May Bonus: Michael Sweet

Arin Hancock: This is the Rock and Metal Faith Podcast. Alright, welcome to the Rock and Metal Faith Podcast where it's all about the rock that makes me sing Christian rock and metal from the classics to today. I'm your host, Arin Hancock, and today we're joined with Kris Plamondon and my co-host. I say today because ⁓ this is our monthly bonus episode. Usually I'm doing this solo, but I asked him to join us in sitting on this one. So how are you doing, Kris?

Kris plamondon: I'm doing alright, how are you doing?

Arin Hancock: Yeah, I'm fine actually. ⁓ like I said, normally I do the bonus episode kind of solo. We'll talk about a, or I'll talk about a featured band before we get into the birthdays. We're doing something a little bit different. Not only is Kris joining me for this one, well, we're still kind of talking about an artist, I guess, but we want to focus on a couple of specific albums from that artist. Today we're talking about Michael Sweet the vocalist from Stryper But he has also done a number of solo albums as well as the number of collaborations But we're gonna focus on a couple of solo records For those of who've been following the podcast we've been going through the Stryper records kind of chronologically along with other stuff ⁓ yeah, we've been throwing in a couple of the solo records and we will throw in more solo records ⁓ they fit in the Stryper chronologically. ⁓ let's see, there's a couple of records I don't have ⁓ Michael Sweets. ⁓ don't have Truth, although I did listen to some of that through the services, talked about that on a bonus episode. ⁓ I recently had a chance to listen to, it? Am Not Your Suicide. in its entirety. Not bad actually. You know what, I would kind of compare that to the 1994 record that he put out, the first solo record. I think the first couple songs on there are pretty good. It kind of tapers off, it gets kind of mediocre after that. There's a couple of ballads on there. ⁓

Kris plamondon: Mm-hmm. Awww. We're done the episode, we're done, we're over.

Arin Hancock: Yeah. No, no, no, and I know these are short bonus episodes we're not that short though and ⁓ There was actually really good song on there called unsuspecting I might even throw that into our Playlist that we have we have a Rock N Metal Faith playlist. You can look for that on Spotify that features a bunch of songs that we featured on the program and Actually, you know, that's really good. There's like said the first couple songs Plus a later one called Unsuspecting. I might have gone buy the downloads. I don't know if the whole album is worth buying. You've heard a couple of tracks off of that. Your thoughts on I'm Not Your Suicide?

Kris plamondon: It's not bad. It's not bad. I mean, I listened to the first four tracks before I Apple. I don't know. I can't find it again. So yeah, I really weird. I was about to download them too. then nope. But the first four tracks I really enjoyed. I thought they were. And of course his songwriting was wow. Like what great message. And he continues that with the new album.

Arin Hancock: Okay. That's weird. Okay. With, yeah, the other one we're going to talk about too. I want to get into that one as well. Well, you know, and he's got a song on here. When I'm not your suicide, he's got a song called strong, which I was just listening to today. was listening. Well, the whole thing kind of today. Um, strong. I think it is a good song. You know, lyrically, he's always written great lyrics. You know, even if you're not really a fan of the music he's put out, I think he's. probably one of the best lyricists out there.

Kris plamondon: ⁓ totally.

Arin Hancock: Actually, there's a couple things I don't like about I'm Not Your Suicide though. ⁓ Coming Home, I don't know if you heard that one. That is a very country type sounding song. It is. It sounds like old country, okay? Not today's country.

Kris plamondon: It sounds like the country coming home or Ozzy Osbourne cover.

Arin Hancock: No, no, yeah, my mom coming home. Yes, not my mom coming home. That's for sure. The other thing on here, he's got two versions of a cover song. I don't know why you would do this. he's got two versions ⁓ of Heart Gold. ⁓ And I know, why would you do two versions of a cover song? ⁓

Kris plamondon: Mm-hmm. And when I heard it, they both said they're identical.

Arin Hancock: Well, the second one says features Electra Mustaine. I'm wondering if that's any relation, you know, maybe a daughter or a relation to Dave Mustaine. don't, you know, I don't know.

Kris plamondon: Yeah, like.

Arin Hancock: You know, Dave Mustaine he's the ⁓ front man for Megadeth. So I wonder if this is in relation to him, but... Yeah, I don't know. ⁓ And I don't have a problem with softer music. We're going to get into that because the next album we want to talk about is The Master Plan, a brand new album from Michael Sweet. And this is not a heavy record, but I think it's great.

Kris plamondon: No. are we gonna talk the master plan now? ⁓ Okay. So ⁓ I to the track, the master plan, and I was a little disenfranchised at first. I listened to half of it, like, ⁓ boring, was Michael Sweet. Then I gave it a second listen and I let it play and it's not a bad opening song.

Arin Hancock: Yeah, yeah, we're gonna move on to the master plan. You know what it reminds me of? The title track, the first track, Master Plan, it reminds me of a Broadway tune. It's like the opening of a Broadway musical.

Kris plamondon: Mm-hmm. I can see that.

Arin Hancock: And I don't say that in a bad way. ⁓ This might actually be the weakest song on the record and I know I've heard feedback from lot of fans. A lot of people like this record in its entirety. Probably like Master Plan itself. It's hard to say. There's a lot of great songs on this one. Right from Lord Worship You to ⁓

Kris plamondon: ⁓ wow, yeah.

Arin Hancock: Desert Stream, I think that's a great song.

Kris plamondon: I want to know why they didn't lead off with Lorde personally. I think that would have been a really good first song.

Arin Hancock: Possibly yeah, and which was the one on here? There's one on here that sounds like it was definitely Rolling Stones inspired. I think that's faith. I can't remember now but ⁓

Kris plamondon: Yeah. And I think the Believer song, that almost, I'm almost wondering if they're cut, that's the cover from Phil Kagee's version of the Believer.

Arin Hancock: Yeah. No, I don't think so. I think he's written everything himself.

Kris plamondon: No? What? ⁓ okay, because it sounds identical. I mean, the words are really good.

Arin Hancock: Maybe I'd have to listen to the Phil Kegge version. Well, let me just check here. I've got ⁓ the CD booklet here. Who wrote all the words? I think Michael Sweet wrote all the words, but I'm not I'm gonna ask you about

Kris plamondon: Okay, it still sounds pretty cool

Arin Hancock: but here's a cool thing all the guitars all the vocals are done by Michael Sweet and that includes that includes all the background vocals so he just layered his vocal track a few times and did all the background vocals

Kris plamondon: I know, wow. For a guy who is sick, that's awesome. That's awesome.

Arin Hancock: Actually, yeah, and that's the other thing too is he was talking about that and he's got some work on his throat to do too. And then I think that was, you know, not in the best of health either. So. I to kind of get into a bit of a history about Michael Sweet. so for those who don't know Michael Sweet, you know, he started, he grew up in the LA area. He was, started playing in rock bands. His first actually was his brother's band. ⁓ After the urging of their mother. ⁓ She said to Robert Sweet, know, let Michael play in your band when they were like kids. And I think Michael was playing guitar at the time, whatever. They quickly realized that Michael could sing. He started singing. They formed Roxx Regime. yeah. Yeah.

Kris plamondon: I have a question about his singing. Do we know where he got, like, did he take lessons of like his dad, his mom?

Arin Hancock: Yeah, I... That I don't know. ⁓ I'd have to re- look that up again. ⁓ I'm sure it's in his... Yeah, I'm sure it's in his biography called Honestly. Which I've got the E version of and I have read. That doesn't mean I remember everything I have read. That was like a few years back, so... And... But yeah, and the other thing is, they got saved, I think it was through...

Kris plamondon: Okay, or I could do that. Yeah. Ha ha ha.

Arin Hancock: One of the TV evangelists, like I think it was Swaggart by his program on TV, they all knelt down and prayed and got saved as a family. actually made them kind of torn and when Stryper became popular ⁓ and the TV evangelists and the conservative didn't like Christian metal. and were boycotting and picketing the Stryper concerts when it was because of Dome that they became Christians in the first place.

Kris plamondon: Wow.

Arin Hancock: And stuff and He says to that well, he stepped away from Stryper in the early 90s Stryper was starting to kind of lead a secular lifestyle and he knew the band was kind of leading him away from from a holy lifestyle and stepped away from the band came back in about 2003 under the the sense that the band was gonna walk the walk and They've done so ever since. I think they've been stronger ever since. So that's a little bit about Michael Sweet. We're going to run a little long here, but as far as the bonus episodes go. Time for birthdays. We are in the month of May. So May 2nd, it was Larry Farkas's birthday. And for those who know him, he played with Vengeance, Deliverance, Die Happy. He also did a stint with...

Kris plamondon: die happy. Yeah, it's a band I haven't heard in 40, 50 years.

Arin Hancock: with Holy Soldier? Well, most of Die Happy was Vengeance. Essentially, they kinda disband it because they couldn't carry on as Vengeance. And Dale Martin, Martinis, ⁓ vocalist, wanted to keep Vengeance going, so he carried on without the band, formed a whole new band. But a few years later, band that was Vengeance decided to reform. They just didn't want to play that thrash stuff anymore so then they played stuff like Die Happy.

Kris plamondon: ⁓ I imagine.

Arin Hancock: And so May 6th we have an album anniversary. I've been doing these album anniversaries and this was kind of why I decided to talk about a couple albums at the start of this episode. Because May 6th, 2014 was when I'm Not Your Suicide came out. So it kind of ties into our birthdays here. Also on May 14th in 2021, we have another album anniversary from Michael Sweet called Evil and Divine by Sunbomb, which was one of the side projects he did. He was collaborating, I think with Tracy Guns on this one. Sunbomb was Michael Sweet and Tracy Guns.

Kris plamondon: Wow.

Arin Hancock: Tracy Guns, if you're not sure who he is, was the guitarist or is the guitarist with LA Guns. And so like I Michael likes to do these collaborations with people. so that album came out May 14th. May 15th is a birthday. for Kevin Whistler, who played drums with Bloodgood from 88. to 91 and then came back for 2011, 2012. Kevin Whistler was born in 1961 on May 15th. May 15th was also an album anniversary for Soldiers Under Command came out way back in 1985. There was an album anniversary for you. tell you, a lot of Stryper albums came out in May. Because 2004, on May they released a live record called Seven Weeks Live.

Kris plamondon: The good old days.

Arin Hancock: And then another Michael Sweet collaboration. In 2023, May 19th, we have Heart and Sacrifice, which was a Sweet and Lynch record. That's his collaboration with George Lynch of Dokken Fame. yeah, Michael Sweet and George Lynch got together. just named project sweet Lynch ⁓ and heart and sacrifice. was the third one I don't know. Anyways, but good stuff. If you're into, you know, the kind of guitars that Michael does, the vocals Michael does, he works well with George Lynch, some very good stuff coming out from that project. Alright, May we have Kevin Young of Disciple celebrating a birthday. There is a screamer for you, tell you. ⁓

Kris plamondon: ⁓ yeah, he's awesome. He's so talented. When we cover Disciple, you guys are gonna hear him.

Arin Hancock: Yes? Yeah. You know, does he still scream the way he used to? And how does he keep his voice in shape? I tell you.

Kris plamondon: It's not doing the drugs, you know,

Arin Hancock: Yeah. All right. Something a little lighter. May 29th, we have Mark David Lee, who is the guitarist and founding member for Third Day. We haven't talked too much about Third Day, but you know, not a bad band. I like some of the stuff that they've put out. Mark David Lee was born 1973. And then we're back onto the heavy stuff. May 30th, we have Don Clark, who is the rhythm guitarist and founding member for Demon Hunter. And Don Clark was born 1975. So there you go. Have you heard any Demon Hunter?

Kris plamondon: Demon Hunter, ⁓ that, I tried listening to it like 15 seconds and that was it. No, no, no. No, I thought Tourniquet was bad. I mean, the guys are talented. Don't ⁓ get me wrong. That, that, my limit. No, no, not Gordon.

Arin Hancock: Hahaha! I don't mind. It's taken a while a little bit to get getting into But you know and like said that one post I did I did buy one of their albums at the secondhand shop there Extremist that's some heavy stuff. thought wow

Kris plamondon: Yes. Yes. ⁓ yeah, that'll be an episode where all I'll be doing is...

Arin Hancock: Alright, where are going? So that's about it for birthdays, that's about it for this bonus episode. Thanks for joining us. Once again, like, subscribe, don't miss an episode.

Kris plamondon: ⁓ I wanted to talk about a news article, a news thing before we really quickly. Yes. So, so for those who don't know the news boys, some of you are listeners will know who they are. They're ⁓ Michael Tate has the whole allegations we've been following. Well, I have of sexual assault worldwide. So he's

Arin Hancock: ⁓ okay. If you want, alright. Okay.

Kris plamondon: The company that owns New Boys, not the label, but the management team have come along and sued everybody they can think of. It's ⁓ a 180 page lawsuit. I watched a live lawyer online here explain all of it, like in 30 minutes. And it's not good. they're worried about the image of the Newsboys, right?

Arin Hancock: Yeah. I was fun-

Kris plamondon: They're willing to let Michael go, they want to you know, the other, I mean, Toby Mack has reportedly gotten Michael to come into a project with him and Toby out of his own pocket is getting counseling from him and detox. So it sounds like he's in addictions as well. So we just need to pray for Michael.

Arin Hancock: I think I, right.