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Billy Corgan and Michael Sweet discuss faith, fear and integrity as two rock frontmen explain why they refuse to hide their belief in Jesus.

Stryper’s frontman Michael Sweet has opened up about whether the Christian metal pioneers would be bigger without Christ.

He told Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan in a recent sit-down, “Had we not sung about Jesus, we’d probably be bigger than we were.”

Sweet and Corgan were discussing the band and Christianity on Corgan’s podcast, The Magnificent Others.

Stryper, Sweet affirmed, “would probably be bigger rock stars, but here’s the thing: I wouldn’t change a thing.

“If someone said, ‘You can get into a time machine right now and go back and redo it, would you?’ I’d say ‘no.’”

Corgan agreed and stated, “What I love about your story is what you chose to do and who you chose to be. Obviously, it came from the heart.

“You weren’t pretending to be Jesus freaks. You said, ‘This is who we are, and we’re going to embrace this.’

“Ultimately, you were proven right,” Corgan noted, adding, “fans really do respond to integrity on a deeper level than, let’s say, playing into a stereotype.”

Sweet replied, “I think so. Not only respond. The big payoff is when you meet fans who were suicidal and are alive now because of our message.”

Corgan Refuses to Hide His Faith

While Stryper’s debut on the podcast is big news, the bigger story is the Smashing Pumpkins singer’s unashamed public confession of faith.

When discussing Sweet’s own blunt declaration of faith, Corgan declared, “I’m a Christian as well.

“At some point, I made my own personal decision that I was going to be willing to talk about God in a way that I know most people in my generation do not.

“I even said once to Rolling Stone that God is the third rail of rock and roll. If you talk about God, you know, you might as well throw your career down the hole.”

Corgan said, “I made the decision that I was going to talk about God honestly, at least God in my life or believing in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.

“And if it was going to hurt me, I didn’t care. Because if I can’t be willing to be honest with who I am, well, what am I asking a fan to believe in?”

Going public about Christ, Corgan explained, is interesting because “the first assumption that people have is that you’re preaching.”

He’s never felt like he was in a “preaching position”, though.

All Corgan says to people who think he’s being preachy is, “People should do whatever their heart tells them to do.

“I’m a vegan,” he said, “and sometimes people say, ‘Can I order a steak?’ I’m like, ‘If you want to have a steak, order a steak. Do what you want to do.’”

When Music Becomes the Message

Corgan says he’s okay “just representing”, adding he didn’t feel any call to go beyond that.

He then asked the Stryper singer about whether he felt he had a responsibility to preach, proselytise or convert.

Sweet answered, “It started out where we were involved in the church. So, we had more of that church mentality of going door to door.”

Coming from Calvary Chapel in California, Sweet said, “We were much more, I don’t want to say bold, but much more church-minded in the sense that the goal was to preach in between songs after the show, and we did that.

“Nowadays, we don’t do that so much. We toss Bibles. The music does the talking. We don’t preach. We don’t pull out a Bible on stage and start preaching.”

Corgan asked Sweet whether this was a response to being hurt by the church giving Stryper “guff” over preaching the Word.

Sweet replied, “I’ve seen what being too pushy on people does. It’s not a good thing. It drives people away from God, and we don’t want to drive people away from God.”

He then dropped the Gospel using a Stryper lyric, stating, “If our song doesn’t say it, you know: ‘God, I will follow You because You died for me, gave me Your life to set me free. Anyone who asks shall receive Jesus in your heart. It’s time for you to start giving God all the glory.’

“If it doesn’t, if that’s not enough, I don’t know what is.”

Corgan asked Sweet out of curiosity, saying, “There weren’t a lot of examples like us out there willing to talk about God in music or the arts.”

Corgan explained, “I feel like I said this to Rolling Stone when I did the interview: why is everybody comfortable with talking about everything else? Especially given the statistics in America, which say 65-70% of Americans believe in God. If you believe in God, why is God antithetical to marketing who you are?”

Sweet answered, “Fear. I think it’s as simple as people are afraid. I have met so many people in this business who are Christians, and they whisper, ‘Man, I think it’s so amazing what you guys are doing’.

“It’s always like that.”

The Stryper singer then said he thinks it comes down to them being afraid to speak freely.

Sweet then shook Corgan’s hand, saying, “Man, you’re doing it, you’re brave, and that gives me so much respect for you.

“I think that’s incredible because we need more people like that to speak out on what they believe and what moves and drives them.”

Stryper, who’ve been in the industry for 40 years, released their 18^th studio album on 25 September, called Throne of Thorns.

The band’s bio describes the album as solidifying the “group’s signature sound while pushing it forward with a fresh and inspired edge.”