During a recent appearance on Chris Jericho‘s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Michael Sweet said that STRYPER is not a Christian rock band, but rather, a band made up of Christians.
He said: “I recently, in the past few yeas, said quite a few times, and it’s really caused a stir, that we’re not a Christian band. And people say, ‘What?’ But we’re Christians in a rock band. And there’s a difference.”
“We weren’t brought up in the church; we were brought up on the streets of L.A. playing Gazzarri’s, Troubadour, Whisky, and we became Christians,” Sweet explained. “And we just continued doing what we always did, but with a different message. We’re really not a Christian band. But if people wanna call us a Christian band, that’s okay. But I view us as just a rock band that decided to take a different path.”
He on to compare the essence of STRYPER to that of SLAYER in order to show that his band genuinely lives the lifestyle that they discuss in their songs.
“So by doing so, so to speak, we practice what we preach. We’re not perfect — in any sense of the word, we’re not perfect — but we really do our best to represent Christ, represent God and all that God stands for,” Sweet explained.
“But it’s funny when you hear about SLAYER, and you think Satanic band, pentagram, evil, and then Tom [Araya] is going to church every Sunday with his kids. Which is great. But my point is it’s a polar opposite of what they represent themselves as. STRYPER, on the other hand, you get what you get. We are what we are on stage and off stage.”
You can listen to full chat below.
