 I mean that with all due respect to my buddy, Todd. You guys know we're good buddies. I love you. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. All right, here we go. We're live on The Metal Voice. Live, live. And you know what? I did the math. Okay, before we got on, I go, who is the guest that has appeared the most times on The Metal Voice? Well, after 11 years. Guess, Michael. Well, I wouldn't guess me. The top three, the top three. Okay, top three. Actually, top two. I thought it was you, actually. I thought it was you. You're number two. But Todd Littori was number one. See, what it is with me, man. Lately in my old age, and I think Todd will eventually get there. I like to stretch things out a little bit more, you know? And not do quite as much. Quality over quantity. Well, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, you know, I like to kind of do things, you know, at a little slower pace. That's all, I don't know. It's all good. You're still in the top three. Maybe if you do a couple more shows in the next few months, we can get you up there. It's all good. Let's do another one tomorrow and I'll be number one again. It'd be like a Saturday Night Live guest host where they keep track, so. All right, here we go. The new studio album. The final battle is here, is due in October on Frontiers Music SRL. Striper also will be streaming live from the trees in Dallas, Texas on Thursday, September 29th at 9 p.m. And you know what? We just went to see the Scorpions before we get into the album and all that and Skid Row, not Skid Row. White Snake. White Snake, you know, they had to cancel. And the first thing I thought of is, me and Alan were actually talking about this and go, why don't they call it Striper? Like, why don't they get Striper? Like, here's a viable band that could sort of bring in, you know, a different crowd perhaps. You know, not that they won't bring in the metal crowd, but they could bring, you know, they could bring in their own. Well, you know, when you ask a question like that, man, there's so many answers to that question. And I don't have to be the one to give you those answers. I think anyone who has the smarts can figure it out. I mean, one is the fact that who we are, who we sing about. I don't know why I don't understand it, but people fear what we sing about. And the way they react to that is through mockery or, you know, poking the bear, poking fun at us, or whatever you want to call it. And it's this constant disrespect because of what we sing about and who we sing about. And it's, yeah, I find it so interesting and odd because, you know, you got all these other bands that sing about Satan, which is stupid in my opinion. You know what I mean? But you want to talk about ridiculous. That's about as ridiculous as it gets. But I don't go around telling people that. I don't go around saying, oh my gosh, I can't listen to that band because, you know, the lyrics are ridiculous. I still listen to the bands and I love the music. Why can't people do that with Striper? I have no clue and no clue why. But then when people say that we suck, it's like that's really laughable. Striper does not suck in any universe. And when people say that, it's just absolute ignorance is all it is. But I mean, you're a music fan and you know, we all pay our harder to cast the sea of the groups and, you know, white snake couldn't make it understandable. No problem. But the fact that they didn't replace, you know, basically a co-headliner, you know, I'm in the crowd and I'm a huge white snake fan. So that's besides the point. But I mean, it's just the fact that they didn't offer up another band. And then, you know, we interviewed Skid Row. They seem to be available. You guys, there's so many bands you can name. How can nobody ever reach out and just even try to fill their rooms? Well, does the phone ring? Michael, does the phone ring? Like, you know, Judas Priest. Oh, it's white snake. Oh, it's Scorpion. Does it ring? No, not for us. Now, the thing is too, in all fairness, you've got a lot of great bands out there. Skid Row's an amazing band, you know? I'm certainly not implying that we're any better than Skid Row, Queens Reich, you know? They're going out and doing the Scorpions thing. I'm not implying we're any better than Queens Reich. But we certainly hold our own. And you know, when you come and see Stripper Play, you're gonna get a rock show. And I think most people will leave satisfied. And it's really disheartening that we don't ever get those calls. And, you know, I just scratch my head and I just kind of say, if I, why? I have no clue. I mean, I mean, I do know why, but I don't know why, if that makes any sense. It's just, it's a mystery to me because we deserve the opportunity to go out and play with these bands just like any other band. And not only deserve the opportunity, but you know, I think surprisingly, it would shock a lot of fans. I think most people that would go to a show like that, say to see, you know, Judas Priest or Scorpions, and if Stripper came out and opened the show, I think most people, if you were standing there with the microphones, and so what'd you think, you know, Stripper opening? I think most people would say, wow, it was awesome. I was surprised, you know? I think they'd be pleasantly surprised. I agree with you. Alan, why don't we just say, all right, Stripper's on the bill. And you'd probably win over a lot more fans than you never had before in the past, you know? Because we sing about Jesus, period. Well, we spoke about this the last time we interviewed you, and then we did an unofficial survey and the guys in Kicks would tour with you anytime. Dude, I tell you what, the guys in Kicks are awesome. We've done many shows with them over the years. They're great guys, they're a great band. They're stand up, I respect those guys so much for who they are and what they've done. And God bless them, man. And I know there's a lot of bands out there that we tour with Stripper and have tour with Stripper. I mean, you know, we've been very blessed. And so I'm not complaining at all. No, no, no, no, we're just, so is this a promoter thing or is this a band thing? Like the promoter just doesn't see it happening. He's worried, the ticket sales might not go the way it is. You know what? I mean, it can't just be about Jesus, right? Well, I think most of it is about Jesus. Not all of it, but most of it is, unfortunately. It's interesting because we just got booked on the Hell in Heaven tour, you know? And we're playing a four night run and you've got Slipknot and Judas Priest and all these bands and not really any other bands from our genre on the bill, but Stripper's on the bill. Merciful fate, merciful fate is going on after us two or three acts after us. I like that. You know what I mean? I mean, Mexico gets it, they get it, you know? And it's like Stripper deserves that. And when we go play into these crowds, they're there raising their fist in the air, like getting into the music. It's not a heaven or hell thing or a Jesus or devil thing. It's just they love the music in there. We put on a show and they love it. And it's so crazy how it has to be about that, you know? All right, me and Allen will get on it. We'll get on this right after here. We'll get on it, we'll throw out some faxes, get on the horn, we'll make it happen for you. Well, hey man, you guys have always been on it. As I said in a post recently yesterday, I believe you guys have always supported us, you know? And you don't care about the naysayers and taking heat and I'm sure you get heat. I see on your page sometimes you post something about Stripper and you get those guys out and they suck. And it's like, it's that mentality. It's like, really, you really think we suck? Really? Wow, okay. I'm supporting, look, I got my shirt. No. I brought my album. And you know what, Michael, just for you, I brought my Bible. Just in case you quiz me, just in case you quiz me, Michael. You guys, I love it. But that's why I love you guys because you're not afraid to take a stand and you just enjoy the music and you support the band and we're very, very grateful for that. It's amazing. Thank you. Another fellow we interviewed recently because of a great album and a great group called Iconic. Mr. Nathan James himself says, it's unfair how much talent you have that you can sing like that and play guitar the way you do. It's impossible to comprehend that somebody can have that much talent is what he said when we interviewed him. Dude, that makes me, I don't even know what to say to that because I honestly, I'm not kidding you. I beat myself up. I'm so hard on myself and I feel like I'm mediocre at both, you know, but I can do both and I'm really grateful for that. I started out playing guitar and I started singing after I played guitar for three or four years. I'm a guitarist first. And you know, I just got used to singing and playing guitar. And now when I don't play guitar, when I have to put the guitar down for a song, I feel awkward. I don't know what to do with my guitar. It's like I'm naked or something. I want to just hide. It's really weird. And so for Nathan, Nathan obviously for him to say something like that, that's high praise right there because he's one of my favorite current modern day vocalists and what an amazing talent he is. And what an honor it is for me to be in a band with him, you know? All right, so let's talk about this new album. All right, the Final Battle. Striper, yeah. Striper, yes, yes. There's Iconics over there. There's Iconics too. I mean, we plugged that one already. But now we're getting into the Final Battle. I mean, is this the apocalypse here? Is this the end of times? Is this a reflection of the end of the world as we know it today? Is the revelations being fulfilled? Is that what you're saying here? I'm saying a lot of things. There was even a little implication in my mind about this could be the last Striper album and people got worked up over that but it was in the back of my mind. I'm not gonna lie. And the reason why is because we've had our health concerns and things going on and you just never know. I don't take any day for granted. This certainly could be our last album. I hope it's not. I don't want it to be. But that aside, that was a small little thing I was thinking about the large part of what was in play in my mind with the title and the artwork, Lisa and I were discussing. You know what, let me show it as you talk about it. Yeah, yeah. It is obviously the biblical stories about the Battle of Armageddon, which is in my opinion, the final battle in terms of where if you believe in the Bible, Christ will come back and basically Satan will be cast into the pit and that'll be the final battle. And that's on the artwork, that's supposed to be the Lord returning and the four of us returning with the Lord. And we kind of purposely went back, a throwback to the original to help the devil album. And it's got a similar vibe to that but just a 2022 look. I liked it a lot. We did that on purpose. And some people were like, most people love it but some people were like, oh my gosh. Michael, so the first guy on the horse is you would say the Jesus coming back, right? He's sort of right. Yeah, the one in the middle, yes. The one in the middle of the crowns because he's wearing the crowns, right? Yes. Now which guy are you? Okay, there's, I see four guys in the background. Okay, the blonde, there's Perry and your brother who's blonde, right? So I would assume them two. That's right. If you look to the far left, that's my brother. You look right next to him, that's me. Hey. Then you look right next to Christ and that's Oz, I believe. Is it blonde or brunette? He's brunette, he's brunette. So there's two brunettes and two blondes on the side. Okay, that's Oz. And then the one next to Oz is Perry. Perry with the 12 pack abs. Yeah, we got- And lightsabers, I like the lightsaber bit. Dude, we went for the lightsaber bit. Some people were like, why wouldn't we? That's it, it's cool. That's a great picture, man. I love that picture. Little Star Wars, Little End of the Earth. I knew there'd be a quiz. I knew there'd be a quiz, Michael. And I'm ready, I'm ready, don't you worry. Okay, I love it, I love that artwork. We don't take off our shirts on stage for one reason only. Because we don't wanna show off our stomachs. We're built just like those guys. Just like those guys. Yeah, Jim and I too. Yeah. Oh man, we gotta laugh, it's funny stuff. Of course, you gotta laugh at great artwork and who's the artist, by the way? That is, of course, the one and only Stan Decker. He did our last four prior to this one as well. Yeah, great artwork. And we wanted to kind of stay in that series and eventually we're gonna break off from that and do something different. But we've enjoyed that ride of sticking with that, those colors and that kind of epic look. Yeah, we love it. They've been really great covers. I mean, a lot of positive feedback on those covers over the last four albums, so. I think what those covers do is they make you wanna buy the album without hearing anything. Yes, yes. They kinda, and that's how old albums are. It's kind of like a big change from this, right? Well, I mean, yeah. And in a way it's the same, right? In a way it's the same and it's a way it's different, right? Well, the A-team, to be fair to Striper, the A-team was very popular when that album came out. Oh yeah, no, no. It was, it's true. And that can, I've gotta tell you guys, if I haven't told you already, but did I tell you the story about how this is true? We used to go to the market and get groceries in that van. That's true, I saw like a cucumber, but. There was a 50 caliber machine gun on top of it. Geez, look at that. And nobody pulled you over. Nobody, because it didn't really shoot, but it was still on top and we didn't get pulled over and we would buy, you know, bananas and apples and go home in that van with the 50 cowl. But to go back what you were saying, Michael, you know my friend Cork, that's how he did. He chose bands just on their album covers. So it does work. It's true. Now, we found that to be the case, especially with The Health of the Devil. Everyone wanted that album based just on the artwork alone. And that's what made us realize like how important artwork is. It really is important. It sets the tone, right? It sets the tone of some way. It just sets the tone for the rest of the album to be heard. Absolutely. And it's like, I'm not a big fan of, you know, although I'm a huge fan of Van Halen, I'm not a big fan of the albums that just have like, you know, the VH on them or, you know, just the logo or just, I like to see details and see a story being told with the art, right? I love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Final tap, spell the glove. What's that? Spinal tap. Clearly black. It's so black, it can't get any more blacker. That was fun. So you released two singles, Rise of the Call and Hear No Evil, I always get this, Hear No Evil, Hear No Evil, right? All right, so what's the rest of the I'm gonna sound like? Are we going down this? And this is like, these are pretty strong tracks in a way a throwback, but in the same sense, you know, it's a little new, the territory in the sense of a groove, maybe? A little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I tell you, when I was writing the album it was really important for me and the guys too, of course, we were all on the same page with this but really important as I'm sitting here in this room putting the songs together to stick to our roots and not wander off that path too much, but at the same time try to incorporate little differences here and there. Just to give it its own special signature. That was important for me to do. And we wanted to come out strong out of the box but not with our strongest out of the box. And that's what Transgressor will prove that when you hear Transgressor, I'll never forget, I sent it to our agent, the whole album and he called me right after listening to Transgressor and he said, I mean this in a great way but I feel like I've just been violated. He said, I feel like I've just been like the crap has been beat out of me. Yeah, yeah, I got you. And he said, but I mean that in a good way. I hope so. So why wouldn't you lead off with their strongest song then if you're... Because once you lead off with the strongest song which we've done in the past, like I feel like the strongest heavy song on the last album was Blood From Above and that's what we led with. You kind of have nowhere to go from there. And we led off with what we felt were really strong songs but now just waits to see what's coming. That's the calm before the storm. The storm's gonna come and it's gonna shake things up. And when you hear Transgressor I think you're gonna go, whoa, you know? Cause it's gonna say that we're serious and it's gonna say that we haven't gone anywhere and that this is our most powerful album. I really believe that. Well, the first two songs are certainly powerful. You know, we've got a lot of those, you know those Queen-ish harmonies, I guess you could call them. But not overtaking the song just enough to sort of highlight or just to, you know keep it, what do you wanna say, melodic perhaps? I don't know. That's a good way to put it. What happened with Striper is very odd in the sense that when we were growing up as individuals, all four of us were raised on a very eclectic music, broad music base. So we listened to everything from the Beatles to Black Sabbath and everything in between. So Queen, Journey, Van Halen, Dio, Maiden, Priest, the Bee Gees, I mean, we listened to so much stuff. Including country music. We listened to country music. My parents are country singers and songwriters. Oz listened to Buck Owens. We listened to Buck Owens. We watched He-Haw. I mean, and I think that played a really important role in how our songs and our sound has come together. Yeah, you can hear it. I mean, the rest of the album, compared to these first two songs, and of course you just mentioned Transgressor, what can people expect? Well, I mean, it's a really broad album. When you listen to the whole album from start to finish, you're gonna see that there's some really aggressive metal tracks on there. There's some straight-up mid-tempo songs. There's a few songs that are a little more modern. One of those is the second music video following Transgressor. That's called Same Old Story. Really powerful song. One of my favorites on the album. And then we've got a power rock ball. It kind of reminds me a little bit in some ways of the Loverboy tune, one of my favorite bands of all time. Canadian. It's over. Oh, yes, great song. Just how the guitars kick in. I love that song. And that's a power ballad. And I love those kind of ballads. And we've got a couple of songs that are a little bit more pop metal. So there's quite a broad spectrum in terms of how this album is laid out and sequenced. Okay, all right. Alan? Well, again, and I wanna ask you about your triple threat because did you produce this album as well like you've done in the past? I did, man, but these days, I don't even talk about that anymore because nobody cares. Nobody cares. If you get some big name producer, they care. If you don't, they don't care. But yeah, I've been producing all the Striper albums. I produced this one as well. And I always say this humbly, never with an ego or an attitude. But I think producers for a band like Striper are a complete waste of time and money. 100%. They're not gonna... You do it yourself, yeah. They're not gonna bring anything to the table that we can't already bring. And we're gonna lay out a lot of money and points to get there with them. And we've been there and done that and we know what we want better than anybody. So, you know, that's why we don't hire a producer. In our albums, you put our albums against anyone else's albums and they have their own unique sound, but they hold their own in terms of production. They have a great engineer, Danny Bernini. He is very musical and just such an incredible asset. So, we couldn't do it without him for sure. What about... Max Norman, we interviewed him a few times. So, what's the secret of your success? He's like, well, you got a great band and great musicians. I'm just the engineer of that point kind of thing. He's guiding them, yeah. I'm telling you, it's true. I'll never forget when we worked with Michael Wagner on that album you held up earlier. Soldiers on the Command. We went into the studio and we were very prepared. We had every note worked out. Every single guitar lick, note, part, everything. All he did was push record and we performed it. And after every take, he would be smiling ear to ear and say, that's great, that's great, you know? And it's just, we had everything worked out. And Michael obviously made it sound great and brought his clout and his name and all that he has, which is amazing to the table. But we knew what we wanted and how to achieve that. And it was very easy for him to produce and record Striper, very easy. But was Michael, I always got the impression he was more of an engineer than a producer as well, if you know? No, Michael's very, very much a producer and a very musical guy. He used to be a guitar player. He brings a lot to the table in the guitar area, because he's very into guitar tones and achieving the best guitar tones you can achieve. But no, he's absolutely a producer as well. But yes, it is true that he's a brilliant engineer. So he's both and that's hard to find. You don't usually find that. Yeah. All right, I'm gonna ask you my next question. But before I do, I'm gonna ask everybody out there, your number one all-time favorite Striper song. I'll just read them after I ask you this question. Number one all-time. You're all-time. You're all-time. You have to pick one Striper song. Like you were not allowed to listen to anything else, but you have to pick one Striper song. Which one would that be? We know the top three. We could do top 10. We could do top 20. Man, that's so hard, buddy. Number one, pick one. I always pick a classic in a modern, but if I have to pick only one, I'm gonna upset a lot of people. I'm sorry, but I'm gonna go with Yahweh. I would say so too. Good choice, yeah. Yeah, I would agree. That's an epic. So now I'm gonna read what people are saying now, okay? People are in the chat here. Paul's saying, no more hell to pay. Mike is saying reason for the season. Robert's saying, wanna makes me sing. I can't pronounce his name, he's saying soldiers. Kathy's saying blood from above. Rich at the metal asylum is saying to hell with the devil, but writing on the wall, Yasmin's saying, always be there for you. The Valley, soldiers under command. Yahweh, Yahweh, another Yahweh. Soldiers under command, that's Kiss Army, Revenge. Jay's saying calling on you. Frank's saying soldiers. Justin's saying, take it to the cross. King Diamond slash Striper saying take it to the cross. Well, there you go. There you go, there you go, wow. Yeah, he's saying, okay. All right, so here's the question. What happened with this tour? I mean, you know, I know you briefly sent out a press release or a post and it was picked up the media and you just said, look, we can't rent a bus. We just, we're not, we're releasing an album but we can't go on tour to support it or we have to postpone it because maybe you wanna fill us in. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, here's the deal. And it comes down to the number one reason being we could not secure a bus. And some people will kind of say what? How is that possible? It literally came down to that where we were talking to different bus companies and then we were talking to one in particular we thought we had a bus set up in line and then we were told we don't have a bus. And basically what happened over the past few months is buses started being leased out for double the price. Oh yeah. And bands were paying it. Yeah. We found ourselves in a position where we can't afford to pay that because you know, Striper's a 10K a night on a good night band, okay? And sometimes we get 15, sometimes we get 20, sometimes we get 25, but we play a big festival or something. But when we go on a bus run and we do touring usually it's on average around maybe 10K a night. And when you pay all the bills and you got the bus, you're pulling a trailer, you're paying this big crew, you got all this stuff going on, we can't come home tour after tour in the red. Because at the end of the year, we've got so much red and so much debt that we can't afford to tour any longer. So you add to that a bus being double the price. And it's like, okay, we can't do this run. So what we did is we postponed the run instead of cancelling. And a lot of people were confused. They thought we canceled, we didn't cancel, we just postponed and it was only part of the run. Yeah. Okay. And then of course, blabbermouth, you know, I guess posted about it and some people tried to turn it into we're over and done with and we can't afford to tour and we're washed up and all this kind of nonsense. And it wasn't about that at all. It's just that we couldn't secure a bus. You know what I was thinking? Why don't we use this bus? Drive around in this bus as a tour. Where is that van today? Where is that van? That's what I was just thinking. Oh my God. As you were talking about this. Man, if we had to use that bus, we would be dying because if we were 18, we could do it. But when you're 60 years old, you can't do that. No way. Parents also saying not to mention the fuel that you put in the bus, but I think that's the reason why the bus prices have doubled because of the fuel. Supply and demand. Well, that too. The cost of fuel and all the wear and tear and then you got the cost of the drivers now and you got the overtime. You know, all of a sudden you go out there on a run and you get home and you go, we got to pay what for the bus only, you know? And it's just insane. So I think what happens is a lot of bands continue to deal with that bull crap because they have no choice. Striper is in a little different position where we can postpone or we can do other things and to kind of make up for it and we can continue on. But we're not going to pay to play and we're not going to go in debt when we go out and tour. We just can't operate that way. We're trying to be smart and can't do it. Well, nobody can. Exactly. We spoke with Michael Wilton when he was here in town and he said the tour was going great until they hit the West Coast and that's when the cost of gas jumped up. And he said, there was no way we budgeted for that, that high of a spike. And we're talking months ago, but. Oh yeah. That's what I'm saying. And when you're out there, we were out there for a while when the fuel started rising and at the end of the tour we got hit quite an astronomical amount over and above what we had budgeted, right? And you're just sitting there going, okay, how do we cover this? The tour is over. And this is the real life stuff that not just Striper has to think of, but pretty much most bands on the planet have to think of. Not all. Yeah, bands are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to who is important in society. They're just at the bottom and nobody cares. You can't sell albums, you can't produce vinyl and you can't go on tour. It's just, yeah. It's true. It's becoming more and more difficult for bands to survive. And yeah, you see all these bands touring but even that's a problem. So many bands, because they weren't touring during the pandemic and the downtime, so many bands are out touring now that there's oversaturation and it makes it difficult for some other bands to tour. And it's just a tough time right now but we're gonna get through it. Everybody's gonna be fine. Everyone's gonna be okay. I'm not concerned. Well, I look at the album cover, it doesn't look like things are gonna be fine there, Michael. I look at the album cover, it looks like the end is near. The final battle is here. I got in the heat over that because I made a comment in an interview about the end times the guy asked me, do you think we're in the end times? And I said, yeah, I do kind of think we are. Now, I didn't put a specific date. I'm not a whack job. I view myself as a relatively intelligent guy. I don't sit around, I don't have a shelter filled with food. Fill the guitars, it looks like. Looks like it's filled with guitars and recording equipment. I got a lot, I got a shelter filled with guitars and recording equipment. I'll be eating wood if something happens. But man, I'm not crazy in that sense, but people try to paint you out to be that way. I just think that, you know, again, I believe in the Bible. The Bible talks about everything that we're seeing right now. And, you know, I believe that we're kind of seeing it all unfold before our eyes. Will that be a year? Will it be 20 years? Will it be a hundred years? I don't know. I have no clue, but I do think that the times we're living in are definitely questionable, to say the least. I would agree. And unstable. Yeah, it's funny because at the turn of the millennia, is that how you pronounce it? Before, you know, a thousand, right? People were really, you know, questioning things. And every time there's some sort of, you know, major change in society, people, you know, look to it and they look for the signs and... Oh yeah. And again, again, nobody knows. Nobody knows, right? But you can only speculate, right? Nobody knows. You see, I was one of those guys when we were at Y2K, when we were going into the year 2000. Everyone was talking about the computer shutting down and we're gonna have problems. And I was one of the few guys that I'm like, we're gonna be fine. You know, I don't, I'm not a conspiracist and a weird guy that gets, yeah, I'm not a flat earther and one of these guys that thinks these crazy things, you know, but I try to be reasonable with my thoughts and weigh things out. And of course, research, but man, look, who can argue with the fact that you look around and you see what's going on in our world that, you know, things aren't always good. So it's definitely, like I said, there's issues going on that make me believe, like, you know, these aren't the greatest of times. There's still good things going on, good people, but man, there's a lot of darkness in this world right now. I, you know, just on another point, I remember when credit cards were sort of becoming popular and I was a kid, they thought that was sort of like buy and trade with numbers, you know, like they thought that was sort of the end of times. You just, you just, here's my philosophy on this. You'll never know. You'll never know because you won't expect it and you'll never know. I think as technology advances, we draw closer to the end of times. And what I mean by that is now anyone can hack your computer, hack your credit card, hack your bank account. These are the times we live in because of technology. And that's what I mean by a statement like that, you know, with the weaponry that's available now and people that can use it and abuse it, it could lead to the end of the world. You know, it takes one person, you know, hitting the button on a nuclear warhead and it's like, okay, I guess this is it. And that's my point is I think we're definitely living in end times, but who can put a date on it? I can't, I'm not trying to put a date on it. No, no, no, we're speculating here. We're speculating from what we see around us. That's all right. And that's okay. And it's okay to speculate, right? So, you know, we always like talking to music with you Michael, what's been the feedback that you've been receiving on iconic? Because I can't stop listening to it. Well, I'll tell you what brother, the feedback has been incredible. The label was a static over the response and the sales. They're talking already about getting in the studio and doing another album. Obviously talking about the band touring, that's going to be tricky because we're all in different projects. And you know, my first priority is Striper and always will be. So it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out. But man, I mean, what a great album. What a great album and band to be a part of. I'm blessed that anybody wants to work with me on any level. And, you know, I've got so many things going on right now. Obviously it's weird to come out of the release like iconic and then jump right into release like Striper. It's kind of weird, you know? It almost feels like too much, but this is life. This is the way it works. And again, no complaints. I'm very excited about the Striper album. I'm excited about a new metal album I'm working on with CJ Grimark from Sweden. The music's done for that. No, no date on that, but it's killer. I can't wait for you guys here. I think you guys are going to love it. And I got this inspirational album that's already done. And I started on a new album with Alessandro from Frontiers. Oh my God. Geez. Three weeks. Three weeks. And then I just finished the album and I just turned that in like three weeks ago. So it's crazy, guys. It's really crazy. And I love it, you know? And I love the fact that people want to work with me and I'm a very, very blessed guy. I have nothing to complain about at all. What about this livestream? Tell us about, is this going to be with an audience? Is this going to be in a studio? What's that going to be about? That is going to be in the club that we're playing Trees in Dallas. So it's actually going to be a live show, full band, and we're going to stream that live show. So mistakes and all. Me going, you know, and you crack it, you're going to hear it. But it's going to be really cool, man. We did that in Nashville at the basement east and we're doing it again at Trees in Dallas. OK. Full show live. It's going to, all we're going to do, we're going to give the people what they want. We're going to come out and do calling on you 21 times. OK. I want to ask the people out there watching, give me a really good question to ask Michael Sweet. I want a good one. I want a good question. Well, look, I'll go to my favorite stripper song. And you know, the one that when I'm doing the dishes or I'm walking around the house, I find myself singing is, you know what to do. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a surprise. I mean, I can name you 10 that I prefer that one. But for some reason, that's what I'm singing all the time. Wow, dude. That's amazing. I wasn't expecting that, but I'm pleasantly surprised. You know what? That's one, if I had, if someone said, pick your favorite off of the first album, that'd be the one I'd pick. You know, maybe it's because I'm living alone now. It's like, are you feeling lonely? Are you feeling blue? Maybe that's it. I don't know either. Because you can't say it. All the soldiers under command is a strong song. Y'all wait. But that's the one I find myself singing around the house. You know what that is? That's one of the first striper, official striper songs that I ever wrote. And it's got that melodic but edgy sense to it. And it's just a cool song. And it's very classic striper. First video we ever did as well. Wow. Yeah. The chorus is so catchy. Oh, good, man. Well, I'm glad you like that. And that plays on the vocal stack stuff. That shows you our influence from bands like Queen and even the Beach Boys and Journey. And we love vocals, love background vocals. All right, here we go. Here's the questions. You can make them quick and sweet just so we can. No pun, but would you ever do a church tour? I like that. Robert says, would you ever do a church tour? You know what? We would consider a church tour if it was done right. In other words, if we could go in there and do full production and rock it, and there were no limitations on decibels and sound and this sort of thing. And full blown striper show? Sure. Why not? Paulo, your thoughts on Merciful Fate. Oh, dude, I'm going to be honest with you. It's not like I listen to Merciful Fate all the time. I don't own any Merciful Fate albums. But I have, of course, heard them. And I'm very familiar with King Diamond. And I did nothing but respect. My gosh, amazing. Amazing singer, amazing band. Obviously, they represent a little bit of a difference in what we represent. The alternate view. An alternate view, flip side of the coin, whatever you want to call it. And I don't have a problem with that. Nothing but respect. And I've never met King Diamond and my brother has. I'd love to meet him someday and be able to tell him in person how much I respect his vocal ability and everything that he's done. Very cool. I met King. Oh, did you? Was he a nice guy? Yes, I did. You know what? He was, it's just like he's just wearing makeup at the end of the day. And he's just representing a sort of a scare thing, some sort of image, right? Look, I don't know what his personal beliefs are. So he's just a regular guy. Seems like a regular guy. Very new. Actually, he sat there and he spoke to me for like 15, 20 minutes. He was so nice and polite. Wow. Yeah, it wasn't a meet and greet either. I was just there backstage with Annela Rock. And he goes, here, I'll introduce you to King. Can you just start talking to him, talking to me? Oh, that's so awesome. Yeah, it was a really, really nice moment. And the other thing, Mike, I don't know if you heard, but Steve Grimann has passed away recently. And I want to know if you've ever met him and what you thought of his vocals. Dude, I'm going to tell you, man, I never met Steve. I've met Nick. I actually jammed with Nick. Well caught at Sweetwater. We did Crazy Train with Rudy Sarzo. And I love Steve's voice. Of course, very familiar with Grim Reaper. I remember seeing, I'll say who now? You know, I'm going, whoa, what? You know, way back with him. And it's nothing but respect for him. And it's so heartbreaking to see what he went through, right? With his leg and the situation with his health over the years. And it just threw me off guard, man. And it made me realize, like, you know, it could be any one of us. I mean, tomorrow is never promised. No. And it's why it's so important for us to take care of ourselves and enjoy every moment, because we just don't know what tomorrow brings. And God bless him and his family, man. I never met him. I always heard he was a sweetheart of a person and always wanted to meet him, but I never did. Here's another question from Paul. He says, any plans to come back to England? It's been a while, right, since you've been to England. Oh, man, yeah. Last time we were in England, I want to say it was 2010, if I'm not mistaken. So that's way too long. We usually try to go to different parts of the world every two, three, four years. So you're talking about, what, 12 years, almost 13 years. That's crazy. We've got to get back to England. I love England. Absolutely always have. Holds a very special place in my heart. We shot our Honestly video there at the Hammersmith Odeon. And I just love it there. We had spent a few vacations there, drove from London to Wales and back. And I love the people. You know, I really do. I love the food. I just love it, the spirit there. But man, we got to get back there. Hopefully we will soon. It's just very costly. It's hard to go into Europe right now for a band like us. OK. Alan, you hear anything else? No, I mean, I just, you know, you teased us for so long about the Joel Hofstra album that you're working on. I forgot it finally came out. We haven't, you know, we spoke to Nathan. Nathan, he told us he's ready to go. Sign me up for another two or three albums. And the goal would be put on a couple of shows for sure, as far as he's concerned. So I'm glad after years of talking about this legendary or mythic album that finally came out. And now we're looking forward to the Striper release. Well, you know, it's funny because even this album, Iconic, that you're referring to, isn't the real Joel Hofstra Michael Sweet album. We wanted to do an album just him and I, but it's great. It'll work. And we're just happy that we were able to do something together. And we talk about that. Joel's such a sweetheart. You know, I love Joel. Always have for the first time I met him. He's just a stand-up guy. He's salt of the earth kind of dude, one of my favorites in this business. And I love him. And any opportunity that I have to work with him, I'm there. Not even a question in my mind, ever. He's played on my solo albums. And we've done a few videos together. And he's just such a cool dude and such a talent, you know? So when we go tour, if we do, with Iconic, I'm going to have to rehearse extra hard, you know? Was it a few years in advance? You could tell Alan really likes the album. You could tell he really likes the album. We didn't have a chance to talk to Michael about it, you know? You're right. It's right. It's right. OK, here's the last question, because I know you have to go off. And you have another interview. And this is you, Michael. Your least favorite striper song. Oh, my least favorite song. Favorite striper song. I think it's pretty common knowledge. That everyone knows. And I think I mentioned this in my book. There's a song called Come to the Everlife. And it just so happens that Oz wrote that song. So it's nothing to do with Oz. At all. OK. We don't have to do with Oz. But some might think that it does, but it doesn't. But that song, I'll never forget when I had to sing that song inside what was going through my mind. I was just thinking, oh, my gosh, how do I sing this and mean it? And how do I sing it with passion? Because every song that I sing, I want to sing with passion and feel it, mean it. That's really important as a singer. And that one, I just couldn't feel it, you know? The groove, the melody, the lyrics. I that would, if I had to pick one, that would probably be the one I would choose out of all of them. That would be it. OK. You know, well, it's very honest of you. Alan, what about you? I don't go there. No, no, no, I want to hear from you guys. Come on. I don't know. I don't know. You know what? You know why I don't know? Because I haven't really thought about it. That's why I'm sure I'm sure there's I'm sure there's one song that I don't love, but I just haven't thought about it. That's all. But I know you did think about it. There's a lot of songs I don't love. I can I can name your list of 20s, right? For songs that I don't love that I skipped, you know. But I mean, the one that I probably love the least would be that one. OK. Yeah, yeah. Twist, you're a song that you really connect to vocally and you can really put the emotion in, regardless if it's a Striper solo song. Oh, man, that's a great question. Really good question. I know I'll stick with Striper since we're on Striper when I'm live and I'm singing and we're performing. The songs that always kind of go up to a little higher level because I can feel them a little bit more. Songs like All For One. I don't know what it is about that song, but maybe it's the message. Maybe it's the melody. I don't know. Other songs like obviously we don't perform it often, but first love, you know, when we perform first love, it's like I can feel it. Yeah, sometimes I get I get goosebumps when I perform it, not because of me, but because just the song, something about it. Yeah, that's a really good question. It's a great question. But I'll come back at you with a few more songs down the road because there's many songs that I get that feeling for. Yeah, I know. I know on the spot, it's tough to sort of really, you know, come up with something, right? It is, it is, it's, man. All right, on that note, Striper's new album, the final battle is due in October, Frontier's Music. Then there's a live stream, go, you know, buy a ticket, go pre-order the album. It's Dallas, Thursday, September 29th, the live stream starts at 9 p.m. Like you said, it's in front of an audience. Yep. And yeah, and check out everything else that's going on with the band on all the social media. Is there anything else you wanna promote before we let you go? Well, brothers, we got a lot going on. We got the new album coming out in October, as you said. And then after that, we're gonna really focus on, finally, on our documentary. Oh, there it is, yes. Yeah, we've been putting together a team to do that and to do it right. That was most important. And now that we're at that point, we're gonna really focus on that at the end of the year and, of course, all of next year. And we're gonna tour for this album, the final battle next year as well. And we're just thrilled that we're able to go out and tour. We're still able to do it. I'm thankful for everything that I can do. And, man, I never take any second of any hour of any day for granted. And I'm a blessed man, and I'm happy to be alive. And, man, I hope you guys, we can get together for dinner. Yeah, yeah, we better hold you to it. Well, listen, when we get up to your neck of the woods or you get down to our neck of the woods and we're in the same vicinity, we're gonna go to dinner and have a great meal and break some bread and actually talk a little bit in person. That would be fun, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And before, let's go, how's the eye? Because a lot of people are wondering. Yes. The eye is doing good, man. I showed you earlier, I'll show you again. You can just see it's a little on the red side, you know? Can you see? Do you have any visual, is it blurry? Like I can see the phone and the light in front of me right now, but I just can't still quite make out detail. And my doctor says that that's gonna get better and better as time goes on. They basically had to put a new lens on my eyes. It's over my cornea, so it's on the outside of my eye. Wow. Yeah, because the reason why they did that was to keep my lens away from my retina inside. Because my retina is what, detached twice. They don't want that to detach again. And, you know, I got some peripheral blindness up here. It looks like someone drew a sharpie up there. It's blacked out. But I'm getting used to that. And once I get used to it, I should be fine. And, you know, I'm trying to keep this side from doing the same. I gotta be real careful. I can't jump out of any planes. No. I can't, basically, I can't kick the crap out of it. Put down the lightsabers. I was told not to kick anybody's butt, man. And it's like, you know what? That's what I do on a daily basis, you know? How about Oz, quickly, as we have a few minutes left. He's doing great, and Oz is doing great. It's a miracle, isn't it? Yeah, he's come down spack amazingly well. Incredible. Unbelievable, unbelievable. So we're still going, man. And now, hopefully, we won't have to worry about Robert and Perry. They'll stay healthy, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know what? Congratulations on the Metal Hall of Fame induction. That was now, it's gonna be almost a year. But, you know, congrats to the Striper for that. Thank you, guys. That's a wonderful award. We got my award right over there, and that was really incredible. And like I said earlier, you know, if anybody thinks of us, it always blows my mind. Because I guess we're so used to, you know, kind of not being thought of in many ways. But man, when someone awards us with something like that, and kind of respects what we do, and it's incredible. It blows our minds, we're all humbled by it. And it drives us to keep going. It really does. It moves us. Amazing. And I've witnessed it, Michael, in many concerts there's a whole new generation coming up in their late teens and twenties that are discovering the older bands, and they love it as much as we did back in the 80s. I love it, man. Thank God, thank God. Because I think some of the best music came out of that era, the 70s and the 80s, just incredible music. And it's really sad when people don't know about that. You ask them about, hey, have you ever heard it to you? And it's like, I've never heard it to you. I was like, what, what? You know? What do you mean? It blows my mind. But anyway, that's awesome. I love it. Michael, you know what? It's always, it's kind of like, you know, a friend being on, just chatting with us, and it's always a pleasure having you on. You know, for 11 years we've had you on, it's always great to know that you're always busy and you're always doing good. And you know what? Congrats on the new album so far. We haven't heard it, but we've heard the first two songs and they sound great. Man, you know what? We gotta get you guys the full link so you can hear it. I'm surprised you don't have that yet. No, no, no, because we're too quick. We just, hey, let's do an interview. Let's go, let's go. Slap it on your to-do list. I'll talk to the label and make sure you guys get that because I want you to hear it. And I think you guys are gonna like it. I sure hope you do. Well, I'm sure we will. I'm sure we're consistent Striper fans throughout thick and thin. So I'm sure we'll like it. Well, I love you guys for that. It's so great to have you guys on our team and you're always there for us and not to be no pun intended. And we appreciate it, man. We're thankful for you guys. You really are. Thank you. Hopefully we'll see you on the road, my friend. Have yourself a great day. You guys are awesome. God bless.