Stryper frontman talks about his adventures in the holy church of rock ‘n’ roll
By Gary Graff
September 2, 2016
Since he’s the primary face and voice for Stryper, it’s sometimes forgotten that Michael Sweet is also an exceptional lead guitarist, making “the devil’s music” work in a Christian context since 1983 and continuing through to today after a 10-year hiatus. But wait, as they say, there’s more: the California-born Sweet also logs time playing in tandem with Dokken/Lynch Mob axeman George Lynch as Sweet & Lynch, and from 2008-2011 he was part of Boston, handling vocals made famous by the late Brad Delp. And since the early ‘90s Sweet has maintained an active solo career, with his seventh album, One Sided War, just out on August 26. That comes as Stryper is preparing for a fall tour celebrating its landmark To Hell With The Devil album, but Sweet interrupted his juggle to talk about his journey…
FGPO: Your position as a frontman, especially when you’re wearing a black-and-yellow suit, sometimes overshadows your role as a guitarist. How did you get started?
Sweet: My parents bought me my first guitar when I was five. I really took an interest in it at an early age. I was a very musical person; I used to sit on the couch when I was three years old and rock back and forth and make up lyrics. That started at a very young age. I was just drawn to music instantly, right out of the box. So it just evolved over the years.
FGPO: And you started rocking…
Sweet: When I was 12 years old, I wound up getting an electric guitar and an amp and pedals and whatnot and started experimenting with sounds. Then I heard the first Boston and that was it for me; that really kind of steered me in the right direction to achieve better guitar tones and want to become a better player. Then Van Halen put me over the top.
FGPO: Was there a conflict between your spirituality and the influence — musically at least — of these, er, heathens?
Sweet: [laughs] It never entered my mind. Never. I had people trying to make it enter my mind; I remember accepting God and finding a local Baptist church, Southern Baptist. We became part of the music team there when I was 12, but I wanted to do rock, man. I wanted to go and play backyard parties and play David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix songs. I remember people tell me at church: “You can’t do that. You’re going to hell if you do that.” I remember thinking the extreme opposite — “No way; I’ll be a Christian AND I’ll play rock and it’ll be just fine.” I went down a different path from the age of 12 to 20; I wound up doing drugs — not a lot, thank God, but I did drugs. And I drank. I did the whole Hollywood scene, sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll thing for a long time. Then I wound up at the age of 20 wanting to turn my life around. I got serious about my faith and got serious about my music and got out of that scene. That’s probably why I’m here talking to you now.
FGPO: Have you gotten apologies over the years from the people who said you couldn’t rock?
Sweet: Oh, we get apologies all the time. People come up to us, mainstream people: “Oh yeah, I hated you guys. I wanted to kill you guys, but, man, I love you guys now.” And on the other side there’s Christian people who come up to us and say: “I did not like you guys. I thought you were wolves in sheep’s clothing and the devil. But because of you I’m a pastor to this day.” We get a lot of that.
FGPO: What can you do as a guitarist now that you couldn’t have done before, either in the near or distant past?
Sweet: I feel like I’m at the same place I was 30 years ago, which is either great or really sad. It’s not like I’ve been listening to or watching videos and improving as a player and can play things I could never play before. But as a producer and as a writer, which obviously involves guitar parts as well — be it solos or overdubs and rhythms — I feel like I’ve really come forward and jumped leaps and bounds, just being able to structure a song and write different parts that fit the songs better. I’m definitely more seasoned, and I think that shows.
FGPO: Your seventh solo album, One Sided War, just came out. How do you determine when it’s time for a solo album and then time for Stryper or any of your other projects?
Sweet: I just have this desire to always write and record music, and the minute I finished with the Stryper album [2015’s Fallen] I was already thinking about a solo album. My goal is to do a Stryper album every couple of years and a solo album every couple of years and sprinkle those other albums — Sweet & Lynch, Boston, something with Joel Hoekstra — between them. That’s what’s flying out of me.
FGPO: Speaking of Joel, you turn a lot of the guitar soloing on One Sided War over to him and Ethan Brosh. What was your thinking there?
Sweet: Well, first of all, I wanted to bring in outside musicians; instantly that’s going to make it sound different and give it different qualities than a Stryper album. These guys are cream-of-the-crop musicians — not to say Stryper isn’t, but these guys are as good as it gets. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t play all the guitar solos. That was my intention when I started putting this together, but as I started working on the solos I realized it was sounding a little too Stryperish. I wanted it to have its own flavors, so I brought in these guys.
FGPO: How did you determine who would play on what?
Sweet: I already had all the songs written when I made the decision to bring in Joel and Ethan. Once I called them and said: “Can you do this?” and they said: “Yes,” I instantly knew which songs Joel would play on and which ones Ethan would play on. I had a clear vision of that because of the styles they play in; they’re both incredible, but they have different styles. Ethan is more in the George Lynch/Steve Vai/Yngwie [Malmsteen] wheelhouse; he’s a little more technical, and Joel is a little more bluesy. But they’re both brilliant. So I know that “Golden Age,” for example, and “Bizarre,” those songs are more in-your-face, roller coaster, going 80 mph down the track songs that Ethan would fit better. And songs like “Who I Am,” “One Way Up” and “Radio,” those are more straight-ahead, radio-friendly stuff and I knew Joel would come to the table on those, and he did.
FGPO: Did you go through withdrawal letting these guys do all that?
Sweet: [laughs] Not really, now. I played all the rhythms on the album and most of the overdubs. I did three solos on the album; If you listen to “You Make Me Wanna” and to “Comfort Zone,” you know those are me, I think.
FGPO: You’re going out with Stryper this fall. Would the band ever play any of your solo material, especially in a case like this where that’s the new music that’s out at the moment?
Sweet: I don’t think so, no. Typically I get the sense…Fans will come up to us when we’re signing autographs and be like: “Hey guys, you should add ‘Save Me’ to the Stryper set;” that’s a Michael Sweet song. And the silence from the other guys will be so strong you can hear a pin drop. [laughs] Words don’t always need to be said for me to get it. I don’t think that would go over well — Maybe it would, but I’m guessing not. And I get that.
FGPO: The Stryper tour will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of To Hell With The Devil. What’s your 2016 perspective on that album?
Sweet: Well, it’s certainly our biggest album to date, our most popular and biggest-selling album and a fan favorite. We’re going to play the album in its entirety and add some songs to the end to make it a full set. I see why it’s our most popular album; to me it’s the classic Stryper sound. There’s a lot of things that really annoy me — the gated cymbals, the sound of my voice. At times the production sounds very dated, but that’s a given. That’s where we were at. I have my favorites on there, songs like “Free” and “Calling On You” and, believe it or not, the “forgotten” one, so to speak, “Holding On.” We haven’t played that for years, so I’m looking forward to that.
FGPO: You’ll be wearing the striped Stryper outfits, too. Still the originals?
Sweet: Oh, no… [laughs] We actually had a break-in at the warehouse and lost a lot of stuff — old guitars, and the suits. We went over to Japan a few years ago to play Loud Park, a big festival there, and the deal-breaker was we had to wear our old suits from To Hell With The Devil. I told them what happened and they said: “We’ll give you a little extra money. Go have them made again,” so we did. We had Ray Brown, the same who made them before, and we wore ’em in Japan. Y’know, for some people it’s corny, and other people view it as a great thing. It’s a reminder for me to look back on my life and say: “Wow, make every moment count.” It really does go by quickly. Our life on earth is but a blur; it’s important to take advantage of that and really appreciate it as it happens.
