If you've been paying any attention to the news this week, you know that the big story making the rounds is that a bunch of Trump administration officials were texting each other on the Signal app about their sensitive plans to bomb targets in Yemen. We know this because one of those officials accidentally invited Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, to the group chat. The whole story is an amazing trainwreck and a huge deal, but it's not necessarily a music story -- not until now, anyway. Because it turns out that Mike Waltz, the national security advisor who accidentally invited Goldberg to the chat, is the brother-in-law of Creed frontman Scott Stapp.
Admittedly, this is a pretty tertiary connection. Mike Waltz is married to Donald Trump's former homeland security director Julia Nesheiwat. Nesheiwat's sister Jaclyn married Creed frontman Scott Stapp in 2006. Last year, People reported that the Stapp couple is heading for a divorce, so that link between Waltz and the world of inspirational Christian post-grunge radio rock may already be broken. But Scott Stapp did play a campaign fundraiser for Waltz, a former Florida congressman, in 2019. In any case, Stephen Colbert's Late Show had some fun with that connection on Wednesday night's show.
Last night, Colbert aired a parody of the Creed hit "Higher," but now it's about the dynamics at the Thanksgiving dinner table whenever those guys get together. The song isn't the funniest thing that's ever borne the Colbert name, but it's nice that they didn't make Stapp the butt of the joke too badly. This isn't his fault. Watch the Colbert bit below.
Stereogum ran a We've Got A File On You interview with Scott Stapp last year, but this did not lead to any of us getting added to Mike Waltz's group chat.
