Stryper has played with the biggest bands in heavy metal to throngs of fans who were in no mood for 'Christian' anything. To walk on stage not knowing if you could win them over or have beer bottles thrown at you, frontman Michael Sweet is pure backbone. He's an outlaw.
Stryper has won over crowd after crowd through the years and earned the respect of countless metal fans and bands.
michaelsweet.com
stryper.com
becomingoutlaws.com
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You guys started with your faith, it was with caring Jimmy
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Swaggart on television. Is that right?
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Yeah, I mean it, before Jimmy Swaggart, we were certainly
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Believers. We believed in God, you know, we
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read the Bible from time to time, went to church from time
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to time and we certainly believe in God had of faith in God, but
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it was deeply rooted yet, you know, it hadn't really taken
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shape or form until we started watching Jimmy Swaggart.
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And my brother started watching and then my dad and my mom and
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then my sister and myself and the whole family would literally
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sit down for the television and watch Jimmy Swaggart, every
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Sunday, and that was our church, and we got so into it and it
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moved us in touched us. So deeply that we committed our
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hearts and our lives to Christ. Some of you are sitting back and
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I'm talking to Catholics time talking to Protestants, I'm
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talking to Independence and I'm talking to dependents You can
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sit back in that old cold, Mausoleum that you called The
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Church. But doesn't believe in God and
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doesn't believe in the Bible and doesn't believe in Jesus.
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And doesn't believe in a hole in, doesn't believe in anything.
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And you can say, well, it's not my responsibility.
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And you're going to wind up in hell to that's blunt, isn't it?
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But I'm telling you the truth. Make up your mind.
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I'm living for God. It may cost me my friends.
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It may cost me my loved ones. It may cost me my job.
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It may cost me my mama. It may cost me my daddy.
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They may kick me out of my church.
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They may turn the lights out on me.
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I may lose everything, I've got, but I've made up my mind.
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I'm living for Jesus and I'm going to have Victory.
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And I'm going through all the way the devil's not going to
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destroy my soul, my heart, my life.
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I've made up my mind and then went and got involved in a
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Southern Baptist Church locally and started going to church.
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You know every Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday night.
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You got involved in the music to where she grew up all that stuff
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and it really flourished. The Jimmy Swaggart.
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It was certainly instrumental in that in that decision to devote
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Our Lives to Christ, for sure. Yeah.
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And in that day, People may not have been around to remember, or
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been in church then, but you got to put it in context, there
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weren't drums on the stage. Nobody was playing electric
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guitar in church, not really loud.
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It was the devil's music, it grew up in that, but yet, now
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it's Church worship music, you know, but in the day, you going
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to hit spines to little go out and start doing, you know, real
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rock and roll. Even we, I've seen people kicked
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out of church and that age, For just doing something with
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rhythm. Oh, yeah. 100%.
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And, you know, back, then I remember when we join it, became
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members of that Baptist Church. Southern Baptist Church.
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We were part of the music team and it was literally a choir,
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you know, with an organ player in Oregon player, kind of lie of
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the big fluffy colored orange and yellow microphone
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windscreens. Oh yeah.
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We had those and we wore all matching shirts you know we
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didn't have The gowns, the choir gowns but we had match each
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shirts and we require more or less, there was a guy who played
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acoustic guitar, but that's as far as we went.
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And I remember being asked as a young kid to perform a few songs
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and I was really reaching for the stars and shaking things up
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by wanting to perform sweet comfort and a few songs from
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sweet Comfort band, you know, because I thought I had these
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guys are kind of rocking and I remember That was risque and the
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the congregation members were like, what is this?
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So, yeah, interesting. And you didn't start out as
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striper. You just started out doing
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Hollywood rock and roll music and we're Christians.
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Right? What was kind of the evolution
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of it becoming? I don't think you guys ever
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turned it as a Christian band but we're became seen as that.
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Yeah, I think is stripers definitely very unique in every
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every way you know, we became Christians at a young age.
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I was, you know, when I became a Christian, I was 12 years old
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and actually not quite 12 and it got involved in the church and
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ensued after that. I started join my Brothers Band
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when I was 12 almost 13 and once I joined my, brother's band, it
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would just the regular Rock bet. It wasn't a Christian rock band
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we weren't playing Christian music.
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We were playing, you know, David Bowie at Hendricks and Aerosmith
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all that kind of stuff. And once the I Journey started,
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I got involved, as I got a little older and playing clubs.
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I did go to church, stop going to church started drinking and
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doing that whole thing, smoking and drinking and try to be cool
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and act. Cool, and plane, all the
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Hollywood clubs. And I remember being out of the
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street in front of these clubs, when I was, you know, 17, 18
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years old, and Arthur blessed. It's folks coming up to me with
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the cross and preaching to me and me, not wanting to hear it,
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you know, at all, I was involved in caught up in my own as sinful
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ways my own world if you will. And I didn't want to hear it but
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yet I knew what was right. And I knew what was wrong.
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And it there was a conviction there for sure.
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And not long after that when I I was 20 years old, but, and we
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were rocks regime, almost striper.
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When Tim joined the band. That's when we re dedicated our
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lives and decided to, you know, dedicate the band to God, Focus
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entirely on our message representing Christ and, you
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know, spreading the gospel. And that that's hasn't wavered
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since it on 50, 59 years old now.
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And that's the way it's been ever since.
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It's that that time and there's no looking back.
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My I've never thought about doing anything differently for
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one second other than maybe getting a different job.
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You know, this this music world is a tough gig and, you know,
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other than that I've never thought about changing my faith
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or put my face on a shelf or you know my devotion to Christ on a
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shelf whatsoever. Yeah.
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Yeah, I really respect you guys and you I mean, you've had a lot
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of projects been with Boston other, we've done solo stuff,
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but it's more about me. It's less about the I'm
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impressed with the music and yours and the band's career and
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stuff. It's that you're not.
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There isn't the line of Christian and secular.
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You're just Christian guys. Doing rock and roll and you are
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who you are, no matter what venue or environment you're in.
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Not that it was always Perfect, you know, none of us are.
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Yeah, I'll have our season in the first time I ran across you.
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I don't expect you to remember, I had my face behind a camera.
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I was like 19 doing a video internship at a cable station in
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Michigan. And we drove to Ohio, you were
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touring with Tesla. And honestly, we interviewed we
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being, I was just the camera kid and some guy named Bob.
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I don't remember his last name, interviewed you, and he
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interviewed Tesla in at that age.
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I heard things. es Le talked about that, I didn't know
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existed in my young naive Christian ears, but you are
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always right in that just being raipur with the Isaiah scripture
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and throwing Bibles out and I don't know if I have a question
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in that other than You know, I'll mention to your friends is
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that right with like Stephen Pearcy of rat.
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We're friends with a lot of these guys.
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Yeah, and not, just acquaintances is where we are
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like ships passing in the night, but we stay in touch.
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Yeah, we each other and it's I need to know something.
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Or hey, do you know this guy or? Hey man, what are you doing?
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Let's get together. You know, we stay in touch and
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not just even but so many and that's really what our ministry
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is all. About you know I've got some
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flak over the years for claiming that we're not a Christian band,
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anything and people get all up in arms about that.
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They don't understand what I'm trying to say when I say that.
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And it's very simple, very cut and dry in my mind, you know,
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you have Christian bands, where I think of Christian band, I
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think of that truck, you know, I see the garbling t.i.
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He goads her now, White Cross, right?
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And and, and, and in reason why I think of those bands, just
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because they literally, they have a certain type of ministry,
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in a way of presenting their message in their music and it is
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very Christian. And the sense that, you know,
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they'll come out for example, mid-set, and pull up a bar, a
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bar stool and sit on it and pull out a Bible and preach for 15
00:11:36
minutes during the set. Set stripe for does it do that?
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We've never done that. We are, I refer to us as a rock
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band. That's comprised the Christians.
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You know, I don't like the categories.
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I don't like the terms, I can't stand it actually.
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I just think it's silly. I feel like you're either a rock
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band or your country band or you're a jazz band or your a
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funk band there. What is Christian and in satanic
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and it's like, if you're a Christian, you're a Christian,
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you know, I just didn't and I use this old analogy and people
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I know have stability of times but it's so true.
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You know, when you're calling a plumber, it's your Christian
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household and you want a Christian plumber.
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Either category to go look through.
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That's just all the Christian plumbers, right?
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These guys have Christian. These guys are And it's just,
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it's really weird to me. It's a weird mentality that
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we've gotten ourselves into, we are Christians, but we're a rock
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band. We're not a Christian rock band,
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we're often. Yeah, you can be an attorney and
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you don't have to be in a Christian attorney, in actually
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allowed of the crew. The Christian radio that markets
00:12:53
like Kristin attorneys or Christian plumbers as a little
00:12:56
nauseating, let just people be their trade.
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He got into Juilliard, our trade, do a good job at be,
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honorable be trustworthy be respectful at dignity and that's
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it. You know and you know when I say
00:13:14
things like this so some people like oh my gosh, I can't believe
00:13:18
you saying that. It's really weird to me that
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they can't grasp what I'm saying.
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It's so simple and it doesn't they think that I'm or we are,
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you know, Side, you know sidetracked taking a Sidetrack
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path or were like sweeping Christ under the carpet or we're
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ashamed of our state by saying something like that and it's
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like gosh it. If there is a band that's more
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bold and striper show, show me who they are the all terms that
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have their face and he's standing for Christ.
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I mean, where is bold, as it gets it but I don't like being
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called She meant, I just don't you're able to play two crowds.
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That would never hear a message. Yeah, I don't know how they
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don't see that, you know, there's other artists that you
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know, may be gone now but even in a different genres like
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Charlie Daniels and different people that were great,
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Christian guys, but they don't have to be Christian artist but
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they're just who they are. And they're playing the people
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that made mother make it into its shirt.
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Exactly, exactly. And I mean, if you're gonna say
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that, I mean then you have to go down the list and all the guys
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that are Christians in rock and roll.
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You got to call them cry. Christian bands, too.
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There's a lot of them. You know, Dave Mustangs are
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Christian is Magid Christian band.
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I mean, it's for me and with a Christian guy on it.
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Yes in and and there's a lot of bands like that.
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There's a lot of bands, where all the guys are Christians, but
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they're not Christian bands, right?
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Because they weren't marketed that way.
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Yeah, even you know, it's a kind of hard to wrap my brain around
00:15:06
but you get around the Alice Cooper who a pastor advises him
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like the world needs Alice Cooper and it's hard as a
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Christian to think what that's kind of dark.
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But he's All out in front of people that no one else would
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ever get in front of, if he wasn't held a exactly.
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And he lets, every time I've heard him speak or seen him
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speak, he always represents Christ.
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He never ever is it for representation for Christ.
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So that's what it's all about and really go a step further.
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It's really about, you know, the cameras are rolling, you can say
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whatever you want to say, but it's really about what do you do
00:15:46
when the Azar shut off. That's really what it's about.
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Yeah. Stripers been around what 40
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years, I mean on and off but almost 40 years for next year,
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next year's artificial, 40-year anniversary of the elk by the
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minimum you've been doing music that longer than that.
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And and you've been Michael Sweet longer than that.
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Ha, ha ha. Oh, okay.
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I have been since 1963 July 4th, so you're sure you're asked to
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let you know, like so what where is a striper at now?
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I'm not going to ask you that as you where's Michael Sweet.
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Eat at now, you know, as a person.
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Well, I mean, and I struggle with many things like every
00:16:31
other person in the world on the planet today, I have my
00:16:35
weaknesses. I have my downfalls my
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shortcomings. I'm not perfect.
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I have concerns, I have fears. You know, but I really try to
00:16:49
move onward and upward. That's his favorite saying in
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mind. My motto, onward and upward and
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it's so true. You have to keep moving onward.
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You have to keep moving upward or at least trying to Jobe let
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life in everything that it brings tear you apart and stop
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the story. You know, keep moving, keep
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creating the story and adding to it and in with Tegra T and you
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know, representing, you know, obviously Christ, representing
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God, being a light in the dark. That's what I try to be at,
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trying to be the light in the dark and, you know, I'm just
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blessed. And I'm here, almost 60 years
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old and I'm still able to do it. And, you know, like time, I
00:17:31
don't know when my time will come, when I won't be able to
00:17:33
do. It could be tomorrow.
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It could be in 20 years, I don't know, but I never take it for
00:17:39
granted. I'm very happy to be able to
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still do what I am called to do. On this Earth to do, it's
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amazing. And if this was Michael Sweet
00:17:52
last day and I hope it's not will be about 60 more, but six,
00:17:57
more years, not days at that. Well what do you hope you have
00:18:03
accomplished as a human being as a Believer as a husband or dad
00:18:08
or whatever? Well, I hope I would hope that I
00:18:12
always represented. My my God.
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You know. Appropriately.
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I know, I haven't. But I strive to do so and I
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would hope that I have done so that when people talk about me
00:18:32
when I'm gone and they remember me that they say, you know, he
00:18:36
he got to give it to him, he always stood his ground, he
00:18:39
always, you know, wave that flag of his faith in Christ and he
00:18:44
never wavered from that. And I hope they remember that, I
00:18:48
hope they remember that. I was, you know, someone that
00:18:53
cared somebody that tried to have.
00:18:56
Have a positive effect on the world and on others and I also
00:19:00
hope they remember that I was real in the process.
00:19:04
You know, you get what you get with good or bad, you know.
00:19:10
There's something that is always trying to my stomach and that is
00:19:15
when someone represents themselves one way.
00:19:20
On video or audio and then you go and have lunch with them and
00:19:25
they're completely different person.
00:19:28
Yeah. I don't like that.
00:19:33
At all, and I try to give you the Michael sweet.
00:19:38
You're going to get when you go have lunch with him or dinner
00:19:42
with him right here on video and audio.
00:19:47
I'm the same guy. I try to be, you know, I just
00:19:51
don't like hypocrisy. I don't like people that are
00:19:55
double-sided. Two-faced can't stand it can't
00:19:59
stomach. It just be real.
00:20:02
Being real with the good with the bad people will get it and
00:20:07
people will respect you for that.
00:20:08
And I tried to be and I hope people will remember that to do
00:20:11
that. Hey, you know, I might not have
00:20:13
agreed with him. The Michael likes his bourbon,
00:20:16
you know, I don't understand that.
00:20:18
But, you know, he was released. He was real and he opened up
00:20:22
about it and talked about it. I don't consider myself an
00:20:25
alcoholic. I just like birds.
00:20:26
I like the I like the the thrill of trying different sipping.
00:20:31
Bourbons and like all the different flavors and everything
00:20:34
and it's just kind of fun for me, you know?
00:20:36
And but you talk about that is the Christian look out.
00:20:41
Ear, you better not or smoking a cigar.
00:20:43
I like a good cigar every now and then you do that.
00:20:46
You post a picture of that. Look out here Christian you're
00:20:50
not a Christian. If you're going to if you're
00:20:51
going to smoke this shit are you see it on me?
00:20:54
I'm just I just try to be real not not a farce.
00:20:58
Yeah my favorite was growing up that having a drink, having a
00:21:03
cigar was wrong, but it was coming from a glutton Minister
00:21:08
that missed the second part of the scripture.
00:21:10
ER, but poet at eating soon. What this is, this is exactly
00:21:14
right and it's like if you grow through everything biblically
00:21:18
speaking, you're gonna find something for everyone.
00:21:23
That they need to work on. Every single one of us.
00:21:29
So that's why we're pointing fingers at this guy, say what in
00:21:32
the world, you know, how can you love this person who's, you
00:21:37
know, gay and they're this, and they're that.
00:21:41
And then but then you go into the person, pointing the fingers
00:21:44
private lives and you're going to find all kinds of muck and
00:21:47
crud and junk. And that they need to work on.
00:21:52
You know? And and that's the thing.
00:21:53
That's another thing that astonishes me is the judgmental
00:21:57
attitude. It a lot of Christians feel they
00:21:59
have the right to judge. Now you don't, you really don't,
00:22:03
you have the right to judge yourself.
00:22:05
That's for darn. Sure.
00:22:07
And we all need to start doing just that.
00:22:11
Look at it. Look at ourselves in the mirror
00:22:12
and start cleaning up our own dirt and it's going to take a
00:22:15
lifetime to do so. All right, mr.
00:22:17
Sweet, I appreciate you. Appreciate your time.
00:22:21
Hey brothers. Thanks for having me on and I
00:22:23
absolutely I wish we had more time I have other interviews and
00:22:27
whatnot but you maybe we'll talk again soon in the very near
00:22:30
future. Yeah for sure.
00:22:33
Okay bye. Ok thanks.
00:22:34
Hey before you go I want to you know we had a you made a do you
00:22:37
recall back? I'll let you go next interview
00:22:40
but we had a mutual friend and Greg focker said, oh yes yeah I
00:22:45
brought him. I was I was on way FM in
00:22:49
Nashville and I became friends with him that year he had just
00:22:54
finished. I think producing your solo
00:22:56
album yet. Luna he and I he and I co
00:22:59
produced at first solo album together and co-wrote it.
00:23:02
Yeah absolutely man and I was like, Hey I'm going to see
00:23:05
Michael Sweet at the GMA or whatever.
00:23:07
And I brought him a long one time, not that you remember me?
00:23:10
But I don't know if you remember that you popped in at a hotel in
00:23:13
interview, you know, I'm trying to remember I have course, I'd
00:23:17
lie state with Greg. I moved to Nashville for six
00:23:19
weeks and lived in his Else until I became really good
00:23:23
friends with Greg and Greg had a huge heart.
00:23:26
And, you know, wrestled with a lot of things like all of us and
00:23:29
sadly, he's gone such an incredible Talent, no streets
00:23:35
and that could with him after literal decades on Facebook and
00:23:39
then less than a month later, I start seeing all these so,
00:23:42
sorry, you're gone. I'm like, what what?
00:23:45
I were rated unbelievable. And I think I think what
00:23:49
happened with Greg is just Just some things in his life's got
00:23:53
the best of him, you know? And he we all have our demons
00:23:56
and he had some demons that he was wrestling with and it was
00:23:59
difficult to overcome and you know what I did was
00:24:03
heart-wrenching when I heard the news of Greg's Cassie and just
00:24:07
just I couldn't believe it and he was so young, I mean mid 40s,
00:24:14
maybe if that And it just it, it's unbelievable, truly
00:24:21
unbelievable. But you know what, it, what a
00:24:23
talent and if people haven't go check out Greg's work, you know,
00:24:27
blue tears and all the stuff that he sighed and just amazing
00:24:31
talent at All right, thanks again.
00:24:35
Okay brother, God bless you.