Michael Sweet
On the eve of releasing new album, “When We Were Kings,” Stryper frontman Michael Sweet joins us to discuss his vocal technique (thanks, Rob Halford!), the decadent days of Roxx Regime, that time Stryper was billed with Slayer and touring as a co-lead vocalist and guitarist for rock legends, Boston.
Created and Produced by Jared Tuten
what's up everybody metal Dave along with my co host Jason McMaster bringing you another episode of the talk louder podcast. Today we are joined by Michael sweet vocalist and guitarist for Striper. They've got a new album coming out called When We Were Kings it drops September 13th there are currently three singles out you can find videos on YouTube the songs are end of days love symphony and grateful so go sample those songs until the album comes out those if those three songs are any indication you're in for another great Striper album the playing is sharp the guitar solos are amazing Michael's voice is incredible still after 40 years of singing he sounds amazing they've got an upcoming tour coming out so he was kind enough to spend some time with us today we went a little long with him and he was nice enough to hang out and we covered a lot of ground early days with rocks regime the current album a funny story about Slayer yeah yeah just he gave us some back and forth with some history which you know me that's what I like the most about someone who's been doing it a long time yeah it's cool it was cool to talk to him about his singing and and how he's he's he sounds like he's he never said it outright but like self-taught it's what he sounds like he really he really worked on his voice a lot on his own you know try fail try fail try fail try again that's probably the best way to train is the word that we were using he's always been jovial and cool and nice and he he'll talk to anyone who approaches him he's totally approachable kind of guy and here's the interesting thing you and you you touch on it in the interview about how you know the striper is on the bill with King Diamond and and you know like behemoth and and you know the evil metal bands you know that are having fun with you know the drama that could be testing the limits of of this is striper talk religious faith right yeah whether it be for horror show or or antics or whatever whether whether you're you're taking it serious and it it's part of your belief system or not it's interesting that he's not really judging anybody but he'll get his message through as to where where him and his bandmates are believing and coming from and have faith in and I think that's fair and he's I don't I'd never felt once like he was shoving it down my throat and and if there was any moment that that it started to it went away and I was like oh well that was that was that wasn't even painful to hear this guy just be be passionate about what he believes in so that's good and I think it's fair there's one more thing I want to I want to say before we you take us out into his interview is the fact that we have a lot of friends who really love striper oh yeah while they wear a slayer shirt yes we have a lot of friends who like just heavy metal right and they like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and they like you know venom and slayer and and merciful fate and and the scariest noisiest hardcore shit they can find lo-fi demos of underground you know Satan's penis whatever you know they they'll they'll they'll search out the most evil decrepit wrong lo-fi you know they'll listen to a demo of just sounds like white noise and go oh it's my new favorite shit and then they'll listen to a striper record so this is this omnir omnivorous fan of loud rock to bring it all to totally generalize and take all the color out and just say rock and roll or hard rock or whatever and you know what I think that that's awesome that whatever you can hear and go wow that's cool I really like that I want to buy the record I want to support this band or whatever and you're so open-minded about what you like you can find the good in that and I feel that way about striper I don't own striper's records but you know what you know what I like watching them live they are a kick ass loud metal band live and there's like Michael says there's hooks everywhere but there's all kinds of shredding guitar solo and heavy metal riffs next thing you know you know right after the big journey chorus there's this really chuggy heavy shredding thing that you're going damn that's rat you know yeah kill me kill me or hug me there's something cool about it and there's something for everyone so I think I think and this is my story I'm not I was never a big striper fan I'll admit and as shallow as this is going to sound one of the reasons I didn't really give them a chance is because I was drawn to rock and roll and heavy metal because of the rebellious spirit of it outlaw spirit of it of course and to me the the striper message was counter to that and so I never really gave him a chance but as I've gotten older and I think this is true of of most people as you get older and you mature and you start to let go of some of these things that are so important to you and you start to discover things for what they really are you learn to respect people for you know their passion their creativity and I'll say this about Michael and striper they have been they have never strayed the chorus as far as their message and their beliefs and I think that people the guy you're talking about in this layer shirt respects that striper makes quality heavy metal they play quality music and you gotta if there's anything is there anything more rebellious than standing your ground I was gonna say they're kind of winning as far as being you want a villain they're the fucking villain they're being vilified by everything that's outlaw spirited they're kind of the outlaw they're the alternative and not you know you know what I'm trying to say and I want to come back to you know having listened to a lot of striper going into this interview I'm impressed man I mean you nailed it there's moments in their songs that are right up there with Judas Priest Iron Maiden just anything that you have in your record collection that you want to hold up as the barometer of heavy metal striper can rival it you know and that vocal man oh my god that vocal is still 40 years after you know still screaming his head off and he sounds amazing crystal clear as a bell yeah if you like and if you like boston or those kind of journey type vocals where it's high and clear and powerful and think about if you if you know enough about striper or michael sweet's voice I don't even need to press play on anything I can hear Brad Delp from boston and then I think about michaels it's it becomes one yeah the range and the power and the those top notes that are like almost inhuman yeah michael can hit that shit and it's no accident that michael actually spent some time singing for boston which that's right out today as well amazing yeah what a great career what a cool dude had a lot of fun talking to him I have really enjoyed going down a striper rabbit hole it's not something I do often but I will do it again I will do it again man they're putting out great stuff and I look forward to seeing them someday when they make their way to Texas I once covered a striper song I was working with some guys in the in the mid 80s just for fun on the side I was still in watchtower and they had me learn to hell with the devil uh-huh had a blast yeah great song fun yeah man exactly exactly so yeah great show today a lot of fun with michael sweet from striper on the talk louder podcast michael thank you for joining us man it's a pleasure to have you we appreciate you taking the time of course thanks for having me and never take it for granted that anyone wants to talk to me that's pretty amazing oh well you know I've been doing music journalism for about 30 years and I've never spoken to you before so I look back at your catalog and your accomplishments and there's plenty to talk about with you so I'm happy to have you with us today and I know Jason feels the same Jason and I were comparing notes leading into this interview and Jason of course is a vocalist himself and uh he he more than most people I think can totally appreciate how amazing your voice still sounds after all these years oh man you know kind of semi-joking uh but not uh I've learned how to make it work and kind of how to how to fake it in some way you know that's what I mean what I mean by that isn't isn't a track thing nothing to do attracts I mean of course you know I don't sound anything like I used to sound as a singer my voice has changed dramatically that's maturity though yeah and you know I think the reason why or I hope the reason why it works for me is because uh my voice was so high back then like like almost too high you know just way out there but a lot of people who stuck me as a as a girl a singer often enough and I think now that it's dropped down a little bit gotten a little grittier a little more depth to it it it works and I'm able to make it work you know yeah you have great tone and I think that your that your tone graduated it's not uh taking away from the the story of progress that you just told but I too when I was 18 I you know someone was stepping on my balls that's just what it sounded like and I I liked that because I was trying to do that I mean all of my favorite singers you know sang above the break and they they just sang the whole record would be above sang way up in the stratosphere and so that's what I wanted to do to completely untrained um and now I like my voice better because um I feel like I have tone and depth and grit and I think it's maturity um you do you do you have do you have did you have any training early on or did you go in and try to fix some things in the middle of it all you know the only training I ever had the first training I had was with myself so I didn't like where my voice was back when I was you know 14 15 16 17 years old they hadn't developed yet obviously physically and naturally but also just stylistically so I I heard priest for the first time I heard diamonds and rust live from my least in the east and that changed me as a singer I I went home it made me say it was a wake-up call like okay get serious about your voice so I started working on my range my vibrato and my my upper register and uh I I kind of jumped leaps and bounds you know over a year period and when we started performing people like is that the same singer had a completely different voice and um as years have gone by we took lessons from Elizabeth Sabine out in LA okay she was a infamous vocal coach amazing person amazing singer and you know I took a few lessons from her and I grew up in a musical family my parents were singers I grew up around singing and how to sing and how to harmonize and locking in and all that stuff but in terms of like training do I go every week and train or every month and train or even every year and train now I as a guitar player the same applies I'm not a trained guitarist I'm a bike I'm an ear player and your singer pretty much yeah yeah I I guess to be clear I was using the word trained very loosely but yeah I think that I think that learning from yourself by recording yourself and listening back and going that's not right yet is the best sort of training I guess to be clear when was the first time you ever like heard your voice back on tape if yes it were oh gosh back I think the first I heard some live audio way back in the day we would record on a cassette the cheap stereo cassette recorder but when I heard the studio stuff we started doing demos we go work for a month and then have enough money pull it together and go do a demo and this went on for years first time I heard myself on a demo is when I thought like okay there's my voice you know that's my voice you know parts of it I liked parts of it I didn't like parts of it parts of it to this day I like parts I don't like I'm a very dramatic singer yeah so I very almost more theatrical and operatic you know very people some people don't like that some people don't like that at all it annoys them and you know I grew up on guys like Dio and Halford and yeah Rick and Senn and yep those types of singers yeah well that that explains everything all the stuff you fell in love with as far as singing goes and hard rock and metal you're applying and if you're applying very well and so yeah I understand you're also singing what the song is asking you to sing and that's not always the case with well you know you go through you go through those phases where what kind of song am I writing right now and what kind of vocal approach do I take to this and I feel you figure that out early on it was probably because you guys were recording early you know the old boom box rehearsal tapes it's the first time I heard myself and I was like well that's not gonna work so you know you just constant constant learning I first time I saw you live I had heard your records of course was in um it would have been uh February 20th 1985 at the Austin Opera House my band watchtower open for you guys okay and uh you and Robert came in our dressing room after our set and you guys were so nice to us you guys were so complimentary to us and that was my first experience uh you and your brother were were our my band watchtower's first experience that someone walked you know that had any clout you know walked in and went you know the headliner walks into the opening band's dressing room and goes holy shit where'd you guys learn how to do that whoa you know and you guys were genuine about it and we were like wow that's that's what I thought I'll speak for myself that was my introduction to you since then I've run into you elevators I married a couple in Houston and you were the musical act oh I don't know if you remember any of that but yeah sure you yes absolutely yeah much respect well man that's very kind of you buddy and you know the thing is about me speaking for myself I can't speak for all musicians out there but at the end of the day we're we're we're like anybody else you know we have our issues we have bad days we have good days sometimes people catch us on a bad day and that's the first impression and that's the one thing they remember and recall yeah I met him and he didn't have much to say and he was a jerk and I hate him and I'll never listen to him wow but you know this is this is the stuff we forget about that musicians are just people and with with everyday issues but I always try my point is I always try to apply the golden rule you know with everybody we're all created the same we're all created equally in God's eyes we're all God's creations and you know I take that new account every time I meet somebody and I want to leave a great impression and and do so sincerely so I've met a lot of people I won't name names with a lot of people we've opened for that weren't so nice and it left an impression not a good one but yeah it just be nice that's all yeah well it takes a lot less energy to be nice than it does to be mean oh yeah yeah yeah let's get into your new album man you've got a new album coming out September 13th it's called When We Were Kings I've heard three tracks off it so far love symphony grateful end of days first of all the album cover the artwork is amazing I've always said that you can't make a better first impression than having a great band name and a great album cover so do you can you spend a couple minutes real quick about talking about the cover it almost looks like an extension from the final battle artwork but I might be wrong no it is it is it's kind of I always refer to it as a series you know if you go back to no more hell to pay back 2013 and you follow every album release since then to now When We Were Kings it's like a series you know they all they all have similarities but they're all different this album cover in particular is trying to portray and I think I think the artist did a great job doing this to portray the fact that Christ is the king and we're all kings in our own way and God wants to bless each and every one of us and he looks at us as perfect creations so people were trying to figure out like what are you trying to say like you're you're you're also kings like Christ or you know people I think people were just overthinking it right but it was just obviously we're behind Christ and he's in the forefront and you know he's the king of kings but the sun itself lyrically is referring to and reminiscing on the past the glory days you know we all do that we're sitting around like man you remember back in '86 when we played that place and it was a packed out house and we had a gold record or wow wasn't that incredible just it enlightened fun reminiscing about the old days and that's that's what the song's about like guys remember when we were kings you know wasn't that amazing and it's just it's just a fun 80s make you feel good song glory days I noticed yeah I caught that that it's past tense when we were kings and a lot of your fans and a lot of people would argue that you guys are still on top of your game man you're still kings because that's the first thing that caught my attention like is he admitting that there was a time when they were better than they are now because I think you're doing fantastic work right now your new album is testament to that well thank you man and you know look I humbly have to agree I I think we're better now than we were then I think we're always improving and or certainly trying to we strive for for that and for perfection but you know it's it's one of those things where I don't think I'm referring to in the lyrics about remember how good we used to be and we're not now but more so like remember the the glory days where we were you know selling out arenas and going and touring for six months straight we had three busters and three cinemas and man that was insane a band like us singing about Jesus that's just wild yeah it's more that that thinking you know yeah and as you said we're all you know I don't want to say the word I don't want to use the word guilty but we all do that we look back through the family photo album and go that was a great time man remember that I remember how cool I was in 10th grade and yeah yeah of course that's it and when you see the video there's a video coming for that we just saw the final cut of it uh it's phenomenal man it's gonna take you down it's gonna take you on a ride throughout the history of the band back back in those days and even some some new stuff but it's it's so cool it and when we watch it we're all like hitting goosebumps and like whoa this is powerful it's very cool I can't wait for everyone to see it yeah yeah I love those career retrospect sort of flashback through time videos because as you can tell from our backgrounds Jason and I were nerds we're collectors so we relish all that stuff and the memories that comes along with it you know oh yeah um the songs the singles that are out love symphony grateful uh amazing and uh end of days in particular I was gonna ask you um the video for that song there's a lot of war imagery and um so I wanted to ask you is is the is the ongoing battle of good and evil just hopelessly eternal I mean we as a species have had war and conflict since the beginning of time and I know we all want to be optimistic and we all hope for better days and that sort of thing but I couldn't help but notice the the imagery in that uh video especially given the times today we've got the war in Ukraine we got the situation in Gaza etc um is there any possibility somewhere down the line that we all might just get a law well everyone has different views on that and different beliefs different religions different faiths different gods right yeah and that's why we don't get along you know quite often is because you start bringing up politics and religion and boom you know the thanksgiving tables cleared really quick yeah uh it's like it's sad though because I as a Christian believe that there's better days to come you know we got to get through all this stuff prophetically speaking which we almost have in the bible you go back and you read all the prophecies that have taken place there's not much left other than all of us going our separate ways you know either either you believe in Christ that he died for your sins you go to heaven or you don't you know we all know the story with that so if you either believe if you're a Christian you believe the word of god or you don't and if you don't you've got problems I believe the word of god and that imagery in that video in the days is basically talking about the times we're living it yeah I mean you've got all sorts of things going on wars all around us talk of wars the potential for new wars you know when you got China and Russia flying together in our airspace for the first time in fighter jets that's next level scary I don't know maybe I'm just being dumb and I eat I think you're very warm everyone else everyone just kind of stays on their phones and ignores it and lives in this weird denial yeah yeah it's very strange that's what we do is as human beings we need to kind of we need to wake up call it we need to say okay you know there is an eternity when we die we don't just go on the ground we don't get sprinkled in the ocean and that's it we turn into fish that's what I believe we go somewhere else uh and that's what striper has been preaching from day one man yeah yeah well and then on the flip side of course you've got uh loves love symphony and grateful which are very much in line with the uh you know sort of the optimistic uplifting I guess striper lyrical themes and sound uh loves symphony the the chorus almost sounds like a church hymn I mean that thing is just glorious man it's huge and it sounds like it could be played on a church organ with everybody in the choir and in the congregation singing along to it I call that cathedral just that sound tone it's cathedral yeah you guys say that because that was purposely done is I was writing the songs um I have a really weird way of writing I start two weeks before we start recording and uh I don't really I don't rave yeah I work really great under pressure and the way I way I operate it works for me so once I start writing those songs and on this album in particular I had the constant thought of make sure the choruses are anthems and you can sing along to them take you back to that everyone lift your hands up and sing wow you know and that that was the whole point of pretty much every song on this album and if you also notice a lot of the songs the verses are in a minor key and then when it gets to the chorus it goes to a major key yeah so it's a little happier a little more feel good and then it comes back to oh crap here we go we're turning out the lights and getting dark again yeah that's that's purposely done I love doing that stuff well you you did it well it's it's great it's very catchy and as you said very inthemic so I think you guys have always had a contrast within your within a song or a piece of music uh picking the right chords to spread the message that you feel is very important yep and so your songs are vehicles I mean if a band has a I'm kind of generalizing and not just talking about you or Striper or the way that it works but I'm generalizing I feel like it's very important that if you have a thing and you guys have a thing uh you need to to set the vessel up correctly to get that message and make people feel enlightened when they hear the song even the very first time oh man I don't know if I like that I need to hear that again no you get yes you need to hear it again but you know what I mean I feel like you're you're ramping everything up in the right way uh you guys write great songs well thank you yeah that that means the world I I I love writing I mean I that's probably my my first love when it comes to music it's writing when I was a kid I three years old I was sitting bopping my parents called it bopping the minute music would start I'd start rocking back and forth and making up lyrics and melodies uh music is just in my DNA writing is in my DNA and and I love it and I do I do try as a writer always to make everything uh a hook uh you know and and not do anything that's predictable I like doing things that aren't predictable you know like the first chorus when it's in the in the middle of the chorus turning around instead of going back to a D we'll go to a D minor we'll we'll we'll go to an E minor we're just throwing in that those little things that are different when you're learning the song it that's really the only way you know when you learn a stripper song you're like oh man this there's probably more to this than I thought yeah and there is yeah yeah um we were talking earlier uh the topic was the end of days and we were talking about tolerance or the lack thereof in the world and um I wanted to ask you because I feel like over the years I feel like the heavy metal community or the hard rock community has proven to be one of the more tolerant groups of people out there and I use examples like striper I remember when you guys first came out you faced a certain amount of ridicule because of your belief in your lyrics I remember Rob Halford wouldn't come out of the closet because he was afraid he'd lose his fan base I remember when certain ethnicities might have been excluded from the hard rock heavy metal community women weren't as prevalent as they are today um and we're the group of people that society kind of uh marginalizes and thinks that we're just a bunch of knuckle dragon animals do you feel like there's less of a need to uh quote unquote defend yourself anymore because people have just learned to accept the music at face value for what it is well going off of my socials and my instagram account and facebook account the answer to that would be uh it's still a struggle I mean yeah it's all post I posted when trump was uh almost assassinated I posted a simple pray for trump you know uh not trying to be not trying to be political just just you know trying to be you know a good human being and if it was if it was Biden I would have said the same thing of course uh and but I said pray for trump and I lost like something like a thousand followers in in like two hours yeah and I was just kind of sitting back thinking wow this is our world this is insane it really hit me over the head yeah like never before and I don't understand that like this you're so hateful and one-sided that you can't handle a post that says pray for somebody unfortunately true unfortunately it blew my mind it really did it it is thick uh but even by me this interview if anything goes on blower mouth from this interview or anywhere else for that matter of me saying that I'll lose followers and it's like it's twisted and weird and it's not about me and how many followers I have who cares I don't care who they don't care it's more so the point of it it's like are we really that divided and messed up that we can't just listen to each other with respect yeah crazy yeah you know I kind of felt the same way uh about the assassination attempt it doesn't matter who it is no one should have a knucklehead with a rifle a hundred feet away shooting at you I don't care who you are what status symbol you are and that was my sentiment I I didn't I didn't post anything about it but um I've reposted memes that were somewhat political-ish and lot and lost fans and it was a repost it wasn't even something that I created it wasn't a post I created and I lost followers now yeah I was okay with that but ultimately you know Michael I took that meme down I know I felt I felt like I was the wrong I was I was kind of I felt bad later that I took it down I should have stood my ground kind of thing because it was something that I cared about but I didn't want to I didn't want to be that big a disruptor and you guys just go ahead and be live in the dark you guys just go ahead and live in the dark that was my attitude by taking it down um but yeah that's okay yeah I was trying to not feel the guilt you know of wow I really upset some people just by reposting somebody else's you know yeah you can't even hit like on something anymore without losing a friend it's not worth it all here's the deal with me we stood our ground from day one singing about Jesus yeah you did yeah so yeah you did you know we and we took plaque for it protesters at our shows being called everything in the book that's who I am so I don't do it to stir the pot I do it because that's who I am if I'm if I see something I'm passionate about like I was passionate about that I'm like you got you got me kidding me they just tried to kill him why I pray for him I didn't think like hey is this gonna cause issues online I better not ooh I just do it and people you you threw a life raft you don't go should I throw this life raft out to this person that's drowning right now I might get I might am I gonna get in trouble for that no you threw the life raft I do and and and I did I lost a lot of people and I and I say this very respectfully I I don't do those things to gain followers or lose followers honestly I deactivated my Facebook account when I remarried some of the hateful comments I got were unreal I'll never forget one one guy posted he said I didn't even wait till the corpse was cold oh my god speaking about my wife who passed passed away right I was married to for almost 23 years so this is the this is the shit no other word to use no it's perfect that people think they can get away with online and that the internet has opened the floodgates for that right yeah yeah and I don't really care honestly I just post what I'm passionate about it's not about followers for me if I go down to zero followers amen I'll deactivate account I'll just live life go enjoy go fishing you know right right it's not worth the negative energy do you like fishing do you go fishing often because someday you might just have to go fishing man you know I might like do it more often I might love me too man I get it fishing is simple and beautiful yeah I get it I like that change in direction let's get on to some like some it's a more lighthearted fun stuff here it's a good message I I'm glad that we're talking about little things like that because sometimes on our show we it doesn't go I wouldn't say dark it doesn't it doesn't get as meaningful as that sometimes because we're talking about just art and music most of time but some some heart heart felt reflection sometimes is good cheers 100% man let's talk about let's go let's go all the way back to I'm sorry man I I'm trying to be mindful of your time Michael so I'm trying to get through these questions you're doing great Dave let's uh let's you know what it's been 42 years ago this month almost to the day that we're taping this 42 years ago Metallica open for rocks regime and of course rocks regime was striper before you were called striper um what do you remember about that gig in particular you know I remember kind of briefly meeting the guys this is when Dave was in the band you know uh and Ron McGovney I believe too yeah yeah and meeting the guys and and just the quick hello so I didn't really get to know him I found out later down the road that Dave Mustang I guess uh sold hot to our bass player at the time to Tim no it wasn't Tim okay it was yeah it was actually a guy by the name of John Voorhees okay and um John that name sounds familiar that name is John Voorhees John kind of helped get that gig because he knew Dave that that that was the connection uh so yeah I found out that Dave was coming to our garage he came a few times and was considering investing in the band wow yeah weird stuff yeah um and uh there you are we played officially with Metallica you know they opened for us I think that's kind of a funny funny little spin absolutely well I feel like that's that scene was in Southern California was here I am getting romantic again every our followers and listeners know this about me already I start to get real like hot yeah when I think about the Southern California metal scene the the budding thrash metal scene the budding sunset strip if you will I don't know what to call it I don't want to call it glam and you guys were and then there was you guys in whatever formation whatever banner you were going under and you guys were kind of fitting because you know I've always thought you guys were kind of heavy and with these thrashing like shredding guitar solos and shit and and you could sing any note yeah what note you want I can hit it oh you want me to hire okay like Roger Taylor hi no problem you know um and I think that uh it's it was a great time in Southern California and I know that that's why Dave brought this up but the fact that there was thrash metal bands playing with whatever you guys would call yourself back then we used to where you go what what would you how would you if you made a flyer in 1982 what would it say to sort of describe what your message was oh man well at the time our message wasn't it's the striper message oh okay this is right before we rededicated our lives and decided to change the lyrics and turn everything okay but rock's regime what was that kind of starting to be about we were singing about girls and rock and roll yeah girls and drinking and having fun party and you know yeah rock and roll yeah young young uh young devices oh yeah but at the same time we had you know when I was 12 we got involved in a church and through Jimmy Swagger believe it or not as Southern Baptist Church and you know we're Christians fell away from that did the whole sex drugs and rock and roll thing at an early age and then it became striper when I was 20 so uh this place this was priest forever this was before we had made that move and how old are you now Michael I'm 61 61 ah you're young yeah you're still you're still young to me I was I'm 59 so I'm just kind of you know when I grow up to 61 I want to be like Michael sweet Michael's been living right up here a lot of years oh yeah well yeah I have and I have it I mean I enjoy an occasional cigar and some bourbon here and there and stuff but I mean I try to do everything in moderation and not abuse anything and I try to carry myself you know whether that's worked or not I have no idea well I've heard I've heard throughout the years that you guys have had some parties oh yeah sure yeah well they were on the sunset strip with the rocks for you yeah they grew up in Southern California that showed the rest even piercings the rest of the world how to party so of course of course striper has had some parties so back then man I used to you know we'd play gazari's and we'd go out and have a few drinks go play again have a few drinks go play again we did three sets with rat yeah that then and Stephen and I and Rob we would all be hanging out out front smoking Sherman's and drinking you know Jack and Coke but yeah I mean we did all that stuff that sounds like a regular that sounds like it would have been a regular day back there it was a regular day yeah that's my point absolutely and you know my brother's three years older than me so he's closer an age to Stephen right I was just really young man sneaking into all these clubs I wasn't supposed to be in any of them yeah and I looked older than I was when I was 17 16 17 years old I was playing the whiskey and they'd say how old do you and I'd say oh 21 you know they'd say yeah okay yeah whatever dude yeah it was because you're six feet tall probably they let me I guess because the guys that I was in the band with were older they were kind of like my chaperones you know but it always worked out and I got to experience that scene at a very early age yeah yeah and get it out of your system I guess yeah exactly that's good so I read somewhere that there was a time when you guys were on a bill of some sort where you were going to open for Slayer and then Slayer canceled or didn't show up or whatever but but my question to you is what conversations are going on in your rehearsal room with the other guys when you're thinking uh should we do this gig these guys are kind of the uh exact opposite of what we stand for etc tell me a little bit about that well we were excited about doing it that's kind of our whole thing we like the challenge we like going into unknown territory and accomplishing greatness and we've done that time and time again we play with a lot of bands but we did show in Mexico not long ago and the lineup was uh the homeless uh Judas Priest uh merciful fate took a photo with King Diamond yeah I saw that I thought that was awesome yeah yeah I mean we've been doing this from the very beginning you know playing with these guys have been so playing with Slayer it's just like they would have been like the Bee Gees for us you know other day right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I look at that I look especially nowadays especially festivals I should say because they're not going to have a thrash metal stage and a classic rock stage and a I don't know a country stage you know it's they're just putting everybody together do you remember of course you remember you're of age where AC/DC would tour with Journey and and like the Bee Gees would play with what you know the Rolling Stones or whatever you know it was just a hard everything was just rock and roll back there yeah totally I mean for example would play with AC/DC or whatever you know it's yeah and I miss them I miss them those were the best shows package shows ever put together and yeah I remember there was one I think I saw was Van Halen oh yeah Journey uh you might have been priest as well it was all over the sea miller I think yeah it was really cool and I you know I think man how did I miss that shell right yeah yeah you don't really see that kind of thing these days it's other than other than maybe the festivals unless they're it's a themed festival you know yeah download festival is everybody is there there's no there's no rules now I I recall I recall Van Halen like doing shows with it was either the Commodores or Earth Wind and Fire and they did they did a tour back in the day and then they when they got back together or just in recent decade or so they did a show with one of those bands and when you squint when you squint I'm sorry Dave they toured with cool in the gang cool in the gang all right yeah yeah yeah to me Van Halen is such a fucking party but wait a minute so is cool in the gang and the Commodores and Earth Wind and Fire that works for me oh totally totally works for me I'll tell you man interestingly enough a lot of those bands were influential on Striper yeah I believe I was high school when I was a freshman in high school I'm junior high seventh and eighth grade I'd walk down the hallways and I'd hear Earth Wind and Fire because I went to school in a predominantly Mexican gang banger system okay the gang of the time was called Quiet Village wow that was in Pico Rivera and Whittier and I was one of you know 15 or 20 white kids in the school who just tried to not get jumped every day yeah you know because they were jumping it everyone was getting jumped it didn't matter who you were or you know Oz Oz I think got jumped a few times and he's Mexican you know he had long hair and they didn't like it whatever but they would they loved Earth Wind and Fire and all that stuff and they would blast it and I got into Earth Wind and Fire we covered in Earth Wind and Fire some Chinese stars so yeah yeah that's right you guys did that so yeah that was a great version yeah and if you recall Van Halen covered a lot of those cool songs back in the day yeah yeah because I think Roth Morso was influenced by the R&B stuff and some of those bands totally hey we're coming up on time and I got a few more questions I want to ask you yes we can't let you go without talking about Boston man I mean I'm crazy so that is a bittersweet time for you as I understand it because obviously singing for Boston wow it an honor and I wanted to know if there was any auditions but that's not the way it worked you kind of got called to stand in at a gig and then it turned into something more and at the same time you were kind of caring for your wife who you mentioned earlier your wife at the time who was very ill so you've got this dichotomy or juxtaposition of this career highlight but this personal thing in your life that's very emotional and difficult tell me about you know the first time you were contacted by Boston to do that one show and then how did it I mean it must have been amazing for you to go out and sing those songs well it was interesting because it was you hit the nail on the head with it highlighted my life and the lowest point of my life you know yeah and it was weird I'd go out mow the lawn and curse God you know and here I am a Christian and I'm like out there you know swearing and you know cursing God asking why like I hope someone told you that that's okay I know yeah absolutely and you know I just I couldn't comprehend it you know we had devoted our lives to God and here my wife is suffering and and she was she had a heart of gold and you know didn't deserve it like anyone that suffers like that but anyway I'm out there mowing the lawn cursing God and I get a phone call from Tom Schultz yeah prior to that his wife had reached out to management and said they were thinking about having me to come sing a song at what was going to be their last show then I get a phone call from Tom and it said restricted and I never answered the call I shut them over off and answered this time which is really bizarre and it's Tom and I'm just sitting there going oh my god you know big influence on me yeah that first boss in album changed my life yeah so he's talking about how great Striper is and he went out and bought all of our albums and was listening he's really blown away really impressed with the songwriting and my voice it just went on not so complimentary and he said I'm so impressed that we had some singers drop out we had Sammy Hagar come in we had Mickey Thomas come in they can't come so we want you to come and sing more and I said oh okay and then when I got off the phone with him and that's when I said oh crap you know I gotta go sing after Brad passing to a Boston audience trying to fill his shoes which can't be done and the old crap moment hit me yeah so I started working on songs for a few weeks not just vocally but I learned all the guitar stuff too because I don't think they knew I played they just wanted me to sing so I walked in with my guitar they were blown away we started playing three-part harmonies and Tom said whoa hold on a second he said the guitars have never sounded this good and he quote that's what he said and I'm like really what what and he said yeah this is crazy this I'm loving this long story short went and played the gig after the gig he came back stage and said we want to continue and we want you to join the band oh it was such a surreal moment and then my wife is sick and I'm her caretaker and it was just a tug-of-war of all sorts of emotions and I went and did a tour with them one tour I did 56 shows wow oh yeah it's amazing did you have a chance to do any writing or recording with them is there anything in the vaults that we might see some to see or hear someday I wrote that Tom was talking about starting on a new album after the tour and I wrote some songs and went to his house and played them for him in person while on acoustic guitar and he loved him he's like oh man yeah oh wow Michael I love these this is great you know so basically I went demoed the songs and without going into all the gory details things weren't going as planned you know in terms of me my long-term position in Boston and so when I played in the demos because I was kind of exiting and things weren't working out he wasn't as into the songs and they never wound up getting recorded and I never wound up singing on an album which I was supposed to do as well but yeah it just kind of took a turn yeah yeah well it might have taken 10 years for it to get released anyway considering Boston's track record yeah it could have but you know I don't have any regrets I left the band they went out and did a few more tours after I left the band my baby my heart my focus is striper yes it should be and I'm glad it is but you know Boston I don't I can't speak for them but it just feels to me like it's kind of over and they're done with because I think Tom's 76 or 77 yeah and I mean he didn't like the tour as it was so they haven't toured in a while I don't know if they're gonna tour again but we'll have to see yeah we have time you had a moment yeah I mean that's huge that's huge yeah huge it was wild man we went out and played the sold out shows Boston fans I sing half of the set Tommy de Carlos sing half of the set and I played play guitar and did you sing more than a feeling I we split that up did you do the did you do the top note I did I did some of the top notes I sing the verses Tommy would come in on the courses yeah that was one that we split up Tommy sang smoking I was yeah that's great perfect as I you know I see a long time oh good and you know we split stuff up and it was really cool yeah I've heard you do Amanda it was at that wedding that we did with Ray and Sandra in Houston yeah yeah I heard you do Amanda wasn't that your wife's name no my wife my wife's name was Kyle Kyle okay yeah you told the story before you sang Amanda you told a story about someone that you knew named Amanda and I can't remember the story you remember anything you know what I don't know it might have been I wonder if it was someone in the crowd that I know it might have it might have been that that sort of like close to home okay well that makes sense that's that's sweet that's sweet as well but I love singing that song it's one of my favorite Boston songs but oh yeah it got to sing a number of great songs something about you is another favorite of mine yeah it was just surreal touring with those guys yeah yeah the first records a game changer you said it yourself to be involved at all and go out and and celebrate with original members of some some original members is that's huge it's a memory that you'll that you'll have forever and ever and ever yeah 100% and I tell you man I pinch me moment every night on stage playing those songs sing those songs Tom and I became like brothers it developed a really deep friendship and yeah it was amazing it really was awesome amazing that's amazing you got time one for one more real quick one I wanted to ask you real quick if you could tell us about the latest sun bomb album and because that's your second album now with Tracy guns under the moniker sun bomb we also worked with George Lynch at one point so two of the hot shot guitar heroes from the Hollywood heyday what do those guys bring out of you or what musical muscles are you allowed to flex when you work with those guys that maybe you don't flex when you're doing striper or your solo stuff well those albums are done completely different in so in other words usually with striper and solo I write all the material and and play guitar yeah on the albums on those albums with those bands some bomb and sweet and lynch I didn't play guitar other than like fixing little things like George would send me a song and it would just be intro verse course and then it was said da da da da it would shut off and I'd have to like figure out the rest so in that situation I would play I would cop his tone and play finish the guitar parts yeah don't tell don't tell anybody that but that happened and same thing George would write the music I would write the melodies in the lyrics same thing with sun bomb Tracy writes the music I write the melody in the lyrics and it works really well it takes me out of the hot seat in terms of music and my hopes are it brings it a little different quality it's not so striper Michael sweet sound yeah yeah I'm not I'm not writing the music but still somehow it winds up some songs wind up sounding like striper well people like that sounds just like solo or striper sign I'm like well that's weird talk to George because he wrote it or talk to Tracy he wrote it yeah I don't know man but I love but your melodies your melodies are going to lend a that's that's default so you can I mean you're Michael sweet you got to be true uh you Michael sweet trying to sound like somebody else it it I mean that sounds fun but it also sounds like you know do I want to go Foo fighter or do I want to go Michael sweet you know whatever I'm just I just pulled that out of my hat but yeah for sure yeah I on on the album the covering you can kind of hear Michael sweet trying to sound like someone else we we did covers we did a bunch of coverage and I tried to sing those songs like me but it was really hard to not try to sing it like the original singer sure like scorpions I'm the same way and you when I listen to our version of it it's it's a matter of fact we were overseas playing with scorpions hey with the next scorpions but ex men scorpion members their new band the bass player drummer okay we're playing with them and they heard our version of blackout and they thought it was them they thought it for a moment of the song they thought it was their version they're like is this us it which kind of blew my mind but my point is that was me trying to sound a little bit like gloss mine and I just I always I always got to be myself man I'm never gonna I have a very unique distinct voice lover hate it and you get what you get with me yeah yeah Michael you've been more than gracious with your time today I know we took you past time limit we do appreciate you being so kind to stick with us for our listeners Michael and Striper have a brand new album coming out when we were kings it drops September 13th there's an upcoming tour you guys are going out I presume you and Oz are all healthy and ready to rock you guys have had some health issues but you look fantastic I've seen Oz in action so I guess everybody's firing on all cylinders so look for the new album when we were kings comes out September 13th Striper is on tour shortly thereafter to promote it and yeah man we look forward to continued success from you uh continued success in your professional and your personal life you seem like a really cool guy I'm glad I finally got a chance to spend some time with you today you've been wonderful man so thank you guys as well likewise thank you so much and hopefully you guys can catch a show or two yeah you're coming our way we're in Austin and I saw you on the I saw Austin on the itinerary so yeah we always get back to Texas man are you playing are you playing in Gatlinburg on the mountain uh I don't think we're doing monsters on the mountain okay this time around okay unless unless I'm you know unfamiliar with that that show at the moment but I don't believe so but okay we usually rotate like every few years we're back on the cruise and or the mountain right right right yeah I didn't remember if you were on I'll be there that's shit that's next week no we're not it's the end of August it's the end of August yeah yeah we're not on you know we enjoyed that show we did it last year or two years ago wow we had a great time beautiful yeah you guys were amazing oh man you guys were you guys were solid we tried to try to come out give them a show and you know well the new album sounds sounds fantastic man I mean I've been digging into it since I knew we were going to have you on the show and I've uh I was was just amazed it sounds fantastic your voice sounds great the guitar solos are ripping it's just it's really good stuff another credit to your catalog after 40 years of doing this uh congratulations and thanks again for spending time with us today Michael on behalf of Michael who has chasing big master I'm metal Dave along with our special guest today Michael sweet of striper on the talk louder podcast [Music]
