STRYPER DERAIL THE ROLLER COASTER TO HELL

STRYPER DERAIL THE ROLLER COASTER TO HELL

By Toby Goldstein

And in the beginning there was...chaos. Chaos that arises at every hard rock extravaganza. Fans mill around an arena, hanging out with friends, hollering over the roar of piped-in transition music, yelling and screaming when the headliners take the stage with a crash of thunder. But then, chaos of a different sort, as hundreds of people press to the front, where the intense lead singer is pitching out some sort of souvenir. Not drum sticks this time, or T-shirts. Well, I be...as the fog lifts, and the crowd swirls, it becomes clear that the objects they’re clutching in their fevered little hands are Bibles.

Whether the recipients actually read and learn from their Good Books once , they get them home is another matter.' Obviously, Stryper, the California quartet responsible for this entirely new kind of; musical muse, hope—and pray—that' they do. It’s the reason they spend a good J chunk.of cash printing thousands of their 1 own yellow-and-black trademark limited! edition New Testaments, with favorite > passages noted. In fact, according to lead! vocalist and songwriter Michael Sweet, ; it’s the only reason his group is doing all ;: the usual rock ’n’ roll bill of goods— recording albums, shooting videos, touring the nation, wearing attention-getting] bumblebee suits—with one big difference^ [from the rest of the bunch. They are, he says quite seriously, on a mission from iGod.

really want you to believe this,” he [urges. “I know that a lot of people just von’t buy this, but we’re not in this just [to be another rock ’n’ roll band. And we’re [not in it just to be superstars and to be |known throughout,the world as Stryper, [the rock band who’s so great and so big. pWe don’t want that. We’re in it to tell the [world about Jesus Christ and that’s it. That’s the only reason.”

Sweet, by the way, is absolutely right. [A heavy metal rock band for Christ is still a pretty big chunk of vinyl to swallow if you’re not a true believer. Last year when, | in the heathen outposts of New York Cif ty, word about these crusading Christians :ame forward, it seemed rather easy to Idismiss. There’s little time for evangelism jin the Apple; we're too busy merely try: ing to stay alive. Besides, other stuff was a lot more pressing: the PMRC, for one , thing, had launched a ferocious attack on jthe more expressive forms of rock and R&B. Was I about to sacrifice Judas | Priest and Run-DMC on an altar of repression and switch loyalties to four I Soldiers Under Command, as Stryper's kalbiimJnfarroed 11£?-Norway i fellow travelers.

Another thing that kinda bothered me ! say, we will not sign you because you talk i of Jesus, then they go and sign a totally 'Satanic group.” (Like Kiss or Motley jCrue, for instance, two bands Stryper [have often compared themselves to.)

Well, as you might imagine, this kinda [chit-chat about people of my persuasion [got me more than a touch nervous. If a frock ’n' roll sponsored Inquisition was indeed just around the corner, I figured to grab Gene (Klein) Simmons and Paul *(Eisen) Stanley, and fight for our rights, (too. Fortunately, things never got that I serious, and Soldiers Under Command [didn’t climb any higher than #79 on the ■charts, so Stryper was easy to ignore I once again. Which was good, because [when you did think about Stryper, you ' had to acknowledge that their tunes were j catchy, and without realizing, one day, there you’d be in the supermarket, humming away, and “Jesus Christ is the lover I of your soul” would pop out.

Thus cometh the result of turning one’s back and dropping one’s guard. In 1986, the PMRC won far-reaching but quiet victories—quiet, because they managed to shield them from publicity—and secured labeling contracts with most of the majors. The billionaire owner of WalMart censored CREEM and about 20 other rock mags from the chain’s shelves, and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot that anybody can do about it. Evangelical telestar Pat Robertson announced his divinely inspired plan to run for President, and a slew of genuinely worried editorials appeared in the liberal/pinko/secular humanist newspapers, i.e. the daily press. Hey, if things keep moving in this direction, Stryper might be the band playing “Hail To The (Really Big) Chief” some Inauguration Day.

And if any other signs were needed to prove the point, it’s that Stryper’s third album, To Hell With The Devil (a fiendishly brilliant title, media-wise) is #39 with a bullet two weeks following its release. What had been a quirky phenomenon becoming nationally relevant. Like it or not, Stryper are playing in the major leagues, and God, says Michael Sweet, is firmly planted in the batter’s box, ready to hit a heavenly homer.

“Whether people want to agree with me or not, I really feel (our success) is because we’ve stood up for Christ. Some people may think it’s because the album is good and the quality is good and Stryper’s getting bigger, this ’n’ that, but I feel it’s because of God’s blessing.”

Spend awhile talking about the rock topics with Stryper, and all roads inevitably lead to the same source, God and Jesus Christ. Michael is complimented about his catchy melodies: “That’s great! But, the thing that’s important to us is the lyrics. It’s what we sing about because we really believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that He died for about Stryper was the fervor of their Christianity. Michael Sweet’s drummer brother, Robert, was just a bit too quick to point fingers at anyone who didn’t conform to his standard of what being a Christian meant. That Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider stood up before a Congressional committee and declared himself of the faith didn't cut any ice with Robert. “Anybody can say anything,” Sweet replied at the time. He then claimed that 90 percent of what Twisted Sister said was a gimmick—and, when told that the group is sincere—he created a fabrication about Snider urging kids to kill their parents. Rebuffed on that point, Sweet then proclaimed, “You cannot say fornication in the name of the King and then call yourself a Christian.

"I know a lot of people just won't buy this, but we're not in this just to be another rock and roll band"

“I know where they're coming from. I understand what they’re doing. I’m in the same business as they are. I play to the same type of people they do. But whether you’re Jewish or Christian, there’s gotta be evidence that you’re serious. I've talked with Jewish record executives who the world and we want to tell the world that.”

Michael’s interesting concept of songwriter credits: “I think it’s obvious where Stryper gets the lyrics from, to anyone who buys the record and sees the Bible scripture all over the album. They know we’re getting everything from the Bible. It’s common sense to any person that we believe in Jesus Christ and where is Jesus Christ found? He’s found in the Bible.”

On dealing with the jealousy that crops up on tour, where three wives (out of four members, Robert is the only unclaimed Stryper. He’s saving himself for the right girl. Seriously.) contend with the usual backstage flood of luscious lovelies looking for some choice flesh to corrupt: “Sure, there comes times when there’s jealousy and anger. A lot of people think that Christians should have their lives together, there shouldn’t be any of that. But there is that. There are still problems. But if you have Christ to fall back on, you can help each other out through Christ. And that’s really neat, it really helps us through.”

The Sweets talk with the clear-eyed, uni-directed belief of the committed, no matter how far a questioner pushes, no matter how intimate a turn the conversation takes. You have to give them this much: they’ve developed enough selfcontrol to reply candidly to the queries; they don’t lose their tempers, swear, throw chairs around the room or stomp away; they don’t give up on you, either. Talking to these guys is somewhere between being taken in by a master salesman and visiting Disneyland. Only, in Stryper’s case, it’s your soul that they’re luring onto the roller coaster.

"Whether people agree with me or not, I really feel our success is because we've stood up for Christ."

"Money's not evil, it's just how you use it. It's the love of money that's wrong."

“I don’t mind at all," Michael explains about the idea of answering personal questions. (He’s just been grilled about science vs. creationism and the idea of i divorce, and his given appropriate responses to both: God did create the 1 earth in six days, but a day in God’s eyes could be 1,000 years, hohoho; and no, God isn't a real big fan of divorce, but it’s OK if daddy dearest has been coming home and turning the kiddies into hamburger. But only after counseling flops.)

I can only tell vou the truth. ![ha^

Questions. When we first got this group ogether and we knew what we were gonJa stand for, and what we were gonna ling about, you think that we didn’t realize ow many questions we were gonna have (lot at us? We’re here to answer nybody’s questions. We’re here to explain.”

(But, insists Michael, echoing the iessage his brother had originally llivered, they are not trying to force congrsions upon anyone, either. Michael hinks awhile, emits a deep sigh, and cknowledges that the U.S.A., goshdar$t, still values its freedom enough not to lemove choice from the menu (at least pt obviously). “We live with it,” he says.

telling people what we feel is right. I try not to get frustrated over things.”

Moving somewhat closer to home, Sweet doesn’t let himself get depressed over'the fact that most fans at Stryper concerts are there because of the group’s well-played, melodic, commercial brand of rock, and not to hear about loving Jesus Christ. “It’s not frustrating (to have his lyrics ignored),” Michael replies. ‘‘It makes us feel good to know that we’ve told them. At least we’ve shared what we believe in with them. And they have the choice. See, we only tell people what the Bible says. The Bible is the truth. It’s not some fiction story and it’s not some fairy tale. It’s true. (At this point, I interject the phrase that led to a pretty lively difference of opinion with Robert—"in your opinion”—but Michael doesn’t rise to the bait.)

“I know some people may think we’re taking a big chance, and the world’s not going to approve of what we say and what we write. But we’re just going ahead and taking that chance, ’cause we’re steppin’ out in faith. We live by the Bible. We really do.”

It seems only fair to mention here that, as born-again Christians the members of Stryper are, according to Michael, living their lives in Christ-like fashion. Aside from avoiding sin and praying a lot, Michael says that the group responds, in letters, calls and visits, to fans who are suicidal; and who have drug or family problems. In addition to handing out Bibles, Sweet gives money to his church, to charity, and to people in financial distress. Because they are a rock ’n’ roll band, Stryper are continually under observation concerning their behavior, and the suspicion comes from both sides. The secular world waits for them to slip up and reveal some well-hidden hypocrisy. Michael takes great pains not to appear too sexy onstage. “I don’t try to move my hips, or wear real lowcut pants (unlike brother Robert, who wore jeans so tight the day I met him that no one could doubt his imanhood). Let me nut it this wav—l ii what I mean?”

On the other hand, having succeeded on a grand scale in the secular work Stryper have caught a lot of, ahem, hell] from such earthly would-be deities as Jir my Swaggart. According to the fire an^ brimstone brigade, being a Christian means that you’re not supposed to looy hip and play rock ’n’ roll which might b* segued, at least soundwise, into the lates platters by Ozzy or W.A.S.P. So thj group, radicals in their own way, walk cautious line between two highly emc tional worlds, a schism that’s bound tl widen as To Hell With The Devil reachej towards platinum.

Michael Swegt, fflLor

make sure that the money changers don’t come too close to his particular temple. He’ll enjoy Stryper’s success, he declares, but without being compromised. “We’re going to be good stewards over our money. If God wants us to give somebody some money, we’re gonna do it. Money’s not evil, it’s how you use it. It’s the love of money that becomes wrong. If a man worships his car and puts that above God, that’s where it becomes wrong. But there’s nothing wrong with a Christian having nice things.”

I don’t want torbegrudge the Sweets and their fellow bandmates, Oz Fox and Tim Gaines, their chunk of the rock ’n’ roll rainbow. What they’ve accomplished is in many ways harder than the usual grind of clubs to concerts to arenas to superstardom that is the usual, fairly uncontroversial path of most rockers. But I keep coming back to the oh-so-sincere comparisons that Stryper draw between themselves and so-called “Satanic” bands:-And to the fact that the devil being plunged to hell on their LP cover looks very much like your garden variety rock fan or musician, albeit with horns and cloven hoofs. And with the awareness that Stryper’s perpetually bright outlooks walks hand in hand with a readiness to condemn all other hard rockers besides themselves, my faith is shaken, and shattered.