Stryper is heavy metal music with lyrics about faith in God-something that was almost unheard of back in the early ‘80s. What started out as just Michael Sweet on vocals and his older half-brother Robert Sweet on drums, with Tim Gaines on bass and Oz Fox on guitar, was to become the trailblazers for Christian heavy metal. Add to that the yellow and black, and the tossing out of Bibles at all their shows, and there’s the image of the band forever imprinted on fans’ minds.
But who were the fans? Most likely, it was someone wearing a Theater of Pain t-shirt. They called Stryper the “Jesus Band.” On the other hand, those wearing a “Jesus Saved My Life” t-shirt would likely be seen outside one of their concert venues protesting their music, saying it was “of the devil”. How could they protest something they’ve never seen before? Sometimes, they would become a fan after taking the band up on an offer and go in and see them. Of special significance was Tokyo in the summer of 1985. The band didn’t think it was their best show. But it ended up being a very memorable one, and was made to a video.
Then there’s To Hell With the Devil-and the videos to those songs, after much reluctance from MTV VJs, shown on DIAL-MTV. The “Honestly” video is the one that stands out in my mind. I loved it back then and still do. But that, and others from that album, was on MTV, even more often that Bon Jovi’s and Motley Crue’s.
But like every album that goes multi-platinum, and the non-stop fan-fare that goes with it, comes a big crash. For Stryper, it was the drinking. To have any other rocker experience this is not surprising. But when it comes to a Christian hard rock band-the “Jesus Dudes”-it is. It was so bad that at one show a fan approached Michael for an autograph after a show, saw him drinking and he turned around and left.
If I could rename this book, it would be Honestly-And Wasting No Time in Doing So. Sweet cuts to the chase in revealing all of the things he and the band learned from the mistakes they had made. Since the purpose of an autobiography is to learn from someone, this is a great one for a band of this genre.
Julia Pope, HMS
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