When Stryper’s long-time vocalist/songwriter/producer Michael Sweet was approached about the prospects of forming a new hard-rock supergroup, there was one name at the top of the list of powerhouse guitarists that he wanted to work with – George Lynch.
One of the most proficient, prolific and respected axe-slingers in rock music, Lynch has carved out a unique musical niche through his work with 1980s melodic metallers Dokken and subsequently with his own band Lynch Mob.
It’s truly a match made in hair-metal heaven as Sweet is seen as possessing one of the best of the 1980s-era rock voices and is also an artist with a remarkable ear for melody with a gift for song arrangement.
The result is Sweet & Lynch, and the band’s debut album, Only to Rise, was released worldwide a few months back.
“Stryper had fulfilled its deal with Frontiers and I wound up talking to them about doing another album, but it would be something different. [Label president} Serafino Perugino] came to me and said he wanted to start doing supergroups and wanted me to be part of the project. He was thinking of me singing and having [current Dokken guitarist] Jon Levin play guitar. I thought it sounded like a great idea and I also said ‘what do you think about me producing the album’ and he loved the idea. So things just flourished from there,” said Sweet.
“And George was the first guy that I thought of and part of the reason for that was because Serafino was thinking of merging the Stryper/Dokken vibe because Jon is in Dokken. But I said, ‘if that’s what you want to do, why not get George?’ Because he is the original player in Dokken and he helped create their sound. Jon is a great player for sure, but George is in my top-10 greatest hard rock players of all time.”
As members of successful and popular bands throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, Sweet and Lynch crossed paths a number of times on the touring circuit. Stryper made a name for itself by being overtly Christian in a musical genre that was always portrayed as coming from a ‘darker’ place. Dokken was never really lumped in with the Motely Crues of the world in terms of darkness and debauchery, and the two bands shared a common vision of having hard rockin’ music that was imbued with meaning and melody. So it was no coincidence that Sweet and Lynch would pal around if they found themselves in the same place at the same time.
“The first time I met George he came to see Stryper play in Phoenix, Arizona back in the 1980s. Then I didn’t see him for years and Stryper happened to do a show with Lynch Mob a few years ago and that’s when we kind of hit it off and exchanged contact information. Then we did another gig together and another, so the friendship really blossomed,” Sweet said.
“We would hang out at things like the Monsters of Rock cruise and festivals. I like George. I think he is a very funny guy and a very smart guy and a great player – one of my all-time favourites.”
Sweet said it was not just Lynch’s technical ability but his tastefulness as a player that made him the ideal musician to partner with on this new endeavour.
“I just love George’s style and his aggressiveness and just the way he plays, man. It’s awesome. And it was a dream working with him on this record. He knows how to play for the song. It’s not just all speed-demon licks all over the place. He will do a solo that’s just a well thought out slow solo and people would complain that he’s not all over the neck of the guitar, but it suits the song. So he plays what is best for the song. He is a smart musician for sure,” he said.
Not wanting to settle for using a cadre of unknown studio musicians to round out the band’s sound, Sweet recruited a hard-rock rhythm section that would be the envy of any band today. He brought in former White Lion, Megadeth and Black Label Society bassist James Lomenzo and former Billy Idol, Foreigner and Whitesnake drummer Brian Tichy.
“I had a real vision for the album, not just the sound of it and the style of it but for the players I wanted on it. I knew instantly that Brian was the guy and James was the guy. I suggested them to Serafino and he loved it. I called them and they were available – it was that simple. I knew what to expect and I got exactly what I expected. It was like clockwork in the studio and everything just sounds killer and I love the way the rhythm section turned out,” he said.
“I used to tour with James back when he was with White Lion. They opened for Stryper back in 1988 and we did a month-long run together, so we go way back. I didn’t really know Brian, but I know of him and obviously I followed his career. And I put him up there in my top three rock drummers. There’s Kenny Aronoff, Will Hunt and Brian. If you get any one of those three you’re going to have killer drums.”
Sweet and Lynch collaborated extensively on the songs for Only to Rise – an album that actually came together in a remarkably short period of time.
“A few months before we started recording I called George and said, ‘hey man, I know we’re going to have that Dokken/Stryper influence there, that’s a given. But maybe let’s pull in some 
Journey and Van Halen and this and that.’ Once George started writing riffs with [his producer and songwriting partner] Chris Collier they would send me three or four files of songs and I thought it was awesome. He would send me about a minute long thing with parts of an intro, verse and chorus and what I would do with it is write all the other sections and the melodies and lyrics,” Sweet said, adding that he would map out the song, add scratch vocals, a click track and Lynch’s guitar parts and then bring in Lomenzo and Tichy.
“On a song-by-song basis, they would go out and track the songs. Brian would do his in one or two takes – never more than two takes – and James would play along. And then Brian would wrap up in about 15 or 20 minutes and James would come in, fix his bass stuff in 15 or 20 minutes and we would have a song. We had all 12 songs done in four days – three songs a day. Then I went home and tracked my own guitar parts, my vocals, added background vocals and keyboards did a rough mix and sent it to Chris and George to track the final guitar parts. They sent it back and we did the final mix. I would say if we would have all been in the studio together at the same time the whole thing from start to finish would have been only a three-week process, that’s how fast and good we worked.”
The Sweet & Lynch project is part of Frontiers Records’ ongoing initiative tocelebrate the kind of melodic hard rock and metal that dominated the music industry in the 1980s and early 1990s – the co-called ‘Hair Metal’ era. That music has fallen out of favour with North American radio programmers, record labels and so-called ‘tastemakers’ but still has a loyal following, even more so in Europe and parts of the Far East.
Frontiers has been creating a number of other ‘supergroups’ including Rated X, which features legendary rock drummer Carmine Appice, bassist Tony Franklin (The Firm, Blue Murder, Kenny Wayne Shepherd) and vocalist Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Deep Purple, Yngwie Malmsteen). Another one is Revolution Saints which is comprised of bassist/singer Jack Blades (Damn Yankees, Night Ranger, Deen Castronovo (current drummer for Journey and formerly with Bad English) and axe master Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, Dio).
The label has also released material by veteran hard rock and metal bands, including Sweet’s Stryper, Toto, Asia, Whitesnake as well as former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, among many others.
“They should be applauded because they are trying desperately to keep that style and era of rock alive and they are succeeding. They do other stuff too but the one thing that is constant throughout everything they release is that it is melodic. They use that word all the time – melodic. They’re doing a great job and that’s why they’re still here as a label and are really thriving. It’s really cool,” Sweet said.
Not long after our interview with Sweet, it was announced that Stryper and Lynch Mob would tour together later in 2015 and would team up for a set featuring tunes from Only to Rise during each show. It is unlikely that Lomenzo and Tichy would be part of this as they both have other projects on the go. No Canadian dates have been announced yet for this joint tour, although Lynch Mob is playing two nights at The Rockpile West in Toronto on June 5 and 6.
Sweet is currently working on a new Stryper album as well as playing some selected dates.
For more information, visit the Sweet & Lynch Facebook page or http://sweetandlynch.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran, award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com
