Honestly: My Life and Stryper Revealed (16 page)

After “Calling On You” was submitted to MTV, we heard every excuse for why they weren’t going to play it. Although it wasn’t said in so many words, the decision was solely and exclusively based on the fact that we were a “Christian” band, and they just didn’t want to play Christian music. Where’s the ACLU when you need them to yell “Discrimination!” at the top of their lungs?

I couldn’t believe what we were hearing. They weren’t going to play the video. It was yet another roadblock on the path of Stryper. But the fans came to the rescue.

Begrudgingly, almost miraculously, MTV agreed to play the video in light rotation, but around that time the popular fan-driven DIAL-MTV was the most-watched segment on the network. Fans could call and request their favorite videos, and they did.

It was as if every fan that had stood faithfully by us for the past several years started calling and requesting our video. Almost overnight the video went from light rotation, to heavy rotation, to entering the top 10 countdown. Quickly, we climbed the charts to #1! We went from, “Eh, I don’t think we’ll be playing a Stryper video,” to “Uh, we don’t have a choice” and upward to #1. It was an amazing feeling, and I guess you could say that the victory was ours. Also on the chart, below us, were Bon Jovi and Motley Crue.

It was like sweet vindication for all our hard work, but it was also incredibly surprising—a pinch yourself moment. I was simultaneously humbled yet very confident at the same time, humbled to the point of tears and confident in what God had just pulled off.

Our fans from all over the nation rose up and became a huge voice for Stryper and, ultimately, God. It was out of our control but had such a massive impact. The amazing part was that it didn’t just peak at #1 and drop off the next week—we stayed at the top spot for weeks on end.

Our second video, “Free,” was a live video shot at the Paramount Theater in Seattle in January of 1987. We had played the night before in Canada and were heading to Oregon the next day, so there wasn’t a lot of time spent on this video. We did some playback shooting during sound check, without the audience, but the bulk of that video was taken from the live show that night.

“Free” was introduced on MTV while “Calling On You” was topping the charts. The same week “Free” was released, it entered the top 10 at number 10. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. I recall that day vividly watching the top 10 countdown and hearing the VJ saying that for the first time in DIAL-MTV history a band has two songs in the top 10 at the same time, and it was Stryper. Wow!

Over the weeks and months to follow, “Free” would eventually hit #1 as well.

Our lives were changing rapidly. For the first time we were getting noticed everywhere we went. It was such a whirlwind with everything happening so fast. Touring was relentless. We toured for almost nine months straight to support
To Hell With The Devil
and our newly found fame on MTV.

Next on the list was to start filming the concept part of the “Honestly” video. We set up scenes at the Stryper office, which was a house in Buena Park that we had rented to run all things Stryper. The idea was for this footage to be a pre-text to us going to London for a big international debut. We shot scenes of us saying goodbye to our wives and families. There were a lot of sentimental shots of us with family and even a shot of me holding Mikey when he was a newborn. There were humorous scenes of Robert quickly packing his luggage and his suitcase falling apart as he ran to the limo that would take us to LAX so we could fly to London. We even had an American flag in the footage.

Our first show overseas was performing at the infamous Hammersmith Odeon. We shot all the live footage for the “Honestly” video there. The tour continued through Sweden, France, Germany, Australia, and then back to Japan.

In Australia we saw the birth of our first major tabloid-style rumor about the band. We did an in-store appearance at a record store and were driven there in a limo. Those who have watched the movie
Spinal Tap
recall the scene where the band shows up at a store and nobody is there—not a single fan.

We had no idea what to expect as far as to the number of people that might be there, but we didn’t expect many people. When we turned the corner toward the store, planning to enter through a side entrance, there were thousands of people, as if The Beatles were in town. We looked out the window wondering what was going on. It turns out they were there to see us.

For some reason, and we’ll never know why, the limo driver decided to plow right through the people and park right beside the store, right in the middle of the massive crowd. We just sat there not knowing what to do. We were about 20 feet from the store entrance and we decided to make a break for it through the crowd. We took a deep breath as if we were jumping out of a plane for the first time, and then we just ran for it. As soon as we opened the car door all hell broke loose. Our clothes got ripped. People were grabbing our hair and we were getting pulled from left to right. It was the polar opposite of
Spinal Tap
and instead more like a scene out of a boy band video. To this day I’ve never experienced anything like it. Well, there was an in-store appearance in Puerto Rico in 2003 that’s a close second to this, but I’ll get to that later.

The crowd continued to break windows and climb on top of the limo. They were completely out of control, and it was a total riot.

We made it inside, and for a while made an attempt to sign some autographs through the door, but the tension in the store continued to escalate as people were on the roof of the building and breaking windows outside. Security was light with only a few guys trying to put some order to the chaos.

I began to overhear discussions between security and the owner as to how they were planning on getting us out of there. The tension among the fans was growing by the moment. Surely the thousands of people who showed up knew they wouldn’t all be able to get inside for an autograph. It got to the point where we became seriously nervous—for our lives.

They had decided the only way for us to exit safely was in a paddy wagon. The police arrived with sirens blaring. They backed into the entrance of the store and as quickly as we had arrived, we were taken away through the front door and straight to an Australian police station.

Once at the station, we posed with handcuffs on and made the cover page of the news the next morning. In the days to follow, pictures of us being put in the paddy wagon began to surface with headlines reading “Christian rock band Stryper arrested.” Not “Christian band draws thousands of fans”... No, that would be too easy. Unfortunately there was no Internet then or surely we would have made TMZ headlines.

The rumors were flying high during this era, but the Australian in-store stands out as one of our favorites.

We returned from oversees and started the battle of getting “Honestly” aired on MTV. It had all the elements of another hit video and when all was said and done, we were happy with the way it turned out.

Previously we had the live-with-no-audience video (“Calling On You”) and a video that actually
was
live and captured more of the energy of our show (“Free”). Now we had a video that captured even another side of us with elements of family, country, and unity set to a power rock ballad.

One would think that after two #1 videos on MTV, this one would be a no-brainer for top billing and heavy rotation. Once it was turned in, we got the response, “Oh wait. You have an American flag in the video? That’ll need to be edited out. It’s too patriotic.”

Too patriotic? Is there such a thing? Apparently in 1987 to get time on MTV there was. Once again, we got every excuse in the book on reasons
not
to play a Stryper video.

We caved and re-edited “Honestly” to be less patriotic. They still used some of the scenes shot back in California, but the bulk of it was footage from London.

And once again, it went to #1 on the video charts. I will never be able to thank our fans enough for all they did to prove to MTV, and the world, that there is indeed a place for Stryper in the world of music.

The original version of “Honestly” was eventually included on the release of
In The Beginning
, our behind-the-scenes video about the band and our path up to this point.

To Hell With the
Devil went on to become a multi-platinum selling album and, despite all the hardships and hurdles, the battle seemed to have just begun.

TWENTY-FOUR

If I were to point to a time in my life where I graduated from youth to adulthood, it would be during the
To Hell With The Devil
tour. In the middle of this tour, on February 11, 1987, Kyle gave birth to our son, Michael Jr., or “Mikey” as we know him.

I was a new husband and still hadn’t come into my own as to what exactly that meant, but I was learning. I was in the middle of unprecedented professional success and suddenly responsible for the life of a beautiful baby boy.

With the birth of a child, life began to come into view through a different set of eyes. I began to question things that I otherwise would never have questioned. Life is precious as I started to realize more profoundly each day, and one of my primary questions was, “Am I doing what’s best for my wife and child?”

That question was motivated partially by my eagerness to be a financially responsible father. Was I laying the groundwork for the most financially secure life for my family? Turns out, I was not, but these topics were becoming more and more a part of my daily thoughts.

For example, a few years earlier in 1983 my parents began to talk to Robert and me about music publishing. They taught us basically that most the money in music was primarily in publishing. I trusted their wisdom as my father had experienced some success as a songwriter already in his career. They very lovingly, or so it felt at the time, wanted to help us get our music publishing affairs in order.

Two parties, the songwriter and the publisher basically own a song. I of course was the primary songwriter. The publisher of a song, however, is the company that traditionally helps to exploit and represent the song. In many regards, a publisher is a partner to the songwriter or songwriters of a particular song.

A publisher will typically shop songs for film, television, and commercial licensing. He will ensure proper use of the song with the record label and ensure that proper payments are collected from the record label for the sale and use of the songs. A publisher, at least a good one, is a friend to a songwriter and can be very instrumental in the growth of a song or collection of songs. The publisher also owns part of the song, thus making money off of it as well.

More specifically here’s the way it works. A song is 100 percent. The songwriter owns the entire 100 percent until he decides to sell a portion of that to a publisher. If he doesn’t sell it, then he owns his own publishing and 100 percent of the song.

A publisher may come to the table with an offering of $50,000 for the rights to half of your songs on a particular album. When the album is released, if it does well, the publisher will make his money back. Furthermore, if the publisher upholds promises to find additional outlets for the song, such as television or film, both the publisher and the songwriter stand to make even more money.

So going in to this situation, as the primary songwriter, I owned most of the songs and theoretically should decide which, if any, publishing company I go into business with.

That’s how it works in most cases, in the real world.

But, we don’t always live in the real world. I was 20 years old at the time these discussions were taking place, so everything I knew about the business of publishing was based on what my mom and dad had told me and taught me.

And in 1985 they said that they wanted to help Robert and me start our own publishing company. And since they were the smartest people I knew at the time, I agreed.

So, starry eyed and all, I put pen to paper at my parents recommendation and signed over almost 50 percent of my songs. They convinced me that we were forming a company together, the four of us, and technically we did form a company, Sweet Family Music. But in reality, what I was doing was giving away, for free, very valuable assets, assets that at the time I didn’t even really know were mine.

I’m almost 50 at the time of writing this book, and I still don’t fully understand the complicated business of publishing. I certainly didn’t understand it at 20. So when my parents suggested signing a contract and signing over to them part of the most valuable asset in my life, I had no reason not to trust that they were giving me the best advice possible. And perhaps in their mind, it was good advice. But looking back on it, it’s certainly not the smartest decision I ever made.

We all had equal shares in this new publishing company, Sweet Family Music. I still owned the songwriting, half of the song of course, but for absolutely no money in my pocket, I just gave my brother, my mom and my dad 75 percent of the other half of the songs, the publishing half. We each owned 25 percent of Sweet Family Music, which in turn owned one half of each song.

Like I said, in the real world, publishing companies would pay big money to own such a large portion of the publishing rights to a national recording artist but again, we weren’t always in the real world.

Over the past 20 plus years this topic has obviously come up, almost daily, in my business dealings. Since my days of youth, I’ve met and worked with some of the most brilliant minds in the business, all of whom look at me like I just told them I was born on the planet Mars when I share the story of Sweet Family Music. Maybe I
was
born on Mars.

I was 24, and I had a son. I had bills to pay. I had to provide for my family’s future. So I began to examine, and question, my business affairs a little more closely in 1987.

There are complications with Mikey’s birth. Kyle was in labor for more than 48 hours due to a clinical trial she participated in to induce labor, a situation that ultimately led to many other complications. Finally, despite the extensive labor prep, Mikey was born by Cesarean, and it was a really frightening ordeal. The doctors were baffled by some of the difficulties taking place during labor. Mikey’s heart stopped multiple times whenever Kyle was on her right side, so they eventually rushed Kyle in for an emergency C-section. Although it was against protocol back then, I was allowed to be present during the surgery. I even got the chance to show my bravery and look over the “curtain” that separated my eyes from Kyle’s incision as they lifted Mikey out of her womb. He was a beautiful, healthy baby boy—eyes wide open, a full head of hair that would make any rock ‘n’ roll dad proud, and long, expressive fingers that cried out, “I’m playing piano or guitar.” Kyle, unfortunately, had postpartum difficulties including deep vein thrombosis, and we almost lost her.