OVER THE EDGE by Geoff Moore (1986)
Power Discs - PWRO1080
Producer: Billy Smiley
File Under: Christian Rock
Time Capsule-Worthy Track:
Why Should the Devil (Have All the Good Music)
Nothing incredibly different or amazing here, just a solid project of mid-80s heartland rock and roll, competently sung and played, with a huge assist from an established band. Oh - and one very well-executed cover song. More about that later. Geoff Moore was a midwestern kid, born and raised in Michigan. The son of a minor league baseball player/steelworker, Geoff discovered singing while attending a then-Christian school known as Taylor University.* After graduating from Taylor, Moore did what any aspiring CCMer would do...he moved to Nashville and went to work in a clothing store...(wait for it)...where he met Michael W. Smith, who helped him break into the Christian music biz. Moore scored a publishing contract with Paragon Music and went to work writing songs and singing background vocals (much the same path that Margaret Becker traveled). Geoff was called upon to write or co-write several songs for another young artist named Steven Curtis Chapman (Steven and Geoff co-wrote a little ditty you might've heard of, titled The Great Adventure). Moore and Chapman remain friends and continue to work together in various capacities to this day. But I digress.
It didn't take long for Geoff Moore to land a solo recording contract of his own. Where Are the Other Nine was the debut, released in 1984 on Power Discs. The title track, based on the Scriptural account of Jesus healing the ten lepers, became a minor hit.
Which leads us to our featured album, Over the Edge. On the cover of this album, Geoff had submitted to a much-needed makeover. He traded in the televangelist hairdo and lead-pastor-in-training sweater from Where Are the Other Nine in favor of a decidedly cooler look.
The clothing, the fence, the shoes, the shades...it all works to help give Geoff a much hipper image on this record before you even drop a needle on it.
White Heart
Now, one could be forgiven if one considered this a White Heart album...with Geoff Moore singing lead. Because that's pretty much what it is. Which worked out great for Geoff, since White Heart's roster has always been stocked with mega-talented musicians. White Heart's fearless leader Billy Smiley produced this record; Smiley, Mark Gersmehl and Gordon Kennedy wrote or co-wrote a number of songs on the project; and the music was played by the likes of Gary Lunn, Chris McHugh, Dann Huff, Gordon Kennedy, and Mark Gersmehl, White Heart members one and all. Apparently, the backlash against electronic drums was well underway in 1986, as this record's liner notes hilariously state, "This album has no Simmons drums."
"From the opening strains of Tear Down the Walls, you know you're in for a fun ride of fresh and raw rock," wrote one reviewer. Well, I don't know how raw it is...but it is a nice ride. There are basic rock tracks and a few ballads, with a straight-forward Christian faith message present in the lyrics throughout the album. But, for me, it's the presence of a cover song that makes this album worth its weight in gold.
Larry Norman (center), performing with Geoff Moore & the Distance
at Cornerstone 1990
You could say that Larry Norman'sWhy Should the Devil (Have All the Good Music) was the founding hymn of Jesus Rock. I'll never forget seeing and hearing Geoff Moore & the Distance perform the classic song at Cornerstone 1990. Yes, Geoff Moore was still cool enough in 1990 to be invited to play Mainstage at C-stone, the greatest and hippest Christian rock music and culture festival of them all. As the band launched into their version of that iconic song, Geoff Moore surprised us all and welcomed Larry Norman, The King himself, on stage to perform it with them. Tired from several days of hardcore festivaling as well as a sightseeing trip into Chicago, my brother and I were chilling out on a blanket during Geoff Moore's set, far from the stage. But when we heard him bring Mr. Norman on, previously unannounced, we jumped to our feet and literally ran to the stage to catch a closer view of the Father of Christian Rock and Roll, not knowing if this would be our one and only chance to see him perform. [It wasn't...six years later we would have the honor of actually playing in Larry Norman's band for the final three songs of a concert in North Carolina. But I digress again.]
Geoff Moore has always demonstrated a healthy respect for Larry Norman. His cover of this song is quite faithful to the arrangement and the spirit of the original, just much more muscular. It's basically White Heart with Petra's John Slick on organ and Geoff on lead vocal - what could go wrong?! The video of the song was great, complete with an appearance by Norman. Moore also included this song on his next solo album, confusingly titled The Distance, and again on a live album several years later. It was a staple of GM&D concerts and was used as the "introduce-the-band" song. Moore also delivered a very tasteful and respectful cover of U.F.O. on a tribute album to Norman titled One Way - the Songs of Larry Norman.
Geoff Moore also paid tribute to another Gospel Rock pioneer when he recorded a stellar cover version of Randy Matthews' classic Didn't He on his next album. Again, quite faithful to the original and handled with care. Well done, Mr. Moore.
In 1987, Moore formed a band that he called Geoff Moore & The Distance. That group released eight albums, enjoyed a slew of No. 1 hits on Christian radio, won a Dove Award and were nominated for Grammys. Geoff Moore retired from the road in 1998. "I just really sensed it was time for me to explore some new things, musically and in the ministry...I needed to slow down and simplify my life," Moore said in an interview with the Tampa Tribune.
Geoff has continued to write and record as a solo artist. So you might say he's come full circle. And, from all indications, he's still quite certain that the devil should not have all the good music.
Fun Facts: John Slick, underrated keyboardist for Petra from 1981-1984, played keyboards for four songs on this album. At Taylor University, Geoff Moore was a classmate to future White Heart lead singer Rick Florian. * I half-jokingly refer to Taylor University as a formerly Christian school. Taylor is purportedly still an evangelical Christian college, but like many other schools of its type, her founders would hardly recognize her as such. A quick Google search will reveal a number of regrettable issues and controversies that have given Taylor a black eye in very public way as far as her adherence to Scriptural belief and practice.
SHADED PAIN by L.S.U. (1987) Frontline Records - RO9024
Producer:
Chris Brigandi
File Under: Rock/Goth Rock
Time Capsule-Worthy Track:
Die Baby Die
Whoa...who turned out the lights?
Some say 1987 is the year Christian rock went dark. This album by L.S.U. is said to be greatly responsible for that power outage. (Heck, even Russ Taff's music took a darker turn in '87.)
Us Kids (1981); Dream Life (1983); A Kiss of Life (1986); Shaded Pain (1987)
Shaded Pain was L.S.U.'s fourth studio recording and did indeed take a darker, more gothic rock direction from not just CCM in general, but from their own earlier albums. The record contained what has been described as "bleak, introspective, death-obsessed lyrics" that were allowed to just lay there. No moral of the story was presented, no painful storylines were resolved, no answers or solutions given. "When Shaded Pain came out, I was basically banned from playing many churches for two years," Mike Knott said in an interview with True Tunes. "They were too taken back by the darker tone of the album." It's been claimed that tons of Christian bookstores returned the album to the label because of the negative tone of the lyrics (not sure how the so-called Mom & Pop bookstore owners would know unless they opened a copy and listened to it, which seems unlikely).
The knottheads website says, "This is the place where [Knott] stepped out of the constraints of CCM music and began doing what he wanted to. Shaded Pain is dark, honest and realistic about the struggles that Christians face in life. This type of brutal reality was unheard of in Christian music at the time it came out. Shaded Pain changed all of that as it influenced countless bands to be real with their lives – not just give cookie-cutter answers for all of life’s problems." One reviewer wrote, "At a time when Christian 'music' would only sing songs that had to reference Jesus in every lyric and were all about feelings of light and goodness and happy faces, Knott & Co. came in and banged on the church doors and shouted about the toils, trials, and dark places that so many people really lived in and struggled with."
Wow. A lot to unpack there. First, Shaded Pain is by no means the first Christian album to ever discuss struggles and challenges. For proof, just listen to a song called Why Don't You Look Into Jesus by Larry Norman from back in 1972. And there were many, many others by lots of different artists. And anyone who thinks that there was an expectation that the name of Jesus had to be mentioned in every song in 1987 either has a faulty memory or wasn't there to know what he's talking about. Again, I could give countless examples. Now, did Shaded Pain kick up the negativity a few notches? It certainly did. But for me, the fact that the record offers no real hope or solutions is not a badge of honor...it's problematic. Does every song need to be resolved into a happily-ever-after scenario by the end of the tune? Absolutely not. But it's my personal opinion that a Christian artist should offer hope and encouragement in his or her lyrics, in at least a few songs, based on the Truth of God's Word. Not "cookie-cutter answers" (as knottheads.com puts it) but solid, Biblical principles.
Yes, there was a lot of naivete in the early days of the Jesus Movement. Much of the acoustic-based Jesus Music in the 70s presented an unrealistic picture of how Jesus would simply come into your life and take away your problems, one by one. That approach was also problematic. I guess what I favor is some sort of compromise between these two extremes. It's been said that Shaded Pain recalled a "hollow, threatening darkness" and that Michael Knott moaned "like a prophet of doom." The Wikipedia entry on this album says, "There is not much absolution on Shaded Pain, just endless emptiness." Well, praise the Lord!
Brian Doidge got saved at age 14 at The Mother Ship - Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, California. Brian talked about how his faith intersected with his music in an interview with downthelinezine.com. "That was back when the whole punk rock thing hit, I cut off all my surfer hair, and I got the look of the Sex Pistols. Some of my friends and I got really involved in church and in the born-again movement, but we wanted to be like The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, so we started a band."
Christian rock had been a thing for about a decade or so, but there weren't yet many Christian punk bands around. "Yeah, there was this 70’s rock, Daniel Amos and Randy Stonehill," Doidge remembers, "but this was like ’79 or ’80 and we had started a band that played Ramones-style music, but we didn’t have a singer, so we put out an ad and Michael Knott showed up. He walks in, comes up and I remember thinking, Who’s this guy, he thinks he’s Elvis, because he had this jet black hair and pompadour, but when he played with us I knew he was good. We had already started playing shows then, but there was this other band, The Lifesavers, and they were having trouble with their singer, so Michael ended up going with that band." The band to which Doidge belonged was called The Chosen Ones. They played the famous Saturday Night Concerts at Calvary Chapel alongside groups like Undercover, The Lifters and The Lifesavers. “The Lifters were rockabilly," Doidge says, "Undercover was more of a rock band, and The Lifesavers and The Chosen Ones were playing punk and people were packing the place. It was this big move of Jesus, and that’s basically how I met Mike Knott."
The Chosen Ones disintegrated before ever making an album, and Doidge started another band called The Altar Boys (no, not thoseAltar Boys). Around that same time, The Lifesavers recruited him to play guitar behind Michael Knott. "I don’t remember if we ever played a show as The Altar Boys," said Doidge. "We were going to, but Kevin Lee’s brother was Mike Stand and he came to me one day and said he was starting a band and wanted to use the name Altar Boys, and I said sure, we weren’t going to use it so you’re welcome to it, and then the Altar Boys went on to play for a long time. It was an exciting time, I was really blessed to have been a part of it. It was a lot of fun."
From that point until sometime in the early 2000s, Brian Doidge played Robin to Michael Knott's Batman.
Musically, this album rocks. Michael Knott sang and played some keyboard parts; Kevin Lee played drums; and Brian Doidge played a Les Paul gold top, an Ibanez 12-string acoustic, and a Yamaha 6-string acoustic. Doidge played bass as well. Bridgett Knott sang on a couple of tracks. A rich soundscape was created by post-punk guitars with raw, echoed chords. The creepy classic Bye Bye Colour and the memorable, in-your-face rocker Die Baby Die (with its punk intensity) are standout tracks. One reviewer wrote that "Knott sings like a man possessed," alternately howling, shrieking and moaning. Brian Doidge's guitar work was compared to a screaming, rabid swine. That's a first. Pretty sure I've never heard guitar-playing described that way before.
The song Lonely Boy Gone Bad is actually about guitarist Brian Doidge. "I was all messed up over this girl, over the relationship ending," Doidge recalls. That’s about when I started drinking. Alcoholism can affect anybody...it was just something I kind of slid into. When I was about 20 or 21 I just started experimenting with it, but you just don’t realize that it can reach out and grab a hold of you...I didn’t realize until I was about 30 that something just wasn’t right here." Doidge says that in his 30s, he lost recollection of entire weeks, shows, spans of time. "It was just a nightmare," he says. "I really didn’t know what to do. God helped me through a lot of tight scrapes."
Doidge was still with Knott in the formation of Aunt Betty's Ford (later known as The Aunt Bettys). But he said he was in a blackout most of the time and that led to the two parting ways. "It was a really weird time," Brian says. "It was understandable considering what a mess I was. I was a little hurt, but looking back on it I understand where he was coming from. I was really fighting my disease, and not being very successful at fighting it, and I think a lot of people saw that and were probably just thinking, man, what the hell is wrong with this guy? I was one of those alcoholics that just couldn’t stop drinking even if I had a show, and I played some shows very intoxicated, and the guilt from that was just horrific."
The Aunt Bettys
Doidge left the Aunt Bettys and his addiction to alcohol sent his life into a downward spiral, complete with a divorce and chronic joblessness.
The title track was a departure from the rest of the album - a ballad sung over acoustic piano. It is by all accounts a classic. An Amazon reviewer described it this way: "Wow. Just...wow. This is and always will be one of Knott's standouts. And what an important song. Ending the album with a simple, sad, evocative piano line over profound and important lyrics...this is just...wow. What an absolutely fantastic song." (I think he was wowed by it.)
Blogger David Lowman made the point that Knott's musical genius on this album was overshadowed by all of the talk concerning negative subject matter. "Lost...in the discussion of the dark and eerie content is Knott’s remarkable penchant for memorable hooks and unforgettable melodies," Lowman wrote. "In fact...the album is really a wonderful collection of sensible pop songs filtered through a darker and more transparent songwriting style."
Shaded Pain was recorded at 3-D Studios in Costa Mesa, CA and Asylomar Studios and was produced by Chris Brigandi. Brigandi and Joey Taylor served as engineers on the record. Colleen Hammond took the pictures while Ed McTaggart of DA was responsible for art direction and layout.
Let's delve a little deeper into the backstory of L.S.U.'s frontman. He is enigmatic, multi-talented and extremely complicated. He's also an alcoholic, he's survived a heart attack, and he is remembered for some of the wildest live performances in the history of Christian rock and roll (one of which I personally witnessed). Knott has either participated in and/or formed ten different bands. They are The Hightops, Lifesavors (or Lifesavers), L.S.U. (aka Lifesavers Underground), Bomb Bay Babies, Idle Lovell, Michael Moret, Aunt Bettys (originally Aunt Betty's Ford), Cush, Strung Gurus and Struck. He has 19 solo albums to his credit. He's either prolific or suffers from attention deficit disorder.
In addition to the extremely memorable festival performance that I witnessed (described here), I was also on hand as our then-youth pastor booked and welcomed Mike for a solo concert at a youth club-type venue that was a part of our church in Taylors, South Carolina. This would've been in the early 2000s. The show drew a small number of die-hard fans. Knott was quiet and aloof off stage. He seemed shy and retiring. I remember him offering lots of CDs and paintings for sale (yes, he's an artist in more ways than one) at his merch table. There was a $5 or $10 optional donation at the door for that particular concert. Worried that he wouldn't do well financially due to the small crowd, I specifically remember dropping a check for $100 into one of the buckets. That was as good as I could do at the time. I think that's the most I've ever paid to attend a concert.
I know that ranking this album so low on this list is going to earn me a lot of criticism and maybe a few death threats. And while I don't think I deserve the death penalty, the anticipated criticism is probably warranted. After listening to this record again for the first time in many moons (a little Native American lingo for you there), it's pretty fantastic, at least from a musical standpoint. David Lowman said it's "one of the finest and most important albums ever released by a Christian label." The knottheads website calls it "THE classic Knott album." J. Edward Keyes with allmusic.com calls it a "cult classic." A blog called The One Hundred said it has only gotten better with age. Yeah, it should've been ranked higher on this blog (not that that really matters).
You might be wondering whatever became of Brian Doidge. Well, according to the most recent information available online, he got a job with a company that manufactured speakers and power amps. Came in on an entry-level and worked his way up to supervisor. After surviving an alcohol-induced, near-death incident, he checked into a 30-day treatment program and got sober. "Sobriety is a big part of my life now, it has to be," Doidge said, revealing that he was living full-time in a "sober living home" (in 2009) and was helping other residents to get their bearings.
"There are other people here just like me that are taking it day by day," he said. "I just go to work, go to the movies, don’t drink, hang out at the pool, ya know the normal stuff that everyone else does. I was having trouble eating when I drank, and now just being able to eat is a blessing, and going to the movies instead of just having a movie as background noise in a hotel room. It’s a lot of little things, like being able to look people in the eye when you talk to them. I was always ashamed of what I was, I never looked people in the eye, I was ashamed to talk to God, let alone other people. Now, life is good, I have no complaints at all."
Hopefully, Doidge is still doing well. If you know, please leave a comment below.
Mike Knott is also a painter, frequently signing his artwork under the name 'Gerard'. His works have been used for cover art on many of his own releases as well as projects by The Choir and others.
On Shaded Pain, Knott not only literally painted the cover art...it's been said that he also "painted" beautiful soundscapes with gritty lyrics and superb song structures on this album, the darkest and "most honest" album ever released to the Christian market at that time.
fun facts...
• L.S.U. stands for LifeSavers Underground, not Louisiana State University.
• Shaded Pain was re-released in 1993 on Metro One Records with a slightly different cover and extra artwork.
I can finally say that I've seen the boys in yellow and black up-close-and-personal. Yes, I attended my first Stryper show last night. I know, I know...I'm a little late to the party. Back in 1985, when I was a very green DJ working my very first radio gig, I came into the station one day and saw a note about a phone interview that I was to conduct. The name: Michael Sweet. Yeah, my first-ever live, on-air telephone interview was with the lead singer of Stryper at a time when Stryper was blowing up BIG. The purpose of the interview was to promote the band's upcoming show at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium. I remember being excited and nervous. I probably made a mess of the interview, but I got 'er done. I was not able, however, to go to that concert (probably had to work). So here I was, 34 years later, attending my first Stryper show. Better late than never, right? My son is quite an amazing rock guitarist and music enthusiast himself (two of his biggest favorites are Metallica and Keith Green), and he grew up on To Hell with the Devil, so buying him a ticket was a no-brainer. It was his suggestion, of course, that we enjoy a pre-concert fueling at Genghis Grill. I'd never experienced a meal there, and it was quite enjoyable. Five stars! So as we're pulling up to The Firmament (hey, there's a Biblical word for you), I notice several, um, older Americans who had somehow managed to pour their portly frames back into old Stryper t-shirts that they still owned. So that was cool. Turns out I was overdressed in my black Furman University polo shirt. Not many collared shirts in this crowd.
The Firmament is a midsized music club with a large, open floor and a few booths along the wall. They sell a lot of beer and pizza by the slice. We decided to stand as close to the stage as we could, but later in the evening, my 56-year-old self was wishing we had snagged a booth. [I used to stand up for concerts at festivals all day and all night...what's happening to me?!] A few people near us were downing beers like they were M&Ms...but there was no unpleasantness, thankfully. As drinkers go, these were the friendly kind. I've got to believe that overall, The Firmament probably saw a dip in alcohol sales last night with all the Christians in the crowd. It was pretty much a packed house. At one point, an emcee/promoter type guy proudly gave us the headcount: 501. This guy was a little clueless about the makeup of the audience (or just didn't care) as he also told us that he got to hear Stryper's soundcheck and we were "in for a big f---ing treat." I'm going to have to throw a flag on The Firmament's lights. My church has a better light show on Sunday morning. This stuff was just a notch or two above what you can buy at Radio Shack or Spencer's.
Osara
We were a few minutes late and missed the opening opening band - a group called Osara. We were about ten or 15 minutes late, so they must've only played 2 or 3 songs. So I have no idea what their music sounds like. But I did walk past their merch table. Apparently, tattoed boobs help sell CDs...let's just leave it at that.
Fiftywatt Freight Train
The band that preceded Stryper was Charlotte's Fiftywatt Freight Train. I'll just say that I'm not interested in ever boarding that train again. They covered a Metallica song (and did a respectable job on that according to my son). But overall...no. The guitarist threw a few picks into the crowd and nobody cared. Bless his heart.
Stryper
Stryper finally took the stage at about 9:45 and immediately launched into Soldiers Under Command. Suddenly it was 1985 all over again, with the crowd singing along with full-throated enthusiasm. Yes, this is why I came to The Firmament tonight. The band was tight and they pushed the club's sound system to the limits of its capabilities. In fact, distortion was an issue from time to time. This was, after all, the very first night of the tour, so maybe they were just working the bugs out. But we might've been able to enjoy the nuances of the musical performance a little better if the sound guy had lowered the decibel levels a little. And now I sound like I'm even older than my 56 years. I'm using words like nuance while describing a Stryper show. Maybe I need to turn in my blogging license.
The stage set was pretty cool for a smaller venue. The band logo and album art were featured. The famous yellow and black stripes appear mostly on the group's instruments these days, not on their stage clothes. Dressed mostly in black, the boys appear to be in great physical condition. They do look a little older...but that's probably because they are. The hair on the three original members looks like it's been damaged from so many years of processing and copious amounts of hair spray. I notice these things because my daughter is a cosmetology student who's about to graduate from a local Career Center (shout out to Annie!). But seriously, the guys are looking great.
The new bassist, Perry Richardson, sports a hairdo that is just so over-the-top it's ridiculous. Is it a wig? I don't think so, judging by the way he whipped his head all over the place. With that hair, I kept trying to picture him just going into a Denny's and sitting down to order a meal from a waitress. She would probably think she was being punked or something. You just don't see hair like that on a guy his age very often. Or ever.
Michael Sweet is quite the showman. He's an active frontman, often engaging the crowd. The way he exhorted the audience to lift our hands, sing along and "put your hands together," I started wondering if he has a future as a worship leader (kidding). I came away very impressed with Michael Sweet as a guitarist. Oz Fox is, of course, incredible and is the band's official lead guitarist, but Michael more than held his own. I think he's underrated as an axeman.
Sadly, he just can't hit those crazy high notes anymore - you know, men...the ones that made your balls hurt? But that's to be expected. If he could still sing those other-worldly notes at his age, he'd be considered a total freak of nature. Michael poked fun at himself for needing an iPad for song lyrics. And after asking for a show of hands of people who were seeing Stryper for the first time, he joked, "So did it just take you guys 35 or 40 years to get around to it?"
Robert Sweet (AKA The Visual Timekeeper) works the hardest, physically, of any of the musicians on stage. His drum set-up is massive and impressive, as is his mastery of it. He was in constant motion and had fans blowing on him to keep him cool. This also had the effect of his famous blonde locks blowing in the wind like a supermodel at a photo shoot. The boy's not as pretty as he once was, but he still looks like a rock star.
The group powered their way through a number of Stryper's greatest hits, including Loving You, Calling On You, Free, Lady, In God We Trust, Always There For You, and Sorry. Loved it. My least favorite part of the evening (outside of the Fiftywatt disaster) was Stryper's extended set of secular covers. Not being a fan of mainstream rock (or even a casual listener), this part of the night was wasted on me. They covered hits by Boston, KISS, Van Halen, Queen, Firehouse and Judas Priest. These were described by Michael Sweet as songs that influenced them and inspired them to be musicians in the first place. He told a story about spotting a member of Judas Priest in the crowd at a Stryper show one time and being stoked about that. "We're huge Priest fans," he said. "We cut our teeth on Priest." OK...
My son enjoyed their covers of a Black Sabbath song and an Ozzie Osbourne tune. For me, those precious minutes would've been better devoted to more Stryper favorites that I didn't get to hear last night. But that's just me. I went to The Firmament armed with earplugs and the only time I used them was during the secular set. I just wasn't as interested.
Of course, a very cool tradition was revisited as pocket New Testaments were thrown into the crowd from time to time. These were emblazoned with a special "History Tour" logo. Throwing the Bibles was the only thing about the show last night that was overtly evangelistic. Although I must say, a very spiritual moment seemed to be happening during the group's rendition of the song Yahweh. Hands were raised and the crowd sang along in a manner that could only be described as worshipful, almost reverent. Nice moment near the end of the show.
The guys said goodnight and the stage emptied - without us hearing To Hell With the Devil. Needless to say, an encore was planned ahead of time and when the boys returned from backstage, we were treated to the song that most of us really wanted to hear. Box checked.
All in all, an enjoyable way to spend about eighty bucks (for two tickets). We blew off the merch table afterward, but I did get to reconnect and visit with several friends that I discovered were there as well - including a neighbor, an old bandmate, and Mr. Rob Cassells himself (from the Rob Cassells Band, of course). I also saw a listener to my old radio show, Rock of Ages on Rock 101, WROQ. I remember this guy because he used to call in a lot and he won a ton of CDs. I'm pretty sure I also saw a guy across the floor who served as my call screener for a number of years. By the way, I'm probably the only guy who ever played Stryper on the radio here in Greenville. So there's that. On the way to the car, my son was actually recognized by one of his Instagram followers. He runs a meme page called Deuteronomemes that has over 128,000 followers. This woman recognized him and came over in the parking lot to say hi and tell him how much she enjoys Deuternomemes. She and her family had driven three hours from Tennessee to come see Stryper. Cool stuff. So there you go - my first, and probably last, Stryper show. Rock and roll was played, hair was slung, Bibles were tossed, and a good time was had by all.
