A Birthday Look at Mark Tremonti

After a year at Clemson University, where he studied finance, Tremonti transferred to Florida State University, where he met up with former high school friend Scott Stapp. In 1995, Tremonti and Stapp co-founded the band Naked Toddler with bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips. A second guitarist, Brian Basher, also was in the band, albeit briefly, in '95.

After thankfully changing their name to Creed, the band released their debut album My Own Prison in 1997. The album wasn't an instant success, but the band toured their socks off, and the harder they worked, the more their fan base grew. What were club gigs the first time through a city became theater gigs the next time around, and in the scheme of things, their graduation to arena rock stars was virtually overnight. Their hard work those first couple of years paid off handsomely when My Own Prison eventually sold more than 6 million copies. The album spawned four consecutive #1 singles on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, including "My Own Prison," "Torn," "What's this Life For" and "One."