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As the main songwriter/vocalist/guitarist of the multi-platinum selling Christian rock band Stryper, Michael Sweet accomplished many feats during the mid to late 80’s that were previously unheard of in the non-secular music genre. Not only was Stryper uncomprising in their Christian beliefs, but they were musically competent as well. The band sold millions of records, had a top 40 hit with “Honestly” and toured the world five times. They had a devoted fan base that relentlessly supported the band. Stryper set the standard and their past accomplishments have yet to be repeated by any other hard rock Christian band.
In 1992, after much soul searching, Sweet left Stryper to start a solo career. Since then, he has recorded four solid and musically uplifting solo CD’s and plans on releasing two new Cd’s with in the next year. But, even while his solo material is innovative and radio ready, Sweet has not come close to matching the commercial success he experienced while a member of Stryper.
This year Sweet has re-united with band mates Oz Fox-guitar, Tim Gaines-bass and his brother Robert Sweet-drums. Like a swarm of bible thumping hornets, Stryper is back. Or are they. The band will start a 30 date plus tour on Oct 2, but is this the resurrection of the band or a final goodbye to their faithful, fanatic fans. Read on.
What follows is another glam-metal.com exclusive interview with Michael Sweet.
You stated shortly after you left Stryper in 92, that you would eventually rejoin the band when it was the right time. Why was this year the right time?
Well. I don’t ever recall saying that I would rejoin the band, I do remember saying that the only way that it would happen is if I felt beyond the shadow of a doubt, 100% that God was saying go, do it again. Other wise I would not, I would just keep doing my solo thing or whatever else. I just really felt that this was the right time because the way that everything fell into place, there were things that really shouldn’t have worked out and did, everyones paths aligned, which is difficult to do when you have four guys living separate lives. You know that I’m on the East coast and they’re on the West coast. It just worked out, the label was behind it, and the money was there. Everything just fell into place, so I really believe in it because I feel that God’s hand was involved in it. We wanted to do just a few shows and now we are scheduled for 32. We are not calling it an official re-union, we are not back together as a band.
You’re not?
No. We’re not back together as a band. We are going out, doing a one time tour. I don’t know what people think, but we are going out and doing this tour and then all going our separate ways. We are friends, there’s no feuding or problems or anything like that. It’s just that we all have separate and different lives. I just don’t want to lead people on and have them think  that we are back together forever. I want people to know exactly what’s going on, I’ve always been like that. I don’t want people to be let down, but WE ARE NOT BACK TOGETHER AS A BAND. This is not the first of many tours together or the first of many records together. I don’t say that with a happy heart, but that’s just the way that it is. I’m sure that it will bum some people out, but I just want to be honest.
Is part of the reason that the band can’t continue because you live on the East coast and they live out west?
No, not at all. In today’s world so much business is handled over the internet and phone so it really doesn’t matter where we live. If you want to do a tour or record, you fly in and do it. It really doesn’t matter where you and your band mates live.
Well, yeah I know that many bands have members living apart, I just thought that in this case that might be a factor.
No it really wasn’t. It’s more of a thing where we are just all in different place in our lives. I don’t know. I’m speaking for myself, the other guys in Stryper may tell you differently and they may want Stryper to continue forever. I don’t know, but speaking for myself, I love the other guys and I’m really excited about this tour, pumped about doing it, but I’m also excited about the future, I’m working on a new solo record, I got a Hymn record coming out shortly. I have a lot of plans and things that I’m looking forward to after the Stryper tour.
Is it then very possible that this tour will be the very last time that Stryper fans will be able to see the band?
It is very possible. Actually, it’s probable.
So it’s really like a farewell tour.
Sort of, yeah. It’s not being called that, I would like to keep the door open, I’m not saying absolutely no way will we ever play together again. Because I don’t know that for certain, we may do another tour, we may do another record. It’s just at this point in time, my plans are after the tour to do what I’ve been doing, because I’m so passionate about my music as a solo artist. It’s not an ego thing or anything, it’s just where I’m at musically. I don’t know how much of my life that that’s going to take up. It may take up a couple of years or it may take off and take up 20 years. We are going to do this tour and have a great time and we want people to come out and have a great time with us. It’s going to be a big celebration and we are going to have a lot of fun out there. We are hopefully going to deliver a positive and powerful message and help some people out and then continue on.
Who was the one who iniated getting the band back together?
I did.
You start the tour on Oct 2, how long is the band planning on touring?
There are dates added almost every day. It was originally only going to be 10-12 shows, then 20 and now like I said before we have 32 shows. There may be one or two more added. When all is said and done, we may be looking at 34 shows.
Are you going to cap it off at that or if there is more demand would you consider doing even more?
Maybe, I don’t know, if we accepted many more, we would have to take a break around the holidays and resume afterwards. Because for example Oz is talking time off from his work. It was really difficult for him to get the time off that he needed for the dates that we already have. But, yeah we are open to doing more dates. In a sense, that would be touring a gain, right? We may do that and that would be a continuation of this tour. If this tour does well and the promoters are happy and no one loses their shirt, you know what I mean. Unfortunely, in today’s world you do have to look at the financial side as well. We are all putting a lot on the line to do this tour. We are leaving our jobs that help put food on the table to do this.
Will Stryper have an elaborate stage and stage attire on this upcoming tour?
Well, we are going to go to a more feminine look, pink and purple...
What??
(laughs) No, I’m kidding of course. We are going to go out with the black and yellow, absolutely. The guitars will be striped, the drums will be striped, and we will properly have scrims made that will go in front of the amps that will be striped. As far as our clothing, I don’t how much stripes will be in with the clothing because we want to have a little more of a modern look. We are not going to put out the old outfits. I will mainly be wearing black leather pants or black jeans with a black shirt. That kind of thing, but you will definitely get your dose of stripe-age.
Do you plan on having an elaborate stage show with pyro or anything like that?
That’s a good question. I don’t know if we are going to have any pyro. Most of the places that we are playing are clubs. And most clubs now don’t allow pyro.
Yeah, not anymore.
We may be able to do something in the venues that have higher ceilings, but are we definitely going to included pyro in our show? At this point I have to say probably not.
Since we are on subject, what are your thoughts on the Great White/Rhode Island tragedy?
Because of that tragedy there are a lot of restrictions in clubs, it’s a lot more difficult to have pyro and things like that. I just think that it’s a great tragedy. I of course feel bad for all the victims and horrible for their families. I feel really bad for the band too. I mean yeah, maybe they brought pyro without permission , or maybe they had permission from the club owner, who knows. I don’t know if we will ever know that. It’s sad because so many bands through the years have used pyro. We have used it many times before. You try to make sure that something like that doesn’t happen and it’s horrible to hear that something like that happened and the band has to live with it for the rest of their lives and carry that guilt. I just feel for those guys, it must be so hard.
Have you ever had any accidents with pyro in the past?
No, thank God. We never had any accidents, but we probably could have and should have. There were a couple of tours where we used a lot of pyro, we had flames and explosions, sprinklers and all kinds of stuff. Accidents could have happened, but for the grace of God, they didn’t. But I think what happened in Rhode Island was that the material that caught fire was extremely flammable. If something is very flammable like that it doesn’t take much. It’s almost like it was doused in gasoline the way it went up. That material shouldn’t have been in there.
Changing the subject a bit, in retrospect do you feel that Stryper raised the bar for Christian artists? Before Stryper, Christian music was in a rather pathetic state.
Well, that’s a difficult question. It’s hard to answer that without sounding like a jerk. But, I can tell you this, we worked our tails off to write the best songs and structure and arranged the best songs we could. We never ever just threw a song together, ever. I remember when the guys used to be at work and I would be in the garage working from the time that I got home from high school 3:30 and working until midnight every day. I would just work on songs and rehearse. I think because of that it worked out. I don’t think that we are incredible musicians because we’re not. I say that we are just average musicians, but we are very well rehearsed. We worked so hard to do what we did, the best we could. It really paid off. We were a pretty tight band, if you saw Stryper back in 85, 86 that’s what you saw, a real tight band. We had it all down.
Part 2
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