Creed will pay homage to its debut album with a series of special shows in April -- and throw in its follow-up for good measure.

The group will celebrate the 15th anniversary of its six-times-platinum "My Own Prison" by performing six shows in three cities -- April 13-14 at the Chicago Theatre, April 16-17 at Philadelphia's Tower Theatre and April 19-20 at the Beacon Theatre in New York. The first night in each town will feature "My Own Prison" in its entirety along with selections from Creed's other three albums, while the second show will showcase 1999's 11-times platinum "Human Clay" from front-to-back, along with additional songs.

"We're doing this for our fans," Creed frontman Scott Stapp tells Billboard.com. "They've talked so much on Twitter and Facebook, 'Play more songs... off the 'My Own Prison' album and off the 'Human Clay' album' -- and the same with the (2001) 'Weathered' album and even on to (2009's) 'Full Circle.' The band got together, and management, and we were sitting around chatting one day; I don't remember who came up with the concept, but we just totally fell in love with the idea -- going to small venues, playing the albums top to bottom. I think it's a great way for the band to reconnect to our roots and with each other and with our fans in a very intimate way that they've asked for." (Photo: Getty Images)

Stapp says he and his bandmates are particularly looking forward to playing songs from those first two albums that Creed never played live or hasn't played since those albums first came out, including tracks such as "Illusion," "In America" and "Pity For a Dime." He also promises that Creed "is going to play some B-sides as well" and will dip into some of the less-celebrated songs from "Weathered" and "Full Circle." The group has already started soliciting fan suggestions for those rarities via its social media sites.

"One thing about the way the albums were built years ago is they told a story from the first song to the last song, so they're meant to be played that way," Stapp notes. "There was a reason behind the way we composed the songs and the way we put 'em together and organized them on the records. They have a natural ebb and flow to them, so it'll be real easy to listen to -- it's just gonna be a matter of catching up with the chops on the tunes we haven't played in a lot of years. But I think that will come back pretty quick."

And, Stapp predicts, dipping deep into Creed's past will make some impact on a new album the group is working on and planning for release in 2012. "I think definitely playing the music from the past and all the material we haven't played is going to help us reconnect with a lot of those emotions and incite some further inspiration," he says. Creed is currently "about six tracks" into its fifth studio album, but Stapp says that "we're not trying to rush this at all. We're still a band that likes to create albums and not just get three songs we think will connect with radio and put an album out. We want to put out solid albums and want it to be an organic process, just like we had with those previous records."

The rest of Creed -- guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips -- are currently touring Europe in their other band, Alter Bridge, wrapping up Nov. 29. They'll also be part of the Soundwave Festival in Australia during late February and early March. Stapp, meanwhile, plans to do some more of his solo acoustic shows, and he's continuing to work on his autobiography with David Ritz, which he predicts will be ready to submit to the publisher in March. And he's continuing to work on his second solo album, the follow-up to 2005's "The Great Divide."

"I've got enough material right now to do three albums," Stapp says. "There's some things that were out of my control that prevented that from happening, but I'm always working on material for that. It's definitely on the horizon. Right now my focus is on my baby, which is Creed, but there definitely will be another solo record soon."