{"id":76224,"date":"2019-05-22T16:39:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T21:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=76224"},"modified":"2019-05-28T17:23:40","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T22:23:40","slug":"the-yellow-black-attack-redux-metal-band-stryper-will-play-the-soundstage-at-graceland-june-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/the-yellow-black-attack-redux-metal-band-stryper-will-play-the-soundstage-at-graceland-june-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Yellow & Black Attack Redux: Metal Band Stryper Will Play The Soundstage at Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee, on Sunday, June 2, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Isiah 53:5<\/strong> says \u201cBut he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes, we are healed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stryper in the 1980s.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A verse from The Bible<\/strong> is not the typical place that you would expect a Metal Band<\/strong> to find its name, but from that verse, the Southern California Band<\/strong>, Stryper<\/strong> was born. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brothers Michael<\/strong> and Robert Sweet<\/strong> formed their first band, Roxx Regime<\/strong>, in 1983, but seeing the state of debauchery in the current music scene, they decided to rebel against the messages of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll to form a band built around their faith as Christians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With two gold albums<\/strong> and one platinum<\/strong>, Stryper<\/strong> will bring their \u201cHistory Tour<\/strong>\u201d to The Soundstage at Graceland<\/strong> in Memphis<\/strong> on Sunday, June 2, 2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are extremely excited to play Graceland<\/strong>. We are all huge Elvis<\/strong> fans; I mean I saw Elvis at the Forum in LA<\/strong> on the same day that the guys in Led Zeppelin<\/strong> did,\u201d says singer and guitarist Michael Sweet<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfar-reaching grasp of the young truck driver born in Tupelo<\/strong> has inspired generation upon generation to pick up a guitar\nand chase the dream of being onstage living the life of a rock star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stryper vocalist Michael Sweet in 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cElvis is in my DNA. My father, Phil Sweet,\nis probably the biggest Elvis fan there is. He looked like Elvis. He sang like\nElvis. He got together most of the musicians who had backed Elvis in the day,\nand actually recorded an album with them. In Vegas for a time, he was an Elvis\nimpersonator named Clint Reno. When we played Memphis a couple years back, we\ngot to take him to Graceland for the first time and he was in heaven. We had\nother music around the house, Creedence, even Sabbath, but Elvis was the one I\nwould be bopping around to as a kid playing my air guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the beginning, Stryper has always swam against the current amid other bands in the era when hairspray and excess ruled the Sunset Strip<\/strong>, from the music steeped in their faith to the distinctive yellow and black striped outfits worn onstage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite not fitting into the standard mold of their contemporaries, in the early 80s they were a house band at the infamous Gazzarri’s<\/strong> on Sunset, along with fellow rockers Ratt<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would play a set, then Ratt would play.\nYou know Gazzarri\u2019s had The Doors and Van Halen as house bands too. We played\nwith Ratt when they were still Mickey Ratt. We played with WASP. The crowds\nwere always great and they didn\u2019t put too much thought to the whole Christian\nrock thing, they just enjoyed the music for what it was, great music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stryper in 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

1985 saw the release of their sophomore album Soldiers Under Command<\/strong><\/em>, which went Gold. It was the first \u2018Christian\u2019 metal album to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCategories like that are really my pet peeve. I would walk into a record store and ask \u2018Where are your Stryper albums\u2019 and the response would be \u2018well if you go to the back of the store, in the very far corner, is our Christian section\u2019 while all the other metal albums were right up front to see. We are Christians in a Metal Band, not a Christian Metal Band, there is a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Hell with the Devil<\/strong><\/em>, the follow up to Soldiers<\/em>, gave the band its biggest selling album to date and a Grammy nomination for Best Gospel Performance by a Duo or Group, Choir, or Chorus, reaching Platinum status and once again, by Billboard genre status, it became the first Christian metal release to do so, holding on to that distinction until P.O.D<\/strong>\u2019s album, Satellite<\/strong><\/em>, was released in 2001. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the release of this pivotal album, Stryper was in heavy rotation on MTV with the singles \u201cHonestly\u201d and \u201cFree,\u201d leading to some criticism from the very faith that they put upfront in all their music, namely from famed televangelist Jimmy Swaggert<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n