What do you get when you have a band that dresses in outfits that resemble a bumble bee, play heavy metal music, but sing lyrics about Jesus?
The punchline, at least in the 1980’s, was a band with a multi-platinum album, videos all over MTV and a Grammy nomination.
There aren’t many bands in the “heavenly metal” genre of music, and very few of those can claim the the success that Stryper has had.
“We’re not like any other band in the history of music,” claims singer and guitarist Michael Sweet.
Stryper will bring their 40-year history of black and yellow outfits and melodic hard rock with its Christian message to Wichita this Saturday for a show at Temple Live at 8 p.m.
This current tour celebrates the 40th anniversary of the band’s beginnings and first EP, “The Yellow and Black Attack,” and will feature two sets of music. The first set features songs from the band’s peak of popularity in the mid-1980’s — when songs like “Calling on You” and “Honestly” from the album “To Hell With the Devil” — were in heavy rotation on MTV.
The second set features songs from the band’s more recent output, including from their latest album “When We Were Kings.”
“We come out and do a classic set and then we do a half hour intermission,” Sweet said
“I always joke and say ‘Hey, I hope you guys are still here when we come back,’ and everyone’s always there when we come back.”
One thing you won’t hear during either set is the band preaching or evangelizing to their audiences. Their message, Sweet says, it strictly in the music they play and sing.
“I’ve always been the kind of guy and personality that doesn’t like to be preached at,” Sweet said.
“And what I mean by that is, when it’s done in a forceful way, I don’t like it. I don’t think most people like it, so we’ve never taken that approach. The music should do the talking.”
Sweet said he discovered his own Christian faith at age 12, around the same time he and his brother Robert, Stryper’s drummer, were discovering bands that were emerging from the hard rock music scene in southern California, where the Sweets grew up in the late 1970’s
Inspired by that music, but less by the messages of partying and excess that music from that era embraced, The Sweet brothers formed Stryper and made a name for themselves by taking the style of music they loved and fusing it with a message of faith.
Today’s version of the band still features three of the four original members. The Sweet brothers along with guitarist Oz Fox. Longtime bassist Tim Gaines was replaced by former Firehouse bassist Perry Richardson in 2017.
Sweet says he sometimes wonders if Stryper may have even gone to even greater heights had their music not had lyrics about Jesus.
“I think we had some really great songs and I think that if we weren’t singing about Jesus, we most definitely would have been bigger,” Sweet said.
“I think ‘To Hell With the Devil,’ instead of selling two million copies, would have sold four, five, six million.”
But Sweet says that’s not regret, just speculation.
“100% no regrets. I’m so glad and thankful we did it our way,” Sweet said.
“The lyrics, the look, the yellow and black. No question about it. We’ve always stuck to our guns and our own convictions and we’ve never been detoured because someone else wanted us to do something different.”
STRYPER
What: Christian hard rock band Stryper
Where: Temple Live, 332 E 1st St
When: Saturday, October 19th and 8 p.m.
Tickets: https://www.ticketmaster.com/stryper-40th-anniversary-wichita-kansas-10-19-2024/event/060060BEB4EA595F
More information: https://www.templelive.com/tm-event/stryper-40th-anniversary/
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