Stryper’s Michael Sweet Says: “It’d Be Hard for Me to Name One Song” by Metallica
Everyone knows at least one Metallica song, don’t they? My stepmom is in her 70s and her knowledge of rock music mostly ends somewhere around Elvis Presley, but I feel like even she, if pressed to name one Metallica song, could still maybe come up with “Enter Sandman.” And if you’re into metal, even if you absolutely hate Metallica, I still expect you to be able to name at least two or three songs. You don’t have to like them; but you should know them. “Master of Puppets,” “One,” “Nothing Else Matters,” “Fuel”, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” these songs are big enough that I feel like even the biggest Metallica haters in the metal community have just absorbed them into their brains through some sort of osmosis. Well, it seems that Stryper’s Michael Sweet actually wants us to believe that he can’t name one song by the legendary band.
In a recent interview with Myglobalmind (that was transcribed by Blabbermouth), an interviewer asked Sweet if he had gone to see Metallica recently when they played in Massachusetts, and Sweet responded by claiming near-perfect ignorance of the catalogue of what is arguably the most famous of the “Big Four” bands:
“I didn’t, man. And I’ll be honest. I’ll tell you. I’ve gone on record to say this. I respect METALLICA. I get why everyone else loves METALLICA. And they’ve obviously — they’re legendary. I’ve never been a big METALLICA fan. I don’t listen to METALLICA. It’d be hard for me to name one song. Maybe I could name one or two songs. I’m just not a big METALLICA fan. I don’t get excited about that style of metal. I get excited about [JUDAS] PRIEST style of metal, [IRON] MAIDEN style of metal. Even PANTERA, which, obviously, you hear a lot of METALLICA’s influence on PANTERA. But I get excited about that. We played with PANTERA in Mexico and there’s an energy, man, that’s just indescribable. And we played with METALLICA before, too, back in the day, when Dave [Mustaine] was still in the band. So I know about METALLICA, and it’s not like I’m not educated. And I’ve heard them. I’ve seen them. Of course. But I don’t know. There’s just something about METALLICA that just doesn’t do it for me personally. But hey, man, God bless ’em. Amazing, legendary band who has proven to be a force.”
Okay, so Sweet did almost immediately retract his claim of not being able to name a single song and then said he could name one or two. Still, the entire quote sounds so hipster-ish, like the kind of person who tells you “I don’t even own a television, I just read,” without being asked because they really want you to know about it. How does one tour with Metallica and understand Metallica’s influence on Pantera and then say they can’t name a handful of songs? Sorry, I call bullshit on that one.
