Stryper Frontman Michael Sweet On His Overlooked Guitar Work: ‘If People Only Knew How Hard I Work’

Michael Sweet, the voice and guitar force behind Christian metal legends Stryper, offered a candid look into the physical and psychological toll of being a frontman in a new interview. Speaking with Jay Heilman of the “Kingdom Builder” podcast, the musician reflected on his four-decade career, revealing the fragility of maintaining his signature vocal range and his frustration with being underestimated as a guitarist.

While the rest of the band can rely on their hardware, Sweet emphasized that a singer’s instrument is entirely biological and subject to variables outside their control.

“It’s not easy. It’s not an easy road as a singer,” Sweet explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “Every musician in a band has to work hard and practice and learn the parts and all that stuff and do their job. And it’s hard work. But I think singers have it a little tougher. And what I mean by that is their instrument is based on so many things other than just plugging into an amp and turning it up and playing. It’s based on what you eat. It’s affected by the weather outside, how dry it is, how humid it is. It’s affected by sleep… It’s affected by, obviously, sickness.”

Sweet described the experience of a vocal failure on stage as a traumatic event that instrumentalists rarely face in the same way.

“So it’s a rollercoaster ride, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, because when you have to go out on stage and sing and you can’t, there’s no trip like that, man,” he said. “That’s a mental mind warp that you can’t even explain, ’cause you’re out there just grinning and bearing it, trying to get through it and struggling… and you know you’re not doing it. That’s hard. That is very hard.”

Looking back at Stryper‘s ascent in the 1980s, Sweet admitted that he took his vocal abilities for granted. When asked if he ever considered the long-term sustainability of his high-register singing while recording those early albums, he confessed that foresight was not part of the equation.

“I was not even thinking that, but I wish I had. Had I done that, I might’ve chose my battles a little better,” Sweet admitted. “I went a little crazy ’cause I could. I could hit those notes, no problem. That was like breathing to me. It was so easy. But then, as you get older and your vocal cords and folds change from getting older and from wear and tear… I’ve got all kinds of issues with my thyroid and all kinds of stuff, and it affects your voice.”

Despite these challenges, Sweet remains grateful for his current abilities, even if they differ from his prime. “I’ll never sound like I did back in the ’80s, but that’s okay. I sound different now, but I’m still able to sing.”

However, should the day come when he can no longer perform vocally, Sweet has a backup plan: focusing entirely on his first love, the guitar. In the interview, he expressed a desire for fans to recognize the depth of his contribution to Stryper‘s instrumentation—a role often overshadowed by his frontman status.

“If people only knew how hard I work, if they could come into my studio and spend a week with me and see how hard I work on guitar, working out parts, all the rhythms… I mean, Oz [Fox, Stryper guitarist] is a great guitar player, but I invest a lot more time into these albums as a guitar player,” Sweet stated. “And that’s not to take anything away from Oz at all. I’m just saying. And it’s always kind of been like that. And for some reason, I guess a lot of people don’t see me as a guitar player. That kind of gets blocked out.”

He noted that even though he is holding a guitar in the band’s classic videos, the perception of him as solely a singer persists.

“Guitar’s always been number one to me,” he asserted. “But that aside, I’m not a shredder. I’m just a guy that kind of writes solos for the song and I try to write melodically and solos you can remember and kind of sing along to… But, man, I love to play. I love to play, and I play a lot.”

Stryper is currently celebrating the release of their new Christmas album, The Greatest Gift Of All, which dropped on November 21 via Frontiers Music Srl. The collection features ten tracks, split evenly between new original songs and holiday classics, including re-recorded versions of “Reason For The Season” and “Winter Wonderland”.