Brian Aubrey Marshall (born April 24, 1973) is an American musician and songwriter best known as the bassist and co-founder of the rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge. Early life Brian Aubrey Marshall was born April 24, 1973, in Jackson, Mississippi but has lived in Florida since 1979. He started out his music career by playing his father's drums. He states that after scratching his father's drum set a few times, his father decided it was time to buy him a bass guitar. He cites Steve Harris, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, John Paul Jones and Doug Pinnick as major influences. Brian truly began his music career in the early 1990s at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, where he was a member of an original band, Mattox Creed and later, a cover band called Baby Fish Mouth through which he would eventually meet his future Creed band mates. Career Creed After being recruited into the band as a full-fledged member by Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti, Marshall came up with the name Creed after a band he was in earlier called Mattox Creed which had since disbanded. He was in Creed until late 2000, when personal issues with vocalist Stapp led him to depart the band, though some sources state that Marshall was fired. Marshall, however, remains silent about this issue and does not state the reasoning behind his departure. Brett Hestla from the band Virgos Merlot, replaced Marshall for the tour. For Creed's third album, Weathered, guitarist Mark Tremonti played bass and Brett Hestla played bass during live performances. After months of speculation, Creed announced in April 2009 that they had reformed, and also announced that Marshall was back in the band. He appeared on Full Circle, the Creed album released in October 2009, making it the first album since Creed's sophomore release, 1999's Human Clay, to feature him on bass. The band toured in support of Full Circle throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and South America during the summers of 2009 and 2010. Alter Bridge When Alter Bridge started getting off the ground in late 2003, Marshall was asked by Tremonti and former Creed drummer Scott Phillips to join the band since they enjoyed his playing and company. Other projects After leaving Creed in 2000, Marshall stated that he had taken some time off before he later got back into music. In 2001, he began writing