Michael Sweet

Michael Sweet
Michael Sweet performing with Boston live on June 13, 2008 in Hinckley, MN
Background information
Birth name	Michael Sweet
Born	July 31, 1963 (1963-07-31) (age 46)
Origin	Whittier, California
Genres	Christian metal Hard rock Glam metal Heavy Metal
Occupations	Musician, Singer-songwriter, Producer
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Piano, drums
Years active	1984-present
Associated acts	Stryper, Boston
Website	www.michaelsweet.com

Michael Sweet (born 4 July 1963) is a singer from Cathedral City, California. Sweet is best known as co-founder, writer and frontman of the Christian metal band Stryper. He is also one of the two co-lead vocalists for Boston, the other being Tommy DeCarlo.

Biography

Youth

He began his musical career at age five playing guitar, and at age 12 he began to sing. Sweet also learned to play the drums, piano and bass guitar. His interest in Christianity began when, as a boy, he bugged his parents every weekend to take him to church.

Stryper

In the early 1980s, Sweet and his brother Robert started a band called Roxx Regime and played in small venues. This band would later become Stryper. The band challenged the stereotype of heavy metal being satanic and took Christian rock into mainstream.

With the band, Sweet recorded five successful studio albums that reached gold and platinum status and won him many awards and worldwide fame. However, in the early 1990s, popular rock music was facing shifts in styles and the band's reputation declined.

Solo

After 11 years as frontman of Stryper, Sweet left the band in 1992 in order to pursue a solo career. He first released a demo album titled Unstryped, which featured several songs allegedly intended for the band. Sweet later included some of these on his first full-length album.

His self-titled debut album was released in 1994 and sold over 250,000 copies. He followed it with a slightly softer album titled Real in 1996 earning him a Dove Award nomination. However, he left the Benson label with which he had released those two albums.

"Ain't No Safe Way," a single from the self-titled album, was about abstaining from sex outside marriage. The accompanying video was rejected by MTV. Much controversy arose from this, and rock critic J. D. Considine said on the short-lived VH-1 program 4 on the Floor that "He could have been singing, "Hi, I'm the devil; let's go have sex" and MTV would not have played it because it's a terrible song, it's a terrible video, and it isn't the kind of music MTV is playing right now."

During this time, Sweet and his wife moved to Massachusetts, where Sweet worked as a park ranger in his father-in-law's campground, Maple Park. In 1998, he released an independent demo album titled Truth which received critical acclaim. He was signed to Restless Records and re-released the album in 2000 with a new song-list and new artwork (see Truth).

On August 19, 2007, Sweet acted as Boston's lead singer in Come Together: A tribute to Brad Delp at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston, MA. He joined Boston during the band's summer 2008 tour.

Boston

Michael Sweet performed lead vocals, background vocals, and guitar work for Boston. His first official show with the band was June 6, 2008 in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Sweet handled lead vocals on roughly half of the setlist, including Boston staples "More Than a Feeling," "Amanda," and "Peace of Mind." "Piece of Mind" was re-recorded by Stryper and released via the iTunes Store on June 23, 2008. Reviews of his performance have been positive. It is unknown whether he will record new material with the band as Brad Delp's replacement.

Stryper reunited

In 1999, Sweet reunited with former Stryper bandmates Oz Fox and Tim Gaines during a concert in Puerto Rico. The concert featured Fox and Gaines's band at the moment, Sindizzy, while Sweet was invited as a solo artist. The three of them got together for a set of four songs. The next year, the first Stryper Expo was held in New Jersey and the entire line-up was reunited again.

Although original bassist Tim Gaines left the group in 2005 and was replaced by Tracy Ferrie, the band has continued to work together, releasing a new album titled Reborn. However, Michael has continued with his solo career as well. In August 2006, he released a solo album titled Him which features traditional hymns re-written and arranged by Sweet.

Stryper released the album Murder by Pride in July 2009.

The death of Michael's wife, Kyle, was announced on March 5, 2009, after her two-year battle with ovarian cancer. During this time Michael released an album called Touched in honor of Kyle. It is exclusively available on his website.

Stryper is currently on its 25th anniversary world tour, "Rocking the Hell Out of You for 25 years" with the original members and with two opening bands: Michael Sweet's son's band, Flight Patterns, and a Canadian group, Manic Drive.

In October 2009, Michael Sweet announced on his website that he is engaged to a woman whose name is Lisa.

Solo discography

• Unstryped (EP 1992)
• Michael Sweet (July 26, 1994)
• Real (October, 1995)
• Truth (demo 1998)
• Truth (official release 2000)
• Him (2006)
• Touched (2007)

Guest appearances

• Mu5tard - Electra Glide
• Longday - An Explanation For My Behavior
• Mars Hill - Sink or Swim (2003)
• Michael W. Smith
• Guardian
• DC Talk
• Mass - Reach for the Sky
• Sonia V. - "Oh Sweet Tragedy - anthems from the ashes", guitar & duet^[1]

Projects produced

• Mu5tard - Electra Glide
• Longday - An Explanation For My Behavior
• Mass - Voices In The Night (1989)
• Mars Hill - Sink or Swim (2003)
• Savannah - Forever's Come and Gone

See also

• Stryper

References

• Ferraiuolo, Perucci (June 1994). "The Return of Michael Sweet". CCM Magazine 16 (12): 30–33. ISSN 1524-7848. 
• Christensen, Brett (March/April 1997). "STRYPER: Can't Stop The Rock?". HM Magazine (64). ISSN 1066-6923. http://web.archive.org/web/20000918053820/www.hmmagazine.com/archives/Stryper.htm. Retrieved 2007-04-30. 

External links

• Stryper Official Site
• Michael Sweet Official Site
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• [2]