Biography

A hard-working vocalist/guitarist best known as the co-founder, lead guitar player, and frontman for Christian metal pioneers Stryper, Michael Sweet, along with his brother, drummer Robert Sweet, helped to bring Christian Rock into the mainstream. A native of Orange County, California, Sweet would record five chart-topping albums with the band before embarking on a solo career in 1992. He released of a pair of well-received albums in 1995 and 1996, the eponymous Michael Sweet and Real, respectively, with the latter earning Sweet a Dove nomination. In 2006, after a long hiatus that saw Sweet relocate to Massachusetts, he released Him, an aptly named collection of traditional hymns. A year later, Sweet became a full-time member of Boston, with whom he would perform until 2011. During that period Sweet continued to release solo material, including 2007's covers-heavy, classical-infused Touched, which was dedicated to his wife Kyle, who was battling stage four ovarian cancer; she succumbed to the disease in 2009. He also reunited with Stryper, issuing an album of all-new material, Reborn, in 2005. Sparked by the positive response from fans, the band continued to tour and record, culminating in the release of their 11th studio long-player, Fallen, in 2015. Sweet released his critically acclaimed sixth solo studio album, I'm Not Your Suicide, in 2014, followed in 2015 by Only to Rise, which was a collaboration with Dokken and Lynch Mob guitar virtuoso George Lynch released under the moniker Sweet & Lynch. 2016's One Sided War was a Sweet solo release, while 2017's Unified marked the sophomore outing for the Sweet & Lynch project. In 2019, Sweet closed out the decade with the aptly named Ten, which was his tenth solo effort. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi