My Own Prison is the debut album by American post-grunge band Creed, released on August 26, 1997. It has been certified six times platinum and is one of the top 200 selling albums of all time in the United States.[citation needed] The person kneeling on the album's cover is Justin Brown, a friend of the band. The picture was taken by guitarist Mark Tremonti's brother, Daniel, for a photography class. It has spent over 150 weeks on the catalog albums chart and over 110 weeks on the Billboard 200. The album received generally positive reviews from critics.

For the band's debut release manager Jeff Hanson matched them up with John Kurzweg, a producer friend who, with his unobtrusive production style and talents as a song writer and multi-instrumentalist, he felt was a great fit. Together the album was recorded for $6,000, which was funded by Hanson. My Own Prison was released independently in 1997 on their own Blue Collar Records. The album was distributed to Florida radio stations, and their enthusiasm for the record helped it sell 6,000 copies in the first two months in Florida alone.