Michael Sweet thinks that hard rock and metal is the best genre out there in terms of talent

Michael Sweet thinks that hard rock and metal is the best genre out there in terms of talent

Stryper frontman Michael Sweet was recently interviewed by Jim Barber for Music Life Magazine and the singer spoke about how heavy metal is not as popular as it once was.

Sweet indicated: “The sad part is hard rock and metal is taking a back seat now and has for many years. But I will say, and people can say I am a jerk for saying it, which is fine, I am sure they will, but hard rock and metal is the best genre out there in terms of talent. At least in my opinion. You go find any players from any other genre that are as talented as musicians in hard rock and metal bands – drummers, bass players, guitar players, vocalists – some of the most talented musicians have been in hard rock and metal – always have been and always will be. Unfortunately, that’s not recognized and not given the credit it’s due because of who knows what. It’s almost looked at like some type of circus or freak show,” he said, warming up to the subject.

Stryper is signed to a label in Italy and has been for quite a while, and Frontiers has always believed in what we do and really pushes the Stryper name and Stryper brand and God bless them for it. There are other international labels doing the same thing. Audience numbers are different. I see that when we perform here in North America we will play to, say 1,000 people at the House of Blues in Orlando or whatever. And we thank God for that, and the people are great and year after year they support us, and we love them for that. But then Stryper goes to Puerto Rico and we play to 5,000 people. Puerto Rico? A small, little island and 5,000 people turn out? It’s mind boggling. Or we go to South America and play for 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 people – and even more. And we would sit there and go, ‘gosh, I wish we saw those kinds of numbers in the States.

But at the same time, the flip side of that coin is that when we release an album, the majority of our hard copy sales are here in North America: not in Europe, not in South America where are numbers in terms of audience are much higher, but not in terms of actual sales. There’s something that’s twisted there, something is out of whack.”

You can read the rest of the interview with Michael Sweet at Music Life Magazine‘s website.