Michael Sweet shared on Instagram how Van Halen influenced Stryper’s iconic yellow and black stripes.
“I seem to forget how many stripes we used to incorporate into our clothing, gear & stage,” he wrote. “I remember the first VH album coming out and not long after that Robert taping and painting his drum kit to look very similar to EVH’s bumblebee guitar.”
Sweet recalled, “Then he/we started taping and painting everything. And I mean everything! Our garage walls were lined with road signs that we would seek out late at night and ‘borrow’ from the area. Rob seemed to be especially fascinated with yellow and black and eventually we all became fascinated with the combination.”
Talking about his brother Robert Sweet, Michael noted, “Rob was always the visual guy and I was always the musical guy. Rob was drawn to bands like KISS and I was drawn to bands like Boston. We were a team and I really believe that combining great music with a strong image eventually paid off for us.”
Michael also admitted, “I will admit, yellow and black clothing has never been easy to find. At least clothing that’s worthy of being worn on stage. So, it certainly has cost us a lot of money over the years and we’ve spent a lot of time dying, sewing, painting, coloring, and piecing together any combination of Y&B material that we could find. And still to this day, can find.”
He jokingly added, “Imagine if CC Deville had decided to join the band back in 1982. We could have very easily become The Pink & Purple Attack.”
Van Halen’s influence on Sweet wasn’t just visual but also musical. On The Logan Sekulow ReProgram in 2020, he shared, “I had many influences throughout my history, starting with Elvis [Presley] and Creedence Clearwater Revival, and moving into a number of other bands — Boston, of course — but no band, and no musician, influenced me as much as Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen.”
He added, “Something magical happened to me when I heard that Van Halen album. And I’m sure many people would say the same thing, but as a musician and a songwriter and [being] in a band, something really happened to inspire me like I’d never been inspired before. And that was due to Eddie Van Halen.”
Stryper released their latest album, ‘When We Were Kings,’ on September 13, 2024. However, the band currently has no scheduled shows to promote it.
