MICHAEL SWEET Says Some People Come To STRYPER Shows 'To Just Speak Out Against Christianity': 'It's Bizarre' – BLABBERMOUTH.NET

In a new interview with Rob Edwards of the Talkin’ Bout Rock podcast, STRYPER frontman Michael Sweet was asked if it is more difficult being a Christian rock band today than it was when the band first started out more than four decades ago. Michael responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I think it’s different. There are challenges now that are different from the challenges then. So back in the ’80s, the challenges for us were the different sound and the different look and basically singing about Jesus. It was difficult for people to take the lyrics and look at the image and listen to the sound and combine the three. People were, like, ‘Wait a minute. This can’t be Christian music.’ Now it’s more about just the message itself.”
He continued: “The Christian message, from my experience, is a message that is persecuted to no get-out, man. I hear it and I read it in e-mails, I hear it from people, I see it at our shows, those people that come to just speak out against the faith and Christianity. I don’t get it. It’s bizarre. But I see that more often with Christianity than I do with other religions. And for some reason… I mean, it seems to me like certain religions are off limits — you can’t say anything bad about certain religions because if you do, you’re a bad person. But yet it seems like you could say anything you want about Christianity. I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong. Somebody else out there, convince me that I’m wrong. But this is from my personal experience. And it kind of bums me out, but at the same time, it also drives me to do more. That’s the way I’m built. It’s never stop. Get up. You get knocked down, get back up. Keep going.”
Last year, Michael was asked as part of the “1 Question With…”interview series if STRYPER‘s increasingly heavy and aggressive musical direction has been inspired by the fact that he and his bandmates have never fully embraced in heavy metal and hard rock circles, largely because of their Christian lyrics. He responded: “Well, it does upset me often when you see a band come out or a person come out and speak about openly their faith, their belief, whether it’s they’re a Muslim or they’re an atheist or they’re Satanist or whatever it is. And [they get applauded for it]. But often when a Christian comes out, a Christian band like STRYPER or what have you, they get [criticized for it]. And it’s just the way it is. And people that don’t agree with that, they’re clueless. Because it’s out there everywhere for the world to see. Anyone with eyes and ears can hear it and see it. So, continue to deny that. It’s truth.
“We’ve been mocked from the very beginning,” he continued. “If we sang about girls or Satan, we would have been the cool kids. But we’re not, because we sing about Jesus.
“METALLICA and SLAYER — no disrespect to those guys, I would never wanna be like those guys,” Sweet added. “Not in a million years. Yeah, [METALLICA are] playing stadiums. Who cares? I didn’t get in this for the money. I didn’t get in this to play stadiums. I mean, obviously, there’s a rush that comes with that when you play to a big crowd and it’s electrifying. But my point is that’s not what we’re doing this for. So we don’t long to be METALLICA or SLAYER, and we’re not that style. I grew up on [IRON] MAIDEN and [JUDAS] PRIEST. That’s metal to me. Those are the true metal bands. Classic metal with a great singer and great melody — not the other stuff. Again, this is my opinion. People will disagree with me. Perfect. Totally, that’s the way it works. But, man, we’re gonna keep being who we are. We have been for 40 years. I don’t know how much more time we have left in us or [how many] years we have left in us. It could be another 10 or 15. And we’ll just keep doing what we do.”
Three and a half years ago, Michael claimed that STRYPER was never a “Christian” band despite the fact that the lyrics in a number of STRYPER songs explicitly point to Christ. During an appearance on an episode of the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast hosted by FOZZY frontman and wrestling superstar Chris Jericho, he explained: “I recently, in the past few yeas, said quite a few times, and it’s really caused a stir, that we’re not a Christian band. And people say, ‘What?’ But we’re Christians in a rock band. And there’s a difference.
“I look at PETRA as a Christian band, I look at SWEET COMFORT, I look at REZ BAND as Christian bands, ’cause they were Christians in a rock band,” the STRYPER frontman continued. “And they were brought up in the church, for the most part. We weren’t brought up in the church; we were brought up on the streets of L.A. playing Gazzarri’s, Troubadour, Whisky, and we became Christians. And we just continued doing what we always did, but with a different message.
“So we’re a rock band that’s comprised of Christians,” Sweet added. “We’re really not a Christian band. But if people wanna call us a Christian band, that’s okay. But I view us as just a rock band that decided to take a different path.”
Michael went on to say that STRYPER‘s lyrics come from the heart and are not meant to be a marketing gimmick, as is the case with some of the band’s more extreme counterparts.
“With a band like SLAYER — not just SLAYER but a number of other black metal bands… What’s interesting is STRYPER, we read the Bible, we pray, we go to church, we believe in what the Bible says,” Michael said. “So by doing so, so to speak, we practice what we preach. We’re not perfect — in any sense of the word, we’re not perfect — but we really do our best to represent Christ, represent God and all that God stands for. But it’s funny when you hear about SLAYER, and you think Satanic band, pentagram, evil, and then Tom [Araya, SLAYER frontman] is going to church every Sunday with his kids. Which is great. But my point is it’s a polar opposite of what they represent themselves as. STRYPER, on the other hand, you get what you get. We are what we are on stage and off stage. It’s not like we’re going to the satanic church after we get off stage.”
Even though STRYPER‘s third album, 1986’s “To Hell With The Devil”, made Sweet and his bandmates the first contemporary Christian act to score a platinum album, the group has often felt unwelcome in Christian circles, with some members of the church feeling that Christianity and heavy metal are incompatible.
In a 2018 interview with the Detroit Free Press, Michael said: “We’ve never been accepted by either side. The secular side, the mainstream, they’ve never accepted us to this day. We’re probably that band that everyone’s going to go to whenever there’s a time to mock. We’ll be the band used for that in most cases. Now on the Christian side, we’ve never really had the full support of the Christian side because we don’t fit into their little club. We’re not wearing suits and ties and going to every church and preaching.”
Formed 42 years ago, STRYPER‘s name comes from Isaiah 53:5, which states: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
STRYPER‘s albums include “To Hell With The Devil”, “Second Coming”, “No More Hell To Pay”, “Fallen”, “God Damn Evil”, “Even The Devil Believes”, “The Final Battle” and the band’s latest effort, “When We Were Kings”.
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