STRYPER Frontman: 'We Need To Call On God And Rely On God'

Glam-Metal.com recently conducted an interview with STRYPER frontman Michael Sweet. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Glam-Metal.com: During our last interview in 2003, you stated that it was very likely that the tour you were on at the time with STRYPER was the last one. What happened since than that made you change your mind and keep STRYPER together?

Michael Sweet: "Well, basically Tim Gaines' [bass] departure. It's nothing personal, it has nothing to do with Tim. It's just that once we got a new bass player, Tracy Ferrie, and did a few shows with him, it felt like a new band again. There was a new energy level and fresh air. It was like the old days were we would get all excited. It felt new again, so it seemed like the perfect time to do a new record. It's as simple as that. We did a show in September of last year and I went to the guys and suggested that we take a record that I already done and make it a STRYPER record. They were really excited about it, they listened to the material and loved it. So that's exactly what we did. So all of a sudden we went from never doing another tour or record to doing another record and more tours and more records to follow. There is a lot of stuff planed for the future. There is a future for STRYPER now."

Glam-Metal.com: So "Reborn" was actually going to be a Michael Sweet solo CD?

Michael Sweet: "Yes, absolutely 100% a Michael Sweet solo record. I had it already recorded. I was shopping it to labels. And labels really dug the material. And not a lot of changes were made to it. We just added a song, 'In God We Trust', and we re-recorded drums and bass and we added more guitars with Oz obviously and then some vocals as well. We took those same arrangements and added the STRYPER flair. It always amazes me when people seem so caught off guard by that. We had a few negative comments to what I just shared with you. It's funny to hear that, because in the old days that's how STRYPER records were done. I always wrote most of the material. If you look at it that way, it's really no different. If we would have made a new STRYPER record from the ground up, it would have turned out the same way. I would have had all those songs in the works and we would have recorded them and it wouldn't have been any different."

Glam-Metal.com: Being the devout Christian that you are, how do you feel about the state of the world today? With all the natural disasters, terrorism, war, the bird flu pandemic that's going to kill all of us by next year, and everything else, we are really living in some dark and dangerous times.

Michael Sweet: "I think that the world is certainly in a position in which we need to call on God and rely on God. We are seeing a lot of darkness and a lot of negativity happened. This is a wake-up call. I think that people need to be thinking more about God and more about prayer. We need to pray for our leaders and for our armed forces and our world. Seeing the world the way it is today gives us the encouragement to go out and do what we were called on to do, to give people hope and light in dark times. It’s a time for bands like STRYPER to help others through these not-so-good times."

Read the entire interview at Glam-Metal.com.