Robert Sweet

IAN - W -

Rebel
I bet you remember - Robert Sweet, the drummer for Christian metal band STRYPER. He and his brother Michael Sweet founded the band since 1983-present. Robert delivers a wild drumming on his flamboyant huge kit with some quite good and crazy fills, a lot of movement and stick tricks. He and his drum-kit always faced left or right side on the stage to the audience.

Soldiers Under Command, To Hell With The Devil, were very good albums. STRYPER are back together and playing.

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I was a huge fan of Robert Sweet back in the 80's. His over the top drum setups were awesome...and he had mad skills.
 
Thanks...an interesting and right input, regarding Sweet's drumming style.
 
I think he is the only drummer I can remember that had his drumset circle completely around him, with no opening. He actually had to be "lifted" up and over to man the kit. He would spin around utilizing the whole kit during his solos. Pretty awesome.
 
I went to see Stryper last September in a small theater in Pennsylvania. He had a brand new kit for the tour, but it was not as flashy or big as in the past. He was still rockin' the place. I got to chat with him for a good 10 minutes, and it was an awesome night.
 
He had a dDrum kit in Black and Gold glitter when my band opened for them last year.
They were pretty nice guy's. The kit was cool. I think he was using Dream cymbals too.

The drummer in the band that went on after us is in Trans Siberian Orchestra and I had to use his kit because there wasn't room on the stage for my kit after his giant rack went up. He was nice too (we hung out for quite a while after we were both done) and fortunately we all just worked together to get the job done because of a booking mix up.
The club booked us, Stryper brought a band as support but didn't inform the club.
Stryper still wanted us to play, so we all just got it done.
 
Yes he plays dream cymbals. He was really good back in the day, Butt now days I think his playing is sloppy and overplayed much like Tommy Lee is today.
 
Either can be sloppy and overplayed or totally free style, drummers as human beings have uppers and downers and some prefer to maintain its status quo...food for thought!
 
I remember seeing this guy interviewed on Australian TV after a gig and he was so absolutely wasted. Totally off his tree.

I kind of liked him. Simply for brashness. Or stupidity. Happily I can relate to both. :)
 
I remember seeing this guy interviewed on Australian TV after a gig and he was so absolutely wasted. Totally off his tree.

I kind of liked him. Simply for brashness. Or stupidity. Happily I can relate to both. :)

Can't say for sure or speak for Robert, but as a born-again Christian I find it hard to believe he was "absolutely wasted".
 
He had a dDrum kit in Black and Gold glitter when my band opened for them last year.
They were pretty nice guy's. The kit was cool. I think he was using Dream cymbals too.

The drummer in the band that went on after us is in Trans Siberian Orchestra and I had to use his kit because there wasn't room on the stage for my kit after his giant rack went up. He was nice too (we hung out for quite a while after we were both done) and fortunately we all just worked together to get the job done because of a booking mix up.
The club booked us, Stryper brought a band as support but didn't inform the club.
Stryper still wanted us to play, so we all just got it done.

Wow - your band opened for Stryper? How many nights did you play with them? There were two opening bands for them the night we saw them, and one was headed up by Michael Sweet's son. Both bands were pretty good. That night I got to chat with Robert Sweet for quite a while, talking about his drums, cymbals, etc. I have a pic at home of his kit from that night, so hopefully I'll remember to post it later. It was only a 6-piece kit, but he must have had close to 10 cymbals.
 
That's cool you got to hang with him for a while.

We only did the one show.

It turned out pretty fun, after we got everything sorted out, and being as the place was packed to the gills before we even played, I was glad I didn't have to try and get my kit out of there!

But, even though he was a good guy, playing Jeff's kit was kind of a drag (even though it was a nice Pearl Masters).
He had his hats SO high, just playing them was an aerobic work out!
And being as they were all clamped to his rack, I couldn't move them.
Oh well, it was 45 minutes, our set went great, and the crowd dug us.

Michael Sweets son's band did a short set on the same kit I used.
It might have been one of the first go 'rounds they did because that was the big mess up on the show--the venue had no idea Styper was bringing any support.

Robert's kit was the set up with all the floor toms like his promo pics (there were 4) and the back one was a 20" with clear maple hoops.

Seems like the toms were 12" rack, 14-16-18 and 20" ft's. The bass drum was a 24 I think, and it was maybe a 24x24. It looked deeper than my bass drum which is 20" deep(x26).

Yeah, he had a lot of cymbals up there. They all sounded pretty darn good except for 1 of the crashes. Even my guitar player was going "eww" when he hit it haha!

No idea on RS's "state of mind", but his playing was fine and they rocked.
I guess maybe he used to do more stick tricks or something, but times have changed and guy's don't do as much of that anymore.
 
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