Interview

photos by Troy Wells

If the 80's rock bands were "hair bands", does that make the 90's bands hair CUT bands? If the 80's were the glam era, does that make the 90's the lumber jack years? Just a couple of observations. In the end it all comes down to the music and the musicians performing it. Was anyone listening? When so many major talents get written off because of the era they came from, then replaced by "hipper" inept slobs, you have to wonder. Kurt cobain, Billy Corgan, and Scott Weiland as the new vocal standard?!? Then two out of three of those are also the new guitar heros too?!? Sorry folks, some of us weren't ready to down grade. At least not THAT much! You know what? Thats ok because everything those bands were against they became. Everything they set out to destroy they perpetuated. The "non image" became an image. Now we are left with an even more rediculous trend with 100 times more band wagon jumping bands. With musical standards at an all time low, it makes it pretty easy for almost anyone to do it. After all, being an accomplished musician isn't "cool" anymore. Do you really think there is going to be Staind reunion with "all original members"?? We don't even know who the hell is in the band NOW!!!! Faceless "stars" with mediocre songs and minimal talent is all people know now. It is interesting that the US is the only country in the world that completely abandons a whole genre when a new one is introduced. Trend mongers til the end. Funny though that these supposed "joke " 80's bands are all enjoying theater and arena size reunion tours in the last couple of years. The same image and music that condemned them in the early 90's is also what made them endure in the hearts of the fans. The songs stood the test of time, and people remembered their faces do the the high profile and larger than life images that they portrayed back in the day. After all, this IS supposed to be entertainment right? One of the bands that fits the above description is Stryper. We all know the history so I'll spare you. If you don't, please go back to your Aphex twins collection, you're on the wrong site!! Stryper is a band that had all the 80's trappings: the hair, the image, the larger than life stage shows and videos. These guys made no bones about who they were rocking for, and they did it with major hooks, monster chops, and tight harmonies. Most people have failed to give this band their due as songwriters and musicians. To call Creed a "christian band" compared to what Stryper accomplished is absurd. It's one thing to talk about being a christian and HINT at it in your music, but it's another thing to proudly wear it on your sleeve, boldly put it on your record covers, and have it prominently featured in your lyrics. This is what Stryper has done and went on to sell millions of records in the process. There has not been ONE other band of this kind to accomplish what they did. Now, 10 years after their breakup, by popular demand, Stryper is back. Yes you read that right! In May of 2001 they held the 2ND annual Stryper expo. The first was held last year in New Jersey, and the other was held in California (that's bi-costal interest, for all you trip hop fans) The weekend was filled with all kind of Stryper related activities such as a memorabilia show, a question and answer session with the band, a slide show of unpublished photographs, and personal appearances. There where also many live performances including each of the members solo bands on the first night, and then a full Stryper set on the last night. It was a great event, that was well put together and full of surprises. It was amazing to see the amount of hard core fans that turned up to spend the weekend with one of their favorite bands. I met a lot of great people and was able to reconnect with a great band that was too soon forgotten. I would like to thank Richard Serpa for his hopitality and help in getting my story. And also to the members of Stryper for being so warm and accomidating. I interviewd for BallBusterHardMusic.com three out of four members of the band about the past, the expo's, and the future of Stryper. (Each member was interviewed seperately)

Question: My first question is the obvious one: has a full blown Stryper reunion been discussed?

Oz Fox: It's been lightly discussed. I am not going to say it was seriously discussed, because I don't think all of us are real serious about doing it. Speaking for my self, I have a family. It would be very difficult for me to leave my family at this time. My family means everything to me. I did it for eight years! So to just drop my life right now and do it some more, is kind of a hard discision to make. I don't know if I could.

Tim Gaines: It's not out of the question. I think we are closer than we ever have been to a reunion. Robert and myself, we definately want to do a reunion. These expo's and the Puerto Rico show a couple years ago have been bringing us closer together. I know I would rather be on the road than behind the counter where I work!

Q: Have any offers come in?

Oz: I haven't really heard any offers, all I've heard was "hey, we should do it!" I personally feel that Stryper had it's time. For us to do anything more it would have to be worth our time. Not that we're in it for money, but it's hard for me to believe in the music business these days, because it's so flaky in every way. I need something more constant and secure. I am in a management job for a distribution center right now. I am doing something that I know is going to take care of my family. I can still take the time once in a while to do a show here and there. I am open to doing that. It's too hard to drop everything with my family and go do that after not having done it for years.

Q: Didn't you guys play a big show in Costa Rica for 10,000 people?

Oz: It was a big thing. It wasn't quite that number, but we had around 10,000 people in Puerto Rico for my band Sin Dizzy on a bill with Michael Sweet's. That was in 1999. They said there was actually like 12,000! When I found out Mike going to do some acoustic stuff I said "hey, why don't you have my band back you up, and I'll back you up too, and then at the end we can jam some Stryper tunes!" and he said "that's cool!" The people went nuts. They accepted our new stuff, but they went nuts when we did the Stryper stuff. I think that really moved Mike. Before that, he wasn't really interested in doing too much Stryper stuff.

Q: It must be great to put these Expo's together and get such a great response. To have a good turn out and have so many people so excited for it, like they have been waiting for it all this time!

Oz: I'm very honered by it. For this to happen after all this time. I had accepted my new life and had put Stryper out of my mind for years. This is actually a lot harder than doing a one off show, because I am so involved in the expo. There is going to be a lot going on. I had to take time off from work for this!

Tim: I don't know if I am surprised. From contact I have had with people on the internet I know the people are out there. I still get a lot of fan mail, and there are parts of the world that have never even seen Stryper. When we played those shows in South America we were playing stadiums!

Q: Is it frustrating to you to be lumped in with all the other 80's bands when you guys had way more going for you than some of the others?

Oz: Well, we were definately an 80's band. I thought there was a lot of great bands back then. I loved Whitesnake when John Sykes was in it and when Steve Vai was in it. There were bands like that that I thought were awesome. I don't care if people lump me in with that kind of stuff. It was a time that was very special, and I don't mind being a part of it. I also like the 90's sound and some of the new stuff. It's all art. If Madonna want's to get up there and shake her booty and do her thing, that's her art. I have my Christian feelings and beliefs, but I am also a fan of entertainment in general. The grammy's are my super bowl. I am so interested in entertainment. I can appreciate everyone's abilities. I am not really into thrash metal or rap. I enjoy a lot of country.

Tim: Not really. Everything goes in a big circle. As soon as the 90's came around, and Nirvana came out all of us, all of the bands (like us) stopped getting airplay. Now all of the early 90's bands are all history. The people who liked us when we were at the height of popularity, still dig our style of music. Thats what the media seems to forget. There are all those people out there that maybe are in their 30's or 40's now but they still need an outlet for music. Nobody's out there providing it. You can see it with all these bands getting back together and doing these reunion tours, they are packing places out!

Michael: It does sometimes. I just look at us as four mediocre guys that god chose to use. We never really looked at our selves as being "a cut above." We did work incredibly hard at trying to write great songs and play great solo's and sing great harmonies. We strived for perfection, because we wanted people to hear God at his best. We weren't great musicians but we really tried to put out great records. Great production. I think we were able to accomplish that for the most part.

Q: If you did do a full blown reunion, would you do the full regalia image wise?

Tim: I think so. We were always into the production end, and the whole visual aspect. I think we would go back to the yellow and black stripes and do that whole thing.

Q: What is the cool effect at the very end of the Not That Kind Of Guy solo?

Oz: I had this Digitech DSP 128. It was one of the fist multi effects processors that came out. You can go into all these modes. It's so ancient, but it was the only unit that had a "bounce" effect. Anything you put into it sounds like a penny dropping. Basically, I played this lick and ended on a harmonic and let it ring. Then I cut off the end of the note and put it on another track by itself so that would be the only thing that would feed into the DSP 128 and it would alway come up right. So Digitech, you better give me some cool gear now. Here I am ten years later still being asked about that effect!!!

Q: What did you learn from the Against The Law period where you shiffted the the focus of the message.

Oz: That was a difficult time for our christianity. I learned from that period that I can NOT misrepresent God in any way. He won't accept that. And he show's you (laughs) in very strong ways how he doesn't accept that kind of activity. If you go back to the time of Moses in the bible. While Moses was leading the nation of Islam through the wilderness people started complaining that they had no water. God told Moses to speak to the rock and water will come out. Instead Moses went to the rock and hit the rock with his staff. He hit it twice. Water came out. The people had water. Another Moses miracle. Well, God takes Moses and says "Moses, why did you hit the rock? I told you to SPEAK to the rock." Moses didn't even realize it. I guess out of anger he just hit the rock. So what happened, it made God look like he was angry at the people, and he wasn't. It misrepresented God. Because of that, Moses couldn't enter the promise land. I started thinking about that whole story, I thought you know, during that whole Against The Law period we were such bad representatives of God. In such a terrible way. In my heart, I think God just shut the band down. He was saying "you're not going to be able to go into the promised land anymore. I still love you, but you've got to learn lessons."

Tim: I think Against the Law should have come out earlier. It was a great album. The timing was just way off. Everything in the early 90's was changing, with Nirvana coming out and all that. Everyones image started to toughen up. It was a real kick ass album, and no one got to hear it because Enigma records went bankrupt. During that whole period we were without a record company for almost a year, with a brand new album. We finally signed with Hollywood Records. Musician wise I think it showed our best work. I think it may have been a mistake to change so drastically image wise. It alienated our fans that we already had for years. They expected our yellow and black stripes, and we came out looking like every one else. We had a thing going with the yellow and black and we shouldn't have gotten rid of it. Michael: Not to step out in front of what God's plans are and try to lead the way. I felt that's what we did with that record. We tried to do it our selves, and just say "wait over there God, we're going over here." Our attitudes changed. That was a bigger problem, in my opinion, than anything else was our attitudes. We were filled with a lot of anger, and it came through in the photo's and in the lyrics. And we were never about being angry and all of a sudden we were. The reason why that happened is because we stepped down. We started leading and doing things on our own, and putting God on a shelf.That's a huge part of what led to the break up. Not all of it, but a big part of it. As far as personal problems within the band it was mainly between me and Robert. We just weren't on the same page. I wanted to continue with less of the glam and the clothes and the hair and the rock star thing. Rob's more into that. That's ok, I am not knocking that, I just wanted to focus on the music. Not so much that we hated each other, we just weren't seeing eye to eye. We were just in different directions. It was a difficult choice to make. I prayed and prayed through it, and I new I was supposed to leave. Some people don't under stand that to this day "no God wants you to get back!" Maybe the time is now. Maybe the time is a year from now. We'll see what happens.

Q: Is it true that Oz had to finish that last tour singing lead vocals?

Tim: The first time he did was by accident. Mike had pneumonia the day we were flying to Europe to do the tour. Contracts were signed, we had obligations to fulfill. So here we are in Europe without a singer waiting for Mike to show, and the doctor wouldn't let him get on the plane. So we were stuck. Oz said "I'll do it!" We got out there and played and it was great! That was the first time we played without Mike. Shortly after that he left the band, and the promoter asked us to come over again and play in Europe just as a three piece. So we did it and it went over great. Those were actually the last shows we played with Stryper in 1992. Zurich Switzerland was the last Stryper concert until recently.

Q: Wasn't there a period where you guys were going to try to continue with another singer?

Tim: Yeah. We tried out a guy named Dale Thompson from a band called Bride. Completely different singer than Michael. It would have been cool to try doing new music with Dale, but he didn't fit very well with the Stryper music that we had already done before. We did one show with the guy and it didn't work out. We played here in orange county.

Q: Michael did at least some of the Against The Law tour right?

Tim: Yeah we ended up doing about 20 dates out of that whole tour. That was when Enigma went out of business. While were out on the road trying to support the album and all of the sudden they pulled everything off the shelves. There was no money coming in to support the tour. Also we were playing clubs instead of arena's. That was another thing that alienated the fans that were under 21 and they couldn't get in to see us. Everything was going wrong. The tour got cut after like 20 dates. The last show on that tour was in Portland Oregon. Actually it got off to a pretty good start. It started in Toronto Canada in a little club up there called Rock and Roll Heaven. Rob Halford was there. He got up on stage with us and played Breakin The Law. Stryper doing Judas Priest's Breakin The Law with Rob Halford! Mike just played guitar, Rob sang, and we all did backups! It sounded like Priest on the album!

Q: Is that part of having these Expos? Not only to keep Stryper alive and appease the fans, but to get back to the reason the band started in the first place?

Oz: I don't think that's the focus here. I'm just here because I know the fans want to see it. In the back of my mind I'm kind of saying maybe something good will come out of this. I am asking the Lord right now "what am I here for?" I need the Lord to show me why I am doing this. I mean yeah the fans and all that stuff is cool, and if it's just that, it's cool. There could be some special things that I'm going to keep my eye out for. None of us are perfect. I know I am not, and I just want to know what God is doing with this! I am also interested in contuing the Sin Dizzy project. That's one of the reasons I am happy do have Sin Dizzy play at the Expo, because there is a tie there with me and Stryper. Our web site is sindizzy.com.

Q: ( On the final day of the Expo the band had an important meeting with Michael Guido who is the minister responsible for setting Stryper on the right spiritual track at the bands inception) Sounds like from what you said on stage (about the meeting) that some special things happened today.

Michael: Yeah, definately. Some good things happened. A big step forward. Just healing between the four of us, which is what's more important than a reunion. That fact that we can talk to each other and not hold any animosity, or anger. There has been stuff lingering through the years. Just keeping our distance. Keeping up a thin wall. As far back as before the break up. Just little things here and there. Things that were said or done that go in and stay there. So today was very good and very needed. That's where it needs to begin, through forgiveness. Michael Guido was here today and speaking with him is when it happened. Michael Guido is a minister who has traveled with Michael W. Smith, DC Talk, Amy Grant, and a whole list of bands. He travels with these bands to encourage them and pray with them. He was with us. That's kind of where he started. We all started together.

What is your favorite Stryper album?

Oz: Against The Law

Tim: Against The Law

Michael: Soldiers Under Command