During a recent appearance on Rock Talk with Emily, Michael Sweet revealed that he Asked C.C. DeVille to Join Stryper, but he turned it down.
“That is true, yeah. Can you believe that?” the frontman replied when the host asked whether it was true that C.C. DeVille was considered for the band when they were looking for another guitarist in the early days.
Sweet went on to talk about how he met the Poison guitarist, “I was standing on Sunset Boulevard in front of Gazzarri’s and this guy comes up, and we run into each other and I’m like, ‘This guy’s cool. He’s got a cool look and he’s fun.’ And I consider myself to maybe be fun as well.
“I don’t know but we hit it off and we started talking, started laughing and he was out from New York looking for a better way trying to break, like every other musician at that time. A lot of people were moving to L.A. L.A. was the hot spot. Not Nashville and not Austin. It was L.A. That’s where you wanted to be if you wanted to make it,” Michael continued.
The singer then shared, “C.C. came out and we became friends. We eventually invited him down to the garage in La Mirada about 45 minutes from Hollywood. We jammed and we were actually considering from both sides forming and the thing that broke, that made him make the decision to say no was the whole yellow and black.”
“That’s what I recall. You might get a different version from him if he interviewed him but I remember him specifically saying, ‘I’m not into the yellow and black. I’m more into pink and purple.’ He actually said that and that was kind of what kept us from moving forward. We also jammed an audition and talked to Doug Aldrich about joining the band, as well,” Sweet noted.
In a previous chat, Sweet discussed how Stryper would have worked with C.C. DeVille in the band, saying, “I don’t know. C.C. believes in God. Spiritually and philosophically, I think it could’ve worked. But musically? I’m just not sure. What would Poison have sounded like with Oz on lead guitar? There was a real tight network of musicians around the Strip in that day so there are all sorts of mutations that could have taken place. But C.C. wasn’t really into the yellow and black.”
Stryper will perform at the Rock Imperium Festival next year on June 27. They will also be at Rock Fest Barcelona on June 29.
