Forty years ago, a Christian band emerged that wasn’t like any other. Stryper was a heavy metal band, complete with long hair, crazy yellow-and-black-striped costumes and loud, highly amplified and aggressive music.
With the release of their 1984 album, “The Yellow and Black Attack,” their Christian lyrics and “heavenly metal” rock sound gave them access to both believers and nonbelievers.
“I always ask the question, ‘How many people have seen us? How many have not?’” said Michael Sweet, lead singer and lead guitarist. “We have stats on who buys the albums — whether it’s mainstream or Christian — and it’s pretty much 50/50. It’s amazing. So we relate to both sides.
“The songs do the preaching. Their lyrics are very bold. We don’t go and pull Bibles out and say, ‘Okay, we’re going to preach for an hour,’ because then you’d drive all of those mainstream people away.”
Music for the Lord
Sweet seemed destined to have a career in music since his entire family sang or played an instrument. At family reunions, someone would “start jamming” and others would join in.
His dad, an Elvis lookalike, had a band as a teen and later wrote a hit country song. His parents sang together and were in “dune buggy” movies in the ‘60s. His grandmother, mom and aunt were the trio that traveled with Gunsmoke.
It wasn’t a surprise, therefore, when Sweet joined a band when he was only about 12 years old. Although very shy, he said his first time on stage felt natural.
Later, he learned that his passion was also his calling.
Sweet became a Christian through Jimmy Swaggart’s TV messages, and his family started attending a Southern Baptist church. However, they only stayed about two years.
“(After) I fell away, I rededicated my life later on in life when I was 20. That happened just from friends coming by the studio, witnessing to us, talking to us about God. God was knocking on our hearts’ doors, and we knew that God was still there working on us. He never left; we left Him.
“After tugging on our heartstrings, after a while we rededicated our lives. That’s something we wanted to do. And then we gave the band to God and the rest is history,” Sweet said.
Their choice to be “heavenly metal” had nothing to do with rebellion or a marketing tactic. It was simply what they knew.
Style
Growing up in Hollywood, Sweet was influenced by rock bands like Van Halen and Kiss, which his early secular bands imitated.
After God changed their lives, the band kept the style but changed its name and the lyrics. The band’s name comes from the phrase in Isaiah 53:5 — “by His stripes we are healed.” The lyrics became filled with verses about their newly renewed beliefs.
The change didn’t come without backlash though. Because they were opening for bands like Ratt and Bon Jovi, some fans and critics said they weren’t a true Christian band.
But Stryper wasn’t fazed.
“We never looked at it that way. We always just did what we felt led to do, and we let everything else work itself out.
“We didn’t sit and think about it. We wrote music and performed with a smile on our faces and loved every minute of it,” he said.
Sweet attributes this attitude to one reason Stryper is still around. The band loves spending time together. They relieve some of the tension of being on the road by doing “silly stuff — food, taping bunks up, putting whipped cream in bunks — just stupid stuff like that.”
“You gotta have fun. When you don’t have fun — when you’re not having fun — that’s when it usually ends. You gotta go out there with a smile, a laugh, and have a great time,” he said.
Eternal matters
There is a serious side to Stryper, however. They spend a lot of time praying with fans on the side of the stage. They go to hospitals to pray for those there. They recognize this ministry has eternal consequences.
The American leg of Stryper’s “40th Anniversary Tour” begins Sept. 11 in Greenville, Tennessee, and ends Nov. 16 in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In 2025, it will be extended by playing in Europe, South America and Canada.
Concerts will include two sets — the first with classic songs and original costumes from the ‘80s and the second with recent songs and modern outfits.
Through all those years, Sweet has discovered more than how to prank others and perform on stage.
“I’ve learned that God is the most loving God of all time. He is the only God. He forgives us no matter what. He accepts us no matter what. He loves us no matter what and He’s always there, even when we think He’s not.
“It blows my mind time and time again because I’ve felt at times in my life that He wasn’t there, and then He reveals Himself in a bigger way and you say, ‘Wow. Not only is He there, but He’s there more than I ever thought He was and it’s incredible.’
“We need to all put God first in our lives, and our lives will be a lot better, for sure.”
To find out more about Stryper and the “40th Anniversary Tour” go to www.stryper.com.
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