song about what it's like being a kid in between 18 and 23, when you haven't graduated from school yet and you don't know what you're doing with your life." He added: "It's about how hard that period of time is, when you're broke, you have to work two jobs to go to school. I was at a hard point in my life, so I wrote a song about it".
Artwork and packaging
Prior to releasing the album on their own independent label, Creed recruited Daniel Tremonti, Mark's brother, to become their creative director. Stapp described Daniel as a "super soulful guy with the heart and talent of a true artist". They picked a photo that Daniel had taken for a photography class as the cover for the record. The image was of a man named Justin Brown, a friend of the band, depicting him kneeling shirtless in a corner with his hands on top of his head. Stapp claimed the artwork "captured him to the core" and that it reflected the isolation, conflict, and torture that was driving him as well as seeing hope and feeling that he was like the man in the artwork, "who had been beaten down but could now get up". Looking to have a professional-looking final product, the band acquired a loan from bassist Brian Marshall's father and went to a one-stop company to package and manufacture the record. They ordered five thousand copies and took them to major outlets in Tallahassee. All five thousand were sold within the first month.
The original Blue Collar Records version featured the band's original logo, a wordmark inside a roundel, situated to the top right just over Justin Brown, with the album title at the bottom. The Wind-up version featured an updated band wordmark logo in a Mason Serif Regular font, now situated on the top left, with the album title just below that, to the right. The band's updated logo would go on to become their permanent logo, although the font would eventually become slightly more extended on future releases.