Let's not beat around the bush: Scott Stapp is an easy target. The former frontman for 90s Christian grunge frat-rock aficionados Creed, the jokes write themselves at this point. So, when you read something like "Rapper T.I. saved Stapp's life," you'd be forgiven for waiting on the punch line.  Only this time, no one is joking. 

"Sinner's Creed: A Memoir," by Stapp and David Ritz takes a candid look back at Stapp's struggles with faith, addiction, stardom, and depression.

Stapp, who opens his memoir with the shocking story, shared an abbreviated version of the events on VH1's "Big Morning Buzz Live."

During a drug binge Stapp explained he'd checked into the penthouse of Miami's Delano Hotel. After days of being awake, phantom voices and the hotel's white walls prompted visions of being trapped in an asylum, and Stapp jumped over his balcony, falling 40 feet. He fractured his skull, broke his hip and nose and couldn't move.

Then rapper T.I. showed up. How predictable.

"I laid out there for two and a half hours and my guardian angel showed up - rapper T.I.," Stapp said. "He immediately took care of the situation and saved my life."

Serendipitously, Stapp had randomly met him years ago. "I had met T.I. back in 2004, we were both writing songs for The Passion of The Christ: Songs Inspired By soundtrack and we had briefly interacted there and knew what each looked like," he revealed. "We'd talked about being fans of Alabama."

"It's ironic - he walked in, and I found out later it was the only room left in the hotel and he came in off the street and came out, and as I'm laying on the ledge, blood fell to [T.I.'s] feet and he looked up and he had an Alabama hat on. I said, 'roll tide,' and then he looked at me and put two and two together and really saved my life."

Known for hits like "Higher," "My Own Prison," and "With Arms Wide Open," Creed were a dominant force on alt-rock radio and MTV in the 90s. "Sinner's Creed," takes a look at those accomplishments, and Stapp's journey through the lens of his spirituality. 

More surprising facts:

Despite receiving athletic-scholarship offers from top universities, Stapp's stepfather insisted that he attend a church-based Tennessee college, where he got kicked out for smoking pot with a dean's son; the dean's son was allowed the remain in school. Later, Stapp waited on the family while working at a T.G.I. Friday's in Chattanooga. "I went back to bus the table, where under the dean's coffee cup was a one-hundred-dollar bill," he writes.

Stapp contemplated suicide while holding two assault rifles, but stopped short when he saw a picture of his son Jagger: "Screaming like Rambo, I unloaded thirty-six rounds of bullets on every award and achievement I had won with Creed."

Eddie Van Halen offered Creed advice when the band opened for Van Halen at Madison Square Garden in 1998, saying "Write your room number on your (hotel) key; that way when you pass out, they'll throw you in the right bed" and "Never let anything come between you guys."

During a 2002 Chicago concert while Creed performed its song "Who's Got My Back?", Stapp said of his bandmates, "I don't think these guys have got mine." The singer laid down flat on the stage to sing the rest of the song.  Some fans claimed Stapp had really just passed out drunk, and sued for ticket refunds. "That wasn't the case, but I was definitely inebriated," Stapp writes.