Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti says the hate that the band attracts is just part of the deal when artists reach a certain level of popularity.
And as long as people keep buying Creed records and attending their shows in huge numbers, he's not losing any sleep over the backlash.
Tremonti – who has also achieved success with Alter Bridge and his self-titled solo band – led Creed to extraordinary success in their early years. And their comeback tour has picked right up from where they left off after going on hiatus more than 10 years ago.
Tremonti tells Ultimate Guitar: "After a while you just kind of realise if you want to be in a band where it got as big as Creed did, there's gonna be people that love you, there's gonna be people that hate you.
"Look at all the biggest bands in the world, especially pop artists. If it becomes a household name, there's gonna be people that hate on it. And you've gotta take the good with the bad.
"Would you rather sell tons of records and have people come at you or sell no records and have everybody love you?
"And I got to see both sides of that when we started Alter Bridge. When we started Alter Bridge and we had gotten into a few records, we got a lot of critical praise, but we weren't selling the millions of records that Creed was.
"So I got to see what it feels like on both sides."
People hating rock bands that cross into the mainstream in a big way is nothing new. Perhaps the most obvious example is Nickelback, who have been the brunt of countless jokes for decades.
But asked whether he regrets anything about Creed's meteoric rise, Tremonti is clear.
He says: "I'm glad I've gotten to experience it all. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for those early Creed days."
