Scott Stapp, most known for fronting the multiplatinum rock bank Creed, was bothered by someone affiliated with TMZ this week. The topic? That years-old tale of how T.I. may very well have saved his life in Miami way back in 2006.
"That's not accurate," Stapp, who was just minding his own business at the airport, said when asked about how T.I. "helped him come down" years ago. "I had an accident and I was injured and he found me injured and called an ambulance. So he definitely was critical in getting me the help that I needed after I was injured."
As for how things between the two shook out after the incident in question, Stapp said Wednesday that they had spoken and embraced. "We briefly spoke and gave each other a hug," he said. "He's a good dude, man. ... He seems to be at the right place at the right time. He's got a good heart, man, and he does good things. I love him."
In an interview with GQ last month, T.I. also revisited the rescue tale that's become deeply ingrained in music factoid history.
"I was outside in Miami, at the Shore Club, and I was stepping outside my balcony, about to fire up my blunt, me and my partner Big Phil," T.I., who didn't know it was Stapp at the time, recalled. "I just heard moaning and groaning from up on top of the roof area. I'm looking at Phil and I'm like, 'Are you hungry?' I thought it was his stomach because Phil was always hungry. And he was like, 'Man, that ain't me.' And we continue to smoke, and then [moaning sound]. So I step out and look down and don't see nothing. And then I look up and—'Oh shit, it's a white man up there!' [laughs] That's what really shocked me. Blood shows up real good on a white man."
According to T.I.'s account, Stapp had attempted to jump from the 14th floor and told them a "story about how he thought his girlfriend was cheating on him with his best friend." The weed in question, he added, helped calm the situation. "So basically, I offered him the J, but he couldn't reach me," T.I. said. 'So I said, 'I tell you what, I'll let you hit it if you let me call somebody to get you down.' So he let us call somebody to get him down."
In previous interviews, Stapp has referred to T.I. as a "guardian angel" who showed up to save his life. "I was trying to climb over the balcony and, you know, fell 40 feet and did some damage to my body. ... I laid out there for about two and a half hours," he said when promoting his 2012 book Sinner's Creed.
The incident was also chronicled in a 2016 episode of Spotify's Drawn & Recorded series.
