Honestly: My Life and Stryper Revealed

by Michael Sweet

  Another incident I recall happened in Greensboro, North Carolina, where we had a band called PKM opening for us. They were a spin-off band with members from the Epic Records act Nantucket who had toured with AC/DC—so they were obviously talented. I was standing side stage and PKM started throwing album covers of their new record into the audience, and I saw people rolling them up and throwing them back at the band, accompanied by boos and questionable remarks.

  We always purposely took bands on the road with us that were not Christian bands. We still prefer to operate that way. The reason is twofold: We want their fans in the audience in hopes that we can share our faith, and we want to share with the bands themselves if the opportunity presents itself. And by “share our faith,” I mean showing them the love of God and hope that it may have a lasting effect on them.

  What band in their right mind would want anything to do with Christianity when the fans of a well-known Christian band are booing them and throwing their stuff back at them? It was disappointing for me to see this coming from our fans, never mind the fact that it made it difficult for us to be taken seriously. What were we supposed to say? “Yeah, Christianity is great. God is good! Just think, if you accept Christ, you too could have fans that are disrespectful and boo your opening acts.”

  I have friends, many of them close friends, who have a regular routine of going out into public places in order to witness to others. They’ll go to a mall or a grocery store, not with the intent of buying clothing or milk and bread, but instead to witness to people and share their faith. I’ve never done this, and I know I wouldn’t be very good at it. It’s not me at all.

  The way I try to share my faith is through my life. I try to let God shine through me by being nice and showing respect to people, by being an approachable and personable guy. I’m more the kind of guy that would be interested in developing a friendship with people, maybe invite them to dinner. Then, only if the door opens widely, I will talk about God. My purpose for developing the friendship is first and foremost to become someone’s friend.

  People know what I stand for and know that I’m a Christian, so there’s really no hiding it. I don’t need to boldly say to people in my everyday life, “By the way, I’m a Christian. Have you accepted Christ?” But even if they didn’t know me, and I wasn’t in Stryper, it’s not my personality to operate that way.

  If I’m going to speak boldly about Jesus, it’s going to be in the songs. “Jesus is the Way!” It doesn’t get much clearer than when I sing, “God, I will follow You because You died for me. Gave to me Your life to set me free.”

  We have songs that are basically the sinner’s prayer summed up in a song. That’s how I prefer to share my faith. That’s my platform and opportunity to tell the world about God. I’m just not that guy that takes his Bible and goes out seeking others. Even if we didn’t have fans worldwide that I could share my faith with, I still wouldn’t be that guy going door-to-door.

  I don’t force my faith on people. Growing up I was around a lot of people that did force it on others, and that made me uncomfortable. I don’t think you sincerely reach people like that, and if anything, I believe you can push them away. But it works for some, so God bless those who have the ability to “preach” more boldly than I do.

  Believe it or not, I’m also shy. That plays a role, too, in my disinterest in sharing my faith in a forward manner. Sure, when I’m on stage, I’d prefer the audience to be focused on the band. But if I’m at a dinner party or a social gathering, I feel more comfortable when nobody notices me.

  I’m not shy, however, about sharing my faith. I don’t go door-to-door looking for people to talk to about God, but if someone asks, I’m of course upfront about it and comfortable with sharing my beliefs.

  There’s a lot of disagreement among Christians as to the right way to witness and share the word of God. I’m perplexed when one side can’t see the other’s side, or doesn’t try to understand. “Door-to-door” Christians sometimes get upset because I’m not as forward about my faith as they would like me to be, and lead-by-example Christians are often turned off by those who share more boldly. I try to understand both sides and feel that all Christians should understand this one basic point: God does not call all people in the same way. Some He calls for service in one area and others for service in another. It’s always been frustrating for me to see Christians upset with other Christians because they believe God has the same calling for all Christians. He doesn’t.

  During the THWTD era Christians were constantly trying to convince me that I should be doing something the way God called them to do it, whatever that might be. I simply wanted to show people that love is the greatest gift, and we’re called to love one another. If we lead by example, our faith will shine through just fine.

  Being “nice” was difficult during the To Hell era when I’d regularly run into protestors screaming at me through a bullhorn, “You’re going to hell. You’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Repent.” What I really wanted to do was grab the bullhorn and beat them over their heads with it, but of course, I didn’t. I tried my best to lead by example. Hopefully a few “protestors” over the years noticed my character and have gone on to throw away their bullhorns and make an actual difference in somebody else’s life.

  This time in my life was as eye opening as it was confusing. Personally, I had a plate full with my newly found domestic life. Professionally, I was doing everything I could to help Stryper turn the corner into mainstream popularity. Spiritually, I was constantly struggling with the odd clash between the Christians and the non-Christians we were meeting on tour. Going into this era of my life, I assumed the Christians would greet us at concerts with open arms, encouraging us on this path we were taking. Not the case. I assumed Christians would show respect to the non-Christian bands we were taking on the road. Again, not always the case. And I assumed the non-Christian music fans would be our constant antagonists on the road. Also not always the case.

  I grew a lot as a result of that confusion, and that growth helped lead us through what was to come.

  TWENTY-THREE

  New technology and new methods constantly change and challenge the music industry. Some people, usually the old-school folks, hate these changes, and some people wonder how we ever lived without them.

  My kids grew up in the Internet Age, a time that forever changed music. Napster made it possible to download music for free. Apple and iTunes made digital downloads the standard for music buyers. Most musicians my age were not happy with the idea of free music when it was introduced. We felt we should be paid for our art, for our work. We also didn’t like it because the sonic quality of a download was sub-par by comparison with CDs.

  My parents came of age during the proliferation of rock ’n’ roll. Turntables made it easy for them to listen to their 45’s anywhere there was electricity. Portable radios, car stereos and AM rock radio stations meant they could listen to rock and roll just about anywhere at any time they wanted to. But many in my grandparent’s generation saw the new music and the technology that generated it as a passing fad or, worse, evil.

  I, however, came of age in what I consider to be a great time in music history—the music video era. For the first time ever fans could not only hear, but also watch their favorite bands. An entire network had formed that showed nothing but music videos. MTV was the new radio, and life would never be the same for the music business. All of a sudden it wasn’t enough for a record label to make a record and release it—they had to also make a video to accompany the song.

  Once again, people on the other side of the fence viewed videos as a passing fad. Given that the video channel YouTube, 30+ years after the unveiling of MTV, is now the most popular outlet by which people discover new music, I’d say the naysayers were once again incorrect about the short life span of music videos.

  We had produced two videos prior to releasing To Hell With The Devil, but neither had seen much airtime. After making what I and Enigma Records fel
t was the album of our career, it was time to make videos that would properly reinforce this music. It was time to get on MTV, something all musicians viewed as the ultimate triumph on the path to success. Being on MTV in 1986-1987 was today’s equivalent to a video going viral on YouTube and achieving millions of views quickly. It was that big, if not bigger. And every band from that era wanted to be a part of the music video phenomenon.

  Enigma hired the best of the best to shoot our first video for the song “Calling On You.” Wayne Isham, with a company called The Company, had directed notable acts from Motley Crue to Michael Jackson to Bon Jovi to Metallica.

  We shot “Calling On You” at The Charlie Chaplin sound stage at A&M Studios, the location where he shot many of those old, legendary silent movies. The enormous sound stage provided a venue for what was often referred to as a “live without an audience” video, basically a performance on a massive stage with pyrotechnics and five trillion lights and cameras and no audience. It’s a little awkward at first, but you get the hang of it. This was a common format for rock videos of the 1980s, and it seemed to be working for us as well.

  Just walking in to that sound stage at A&M took our excitement level through the roof. We really felt like, for probably the first time in our careers, this was something that would catapult us to a new level of popularity.

  The video shoot took one day, with editing taking about a week, and when I saw the final cut I was amazed. I couldn’t believe something so big, so huge, so cool was us, four “regular” guys from Southern California. Swinging boom cameras covered a stage the size of a football field (or at least so it seemed), and we pulled out every rock move/pose we could think of—all in the quest of a coveted prime-time slot on MTV. Finally, we were going to have the opportunity to really take God’s message to the masses. Finally, the years of hard work were about to pay off.

  Not so fast.

  All the pyro, jumbo stages, swinging cameras, crazy outfits, Maybelline and Aqua Net didn’t make up for the fact that we were still viewed as a Christian band—and MTV didn’t play Christian music.

  After “Calling On You” was submitted to MTV, we heard every excuse for why they weren’t going to play it. Although it wasn’t said in so many words, the decision was solely and exclusively based on the fact that we were a “Christian” band, and they just didn’t want to play Christian music. Where’s the ACLU when you need them to yell “Discrimination!” at the top of their lungs?

  I couldn’t believe what we were hearing. They weren’t going to play the video. It was yet another roadblock on the path of Stryper. But the fans came to the rescue.

  Begrudgingly, almost miraculously, MTV agreed to play the video in light rotation, but around that time the popular fan-driven DIAL-MTV was the most-watched segment on the network. Fans could call and request their favorite videos, and they did.

  It was as if every fan that had stood faithfully by us for the past several years started calling and requesting our video. Almost overnight the video went from light rotation, to heavy rotation, to entering the top 10 countdown. Quickly, we climbed the charts to #1! We went from, “Eh, I don’t think we’ll be playing a Stryper video,” to “Uh, we don’t have a choice” and upward to #1. It was an amazing feeling, and I guess you could say that the victory was ours. Also on the chart, below us, were Bon Jovi and Motley Crue.

  It was like sweet vindication for all our hard work, but it was also incredibly surprising—a pinch yourself moment. I was simultaneously humbled yet very confident at the same time, humbled to the point of tears and confident in what God had just pulled off.

  Our fans from all over the nation rose up and became a huge voice for Stryper and, ultimately, God. It was out of our control but had such a massive impact. The amazing part was that it didn’t just peak at #1 and drop off the next week—we stayed at the top spot for weeks on end.

  Our second video, “Free,” was a live video shot at the Paramount Theater in Seattle in January of 1987. We had played the night before in Canada and were heading to Oregon the next day, so there wasn’t a lot of time spent on this video. We did some playback shooting during sound check, without the audience, but the bulk of that video was taken from the live show that night.

  “Free” was introduced on MTV while “Calling On You” was topping the charts. The same week “Free” was released, it entered the top 10 at number 10. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. I recall that day vividly watching the top 10 countdown and hearing the VJ saying that for the first time in DIAL-MTV history a band has two songs in the top 10 at the same time, and it was Stryper. Wow!

  Over the weeks and months to follow, “Free” would eventually hit #1 as well.

  Our lives were changing rapidly. For the first time we were getting noticed everywhere we went. It was such a whirlwind with everything happening so fast. Touring was relentless. We toured for almost nine months straight to support To Hell With The Devil and our newly found fame on MTV.

  Next on the list was to start filming the concept part of the “Honestly” video. We set up scenes at the Stryper office, which was a house in Buena Park that we had rented to run all things Stryper. The idea was for this footage to be a pre-text to us going to London for a big international debut. We shot scenes of us saying goodbye to our wives and families. There were a lot of sentimental shots of us with family and even a shot of me holding Mikey when he was a newborn. There were humorous scenes of Robert quickly packing his luggage and his suitcase falling apart as he ran to the limo that would take us to LAX so we could fly to London. We even had an American flag in the footage.

  Our first show overseas was performing at the infamous Hammersmith Odeon. We shot all the live footage for the “Honestly” video there. The tour continued through Sweden, France, Germany, Australia, and then back to Japan.

  In Australia we saw the birth of our first major tabloid-style rumor about the band. We did an in-store appearance at a record store and were driven there in a limo. Those who have watched the movie Spinal Tap recall the scene where the band shows up at a store and nobody is there—not a single fan.

  We had no idea what to expect as far as to the number of people that might be there, but we didn’t expect many people. When we turned the corner toward the store, planning to enter through a side entrance, there were thousands of people, as if The Beatles were in town. We looked out the window wondering what was going on. It turns out they were there to see us.

  For some reason, and we’ll never know why, the limo driver decided to plow right through the people and park right beside the store, right in the middle of the massive crowd. We just sat there not knowing what to do. We were about 20 feet from the store entrance and we decided to make a break for it through the crowd. We took a deep breath as if we were jumping out of a plane for the first time, and then we just ran for it. As soon as we opened the car door all hell broke loose. Our clothes got ripped. People were grabbing our hair and we were getting pulled from left to right. It was the polar opposite of Spinal Tap and instead more like a scene out of a boy band video. To this day I’ve never experienced anything like it. Well, there was an in-store appearance in Puerto Rico in 2003 that’s a close second to this, but I’ll get to that later.

  The crowd continued to break windows and climb on top of the limo. They were completely out of control, and it was a total riot.

  We made it inside, and for a while made an attempt to sign some autographs through the door, but the tension in the store continued to escalate as people were on the roof of the building and breaking windows outside. Security was light with only a few guys trying to put some order to the chaos.

  I began to overhear discussions between security and the owner as to how they were planning on getting us out of there. The tension among the fans was growing by the moment. Surely the thousands of people who showed up knew they wouldn’t all be able to get inside for an autograph. It got to the point where we became seriously nervous—for our lives. />
  They had decided the only way for us to exit safely was in a paddy wagon. The police arrived with sirens blaring. They backed into the entrance of the store and as quickly as we had arrived, we were taken away through the front door and straight to an Australian police station.

  Once at the station, we posed with handcuffs on and made the cover page of the news the next morning. In the days to follow, pictures of us being put in the paddy wagon began to surface with headlines reading “Christian rock band Stryper arrested.” Not “Christian band draws thousands of fans”... No, that would be too easy. Unfortunately there was no Internet then or surely we would have made TMZ headlines.

  The rumors were flying high during this era, but the Australian in-store stands out as one of our favorites.

  We returned from oversees and started the battle of getting “Honestly” aired on MTV. It had all the elements of another hit video and when all was said and done, we were happy with the way it turned out.

  Previously we had the live-with-no-audience video (“Calling On You”) and a video that actually was live and captured more of the energy of our show (“Free”). Now we had a video that captured even another side of us with elements of family, country, and unity set to a power rock ballad.

  One would think that after two #1 videos on MTV, this one would be a no-brainer for top billing and heavy rotation. Once it was turned in, we got the response, “Oh wait. You have an American flag in the video? That’ll need to be edited out. It’s too patriotic.”

  Too patriotic? Is there such a thing? Apparently in 1987 to get time on MTV there was. Once again, we got every excuse in the book on reasons not to play a Stryper video.