By A. Lee Graham

Heavy metal heroes or heretics?

That question has dogged Stryper since forming in 1983 and becoming one of Christian rock’s most successful bands. But success carried a cost; namely, losing untold profits and popularity by carrying the cross for Jesus instead of towing mainstream rock’s chicks-and-booze image.

Yet the quartet never complained. In fact, it’s weathered criticism — sometimes from fellow Christians — while forging a path in a world not exactly welcoming to goody-goody choir boys. That it’s sold millions of records and withstood secular rock ridicule is a testament to dedication and commitment to its beliefs and its fans.

And now we have God Damn Evil. Yep, you read correctly: arguably the ultimate profanity uttered by the most pious of people. But dig deeper, and what appears profane is actually a pronouncement, a plea to damn evil. It’s a fine line, but one that vocalist-guitarist Michael Sweet finds himself explaining until his throat is hoarse.

Sweet took time to explain the new album with Classic Rock Revisited. As a band rounded out by drummer Robert Sweet, guitarist Oz Fox and new bassist Perry Richardson prepares to hit the road once again, the powerhouse that struck gold — actually, platinum — with To Hell With The Devil and earned as reputuation as a “heavy metal Styx” continues rocking stages and promoting new music.

“The Valley,” “You Don’t Even Know Me” and “Sea of Thieves” aren’t that far removed from “Soldiers Under Command,” “To Hell With The Devil” and “The Rock That Makes Me Roll,” classic tunes that made Soldiers Under Command, To Hell With the Devil and In God We Trust early fan favorites.

After returning in 2003 after a 12-year hiatus, the boys proved they still had the fire. Reborn, Fallen and No More Hell To Pay are just a few albums that heralded a strong comeback and proved Stryper refused to rest on its laurels.

Yet life was far from perfect. Bassist Tim Gaines and Stryper parted ways last year after a well-documented dispute, with Firehouse veteran Perry Richardson inheriting four-string duties. And now we have God Damn Evil and this interview with Michael Sweet:

Lee: First things first. Happy birthday to your brother! Back in 1983, did you and he think Stryper would still be touring in 2018?

Michael: Amazing, isn’t it? He’s 58 years old today. He’s approaching the 60 mark.

Lee: The years must be harder on drummers than guitarists given the sheer physicality of their task.

Michael: Drummers certainly work hard. It’s a very physical instrument. There’s no doubt about it. I’m assuming they have more issues with joints and whatnot as they get older. I had elbow and wrist issues at one time. It’s scary.

Lee: I have guitarist friends who have tendonitis and carpal tunnel, but I was curious if those sorts of conditions are more likely for guitarists who also sing since you’re alternately looking at the microphone and guitar. Is that more challenging? Do you have to do more warmups for that?

Michael: I’m locked in one place for 75 percent of the set. I find after the show, I’m really tense. My shoulders are always hurting me. I just assume that it’s because I’m just standing there. I think if I was running around … when I was touring with Boston, I don’t remember having those problems, but I was running around all night. I think it’s more to do with standing in one spot the whole night.

Lee: Your role in Stryper is standing in one place, but it seems like the new album has made you a moving target.

Michael: (laughs)

Lee: The first time I heard the title, I was taken aback. But after a few seconds, I started thinking of it as a sentence, or a command — like “God damn evil,” with God as the subject and damn as the verb. It’s God damn as two words, not a singular word, which would be considered profanity. So in terms of sentence structure,  it isn’t profane. That said, were you prepared for any backlash or the controversy that’s surrounded the title after it was announced?

Mike: Yeah, we always are, but we don’t let it get to us in the sense that it slows us down or stops us or makes us question what we’re doing. We’ve always gotten grief from people from the beginning to 2018. If we wear a different pair of underwear, we’re gonna get grief over it. People are quick to give their opinion.

At the end of the day, we feel led to do what we do. That’s why we do it. We had the title for four or five years and didn’t go with it because we felt it might not be the right thing at the time. But we felt in 2018 it was the right time because of all the evil we see in the world on all levels on a daily basis. It’s crazy. It’s a prayer request, asking God to damn evil.

Lee: In a small way, you may have gotten your wish. I’m not sure if you heard, but we’ve had a mystery bomber in Austin who took himself out last night, so at least some evil is gone.

Michael: Absolutely. It astonishes me when I look on Facebook and I see comments like, “Hasn’t God already damned evil?” Really? Really?! This guy who attacked these people with these packages, these bombs, that’s evil to the 100th degree. We should be praying about the fact that a person like that should be caught sooner or later and not only be caught but stopped in his tracks. And thank God he was.

Lee: Let’s go back to the album. Were you surprised by the response among your fans on social media? Seems it’s never been easier for people to post their opinions on a global level.

Michael: (laughs) People do express their opinions, that’s for sure. There’s nothing wrong with that. Those old cliches we were raised on — if you don’t have anything nice to say — that’s obliterated in 2018. That doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just gone because I could post “It’s snowing outside” and someone will say, “No, it’s not! Do you hate snow?” It leaves me thinking, wow, what is going on? (laughs)

Lee: Some criticism is actually directed toward your music. I’m sure you expected some comments directed toward “Take It To the Cross,” given its aggressive vocals. Until hearing the song, I wasn’t sure you even knew who Shadow’s Fall were. How did you guys hook up?

Michael: I was definitely familiar with Shadow’s Fall and Act of Defiance. Shawn Drover used to be with Megadeth. I try to keep up with different kinds of music. When I wrote that song, I knew I wanted someone to come in and do a death growl. I started researching bands and heard Shadow’s Fall and it was their guitar player, Matt Machand, who I thought would be perfect. Matt would kill this. It just so happened that Matt lived close to the studio and he came in and banged it out and did a fantastic job.

Lee: I don’t think his style of death-growl singing is nearly as extreme as the Cannibal Corpse-Deicide end of things. It straddles the line.

Michael: I agree. One of the reasons is that his voice fits well with Stryper. His voice just fits perfectly because it wasn’t so over the top. Still, people were unsure about it. But if we were to have gone more “Arrrrr,” it would have been, “What the heck is going on here?!”

Lee: It’s one thing when an artist experiments. They have the freedom to try different things. But when that experimentation doesn’t resemble the artist at all, I think that’s another issue. But I don’t think “Take it To The Cross” takes it that far.

Michael: Nor do I. Hopefully, we will never go down that road in being something that we’re not. We don’t want to alienate our fan base.

Lee: You guys have a new bass player. How did you and Perry Richardson hook up or were you already friends?

Michael: We weren’t friends, but we knew about him. He was on the radar. His name was brought up by our manager, Dave Rose. It made perfect sense. I had a conversation with Perry and fell in love with the guy and flew him out. We auditioned him and that was it. Before we even played with him, we kinda knew he was the guy.

Lee: How so?

Michael: We knew he could play and we knew he could sing. We were very familiar with his work with Firehouse. We met him in person and liked him so much. We knew he was the guy. He’s just such a cool dude and we had him play and sing, and that was it.

Lee: You said he’s the whole package.

Michael: Yes, he’s the complete package. He’s the guy you want to spend time with. He’s not a joy robber or a Debbie Downer.

Lee: Lots of musicians are technically brilliant, but on tour and in day-to-day living, there may not be that personal connection. They might not get along with the other band members. Having both must be a blessing.

Michael: We’ve all met people like that. Musicians are a different breed. A lot of times, we have insecurities and problems. That kinda goes along with being a musician. It’s a very unstable lifestyle. It’s very up and down. That being said, we’ve all met musicians that are a little out there or flat-out not very nice or not what you expected.

Lee: In bad ways or good.

Michael: Exactly.

Lee: Before auditioning Perry, was there any thought to calling back [former Stryper bassist] Tracy Ferrie?

Michael: No, but we were considering a few other bass players before Perry: Sean McNabb, who plays with Lynch Mob. And throw in Rudy Sarzo and other names out there, too. We love him, but another really important factor to being in Stryper is in the vocal department. You gotta have guys that can really sing. I’m not sure if Rudy sings or not. I don’t think he does. I could be wrong. But when Perry came on the radar, that was it, man.

Lee: Was Perry hired in time to record the new album?

Michael: No. He auditioned for us and he got on a plane later that evening.

Lee: That quick?

Michael: Yeah. He went home, packed up and fulfilled dates with [country music artist] Craig Morgan and we continued to do pre-production in my studio for five or six more days and went into the studio and started recording. He literally came out and auditioned during pre-production while recording the new album.

Lee: So you guys were already deep into it by then.

Michael: We were deep into it, yeah. We would have had to change everything to involve Perry. We would have had to push everything back. It just wasn’t in the cards. Next time around, absolutely.

Lee: Musically and lyrically, what was your goal with the new album? What sound and lyrical meaning were you pursuing.

Michael: As I was writing the material, I was going for an album that had a great feel and flow to it but was very diverse. I wanted every song to hold its own and stand out. If you sit down and listen to the album, you’ll find that’s the case.

There’s not one song that’s alike, but they all work together. Lyrically, I wanted to drill the message in that when people hear it and get the fact that it’s really a scary society today. There’s a song called “You Don’t Even Know Me” about people judging others on the Internet and they’ve never even met. Songs like “Lost,” asking the question, are we lost, at what cost? “God Damn Evil” is talking about the evil we see on a daily basis and asking God to damn it. It’s a lot of lyrics pertaining to the times we live in right now. We have flak by people because there’s not a lot of Jesus in the lyrics.

Lee: You probably don’t have to talk about Jesus specifically, or name him in the lyrics, to address evil in a contemporary context.

Michael: Absolutely. I agree. Take the song “Sorry,” for example. It’s about a volatile relationship, about someone lying to their loved one, being dishonest and manipulative, being a jerk. We’ve had people say that has nothing to do with Jesus, I’m outta here! But I say it has everything to do with Jesus.

Lee: That kind of spiritual subject matter is part of a project that George Lynch says you and he are working on, with George taking the pragmatic, secular role and you taking up the spiritual side. Is there any truth to those plans?

Michael: No, the only truth to it is that we’ve talked about it. We’ve never confirmed doing it. I guess George has done a few interviews saying we’d do that. I told him I won’t sing songs or lyrics I don’t believe in. I have to believe in what I’m singing so I can emote and  be passionate about it, and if I’m not feeling what I’m singing, what’s the point?

If he wants to sing those lyrics, there’s a concept. A new concept can be I’m gonna write the lyrics for songs I’m gonna sing and George can write the lyrics for songs he’s gonna sing. And on the songs he sings, I’ll play all the guitars, and on the songs I sing, he’ll play all the guitars.

Lee: I think you just came up with a very interesting idea for the next Sweet and Lynch album.

Michael: That I would do.

Lee: Has George ever presented you with a song or lyrics and you said, I’m not comfortable with this?

Michael: No, George hasn’t written any lyrics for either Sweet and Lynch album. I’d be open to hearing his lyrics, but everyone knows I’m a Christian and has a deep faith in God. If George wrote about there’s no God, I couldn’t say that.

Lee: You’ve put yourself out there and we know of your faith. Let’s switch from Sweet and Lynch to Michael Sweet. From Stryper to Michael Sweet’s solo band and Michael Sweet unplugged to Sweet and Lynch and your books, you’re constantly busy with multiple projects. How do you find enough hours in the day?

Michael: I like to stay busy and active and I’m one of those guys that when I finish an album, I start thinking about what’s next. It’s how I’m built. It’s how I’m made.

Lee: What can Michael Sweet fans expect in the next few months? What’s on the horizon?

Michael: Oh man, we’re going to tour a lot. We’ve had 70 or 80 dates booked. The new Stryper album’s coming out April 20. We’re wrapping up a new Stryper acoustic album. We’ve gotta get Perry’s bass tracks on there and finished and then I am actually starting to walk down that path to do an album with [guitarist] Joel Hoekstra. We just talked about it for so long. I love Joel. He’s the real deal, a killer player and such a great person.

Lee: Are you ever going to follow up your last solo album, One Sided War? You had some killer players on there!

Michael: Oh yeah, it’s already on the books, already working a deal with Rat Pak Records.

Lee: Will the acoustic album be recorded in the studio or at a live date?

Michael: It’s already been recorded. We mixed up everything in the studio but did it live. It’s a good representation of how Stryper sounded like acoustically. We have to record bass tracks with Perry, though. Then we’ll mix it and it’ll be done.

Lee: Is it new material or existing Stryper songs?

Michael: It’s existing Stryper songs.

Lee: In closing, is there anything you’d like to tell your fans?

Michael: Tell them thank you for the support and get ready for 2018. It’s going to be the biggest, funnest, most exciting year so far.

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