Exclusive Michael Sweet Interview
Stryper is arguably the most successful Christian rock band of all time. They always seemed to be in the spotlight during the ‘80s as evidenced by the gold records, sold out concerts and videos that aired constantly on MTV. After a long hiatus, Stryper got back together and released the album Reborn last year. Michael Sweet has now followed that up with the recent release of his praise & worship album Him, putting Michael back in the spotlight with appearances on At Home Live and TBN, amongst others. We talked with Michael about these recent releases, his thoughts on if Stryper is only in it for the money, and what 2007 has in store for him and the band.
Chris Beck: You recently released the album Him. Tell us a little bit about the recording of that album.
Michael Sweet: It's been a long process and in the making for a long time. I started leading worship at my church about five years ago, and having not grown up in the church, I wasn't familiar with most of the old traditional hymns, just a handful of them--traditional hymns like "How Great Thou Art" and "Amazing Grace," of course I knew those, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today," the stand-bys, but most of the old hymns I had no clue as to the melodies or how they were sung or the lyrics or anything. So leading worship I had people coming up to me every Sunday asking if the following Sunday if I could learn a hymn, and the hymns that they were asking me about and asking me to learn I had no idea what they were talking about. So I went out and I bought a hymnal and I familiarized myself with the hymns. Just sitting in my studio one night reading through the hymnal, I was reading a lot of these incredibly powerful words and they just bowled me over. It was unbelievable--hairs standing up on my arms reading some of these words because these words were so powerful--again, not knowing what the music is. So, I just pulled my guitar off the wall and started strumming chords and writing chords, and it began there. As I said, it was a long, drawn out process. It began with me writing some chords and melodies to some of these words. I started recording them in my basement studio--just a guitar, an acoustic guitar, and then I added some electric guitar, and then I added vocals, and it went from that to what it is now, which is certainly a lot more produced as far as parts go. It's a real low budget record; not a lot was spent on it. I did it myself. I just basically did it here in my house and didn't work with a lot of people. I worked with a guy named Kenny Lewis and a few other musicians, but it wasn't your typical record done through a label, where so many people have their hands on the project itself. It wasn't done that way.
So how did you go about selecting the songs? Did they become obvious as you looked through the hymnal?
They did. What I began doing was...the first song that really hit me was a song called "Take My Life and Let it Be." I was so moved by those words. That was the one that led me to pick the guitar up and start writing chords and a melody to those lyrics. Then as time went on and I started doing this more and more with different words, I would start to write this music and then find the lyrics that would fit the phrasing and the structure of the song, if that makes any sense. Then I kind of wound up going down that road on a number of songs as well. So it reversed, coming from the music and placing the lyrics with the music, versus coming from the lyrics and placing the music to the lyrics. So, it was a little bit of both throughout the process. It was really cool, though; it was a different way to make a record. A lot of fun. I had a blast doing it. The funnest part about it was not having a bunch of people telling you how to make a record. It was just cool; there were no guidelines or deadlines or pressure from people at a label saying we need this and we need it like this and we need it at this time. It was just so awesome to sit there and take my time and let the musical juices flow.
Since it's a bit of a different album, is this an album you would envision touring for, maybe playing a couple of songs here and there for some churches? What are your plans there?
I did some shows, not many, but I did a few. We went out as Stryper. We performed some churches, as well. I did a few of the songs there.
Those are the acoustic shows you guys did?
Yes, just a handful--four, maybe five, something like that. I've been doing performances, some television performances--I did At Home Live, I did the Fox Morning News in Nashville, I've been doing TBN. I'm going out and doing it again on the 7th of December, and then I'm doing a Christmas special the day after that--a half hour, all music.
Is that also on TBN?
Yes. So I've been doing a lot of different stuff like that. It's been really cool. Matt Crouch is a really good friend of mine. He's been so incredibly supportive and such an amazing blessing in regards to this record specifically. He shot a video and cut in footage from his movie "One Night With the King." We have this incredible video you can view at MichaelSweet.com. We're going to be actually servicing that video in the next few days. We're releasing another single to "Oh Holy Night" at Christmas time. So, who knows what's going to come of the record. I'm not really worried about it. My goal, my intentions were to just make the record and put it out there and let the chips fall where they may--whatever happens, happens. It's really cool because there's no label, there's no marketing plan, there's no budget for marketing...it's taken on a life of its own.
You mentioned the song "Oh Holy Night." That's one you recorded a few years ago.
I did. I recorded that as just a single. I just thought "I want to go do a Christmas song," and I did that and I wound up adding it to this record because we were a few songs short. I thought this will work perfectly because basically it's a hymn, a Christmas hymn, so we added it. We did that...I don't even remember when I did that...it might have been about five years ago.
I remember buying it from your web site a few years back, in the blue packaging.
That's right, yep. So, it goes back a little ways. That was a fun one. I was able to bring in a local choir from a church in Boston. A bunch of kids came in and just tore it up...R&Bers, you know? Really, really cool stuff. I had a blast doing that.
Let's talk about Stryper a little bit. The band recently came out with the Live in Puerto Rico DVD. Are you happy with how that turned out?
You know what? I am happy with how the performance and the concert turned out--the footage and the audio. I'm not happy with the fact that it was just such an odd situation with that DVD because it was in limbo for such a long time, just kind of hanging out there, not knowing if it's going to get released, get shelved, not knowing really what to do with it. So there wasn't for the longest time any budget to do any more with it. We had some high expectations and high hopes to add behind the scenes footage, us hanging out on tour, possibly some videos...all kinds of stuff. To be frank and be truthful, the money just wasn't there. It costs a lot of money, you know? As it is, we were in about $40-45,000 dollars, and we did it on our own. It's real tricky when you're doing stuff on your own. You can't just go out and spend your mortgage. Life doesn't work that way. We wanted it to be more than it is, but we're very happy with what is there--extremely happy. I can only hope that everyone else who purchased it is happy as well. Down the road, we do plan to add to it and do a full on, full blown release.
Also recently, the updated biography Loud and Clear came out. It seemed like for a little bit that it would not be re-released. At the end of the day, are you and the band behind or in support of what the updates are in there?
To be honest with you, about that whole situation with the book, I have nothing bad to say about Jesse or Dale, the writers and the guys who put the book together. They came out and interviewed every guy, so a lot of what you read, if not all of what you read, is I guess accurate in the sense that they got the information from the guys individually and put it in a book. So it is what it is. I'm not happy with the professionalism quality of the book...meaning, it just comes across almost like...in comparison to a low budget record, it's kind of like a low budget book.
Not a lot of color pictures or what not.
Not a lot of color pictures. The print's kind of small. You know what? It probably is a low budget book. They probably didn't have a lot of money to work with either. But it just would have been nice to finally have a Stryper book after all these years, to have a little more put into it, and to look a little...be a little more dressed up.
They also released that in an audio version. Were you guys involved with that at all, or is that something they did on their own?
I wasn't really involved in that. That kind of came as a surprise. It's all water under the bridge and old news, but I found out about that on the internet as they were re-releasing it, and adding this and adding that, and doing a video and everything. I thought, "Wait a second, who approved this?" They said management approved it, blah, blah, blah. The fact of the matter is we didn't approve it. It came down to, "Hey guys, you can't do this unless the band approves it." So Dale and I kind of converged via e-mail and hashed it out, I guess. But, no, I still haven't seen the DVD. I've heard some comments from people who purchased it and received it with their book, that they're pretty unhappy with the outcome. I don't know. Have you seen it?
I have not, no.
So I don't want to sit here and bash on Dale and Jesse and hurt them in any way, shape or form, but it's just...hey, it is what it is.
Well, we'll talk about Reborn--that's been out for over a year now. Has that album been received the way you thought the public would receive it?
You know, it's really funny, when you ask somebody that, be it one of the guys in the band or one of the guys at the label, or someone affiliated or associated with the release of that record, you're going to get different stories. My story is I'm very let down with the numbers on that record. I don't want to live by numbers, but I mean the fact is, when you're involved with the ministry, and in a ministry you're trying to reach as many people as possible. That's the goal, is to really spread the Word, to get it out there to as many people as possible, and to see numbers like we've seen on the record, yeah, we're not totally happy with those numbers. I think...I'm going to probably step on some toes and take a little heat for this, but I tend to be a guy that speaks my mind. I think I'm known for that. I'm very honest here. I think if you compare it to some of the other Christian records out there, it certainly holds its own. You know, records by Disciple, to name one band. I think the record holds its own against that record, and then some. It's interesting because we have such an incredibly large following. We did a show with Disciple--I believe it was Sonshine Festival--we played and Disciple played just a few stages down from us, on a little flatbed, and they played during the day--so did we--and I'm going to say they had maybe 1,000 people. We played about an hour later, and we had a good 4-5-6,000 people. I don't say that in a boastful way. I just say that to make a point, and that point is we have a lot of fans, a lot of people out there who want to see the band and want to hear the band. So to see that our numbers on our record are one-third or one-quarter what bands like Disciple and other bands out there are doing, it's kind of mind boggling; it doesn't really make any sense. I have to say to myself, "Well, wait a second, I don't think it's our fault." I think the fault lies somewhere else. I don't know where. I could guess where--possibly the label, possibly poor distribution, possibly poor marketing, possibly poor promotion, maybe all of the above. But I don't think it lies, the fault, lies with us. I think we delivered a strong record; it was a really good record to come out with having been off the scene for so many years. I think it was a really good record to release. I don't think it's a dated-sounding record. It's got some high energy stuff--good songs. I don't know...I don't know what else we could have done. Again, it was a little bit of a low budget record; we probably spent about $20-25,000 on it.
Probably not very much compared to some of your past records.
Well, yeah, in the past we've spent $150,000-200,000; In God We Trust we spent $650,000, and that's way over the top. That record, we absolutely killed it in the production sense and lost every bit of humanism and wound up with nothing but just sterile, over-perfected tracks. Just produced the heck out of it. It takes a little bit more money these days, I think, to get a really good quality record than $25,000.
So what's the biggest change in your mind between...you recently released Reborn and Him... what's the biggest change in the music industry now versus when Stryper released its first record?
Oh, man...well, the biggest change--obviously it's apparent to everybody--is the whole internet versus CD; music sales on the shelves versus music sales online. I think we are not heading there--we're there. Everyone buys their music online, or most everyone. Anyone with a computer, with the downloads and everything I think it's really taking its toll and affecting, although people pay for downloads nowadays most of the time, I think, it's really affecting especially the labels, who depend upon selling CDs and the package itself. So CDs are kind of a thing of the past, or certainly will be in the near future, I think.
I better sell my collection before it's too late (laughs).
It's kind of scary, you know, in the next 4, 5, 6, 7 years...what's the format going to be (laughs)? It's like, wow, interesting, crazy...but it is taking its toll on especially the labels. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I don't know. I think labels make too much money anyways, and the artist only makes a buck, $1.10, $1.20, $1.30, or $1.40 if they're lucky, per unit. Labels get the rest.
What would you say to those people that say, "Stryper...they only got back together because of the money"?
Well, I would say to them that if it was just because of the money, we would have hung it up after the '03 tour, because we wound up losing money. We didn't make any money; we did a tour in '05, and we went in the hole $24,000. Reborn has sold 32,000 units--we haven't seen a penny for it. Except the up front money, you know--the record budget money, advance money--that's recoupable, and we haven't seen any royalties. My point is, we haven't really made any money. If we did this for the money, where's the money? So that's kind of funny, and certainly not true.
When you guys were out on tour for Reborn, what was your sense of the audience's reaction? Were they there to enjoy the show, which certainly is understandable--they paid to see you guys--or did you have a lot of opportunity to minister from the stage or perhaps after the show?
Yeah, we did. We always have the opportunity to minister before the show and after the show. We make it a point to go out after every show and hang out, sign autographs, talk to people. Hopefully, if we have the opportunity and someone comes up and wants to talk to us about something serious or have us pray over them or for them, we do so. I mean, that's really why we're there. It's hard sometimes, because when you're really tired...you've got to get on the bus and travel 500 miles and get up and play four nights in a row, following that show you just did. Sometimes you're like, "Oh, man, I'm beat up. I don't want to do this," just because you're beat. But we've got to constantly remind ourselves that, "Look, this is what we do. This is why we're here. This is why we do it, and we've got to get off our cans here and get out there and do what we're called to do." And that really is to share the gospel. Not just to go out there and rock and put on a show and exit stage left. It's to share the gospel. Not just share it, but you know, water those seeds, and try to encourage people to get into church and read their Word, and help people...you know, be there for people, people that are struggling; hopefully we can help them aside from the music and the stage. But yeah, to answer your question, we've always been about that, and we throw out Bibles, and we pray at the end of every show. It's basically the sinner's prayer; it's basically an altar call, you know, people coming forward. I mean, that's the most important part about all of this to us, and my gosh, if people don't see that, if there's anyone out there reading or listening who don't agree or don't see that, gosh, I don't know what else there is to say, you know, because this has been our lives, you know? We're all in our forties, mid-forties, and it's been our lives since we were teenagers and will continue to be our lives. We love the Lord and we want to share that, and we're willing to sacrifice and do whatever it takes to make it happen.
You guys had a fairly unusual show scheduled for a little while. In September, you were supposed to play a show with the band Slayer. The show actually got canceled, but heading into that, what were your thoughts about that and would you consider doing something like that again?
Well, it was pretty wild, because before we took the show, we were debating whether or not we should go do it. Back in '85-'86, we wouldn't have even batted an eye twice about it. We took shows like that left and right, grinning from ear to ear, you know, going on stage and doing them, no question. But nowadays, being older, we have families; we don't want to go out there and be fools and put ourselves in jeopardy. So we just thought, "Well, gosh, is this something we should do?" And we thought, "Yeah, you know what, it is." We prayed about it and talked about it, and we all decided, "Yeah, let's go do this." We'll just really be careful and be prayed up and go. So, to find out that we're into this, and we're hearing all the comments on certain forums and what not, and we're thinking, "Oh, man, this is going to be heavy duty." And then it fell apart, for whatever reason. Slayer wound up pulling out; I really don't know why they pulled out. I'm sure, giving them the benefit of the doubt, I'm sure it was because they had maybe other commitments, or something else that was more of a priority came up. No big deal. We just felt once they pulled out, there was really no need for us to do it, because really we took it on because they were on the bill. We wanted to go. The challenge of going and standing up on the stage and sharing the gospel with a bunch of Slayer fans--it was like we were ready and willing to take that on, that's kind of what we do. You know, the fact that they weren't on the bill anymore, we just thought, "Well, we could still go do it, but..."
You might have a lot of bitter Slayer fans yelling at you the whole time.
I don't know. But we just felt at that moment, the minute we found out they weren't doing the show, we knew that it just wasn't really something we should do. We wound up having other things, other commitments anyways, so it just worked out. But we would love to do some more shows or maybe even a tour with Slayer down the road. We'd totally be game for that.
At this point in your life, would you prefer to be out on the road for several months touring around, playing a lot of shows where people are flocking to the shows, or maybe just a couple shows here or there? How do you balance, at this point in your life, touring and the music industry with your family and with God?
It's hard. You have to sacrifice, certainly. Aside from sacrifice and being away from your family and your everyday life at your home, and your neighborhood and your town , you gotta stay rooted and grounded and you've got to really sacrifice your time out on the road to devote to God. It's real easy to get out on the road and get caught up in the road life--living out of a suitcase, town to town, going to malls, going to movies, and just kind of goofing off.
No real responsibility.
None, except checking your e-mail and playing. You've got to keep that discipline, and encourage one another. That's really the key--is encouraging one another, not forcing, but just encouraging each other to pray. (As though to the other band members) "Hey guys, everyone's watching a movie maybe they shouldn't be watching..." I don't mean a porn movie, but something that might not be too edifying and something we shouldn't be watching. "Hey guys, why don't we skip the movie and go back to the back of the bus and talk and pray and read some Word." Encouraging each other to do that constantly, because if we don't, no one will take the initiative. So we're always encouraging each other to do that, and we wind up going off a lot, up to the top balcony of the hotel, to the back of the bus, in a park, wherever...we just kind of get away. We would love to go out and tour if it's good for the family, if we could bring our families and certainly at least bring them out from time to time and travel with us, because we can't go out like the old days and be gone for two or three months straight. That just doesn't work. That doesn't work even if you're single (laughs).
So do you feel like you have fulfilled the Lord's calling on your life with the time you've spent with Stryper and in your solo work, or are there still things left to do?
I think there's so much left to do, with number one being so much growth left for me to go through. I feel like I'm just a baby in Christ and I've got so much to learn, and I unfortunately learn the hard way by making the same mistakes over and over and over again. And I'm just sick of it; I wish I could just get it. I want to get it, I desire to get it, so that's the cool thing about it. I'm thankful for that. Have I done everything? No, absolutely not. There's so much left to be done, and God's given me maybe not the most talent in the world or the most abilities in the world, but He certainly has given me a heart after His own will, passionately, and I want to follow that and just hope for the best, and hope that in some small way what He has given to me touches someone out there. Gosh, if it's one person or if it's a million people, whatever, I can go to my grave saying, "Well, I tried. I tried to reach some people, and I think we did it."
What do you see being the plans for yourself and for Stryper in 2007?
Definitely a new record. We're getting ready to start on a new record over the next couple of weeks. We're going to start doing pre-production.
Are the songs written already?
I came home like a madman. I've had a bunch of ideas floating around in my head for the last four or five or six months, and I came home from L.A. and Las Vegas about two and a half weeks ago and just pulled out my guitar and just went crazy, and started writing, writing, writing, lyrics, lyrics, lyrics, and I wound up writing in the past couple of weeks, completing about 11 songs. I'm still writing and working on songs. I hope to get another two or three in the can and then I'm going to just kind of do rough demos of those and we're going to go out and do pre-production, rehearse as a band in the next three weeks--December 11, approximately. We're going to go for about nine or ten days in Vegas. That's the plan, and then take the holidays off and then hopefully start recording sometime around the first or second week of January.
That's great! I didn't realize it was going to be so soon. I realize it's early in the process, but if you can give the readers of Heaven's Metal a slight taste as to the direction you guys are heading, what would that be, musically speaking?
Well, I'll tell you this...I change my mind a lot. That's one of my weaknesses, or it could be one of my strengths--I don't know. But I do change my mind a lot, because I don't think things through. Something I said--I opened my big mouth and said on the forum on-line, so it's all over the place--is that the next record's going to be real heavy. Heavy, heavy, heavy...I said this, and now I'm king of eating crow here, and I'm thinking, "Oh, man." It's going to be heavy in a sense that it's going to have that edgy Stryper edge to it. It's going to have that. It's not going to be heavy metal of 1985, but it's going to have edge and kick. We're going to have some ballads on it. We're going to have some straight ahead, real high energy Foo Fighters-kind of driving radio songs.
Not the first band I was expecting to hear you compare yourself to...
Yeah, I love the Foo Fighters. Love them. I think they're amazing. See, to me, that's heavy, man. It's not heavy metal, but it is heavy, and it is rocking. That's the kind of record we're going to make--a rocking record in that sense--about the energy and about the songs and people are just going, "Wow!" That's the kind of heavy record we want to make. We're going to have some songs that are certainly more on the edgy side and have some crunchy guitars and stuff, but it's just going to be more about the songs this time. We want to focus on great songs, lyrically and musically, that really blow people away and touch their hearts. We really want to focus on this without sweeping God under the carpet because we will never do that. We want to focus on reaching out to the mainstream, too. We don't want to put ourselves in a box or limit ourselves by, "Jesus is the way," "Accept Jesus," "Turn or burn," or those kind of words, which have their place. We certainly have done our share of those kind of words. We want to have lyrics that really have meaning and depth to them, but that can reach not only the church but mainstream as well, without compromise. I'm excited. Let me put it this way: I'm excited about this record. This is going to be a killer record. It's going to outdo Reborn. It's going to be our best record ever. I know every musician and every band working on a new record is going to say that. Honest to God...this is going to be the ultimate Stryper record...if we get the right producer--that's crucial. If we don't, it's going to be a good record. If we get the right producer and engineer, it's going to be a phenomenally great record that surpasses every other record we've ever done. I don't doubt that for one second. Just going off of the songs, hearing them on an acoustic guitar, the songs are slamming. Really good stuff.
Wow, you've got me excited about it now. Speaking of songs, looking back, which ones do you constantly go back to as being your favorites and why?
Well, there's certain songs that just never get old when you play them live. There's only a handful. Some of those songs are obvious favorites like "To Hell With the Devil," "Soldiers Under Command," "Calling on You," "Free," "Reach Out," those are just songs that not only the crowd gets more excited about live, but the band gets more excited about live. There's just something about them. And then a lot of songs on the new album, "Passion," "Reborn," "Open Your Eyes," these are songs that just really were fun to play live and unfortunately didn't get the attention really they kind of deserved. It's sad, so sad, to know that so many people don't even know about the record. There's a number of songs, too, that we would like to never do again. Songs like--I'll speak for myself--kind of burned out on "Makes Me Wanna Sing". People love it though, live. I don't know, I could do without it, no sweat. There's a few others, and I'm having difficulty thinking specifically of songs in our live set, but a few others that are like, uh, you know, I don't know..."Sing-Along Song" because we've played it to death every tour since 1985.
You mentioned the Foo Fighters. What other bands or artists out there do you enjoy?
I'm all over the map as far as music. Like I said, I love Foo Fighters, I really do. I'm a big fan of the sound of Keane. Just love their sound. The minute I saw their first video off of Hopes and Fears, I loved the fact that it's just a drummer, a keyboard player and a singer; no guitar, no bass. It's just really cool, really different, and you hear that in their sound. I like contemporary popular stuff like Snow Patrol, James Blunt, you know, on the lighter side. On the edgier side...let's see here, what am I into on the edgier side? Believe it or not, I really like All-American Rejects. This new record especially, Move Along. I think they've got an incredible gift at writing hooky songs. Everything about their songs is a hook. Every part in the song is a hook. You might notice I'm not mentioning any Christian bands. It's nothing against Christian bands, I just don't listen to a lot of Christian music. One of my favorite Christian records of all times and always will be is the Switchfoot record, The Beautiful Letdown. Phenomenal...one of the best records ever made. That would be on my top 25 list of rock records of all time. I'm not blown away by a lot of Christian records like I was that one.
Do you still think the industry as a whole is still somewhat lagging behind the secular industry?
Yeah. I've said this so many times before, but it's just so true...what happens is you hear this secular band that comes out that's amazing and there's five Christian bands that come out that sound just like the secular band. I don't understand that mentality. We should be leaders. We should be putting out original, slamming, cutting edge music, and we do...occasionally. We do. Occasionally, there's just some slamming, cutting edge Christian group that comes out that's all over the charts. I think the world acknowledges that groups like POD...when they came on the scene and exploded. Switchfoot. Going back a ways, DC Talk. There's certainly quite a few handfuls of Christian bands through the years that have done just that, but there's not enough. And I've got to wonder why, you know? Is it because the labels are pushing for the flavor of the week, or the groups, or both, or what? But man, I'd love to see more originality in Christian bands, kind of leading the way. It would be cool.
You mentioned that you lead the music service at your church. Is that right?
I did. I don't at this very moment, as we speak. Still going to church; I'm going to a different church now in Rockland, about 45 minutes from my house and we like it. It's real difficult to find a church that we're comfortable in or that we really love here in our area. There's not a lot of Christian churches; (there are) a lot of Catholic churches--which is great, awesome, nothing against Catholic churches. But, we come from Calvary Chapel; Raul Reis was our pastor. There's just a few Calvary Chapels here in this area, and we've got to make the drive. I'm not leading worship these days, but I tell you, some of my days when I was leading worship were the best. I will never forget, and it really took me to a whole other place.
So help us understand, when you led worship was it pretty rocking or pretty laid back?
Pretty laid back. Most of the time it was just me. We had a home church. We met in our home and we would rotate with three other homes, so there were four homes total. We met here and there were about maybe, at times, 15, 16, 17 families meeting in our home. I would walk out with an acoustic guitar and go through five or six worship songs, and then the pastor started playing with me, and then Hillary Bird who plays violin would join us and people just started joining in, and it kind of grew from there. But it was real laid back. It wasn't rocking drums, bass, electric guitars, that kind of thing. It was more of just an acoustic, unplugged, very personal worship service...real nice, really cool.
Well, Michael, any last words for the readers of Heaven's Metal?
Well, the readers of Heaven's Metal and, of course, Mr. Van Pelt, all you guys, have been so supportive from day one to now, and I can't thank you guys enough. It's been really encouraging to see that support. I just want to thank you guys for your time, and for standing behind us when a lot of other people did not and don't, and we're appreciative, we're grateful, we're thankful. Again, I can't say enough.
©2007 HM Magazine - All Rights Reserved
Return to Internet Exclusives
Comments
I thing this interview was very well done and Michael gave wonderful insight
to how things have been going and what they plan on.Michael's HIM is the most beautiful CD,and its a joy to hear him sing these songs.
so many times over.I guess I just Love
this one above all my other Stryper CD"S
I read somewhere that Michaels wife had some health concerns ? anybody know anything about this ?
"I read somewhere that Michaels wife had some health concerns ? anybody know anything about this ?"
You can read about it here:
PRAYER REQUEST FOR MICHAEL'S WIFE KYLE
http://www.michaelsweet.com/News/News.htm
Excellent Interview
I need help
Great interview with Michael! I'm soo encouraged that he's still going at it strong even through his struggles! I hope the great Styper revival comes out of this one!
That was a great interview! I can't wait for the new album! Stryper rocks!!!
Superb interview with great questions.
Thanx Heaven´s Metal!
//Mattias
Good, informative interview but a little disappointing. First; Why NOT an 80s sounding Metal album? We MISS that! Is it because they can handle the guitar solos anymore? Second: The slight shunning of Christian music was a tad disappointing. Michael has perpetuated the sterotype of Christian music being "less" or inferior. Hasn't he heard REAL Metal bands like Demon Hunter or As I Lay Dying? Third: I can tell you why Reborn didn't sell as well; The fans who were there from the beginning don't know if we're going to get bailed out on again. Plus, Reborn is great but Metal Stryper kicked Grunge Stryper's butt!!!!!
Hello. Wonderful interview. Honest. It is great that he recognizes that about himself - always changing. He ought to check out Vardoger, Chimson Moonlight, etc., just for fun. But is that style going to reach people for the Lord in the US? I'm just happy that Stryper is out there, competing, fighting for a chance! He is so right about making the lyrics speak to the issue without giving it away upfront - Peter or Paul got tired of the woman telling everyone what the disciples were there for. How about a "Classic Rock" type sound-Stones, BTO, Deep Purple, a couple anthems with a booming simple bass, mixed in with metal-tinged foo fighter?
