Scott Stapp - Early Life

Early Life

Stapp was born as Anthony Scott Flippen on August 8, 1973 in Orlando, Florida, to his mother Lynda, a school teacher and his biological father, about whom little is known. He was adopted by Steven Stapp, a dentist who married Scott's mother, and decided to take his stepfather's last name. However, upon realizing that his initials would spell out the word "ass," he took his middle name as his first and took the name he is now known as, Scott Alan Stapp. Stapp grew up in a very religious household because his stepfather was a Pentecostal minister. When punished, he would be forced to copy passages from the Bible. At one point, he grew so desperate to seek freedom from the strict rules of his religious stepfather that he snuck out of his home in the middle of the night and stayed at a friend's house for a month before finally returning home. In an attempt to impress his stepfather, he attended Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, but he was expelled for smoking marijuana. He subsequently attended Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida, Tallahassee Community College, and finally Florida State University.