I have been a Stryper fan for well over 25 years. Stryper has always been a band that has been met with harsh criticism, ridicule, and lot of hate from people in the metal community but on the other end have been accepted and loved just the same. Over the years the heavy metal bumblebees have delivered some of my favorite all time metal classics like “Soldiers Under Command”, “The Writings on the Wall”, “To Hell With the Devil”, and “The Way” just to name a few. While I’m not one to grasp on to “the message”, I’ve always been able to look past it and accept Stryper for what they are: a truly great, powerful, and inspiring heavy metal band.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Stryper lead singer/guitarist Michael Sweet which was a real honor for this long time fan. Together we talked about their latest masterpiece No More Hell To Pay, the challenges of being a Christian band in a predominantly secular genre, and just how hard it was to go on after Iron Maiden in Spain. Michael was a really sweet, humble, and hilarious guy and I’m already looking forward to the next time we get to talk. Enjoy this one y’all!
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Michael, thank you so much for taking the time out to do this interview today!
Hey man, I’m doing well. I wanted to thank you for that awesome review.
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I’m so glad you liked it and I apologize for so many curse words. You just got me fucking pumped. Man, see? Sorry about that.
[laughs] I thought it was hilarious man and you know, we’ve been known to drop a few F-Bombs from time to time ourselves so no worries [laughs].
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I’ve been a Stryper fan since 1986 and I have to say a big thank you for putting out such a stellar album. As a longtime fan, this was the record I’ve wanted to hear.
Thank you, Don. I really believe in my heart that when the fans come to hear it I think that this will be a comment that you’ll read often and I’m very happy to know that. We went out of our way to really throw the extra sauce on there, some extra icing on the cake, and just give everybody what they’ve been asking for for years.
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I love that you have always been vocal of being a huge metal fan. You’ve always been very open about your passion for bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and it sounds like you really dug deep to grab onto those roots for this album. Was this something that you worked hard at or was it a natural thing?
It wasn’t pre-planned and it wasn’t a conscious effort. We didn’t sit down and have a meeting and say, “Let’s sound like those British heavy metal bands or the heavy metal bands we grew up on” but at the same time I do think that those influences came out from deep within on this record. What helped make that happen was doing “The Covering” and “Second Coming.” Those albums really pulled it out of us. Getting back to our roots most certainly helped us to get back our roots musically speaking on our original songs as well so it was really cool.
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So the making of this album was a pretty quick process right?
It happened very quickly and smoothly. It wasn’t like we spent 3 or 4 years making this record. I had over 40 ideas on my iPhone. I carry that thing around me all the time humming ideas into it. I took all those ideas and went down to my studio for a little over two weeks and I wrote all the songs except for “Jesus is Just Alright.” Then the guys came out to my house, they spent about 6 days here, I thought them all the songs and then we recorded them live. Then we went on the Monsters of Rock Cruise, came home and had a few days off and then started recording the album. It wasn’t like this long, drawn out “in the works” kind of thing. It happened relatively quickly. We tracked everything in a couple of weeks, I came home and did the vocals, and then we went back in and we mixed it. If you added up all the days and hard time, it was maybe a four week process if that.
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That’s amazing to hear. I mean, the album sounds so thought out and precise but not like it’s over thought if that makes sense.
Absolutely. I what can happen, and we’re guilty of this, is that if you think too much about a particular record you can really screw it up. I feel like we did that to a degree with In God We Trust. I think we kind of also did that with Reborn. With In God We Trust, it’s too slick, it’s too polished and with Reborn we thought too much about being modern. “Man, let’s not do solos and let’s not do screams and lets not be Stryper.” We wanted to be modern and I think those were big mistakes on those albums. If I could go back and take a different approach those would’ve been far better records.
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That’s funny that you mentioned that because In God We Trust is my least favorite sonically but has some of my favorite Stryper songs ever on it. I mean, the title track and man, “Writings on the Wall”? That’s one of the greatest songs.
Yeah, “Writings on the Wall” is one of my all-time favorite Stryper songs and we only every played it on that tour and that’s it. We’re going to re-add that to the set and I agree with you that it’s one of the best Stryper songs ever. There’s a certain cool energy about it but with the album we did kind of just screw up the production. We over produced it and we overthought it. Instead of doing a guitar solo 2 or 3 times to get the right take, we would do it 20 times.
Exactly. We just tried to over perfect everything and that album is perfect. There isn’t one bad or sour note on that record but we lost a lot of the live by over perfecting it.
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Is there some bitterness towards the album In God We Trust that has you guys not playing any songs from this album on tour?
No. A lot of fans wonder why we don’t play those songs live and it’s got to a point where they think we hate the album. I don’t hate the album. It’s our 2nd biggest selling album behind To Hell with the Devil. The reason we don’t play those songs is because they’re too darn hard to play. The vocals on those songs are in the stratosphere and they’re very difficult for me to sing. That is the toughest record for me to sing because it’s out of my range right now. In order to pull that album off what we need to do is to hire Tony Harnell and Todd LaTorre to tour with us switching off vocals and then maybe we can nail it [laughs].
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Stryper had a lot of success as crossover act bridging the gap between Christian music and secular metal. Why do you think it was about Stryper that appeals to the even not at all religious metal crowd?
I think it’s because of our sound. It’s really odd in a very cool way to do an interview with a Satanist and have him tell you, “I love the band” and then watch him in the front row banging his head to “Soldiers Under Command” [laughs]. That’s a trip but it’s really very cool. That’s the power of Stryper. People love or hate the band, make fun of the band, say what they want to say about the band but you cannot take away the fact that we’ve reached people on both sides of the fence and we’re still doing it and with the original line up.
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I’ve always felt that a lot of Stryper’s lyrics have this very ambiguous tone to them. Is it enough for you to know that even if the Christian message isn’t resonating with some fans that maybe they’re getting some sort of positivity out of them regardless?
Absolutely, Don. There are a handful of people when I say to them “That song is not about God” they go, “What? Sacrilege!” [laughs] Then I have to explain to them that the song is about a relationship or that it’s a song about my wife or about someone who’s on drugs. We all face everyday issues and as long as it points back to God, at least in my opinion, that’s all that matters in the end. We love to try different things musically but more so lyrically lately. I can’t tell you how many songs from the old days have the world “rock” in them. Maybe a million? Rock, Rock Rock. You can’t stop the rock [laughs].
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The Rock that makes me Roll!
[laughs] Exactly. I just felt that as a songwriter I really needed to change things up. I’ve really been trying to do that over the past 10 years a lot.
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I feel like the new album hit that mark. This album seems to be the most, again, ambiguous of them all lyrically. I mean, anyone who likes metal could and should like this record.
I hear ya and that’s a fine line that we’ve got to think about. We will never stop being who we are and proclaiming what we believe in. At the same time you don’t want to beat people over the head with the bible bat and make them feel like it’s just too much. I feel like some of our past lyrics did that. I think it might have limited us. Am I saying we shouldn’t have been as bold as we are? No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying that you’ve got to be careful. Religion is not popular. What causes more fights at the dinner table? Religion and politics. We’re a band that sings about God so we’re going to get those people coming out of the corners and the woodwork saying, “You’re gonna talk about God. We’re gonna kick your butts. Put ‘em up.” We just have to use caution when we deliver the lyrics. We really do.
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Earlier you mentioned this Satinist that interviewed you and was a huge fan of Stryper. It took me a second but then I was like, why is that any more strange that you, a devout Christian, being a fan of Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden?
Exactly. I mean, if you’re going to say, “Oh my God, Michael Sweet is a Christian and he listens to Black Sabbath” or “Oh my God, you’re a Satanist and you listen to Stryper?” [laughs] It’s really kind of ridiculous. My favorite bands of all time are Priest and Iron Maiden and Van Halen and on and on. Those are the bands that made me want to do this.
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You guys did a big festival with Iron Maiden, Lacuna Coil, and a few others in Spain.
How was it being the only Christian band on such a huge metal bill?
It was Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Lacuna Coil, a few others and then ourselves. I remember that show so vividly. Iron Maiden was the headliner but for some odd reason the promoter in all his wisdom had us close the show [laughs]. Yeah, we had to follow Maiden on the same stage and they had full production, Eddie and all and I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” [laughs] We had lost all of our luggage and most of our gear which we didn’t get back until after the show. We had rental gear and clothes that our manager went out and bought at some local shop in Barcelona. It was brutal but we had to go on and close after Maiden and my biggest fear was that the crowd was going to leave. We went on nervous as all get out and performed to my surprise and even Maiden’s crew, the crowd got bigger. I’m not taking anything away from Maiden at all but it was our first time ever playing Barcelona so the crowd just kept getting bigger. I saw multitudes of Stryper shirts and it was the coolest feeling to go on after Iron Maiden and see the crowd not shrink. It was so cool. That was one of those moments that I will never forget and it was the most incredible rush.
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Michael, at what point did you know that you wanted to be a musician?
I knew I wanted to be a musician when I held my guitar for the first time. I was 5 years old when I got that guitar and my dad started teaching me chords and that’s when I knew that this is what I wanted to do. My parents were singers and songwriters and they used to perform and they would hire babysitters to watch us while they would go and play in clubs. I’ll never forget that while they were gone, I’d be strumming on my guitar and air guitaring to Chuck Berry on my bed. I just knew that this is what I wanted to do.
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What was the first rock concert you ever attended?
My first rock concert was the King of Rock N’ Roll Elvis Presley. I was, I think, 11 or 12 years old and it was at the Forum in LA not long before he died. It was pretty amazing and I was just fascinated and in awe. Soon after that I would up seeing KISS with my brother at 12 or 13 at the Forum and that’s when I started saying to myself, “I want to be doing that on that stage right there.” Then I saw Judas Priest, Van Halen and then the shows just started multiplying. After that I started hanging out at small clubs. I’ll never forget seeing Yesterday & Today before they were Y&T at the Starwood. I used to go see them all the time. They were one of the best and they are one of the best. Period. They are an incredible, amazing band.
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Dave Meniketti has such an amazing voice.
I think he is the best guitar/vocal frontman ever. There aren’t very many people that can play like him and sing like him. He’s high props on my list. He’s amazing.
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If Hollywood was to make a movie about your life who would play you?
Oh man. You’d have to get either Billy Ray Cyrus or Keith Urban I guess [laughs].
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Well, you don’t really look like Boy George any more.
[laughs] That’s funny. I remember way back when I was putting my makeup on and I had my hair pulled back with a hair tie and I looked in the mirror and I said, “Oh God I look like Boy George” That’s when I started doing that thing where I’d pull my hair back and sing “I’ll Tumble For Ya” [laughs]. Nowadays, I don’t look anything like Boy George. Hey, he’s a good looking guy but I don’t look like him any longer.
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Michael, finish this sentence. If I wasn’t a musician I would be…
Probably a doctor. I actually considered going to school for that briefly. I’ve always been fascinated with medicine and as cliché as this will probably sound I just love helping people. There’s nothing like experiencing somebody who’s sick, who is cared for and then becomes healthy and their life is restored. I’ve just always been someone who wants to help people. I mean, it would’ve been cool right? Dr. Sweet? It’s got a nice ring to it [laughs].
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So what’s in store for Stryper and the fans from here on out? Full tour behind the new album? What’s the deal?
There’s no full tour yet. We have a few select dates this year but we’re making a live record at the Whiskey A-Go Go coming up soon which is going to be really awesome. Then after the new year I’m doing this George Lynch project which is George Lynch, myself, James Lomenzo, and Brian Tichey and that’s going to come out on Frontiers. I’m singing and co-writing with George so that’s going to be awesome. Once I’m done with that in April/early May, Stryper will hit the ground running.
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Michael, thank you so much for doing this interview with me I really appreciate it. It’s been a real pleasure my friend and for this long time fan, it’s been an honor.
Thank you so much Don. I’m glad and really happy to hear you like the record. Thanks again for the amazing review and I’ll look forward to checking out this interview! When your editing this you’ll probably get a kick out of how many times I say, “Ya know? Ya know? Ya know?”
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Probably as many times as I say, “Umm”.
[laughs] Thank you again, Don. You be well, have a great day, and thank you for your time brother.
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