He is as powerful and mighty as the redwood tree...
He looks forever young like a vampire...
He holds the guitar as a chain saw...
He is a well-known amplifier burnout...
He knows how to roar like a lion in the Serengeti...
So let's honor the man... the "Sawmill from Texas" (A nickname we gave him)...
(Photo: Guitar.com)
1. He was born on April 18th, 1974. His full name is Mark Thomas Tremonti and he grew up in Michigan, as a member of an Italian Catholic family.
2. He bought his first guitar at the age of 11 at a price of 10$.
3. major influences on him as a guitar player were "Metallica" and "Testament". He used to play their riffs for hours to get stronger. To this day, he claims that his power comes from the rhythm guitar roles.
4. During his childhood and adolescence, Tremonti moved to several states in the U.S., Michigan, Illinois, Florida, and South Carolina, and returned to Florida where he enrolled in college and formed his first band.
5. He met Scott Stapp in high school and later the two met again when they were studying together at Florida State University. During that time Tremonti worked as a cook at a chili restaurant.
6. In 1994 during their studies the two discovered the common love they have for music and started writing and playing together. In order to form a band, the two began recruiting more members the band and after several auditions joined Brian Marshall on bass, Scott Philips on drums, and guitarist Brian Brasher (but Brian left after less than a year).
7. The band name was brought by Brian from the name of his previous band called "Mattox Creed", Stapp liked the word "Creed" and everyone agreed on the name. By the way, the band's first name was "Naked Toddler".
(Photo: Last. fm)
8. The band's debut album "My Own Prison" was released in 1997 and was a huge success with sales of over 6 million copies. Four singles were released from the album: "My Own Prison", "Torn", "What's This Life For", and "One" and four of them took first place on the Billboard Rock chart. Which made the band the first to achieve this with a debut album.
9. The band's second album "Human Clay" was released in 1999, the first single from the album "Higher" topped the charts and spent 17 weeks in first place. With the release of the album it immediately took first place on the Billboard 200 and became an insane success as it sold about 10 million copies in the first two years which gave the band its first and only Grammy win.
10. With the success of the album, the band established its status as a hard rock leader in the Post-Grunge era, with fans yearning for Tremonti's strong and aggressive riffs.
11. After the tour to promote the album, Brian's addiction to alcohol was too strong, so Tremonti and Stapp urge him to go into rehab or he will be fired from the band. Since he refused to go into rehab he was fired. On the band's next album, Tremonti was the one who took the bass role.
12. In 2000, Tremonti tried to form a Speed Metal band with singer Jamey Jasta from the band "Hatebreed" and drummer Joey Jordison from the band "Slipknot", but the project failed.
13. The band's third album "Weathered" was released in 2001 and was also a huge success, reaching first place on the Billboard and staying there for 8 weeks in a row. The tour to promote the album, which was a huge success, was in fact the band's encore, this time it was Stapp's addiction to alcohol and painkillers that decided the fate of the band.
14. The turning point was when, in December 2002, Stapp went on stage drugged, drunk, and failed to fully complete a single song. The show was stopped and two years later the band officially disbanded.
15. Immediately after the official dissolution, Tremonti joins the other two members of "Creed" in order to form a new band. After admiring the performances of his band "The Mayfield Four" the trio invited Myles Kennedy to join the band and thus formed "Alter Bridge".
(Photo: NME.com)
16. This time Tremonti is the one who gave the band its name, after a bridge that is close to his house and is called "Alter Road".
17. They released their debut album "One Day Remains" in August 2004, the album was a success and reached number five on Billboard while staying there for 14 weeks. The album was written mostly by Tremonti, both in terms of music and lyrics, with Myles contributing only a few parts.
18. The song "In Loving Memory" from the album was dedicated to Tremonti's mother who passed away in 2002.
19. In 2007 the band released their second album (and a masterpiece to be noted) "Blackbird". Although the album only reached number 13 on Billboard, it received very positive reviews from critics and later became one of the band's biggest albums. After the release of the album, the band went on a tour to promote it and there is even a DVD named "Live from Amsterdam" that was recorded during the tour. Look for it... Highly recommended!
20. Here we must note the masterful and sublime solo of Tremonti (yes, yes sublime), which explodes in the song "Blackbird", one of the band's famous songs. The guitar solo consists of two parts with Myles taking the first part and Tremonti coming in the second part and it is simply a masterpiece of two amazing guitarists !! This guitar solo won in 2011 as the best guitar solo of all time by "Guitarist" magazine.
21. In 2008, Tremonti and his brother Dan founded the company "FRET12", the company is engaged in many areas in the music industry: an internet community for musicians, a production company, a record company, and a merch company. You can see Tremonti wearing company shirts and guitar straps at gigs.
(Photo: Antje Naumann)
22. Dan is also the one who designed all of "Creed" & "Alter Bridge's" album covers.
23. Worth noting is another brother of Tremonti - Michael, which is the publicist and liaison with the fans of "Alter Bridge".
24. That same year Tremonti releases a DVD called "Mark Tremonti: The Sound & the Story", in which he explains the way he creates and continues his learning process in music. He explains how he builds the riffs, gets inspired, and also teaches how to perform the "Alter Bridge" solos.
25. Although Tremonti has repeatedly claimed in a fair number of interviews that "Creed" belongs to the past and has no future in sight, in 2009 the quartet returned and released their fourth album "Full Circle". The album was not a great success, but one of the shows from the tour broke records. The band performed in September 2009 in Houston Texas in front of 239 cameras and millions of viewers, with the show broadcast live via the Internet. There were a number of other Guinness records broken in that show.
26. In 2011 "Alter Bridge" released their third album "AB III" (which is also needless to say a masterpiece album). The album's lead single "Isolation" topped the US rock charts. Here too you can find a live performance from the album tour, called "Live at Wembley".
27. In 2011 Tremonti embarked on a solo career and formed the ensemble named after him "Tremonti".
He takes Eric Friedman on guitar and bass and drummer Garrett Whitlock. Bassist Wolfgang Van Halen (the son of...) later joins the band's tour and takes part in the recordings of the second and third albums.
(Photo: Ashley Maile)
28. In 2012 "Tremonti" releases their first solo album "All I Was" under the Tremonti label "FRET12". This is a Hard Rock, Trash Metal album, that sounds as if Tremonti was just waiting to be released from his cage and explode in his own way. He wrote, recorded, and produced the album in three months during a break from both bands, just in the transition between the end of Alter's tour and the start of Creed's tour.
29. In that year the members of "Creed" started working on the next album, but the album did not materialize and this was actually the last year of the band members together as "Creed".
30. In 2013, "Alter" released its fourth album "Fortress". It's one of the band's most powerful and gruesome albums. One of the most powerful songs on the album in which Tremonti takes a significant part in singing is "Waters Rising", an amazing collaboration of the two. Here we must note that seeing this song performed at a live show right in the face of Tremonti was an out-of-body experience (like the rest of the show).
31. In 2015 Tremonti releases his second solo album "Cauterize", also under his label "FRET12".
This is the first album joined by Wolfgang who replaces Brian (Alter Bridge) who was part of Tremonti's tour. Here, too, Tremonti releases every rein and saws of his soul into the album. This album is the first of two albums recorded together. Tremonti recorded enough material for two albums but did not want to release a double album, but two different albums balanced in their dynamics and structure.
32. The second album released a year later in 2016 is called "Dust", and like the first one it consists of ten songs and was released under the label "FRET12".
(Photo: Jurgen "Jux" Hummer)
33. That same year "Alter Bridge" released their fifth album called "The Last Hero", Tremonti claimed that the album was a combination of "Blackbird" and "Fortress" together.
34. In June 2018, Tremonti released his fourth solo album "A Dying Machine", this time the album is released under the "Naplam" label. This masterful album is accompanied by a full-length novel written by Tremonti and writer John Shirley which completes parts of the album. We are proud to say that we opened our first show on the radio with this song that bears the name of the album.
35. In October 2019 the band released their sixth album "Walk the Sky" (we did not say this about the previous two but this is a masterful album double time). Tremonti said that to get inspired for the album he decided to go back in time and dig into the riffs he recorded many years ago. He not only took inspiration from the riffs but part of the vibes of the songs were also heard from the past of the 80s.
36. Tremonti has collaborated with many artists such as the comedian "Larry the Cable Guy", the guitarist Michael Angelo Batio, and his friends from the band - "Submersed", the bands "Sevendust", "Fozzy" and more...
37. In 2014, Tremonti won the "Riff Lord" title in the Golden Gods Awards competition of "Metal Hammer" magazine.
38. A year later he was named by "Loudwire" magazine the "Best Guitarist".
39. Tremonti has also been named by "Guitar World" magazine the "Guitarist of the Year" for 3 consecutive years, which has also led to winning the prestigious "Guitarist of the Decade" title.
40. In 2011 he was ranked fourth on "Total Guitar's" list of the greatest heavy metal players.
41. In September 2021, Tremonti releases his fifth solo album "Marching In Time", an album that in every song illustrates the tremendous development of Tremonti as a musician, the tremendous talent, and insane abilities that this man has. The singing, the melody, the production, and all the elements of the album undergo a significant leap from the previous albums.
42. In May 2022 Tremonti creates a unique project called "Tremonti Sings Sinatra", you can rub your eyes as much as you want but you read that right, Frank Sinatra. This is a special project that Termonti created for his daughter Stella who was born with Down Syndrome.
43. In October 2022, "Alter Bridge" releases its seventh album "Pawns & Kings". Unfortunately, and we really say this with heavy mixed feelings, this feels like the beginning of the end. The album sounds flat, without depth or charisma, something that feels like autopilot. And with the rumors of a "Creed" reunion, the feelings are only getting stronger.
44. In July 2023, "Creed" announced a reunion!!!! The band announced not only a reunion but also a full North American tour called "The Summer of '99 Tour". The tour is scheduled to start in April 2024, this is the first time the band has taken the stage together since 2012 and there are already rumors of a new album...
(Photo: Chuck Brueckmann)
Listen to Tremonti's "Marching In Time" on: Spotify, Apple Music