Honestly: My Life and Stryper Revealed

by Michael Sweet

  So half-a-dozen people from the label show up to this warehouse and we’ve got 30 or so friends there just hanging around. One of the label staff asks, “When are you planning to clear the room and get the showcase started?”

  “We’re a rock band,” I said. “And a rock band has fans. Fans are part of our show and we feel they should stay.”

  They seemed to agree.

  We were blaringly loud that day in our tin-roof showcase warehouse. You could hardly distinguish the vocals over the din of the instruments. It sounded horrible to me, but apparently not to Enigma, because they got really excited and shortly thereafter offered us a recording contract.

  Not long after that showcase, we went to Enigma’s offices in Torrance and filed into their boardroom to sign the deal. Enigma was THE hot independent label at the time. They were a driving force in the market and although they weren’t Capital or Warner Brothers, we felt good about our decision. Turns out, Enigma was one of the best career decisions we ever made as a band. To this day, I have incredible respect for what Bill and Wes Hein did for this band.

  We had such magical camaraderie with Enigma, a rare experience even at that time. We worked together on launching the band, setting forth goals and specific actions to achieve those goals. Bill and Wes were brilliant and undeniably instrumental in the success of Stryper.

  Ironically, it wasn’t until after we signed the deal that they realized we were a Christian band, and a very outspoken one at that. I still find that hard to believe, but that’s what they said. Not that it really mattered to them. It wasn’t as if they were saying, “Oh man, what have we done? We just signed a Jesus band. How can we get out of this one?” Or maybe they were thinking that, but they hid it well.

  Even with the distorted vocals in that acoustically flawed warehouse, how could they not hear the words “Jesus is the way!” in the song “From Wrong To Right”, or any of the other blatantly bold lyrics at the time?

  So there we were, the sole Christian band signed to a label that celebrated Aleister Crowley’s birthday. What next?

  Well, the first order of business from the label was direct orders, or more like a firm suggestion, to change the name. This was the moment I began to really like this label. I always hated the name Roxx Regime. But Rob wasn’t as easily convinced. He liked the name a lot.

  Over the coming weeks we threw around a few dozen options and eventually settled on Striper. We changed the “I” to a “Y” and we became Stryper. Rob said it rhymed with “hyper.” And that’s the story behind the name. The label didn’t like Roxx Regime, thankfully, and we, again thankfully, came up with Stryper.

  It wasn’t until later that we would associate the name with the words of Isaiah 53:5—“By His Stripes We Are Healed.” And it was a few weeks after that when we would create the acronym “Salvation Through Redemption Yielding Peace Encouragement and Righteousness.”

  It didn’t take long for word on the street to spread that we were now a heavy metal band devoted to Christ, and our crowds got even bigger. We were packing clubs throughout LA and Orange County. Soon after signing, we performed at The Troubadour and sold it out. The line stretched from Santa Monica to Sunset. We could have done 2-3 shows that night and filled the place. The buzz began.....

  Record-signing shows were common then. It was partially a way for labels to show off their new trophy bands, and partially a way for bands to say to other unsigned bands, “Hey, look at us, we’re signed!” They were always lavish and over-the-top extravaganzas, each label trying to out-do another and each band trying to have their 15 minutes of bragging rights. It’s a little silly when you think about it, but that was how it was.

  We found out later that they turned away over a thousand people for that show at The Troubadour. The next day there were pictures of the line in the paper. If anyone overlooked our bragging rights that night at The Troubadour, they surely saw it the next day in print.

  Things started to happen fast at this point—really fast.

  Soon after, we played a show at the Reseda Country Club with Poison and Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi had just come out with “Runaway” and they were really starting to take off, so it was another capacity crowd. To the masses they weren’t yet rock stars, but within their own minds, they may as well have been The Rolling Stones. That’s probably an unfair judgment of them having only been around them for such a short time, but that’s the way I perceived them and the way they came across.

  We had of course crossed paths with C.C. Deville previously, and the guys in Poison were sweethearts. All of them were really nice guys and took time to talk with us.

  We used to try to take the time to talk to the bands we performed with, looking for any open door to share our faith. We never cornered bands and preached to them. We were just acutely aware of opportunities that could lead to the sharing of our faith, where we were in our lives, and why we believed what we did.

  There was only one little speed bump during our honeymoon time with Enigma. They weren’t ready to lay down the money to record a new album. They planned to release our demos as the first album. They basically just said “We like your demos. Let’s release these.”

  Thank God we met someone who would become a life-long friend and an investor in the band and would give us the opportunity to record our low budget demos professionally. She had heard about us doing this “God thing” and decided to come to a show to see if it was for real or not. She saw the band and was blown away. Here we were, a band devoted to Christ but at the same time selling out clubs on The Sunset Strip. Her name was Daryn Hinton, and she would become instrumental in the next phase of Stryper.

  TEN

  Nowhere is the popular saying about the journey being more fun than the destination truer than in the music business. In hindsight I wish I had taken time to appreciate the early journey a little more. I should have taken just a few more moments to breathe in those early days and enjoy the sunrise that was taking place before my very eyes.

  In 1983 we were kids with all the promise of a future, but still wanting to be kids and continue playing with toys.

  Our most prized toy was a recording contract. The rest of the industry probably thought we were crazy, but we didn’t care. The sense of hope and a bright future was palpable within the walls of the Stryper camp. We were hangin’ with industry big-wigs. We were, finally, of interest to the press. Our peers were envious, or so we assumed. And we had an entire world to toss Bibles to.

  Daryn Hinton strengthened our excitement about our future.

  There’s a popular saying in the music business about bands and record companies. When a record label doesn’t really want to invest in a band, they instead throw a bunch of albums out just to “see what sticks.” People would say about a record label that doesn’t develop acts, “They just throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.”

  Well, thanks largely to Daryn, we stuck like glue.

  Enigma, not ready to invest and wanting to see if we “stuck” first, was considering releasing the demos “as is.” Those “as is” recordings were later released as ‘”The Roxx Regime Demos” through our own label Fifty Three Five Records.

  As our bond with (and love for) Daryn began to grow, she agreed to invest in us. $100,000. This was an unheard of amount of money to us. We signed an agreement to pay her back with interest, and we did. Because of Daryn and her risky investment, we were able to go back in and re-record those demos, get some new equipment, and we even had a billboard on Sunset Strip that stayed in place for months and months.

  Locals were thinking, “What the hell?” A Billboard on The Strip dedicated solely to one band was not common-place at the time. People took notice. How could they miss us? A bunch of guys that looked like girls dressed in yellow and black striped spandex? Yeah, not really a Billboard you could overlook on Sunset Strip.

  We went into Mad Dog Studios in Venice to re-record the demos, having tracked the drums at a place called Music Grinder. Mad Dog relocated in 1996
to Burbank but still has a history of having recorded some great artists like Dwight Yoakum and Buck Owens.

  The music was coming together just like I had imagined it would. If only I had the right equipment and studio to capture the sounds as I was hearing them the first time on the demos. I’ve always been a stickler about the sonic quality of Stryper, tending to over-obsess with every detail. It was so satisfying to finally be happy with a recording.

  Enigma was obviously pleased. Why wouldn’t they be? The record went from a mediocre sounding demo at best, to a polished, professional recording—on our dime, loaned to us with interest.

  But still, we were a “Jesus Band”, as they used to refer to us around the office, and Enigma had never marketed a Jesus Band. So the process began on artwork and packaging for the album. We turned in our 8-mile-long list of thank-you credits that we wanted on the album. First-time releases by young bands always have too many names on the thanks list. We were no exception. We thanked people on our first album that we haven’t seen or spoken to since.

  Enigma’s uncertainty about how to market Stryper really sank in when we turned in the lyrics. Conversations went back and forth debating the merits of including the lyrics in the album. We of course wanted to, but the label wasn’t so sure.

  I guess maybe they thought that the rest of the world wouldn’t notice the “Jesus thing.” I remember talking to the label and hearing the uncertainty in their voices over the lyrical content and thinking for a moment that we may get dropped before we even release the record. Fortunately, we were not willing to compromise our music and message, and so the lyrics stayed, Jesus and all.

  On July 21, 1984, The Yellow and Black Attack was released. Miraculously, it built its own momentum and sold an unexplained 150,000 copies in the first three weeks! It exploded. We were the talk of LA, if not the country. I imagine Enigma Records thought differently of us from that moment on.

  Although I never heard these words, my gut was telling me that behind closed doors at the label they were thinking “Okay. This Christian thing isn’t so bad after all. This might actually be pretty easy.”

  The label made us a priority and got behind us one hundred percent.

  I believe it was God who had his hands on this and He was in complete control. I truly believe the Creator of the Universe was the fifth member of Stryper, keeping a watchful eye on us. He closed all the right doors at the right time, and opened the right ones at the right time as well.

  Despite our naiveté about the steps leading to getting signed and putting out our first record, our hearts were truly humbled. We were praying and having Bible studies more than ever, and really looking to God to lead the way, and boy did He, right into the fast lane.

  We didn’t know what we were doing business-wise, but our hearts were pure. We just wanted to do whatever we felt God was leading us to do. And we believed. Our faith was strong. We didn’t doubt the path we had chosen. It all seemed to come together at the right time almost as if God was saying, “Now you’re ready. That’s the kind of faith I’m looking for.” It was the faith of a mustard seed.

  It’s mindboggling to me as I reflect on that period of my life and realize all that was accomplished with such little knowledge of exactly how to accomplish it. I can’t explain it any other way other than God’s hands were upon us. And this was just the beginning.

  ELEVEN

  A black 1984 T-Top Corvette. This was the first indication that I’m a spender. Some people are spenders and some are savers. My wife Lisa is a saver. My daughter Ellena is a saver. Saving money comes as naturally to them as one would expect. But spending, on the other hand, comes naturally to me. That’s not to say I’m incapable of saving money. I can, and I do save. But it’s like playing guitar both left handed and right handed. It doesn’t come easy. It requires a lot of extra thought and effort.

  We sold an astonishing amount of The Yellow & Black Attack in the third quarter, and it was time for Enigma to pay fourth quarter mechanical royalties. A mechanical royalty is a royalty paid to the songwriters, and since I was the primary songwriter, I got the biggest check—almost $40,000!

  I cashed it. I didn’t open a savings account. I didn’t even put any in a checking account. I cashed the check and was walking around with a stack of hundred dollar bills rolled up with rubber bands wrapped around them.

  That same day I walked into the local Chevy dealership and was treated like a complete loser by a pompous salesman. His attitude told me all I needed to know—that he was completely wasting his time showing a 21-year-old longhaired kid around the showroom. He was condescending and rude.

  I, of course, wanted to test-drive the car before purchasing it, although that was just a formality. As long as it started and smelled new, I was buying it.

  I glanced around the showroom filled with exactly zero customers and only two other salesmen. My guy made it pretty obvious that he thought I was “just looking” and certainly couldn’t afford a new Corvette.

  He didn’t join me for the test drive, which I thought was a little odd. If he didn’t think I could buy it, surely he must have considered the possibility of me stealing it.

  Regardless, he didn’t go with me on the test drive. When I returned I walked into his office and pulled out a ball of cash from my jacket and laid it on his desk. “I’ll take it,” I said. I plopped down the cash on his desk, rubber bands and all.

  The look on his face was priceless. I think I enjoyed that part of the experience as much as the actual car—although in hindsight I wish I hadn’t given him the satisfaction of making a commission.

  Chalk that day up to a “coming of age” experience. I suppose there are worse ways I could have spent that money and worse people who could have received it. Drug dealers, tax collectors and televangelists come to mind (I may get letters for that statement but wait until the end of the book before sending any out. You may want to add more to your letter).

  I came to know Christ through Jimmy Swaggart. But that was about the extent of my appreciation for Swaggart. Shortly after we became successful, he spoke boldly against Stryper and said some really hurtful things about us.

  It was confusing and hard to understand since he was so instrumental in my conversion. He actually held up our records at quite a few of his telecasts and told his viewers that we were “wolves in sheep’s clothing” and not to support us! Of course not long after his judgmental rants about our ministry, his ministry came crashing down. More about ministries crashing down later.....

  Within a year of purchasing my dream car, I got in a minor fender-bender with my Corvette on the way to Robert’s house. My wife Kyle, who was pregnant at the time, was in the car with me when it happened. Knowing that Corvettes are made of fiberglass, it was enough to scare me into selling the car. I sold it to Rob minutes later for $20,000. I said “Dude, it’s yours right now for 20k if you’ll just take it.” He did.

  I bought a brand new ‘Vette and sold it less than a year later for $20k? Yep, I was shaping up to be quite the businessman with choices like that. Don’t let Rob tell you I never did anything for him. I took that $20k and bought a sensible 4-door sedan complete with cup-holders, seat back pockets, and an AM/FM/cassette radio.

  In 1984, having been on the air for almost 3 years now, MTV played music videos and featured VJs such as Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and Martha Quinn, who would come on the airwaves with all the authority and integrity of Walter Cronkite and tell, or rather show, young music fans what they should be listening to. Although I believe there are a lot of variables that led to our success, one decisive element was MTV. They liked us, and we liked them.

  Our first music video was for the song “You Know What to Do” from The Yellow and Black Attack that we shot at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium during an actual live performance.

  Matt Crouch, son of TBN’s Paul and Jan Crouch, directed the video. To this day he’s a dear friend of mine and has always been there for me through thic
k and thin. He’s gone on to become a very talented director and film-maker with his company Gener8ion.

  We were working on a very limited budget so Daryn Hinton called in as many favors as possible to help with the video. One of those favors was a makeup artist—a beautiful woman by the name of Kyle Tucy. Kyle was one of the most sought after makeup artists in Hollywood working on films like Terminator, Repo Man and Wisdom.

  Having makeup applied is a unique experience. I’m in a chair while the makeup artist leans in close, walking around from side to side getting up-close and personal, attempting to achieve the perfect look. It’s a very intimate experience that can either be really comfortable or really awkward. In this case, it was a little of both. I didn’t want to get out of the chair that day because something just happened from the moment I met Kyle. I could sense something special, and I literally felt my stomach turning. She was beautiful, but it wasn’t about that. I got the strangest feeling around Kyle from day one. It was a feeling I had never felt before.

  She wasn’t a Christian and was thrust into this job with a bold Christian band. She didn’t know what to think. I believe she was a little shocked by the whole thing, but I do recall her telling me how nice she thought we were. But here was this makeup artist getting thrown into the ring—the hair, the spandex, the Christian lyrics and message. She must have thought, “What in the world is this?” But back then everybody seemingly had that reaction to us.

  She and I exchanged numbers and talked almost nightly on the phone the next week. I talked to her a lot about my faith and my beliefs, not so much hoping she would believe the same, but just wanting to gauge whether or not she would be okay dating someone who had dedicated his life to Christ.

  I finally got the nerve to ask her out the following week. I drove to her house on Flores Street, just off Santa Monica Boulevard. We walked a block away to the famous Barney’s Beanery, a casual Burgers and Billiards place, located less than a mile away from the Whisky A Go Go and the Key Club. It was an amazing night. Time stood still, yet moved so quickly. Before I knew it we had finished our food, but I didn’t want the night to end. Neither did she.