My Own Prison

"My Own Prison" is a song by Creed and the titular lead single from their 1997 debut album of the same name. It first appeared on the WXSR-FM compilation album Locals Only and would prove to be the band's breakout hit. The single peaked at number two on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number seven on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. Writing and recording "My Own Prison" is one of Creed's earliest written songs. Prior to writing the song, the band had written about half a dozen other songs as they were in the process of trying to find their identity. The band wrote a song called "Grip My Soul", which was never recorded or released, but after a rehearsal vocalist Scott Stapp recalls that he and the band felt that they had finally found their musical style. It was sooner after this that "My Own Prison" was written. Stapp wrote in his memoir, Sinner's Creed, that in a way, "Grip My Soul" was a prelude to what would become "My Own Prison". As with all Creed songs, the lyrics were composed by Stapp and the music was written entirely by guitarist Mark Tremonti. Stapp said about writing the title track: "One night I woke up about 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. from a dream and I just wrote it all down," Stapp said. "I didn't know it was a song at the time. A few days later I called [guitarist] Mark [Tremonti], he had been putting together some music, and we sat down and got the song together in about 30 minutes." The band originally demoed the song, along with the rest of their songs, at their producer John Kurzweg's house, which was called "The Kitchen Studio", in Tallahassee, Florida, and Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida, for $6,000. During the original recording sessions, which were recorded analog directly to tape, the first song that was tracked was "My Own Prison". This final cut from these sessions would appear on the Blue Collar Records release of My Own Prison. However, after the band was picked up and signed to Wind-up Records, the song, along with the entire album was remixed by Ron St. Germain at the Long View Farm recording studio in Massachusetts. Music and lyrics Stapp was inspired to write the lyrics to My Own Prison based on his experiences when left his home at the age of 17 to enroll in "the school of hard knocks," Stapp said, and it was in the latter days during this education that Stapp decided he would "take responsibility" for his actions.