Multi-platinum rockers Creed [ tickets ]--who are entering their eighth consecutive week in the top slot on the Billboard 200 album chart--have left their Florida base for a world tour that is expected to last for most of the year.

The first show of the tour's initial leg--which focuses mostly on cities east of the Mississippi--takes place tonight (1/16) in Atlanta. Also tonight, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time, VH1 airs "Creed: Opening Night Live," a special that will include behind-the-scenes footage and the first songs of the band's Atlanta set.

Louisville, Ky.-based Tantric [ tickets ], a band anchored by three former members of Days of the New, supports Creed on its January and February dates. Virgos, a band that plans to release a new album on Creed's independent label Blue Collar Records this spring, is also on the bill.

Creed's final North American appearance of February will be an hour-long performance at the Olympics Medal Plaza in Salt Lake City on Feb. 19.

Following a March tour of Australia, Creed is expected to play several additional North American dates in April. A European tour is penciled in for May and June, and more North American shows--cities and dates to be determined--are slated for July through November.

Creed's outing will probably be one of 2002's hottest tickets. In 2000, the band grossed $26 million over 79 North American shows, according to Pollstar.

The new Creed album, "Weathered" (Wind-Up), sold about 887,000 copies during its first week in stores, and has been No. 1 ever since. The album has been certified five times platinum--for more than 5 million copies shipped--by the Recording Industry Association of America.

"Weathered" is the follow-up to Creed's 10 million-plus selling 1999 album, "Human Clay."

Visit liveDaily's Creed message board.