Podcast appearances and mentions of robert sweet

Andy gives a little background on Stryper drummer Robert Sweet

AUA2025: Masterclass: Renal Access and Interventions (2025) Cohost: Rob Sweet, MD, FACS, MAMSE and Thomas Chi, MD, MBA Tune in to hear straight from the experts about what you can expect from our NEWLY DESIGNED Full Day Hands-on Skills Trainings at AUA2025! In this episode, Drs. Thomas Chi and Robert Sweet discuss Masterclass: Renal Access and Interventions, an all new interactive training offering skills in percutaneous renal access and image-guided renal interventions. Early Bird deadline for Hands-on Skills trainings has been EXTENDED - ends March 24. Spaces are limited – Register now!

On today's show, we chat with 2-time guest, Michael Sweet! Chart-topping rock band STRYPER has announced the upcoming release of their 12th studio album,  When We Were Kings, out September 13th!  The new album drops just as the band embarks on their 40th Anniversary Tour this fall.  Earlier this year, STRYPER released their first acoustic album, featuring stripped-down versions of their classic hits and a new rendition of "Amazing Grace.” The band is also working on a Kickstarter-funded documentary film directed by Chris Atkins, to be released in 2025.  With over 10 million albums sold worldwide, STRYPER is renowned for its distinctive brand of “heavenly metal” and extraordinary crossover success. The group ascended to prominence in the 1980s with Billboard Top 40 hits like “Calling on You,” “Honestly,” and “Always There for You,” and has maintained a global fanbase ever since. STRYPER is the first band to ever have two songs in MTV's Top 10 simultaneously with their hits “Free” and “Honestly.” STRYPER is comprised of original members Michael Sweet (lead vocals, guitar), Robert Sweet (drums), and Oz Fox (guitar), plus the addition of seasoned bassist Perry Richardson stryper.com @stryper @michaelsweetstryper christianmusicguys.com @christianmusicguys

Guest(s): Robert Sweet, Micheal Totten, & Dennis RaineySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Colabora Con Biblioteca Del Metal: En Twitter - https://twitter.com/Anarkometal72 Y Donanos Unas Propinas En BAT. Para Seguir Con El Proyecto De la Biblioteca Mas Grande Del Metal. Muchisimas Gracias. La Tienda De Biblioteca Del Metal: Encontraras, Ropa, Accesorios,Decoracion, Ect... Todo Relacionado Al Podcats Biblioteca Del Metal Y Al Mundo Del Heavy Metal. Descubrela!!!!!! Ideal Para Llevarte O Regalar Productos Del Podcats De Ivoox. (Por Tiempo Limitado) https://teespring.com/es/stores/biblioteca-del-metal-1 Stryper es una banda estadounidense de heavy metal basado en una temática cristiana, originaria del Condado de Orange (California), Estados Unidos. Los miembros Originales son: Michael Sweet (vocalista y guitarrista, 4 de julio de 1963, Whittier, California), su hermano Robert Sweet (baterista, 21 de marzo de 1960, Lynwood, California), Oz Fox (Richard Alfonso Martínez, guitarrista, 18 de junio de 1961, Whittier, California) y Timothy "Tim" Gaines (bajista, 15 de diciembre de 1962. Portland, Oregon). Durante el año 2017 Timothy fue expulsado de la banda, siendo reemplazado por el reconocido exbajista de la banda de Hard Rock Firehouse, Perry Richardson. En 2004, Gaines (el miembro más inconsistente de los cuatro) abandonó temporalmente el grupo y fue reemplazado por Tracy Ferrie, hasta su regreso en 2009. Formada en 1983 como Roxx Regime, pronto cambiarían su mensaje y nombre a Stryper para convertirse en la primera banda de rock cristiana en ser reconocida en los listados de mainstream,​ siendo con mucho, la más exitosa del género musical conocido como "metal cristiano". En 1983 firmaron un contrato con Enigma Records y lanzaron su primer EP, titulado The Yellow And Black Attack, en una clara referencia a los colores que los identificaron durante los 80´s. A mediados de esa década. Stryper vivió su período más exitoso, particularmente con el aclamado disco To Hell with the Devil (el clímax de la popularidad de la banda), el cual alcanzó la certificación de Disco de Platino de acuerdo a sus elevadas ventas. Stryper lograría dos álbumes más con el estatus de disco de oro antes de su ruptura en 1992. En 2003 Stryper regresó de su retiro para una gira de reunión y subsecuentemente firmó un contrato de varios álbumes con la etiqueta Big3 Records en 2005. Los tres discos publicados con esta productora tuvieron un éxito muy discreto. El nombre de "Stryper" deriva de una versión de la Biblia del Rey Jacobo.​ que dice textualmente "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (“Pero él fue herido por nuestras transgresiones, él fue herido por nuestras iniquidades; el castigo de nuestra paz fue sobre él; y con sus llagas fuimos curados”)​ De esto se deduce que la palabra “stripe” (“llaga”) fue convertida en “strype” (“raya”), en un juego de palabras en inglés como una mención a sus dos típicos colores en rayas en su logo y vestimenta. Para hacer aún más significativo el nombre, el baterista Robert Sweet también creó un retroacrónimo por el nombre de Stryper: "Salvation Through Redemption Yielding Peace, Encouragement and Righteousness" ("Salvación a Través de la Redención Cosechando Paz, Aliento y Rectitud").​ La referencia Isaiah 53:5 (Isaías 53:5), es frecuentemente incluida como parte de su logo. Ambos tocaron en una banda llamada Parliament y Kirkadelic, las cuales recibieron elogios de la crítica de la comunidad roquera del sur de California, hasta que su cantante Clayton Kirk disolvió la agrupación. Los hermanos regresaron a su iglesia bautista después de que su amigo Kenny Metcalf (quien más tarde sería el tecladista original no acreditado de Stryper) los persuadió de hacerlo.​​Inspirados en bandas como Van Halen, pero angustiados con su mensaje, ellos trataron de formar una que exaltara su visión del mundo y creencias.​ Stryper originalmente fue conocida como Roxx Regime, con Michael Sweet en las voces y guitarra rítmica, Robert Sweet en la batería, así como Richard Alfonso Martínez (conocido como Oz Fox, un amigo en común) en la guitarra principal.​ Antes de Fox una buena cantidad de guitarristas acompañaron a la agrupación, entre los que se cuentan C.C. DeVille de Poison. El nombre definitivo de "Stryper" fue adoptado cuando el bajista Tim Gaines se les unió, y fue tomado del pasaje bíblico de Isaías 53:5 "by his stripes we are healed." (“por sus llagas fuimos curados”). Por lo tanto, es un juego de palabras en inglés, al utilizar “stripe” (“llaga”) con “strype” (“raya”) en referencia a sus típicos colores en el logo y vestimenta. En un corto plazo, lanzaron su EP debut titulado EP The Yellow and Black Attack, el 21 de julio de 1984. Durante este período, Stryper abrió conciertos de Ratt y Bon Jovi, lo que ocasionó que algunos fanes y críticos señalaran que en realidad la banda no era verdaderamente cristiana. El primer disco LP fue llamado Soldiers Under Command, lanzado el 15 de mayo de 1985, y se convirtió en el primer disco de oro para Stryper, vendiendo más de medio millón de copias, algo insólito para una agrupación con un mensaje abiertamente cristiano. Aprovechando este éxito inesperado y en atención a la extremadamente limitada distribución de su EP debut (menos de 20 000 copias) su sello discográfico, Enigma Records, relanzó The Yellow and Black Attack el 10 de agosto de 1986 con dos nuevas canciones y una nueva cubierta. Sin embargo, el mayor éxito llegó con su tercer álbum, To Hell with the Devil, el cual vio la luz el 24 de octubre de 1986 y fue su único disco de platino después de permanecer tres meses en las listas de Billboard.​ Eventualmente, vendió más de dos millones de copias, cifra abrumadoramente superior a la de sus dos trabajos previos. En adición a su trabajo más reconocido, fue la primera vez en música cristiana y en un álbum de metal cristiano en lograr esta hazaña.​ "Calling on You", "Free" y "Honestly" fueron muy populares como hits de MTV en 1987, a pesar de ser vídeos sumamente sencillos e incluso similares. Incluso, "Free" y "Honestly" fueron las más solicitadas en ese canal, este hecho los convirtió en la primera banda cristiana en tener cualquier tipo de difusión en MTV.​ "Honestly" es la canción más conocida del grupo y alcanzó un notable nº23 en los listados de Top 40 de Billboard.​ El álbum fue nominado a los Premios Grammy en 1987. In 2010, HM Magazine colocó a To Hell with the Devil en el puesto n.º 3 en su Top 100 de los Álbumes de Rock Cristiano de Todos los Tiempos, y afirmó "cuando este álbum irrumpió, fue multi-platino, y marcó para siempre la ampliación del límite de lo que la música "heavy" cristiana podría hacer”.."​ Heaven's Metal fanzine la ubicó en el n.º 6 en su Top 100 de álbumes de Metal Cristiano de todos los tiempos en su lista.​ A pesar del éxito y el reconocimiento internacional previo, el bajista Tim Gaines decidió no participar en la grabación de este álbum, y por un período de tiempo fue reemplazado por otro bajista, Matt Hurich. Hurich no permaneció más que un mes, a pesar de que estaba equipado con su instrumento y una vestimenta personal apropiada, la cual fue desechada por el propio Gaines por ser demasiado pequeña. Finalmente, Brad Cobb tocó el bajo en este aclamado disco aunque no le causó mayor éxito en su carrera profesional ni fue debidamente acreditado.​ Esto fue motivado porque Gaines decidió reincorporarse cuando se realizaron las fotos promocionales justo cuando el álbum estaba listo para salir, y participó en la exitosa gira que siguió entre 1986-1987. En 1987, en la cúspide de su fama, Stryper participó como espectáculo principal en el Dynamo Open Air Festival en los Países Bajos.​ En ese lugar se tomó una foto promocional en la que se aprecia Matt Hurich. Luego de su breve paso, Matt formó parte de la banda Leatherwolf. En 1989 él participó con el grupo Divine Right quienes presentaban a Kevin Brandow (Petra) como vocalista y guitarrista. En 1986 Brent Jeffers reemplazó a Kenny Metcalf en los teclados y fue incluido en la gira de conciertos de Stryper hasta 1990. El siguiente álbum, In God We Trust, fue publicado el 28 de junio de 1988, y buscó seguir el mismo camino de sucesor al usar una fórmula de sonido algo similar. A pesar de que no fue recibido con el mismo entusiasmo, se convirtió en su segundo disco de oro y la canción "Always There for You", brevemente entró en los nivelas más bajos de los listados de pop al alcanzar el #71, a pesar de que fue otro éxito masivo en MTV. Sin embargo, el disco tuvo una orientación aún más pop que la de sus trabajos anteriores.​ y un buen número de críticos, incluyendo los propios fanes, criticaron las canciones por ser demasiado comerciales y sobreproducidas. En consecuencia, la imagen del grupo se movió más de cerca al estilo glam metal de la época, dando a sus fanes más motivos para criticarlos. Estos factores se tradujeron en ventas comparativamente más bajas, y el álbum solo estuvo 5 semanas en los listados de Billboard.​ El segundo sencillo y vídeo "I Believe in You" alcanzó un discreto nº88 y el tercer sencillo "Keep the Fire Burning" falló en la lista del todo. Al igual que el álbum anterior, Tim Gaines no participó en la grabación y una vez más Brad Cobb tocó el bajo. Gaines regresó para otra gira mundial de conciertos. In God We Trust también ganó dos Gospel Music Association Dove Awards por "Hard Music Album" y "Hard Music Song" por la canción que da título.​ El 21 de agosto de 1990, Stryper lanzó su controversial álbum Against the Law, el cual marcó un cambio radical y drástico en la imagen del grupo y en su mensaje lírico.​ Mientras sus anteriores discos utilizaron los característicos colores amarillo y negro en las portadas y las letras invocaban a Dios y la salvación, en este material se presentó a la banda con ropa de cuero negro y sin siquiera una mención a la palabra "Dios" del todo.​ El sonido que presentaron fue también más pesado y más cercano al metal clásico.​ El baterista Robert Sweet dijo que el cambio de imagen y sonido fue en respuesta a las críticas a su álbum previo y en atención a dejar atrás su imagen glam metal, que para entonces se estaba volviendo poco vigente. Sin embargo, los fanes originales clamaron que volvieran a sus raíces y el álbum se vendió pobremente. Esto fue parcialmente debido a rumores en la prensa (tanto de tipo mainstream como cristiana) que la música de Stryper fue tendiendo hacia un sonido más convencional debido a que su fe cristiana se fue debilitando.​​Entre sus aparentes inconsistencias, los fanes se preguntaron porqué hicieron una versión de la canción de 1975 "Shining Star", un hit #1 de Earth Wind & Fire. El vídeo fue previsto para convertirse en otro éxito en MTV, pero fue el primero para el grupo que no lo logró. Los siguientes vídeos y sencillos fueron "Two Time Woman" y "Lady" (ambos con un concepto visual muy similar), los cuales generaron una difusión mínima. Sin embargo, muchos críticos todavía consideran a Against the Law como su mejor producción musical a la fecha. El 20 de julio de 1991, después de firmar para Hollywood Records, Stryper lanzó su primera colección de grandes éxitos llamada Can't Stop the Rock, la cual presentaba dos nuevas canciones. Una de ellas fue inspirada en la Guerra del Golfo que se desarrollaba en esa época, "Believe". La banda continuó con un tour hasta febrero de 1992, cuando su líder y cantante Michael Sweet se marchó aludiendo diferencias artísticas y con la finalidad de empezar una carrera en solitario.​ Stryper continuó como un trío por algunas fechas en su tour europeo, con Oz Fox como su cantante. Algunas de sus presentaciones fueron con la banda cristiana Bride donde se encontraba Dale Thompson como su cantante. Durante uno de esos conciertos Robert Sweet inesperadamente anunció que Thompson sería su nuevo vocalista en Stryper. Sin embargo, esto fue desmentido más tarde por el propio cantante. Una vez que terminaron el tour y regresaron a Estados Unidos, los tres miembros restantes decidieron que cada uno debía seguir caminos separados. Sin lugar a dudas, y como un efecto adicional, el estilo glam metal que representaba el grupo estaba en franca decadencia y la disposición musical iba hacia agrupaciones de rock alternativo y grunge. Muchas agrupaciones del género debieron evolucionar y otras desaparecieron, entre ellas Stryper. Oz Fox y Tim Gaines formaron su propia banda SinDizzy, y lanzaron el álbum He's Not Dead en 1998. Durante los 90´s, Michael Sweet lanzó un total de cuatro discos en solitario que fueron grandes éxitos en el Mercado de la música cristiana. Robert Sweet tocó en algunas bandas, una de ellas Blissed, quienes publicaron un álbum en 2002. Otras agrupaciones incluyeron King James, dbeality, Final Axe, y The Seventh Power. Los miembros originales de Stryper se reunieron por primera vez en 1999, cuando Michael Sweet y SinDizzy fueron invitados a tocar en un festival de rock veraniego en Puerto Rico. Como una participación adicional, Michael Sweet invitó a sus antiguos compañeros Oz Fox y Tim Gaines al escenario y tocaron algunas canciones de Stryper. Más tarde en 2000, se realiza la primera "Stryper Expo" que tuvo lugar en New Jersey, y fue la primera vez en ocho años que estuvieron juntos el equipo completo de Stryper en un escenario . Una segunda "Stryper Expo" se llevó a cabo en Los Angeles en el 2001.[5] Como parte de su regreso paulatino a los escenarios, la banda actuó por primera vez en Centroamérica, con un único concierto ofrecido en Costa Rica en diciembre de 2000. El concierto para sus seguidores fue histórico, pues se trató de la primera presentación del cuarteto original tras casi nueve años de separación.​ Posteriormente, se efectuó un segundo "Stryper Expo" en Los Ángeles en 2001.​Hollywood Records sugirió a los miembros del grupo que grabaran las pistas para un nuevo álbum recopilatorio de éxitos en 2003, el cual vio la luz con el nombre de 7: The Best of Stryper que también tenía dos nuevas canciones, "Something" y "For You". Un tour lo siguió como promoción, con 36 shows en Estados Unidos y finalizó en San Juan, Puerto Rico. Un álbum en vivo, titulado 7 Weeks: Live in America, 2003, fue lanzado al siguiente año, y el concierto en Puerto Rico fue filmado en formado de DVD, producido y dirigido por Jack Edward Sawyers. No obstante, el show en esa ciudad fue el último con la alineación original de Stryper por algunos años. Gaines se marchó una vez más en 2004 antes de que actuaran en el Night of Joy de Disney, en Orlando. El bajista de gira durante la carrera de Michael en solitario, Tracy Ferrie, lo reemplazó por algunos años. Después del show de "Night of Joy" y con nuevas energías, Stryper decidió retornar al estudio con la grabación de un nuevo CD, Reborn y una gira subsiguiente en el otoño de 2004. Reborn fue lanzado el 16 de agosto de 2005, y fue la primera grabación con material original y nuevo tras largos 15 años. El nuevo álbum recibió una respuesta positiva de fanes y críticos, y algunos de ellos lo calificaron como uno de los mejores de ese año.​ Con un sonido decididamente más moderno incorporó aspectos del rock alternativo y grunge, con pocos solos de guitarra, lo que le dio a la banda el estilo e identidad que trataron de buscar. Algunos temas se hacen familiares al sonido de las grabaciones en solitario de Michael. En efecto, él originalmente concibió a Reborn como un proyecto para relanzar su carrera en solitario.​ Las letras marcan un retorno a la lírica clásica del grupo que habla de Dios y la salvación. En general, el sonido de este disco es más contemporáneo comparado con sus anteriores trabajos y más pesado, con algunas influencias de nu metal.​ También se ha citado como más maduro que su material previo, “menos glam y más sentimiento” de acuerdo a algunas publicaciones. Este fue el primero y el único trabajo con el nuevo bajista Tracy Ferrie. Reborn también fue único por la curiosa variedad del arte de su cubierta, que variaba de acuerdo al formato y región donde se distribuyó. Esta alternancia con respesto a la original de Estados Unidos fue creada por algunos puntos de distribución (como tiendas cristianas) donde se consideró que su cubierta original había sido percibida como muy perturbadora y ofensiva. En 2006. Stryper lanzó el DVD Greatest Hits: Live in Puerto Rico con Music Video Distributors. En noviembre de 2006, anunciaron una nueva dirección administrativa. También anunciaron que el siguiente material a Reborn estaría listo entre la primera/verano de 2007. Sin embargo, en febrero se indicó que Michael Sweet retrasaría la producción de un nuevo álbum por dos años antes de que comenzaran la grabación por motivos personales. La esposa del cantante Kyle fue diagnosticada con una estadificación avanzada de un cáncer de ovarios, y decidió permanecer con ella y apoyarla en su enfermedad. Kyle se sometió a una cirugía y tratamientos el 14 de febrero al 14 de julio de ese año. A pesar de resultados inicialmente satisfactorios, en abril de 2008, anunció que su cáncer había regresado. A pesar de estos problemas familiares, la mezcla para el nuevo álbum de Stryper empezó en enero de 2008, y Sweet dijo que debería estar listo entre julio o agosto.​ Durante este periodo, Michael Sweet fue consultado para participar como un miembro de gira del grupo Boston en 2007 como vocalista y guitarrista, a lo que accedió. Estuvo con ellos durante el tour en 2008, junto con Styx como el acto de apertura. El 5 de marzo de 2009, la esposa de Michael Sweet finalmente murió de cáncer.​ Murder by Pride fue lanzado el 21 de julio de 2009, con el sencillo principal "Peace of Mind" (una versión de Boston), precediéndolo. El álbum alcanzó un relativamente aceptable #73 en el Billboard 200, el #32 en los Rock Albums y el #2 entre los álbumes cristianos. Estilísticamente, Michael Sweet ha comentado, que "después de años de hablar con los fans y escuchar los comentarios como 'más guitarras´, `más solos´y `más gritos he decidido mantener estas sugerencias en mente y así escribí cada canción. Fue importante para mí para tratar de volver al sonido de principios de Stryper pero al mismo tiempo, permanecer relevante en la actualidad. Es cierto que no es una cosa fácil de hacer, pero cuando escucho `Murder by Pride´, creo que se logró”.​​ En adición a que todavía tocaba con Stryper, Oz Fox también fue parte de la banda de metal cristiano Bloodgood, quien también fue uno de los favoritos a inicios de los 80´s en la escena de su género. Desde finales de 2008, Tim Gaines tocó el bajo en un concierto con Tourniquet. Este grupo agregó el tema "To Hell With The Devil" en su repertorio gracias a la sugerencia de Tim. Recientemente, Oz Fox también se unió a Tourniquet en el escenario en una presentación en Alemania para interpretar la misma canción. En setiembre de 2009, Stryper anunció que saldrían de gira con la banda del hijo de Michael Sweet Flight Patterns y el grupo canadiense Manic Drive. El 13 de julio de 2010, anunciaron que el noveno disco de Stryper se llamó The Covering. Aunque tentativamente se lanzaría el 13 de octubre, su fecha final de salida fue el 15 de febrero de 2011 bajo la etiqueta Big3 Records/Sony. Contrario a lo que había publicado anteriormente la agrupación, este álbum no tuvo material completamente original e inusualmente tampoco es de corte cristiano. Es una colección de doce versiones de canciones de bandas que inspiraron a Stryper y la ayudaron a definir su identidad musical, incluyendo a Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Kansas y muchos otros. The Covering también incluyó "God", una grabación inédia y original. Sobre el concepto de este trabajo musical, el productor y líder de la banda Michael Sweet dio sus razones: "A pesar de que este ha sido un disco para causar controversia y unos pocos se harán la pregunta sobre nuestros motivos y razones para hacer covers de las canciones que grabamos, nuestra fe y las creencias nunca se han confirmado más y nuestro mensaje es el mismo que siempre ha sido. Vamos a ir a la tumba con una postura valiente ante Cristo y nunca lo vamos a negar. Al mismo tiempo, queríamos mostrar un lado diferente de la banda...".​El 14 de septiembre de 2010, se lanzó el primer sencillo del álbum, una versión de Black Sabbath, el éxito "Heaven and Hell" (1980), disponible para descargar por iTunes. Para el 14 de diciembre de 2010, el segundo sencillo lanzado es una versión de Kansas, "Carry On Wayward Son" (1976), de igual forma disponible en el mismo sitio. Luego de lanzar The Covering y su posterior gira, Stryper entró a los estudios para grabar un nuevo disco con la etiqueta italiana Frontiers Records, el cual se llamó Second Coming​(en referencia a la segunda venida del Señor) y que salió a la venta el 22 de marzo de 2013 en Europa y el 16 de marzo en América. El disco contiene 16 canciones, de las cuales 14 son clásicos extraídos de The Yellow and Black Attack, Soldiers Under Command y To Hell with the Devil y solo 2 son canciones nuevas, tituladas "Bleeding From Inside Out" y "Blackened". También hay una versión alterrntica de "Together As One" como bonus track para Japón. En forma simultánea, Stryper también trabajó en un álbum compuesto por completo con material inédito. En mayo de 2013, se reveló que el nombre de su siguiente álbum se llama No More Hell to Pay, lanzado el 5 de noviembre del mismo año a través de Frontiers Records, junto con un vídeo de la canción del mismo nombre.​ Michael Sweet, por su lado, terminó su autobiografía "HONESTLY" y la lanzará junto con su nuevo disco este año. Durante el año 2015 lanzan el álbum Fallen, el cual sería el último album con la formación original, ya que a finales del 2017 se oficializa que Tim Gaines deja la banda, siendo reemplazado por el reconocido bajista norteamericano Perry Richardson. El año 2018 lanzan el álbum "God Damn Evil" el cual ha recibido muy buenas críticas debido a su sonido bastante "heavy" y acercandose incluso en algunos temas al Thrash metal. Durante los 80´s Stryper representó el popular estilo glam metal con el que caracterizaron ampliamente sus interpretaciones visuales, solos de dos guitarras consecutivas, con una gran presencia de Michael Sweet y sus fuertes y agudos gritos y el cabello largo de los cuatro miembros. Una marca registrada (y única) es la ubicación del baterista Robert Sweet con su enorme conjunto de instrumentos en posición de lado durante los conciertos, con la finalidad de los espectadores lo puedan apreciar mejor. Este hecho ha propiciado que a Robert se le llame a menudo como un “cronometrador visual” más que un baterista,​ en alusión a que sus compañeros lo pueden observar previamente para coordinar la interpretación. Un elemento característico fue que todos sus instrumentos, logos y trajes fueron pintados con unas rayas amarillas y negras. El número de rayas en los escenarios y trajes variaban y se incrementaban durante el show. Es notable que durante la gira In God We Trust, Robert Sweet también cambiaba hasta su batería pintada en amarillo y negro. La banda explicó cierto simbolismo con respecto a las rayas, una directa referencia al latigazo cervical dado por Poncio Pilato a Jesús, derivado de la versión de la Biblia del Rey Jacobo, tomado de su versículo Isaías 53:5.​ Aparte de sus ubicuas rayas amarillas y negras, Stryper tuvo otras marcas registradas. Durante sus conciertos, lanzaba Biblias al auditorio – específicamente ediciones del Nuevo Testamento con el logo de la banda impreso en ellos. Como una protesta contra el popular símbolo del “666” del que se hacían uso muchos fanes del heavy metal, Robert propuso una alternativa numerológica. En consecuencia, el grupo empezó a utilizar el símbolo “777” que es actualmente referenciado por la Biblia (en oposición al 666, famosamente mencionado en Libro de las Revelaciones como el Número de la Bestia). El número 7 es tradicionalmente (en el simbolismo bíblico) asociado con la perfección divina. Algunos de los actos de Stryper incluyeron cruces tachadas como símbolo del “diablo” y “666” Los Angeles Times reportó en 1985 que “la banda obtuvo ovaciones entusiastas de fans de Twisted Sister gritando y levantando sólo uno de sus dedos al cielo, - una refutación del dedo doble de los `cuernos del diablo´, saludo de los muchos grupos de metal”. ".​ Stryper es reconocida como la primera banda de heavy metal abiertamente cristiana en ganar reconocimiento en el mundo de la música mainstream.​ Sin embargo, no ha estado libre de controversia. Muchos críticos cristianos no aprobaron la asociación del grupo con la subcultura heavy metal, lo cual es a menudo visto asociado con la imaginería satánica.​ Otros detractores cristianos vieron sus llamativas vestimentas como incongruente con la modestia en el vestir asociadas con los sinceros practicantes de la devota cristiandad.​ El tele evangelista Jimmy Swaggart fue un prominente crítico de Stryper, al aludir su práctica de arrojar biblias con el Nuevo Testamento al público, una práctica similar a “arrojar perlas a los cerdos”.​ En 1990, la revista Rolling Stone comentó que la banda empezó a desilusionarse con la música cristiana,​ y de ahí el rumbo algo errático en su dirección musical que siguió en lo sucesivo. Esto, combinado con un notable cambio en las letras de sus canciones en Against the Law, hizo que este material fuera prohibido en muchos establecimientos cristianos. Mientras tanto, The Benson Company, un mercado de artículos cristianos, retiró este disco de la distribución.​ La condena de Swaggart podría haber sido una sorpresa, no obstante, Stryper fue patrocinado por el ministerio de su rival Jim Bakker, quien estuvo agradecido con algunos álbumes de la banda. Stryper ha vendido más de 10 millones de copias alrededor del mundo,​ y se estima que dos tercios de sus discos fueron comprados por no cristianos.​ Ian Christe, autor del libro de historia Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, menciona que el álbum To Hell with the Devil en su libro como uno de los puntos de referencia del movimiento glam metal.​La canción To Hell with the Devil aparece en el lanzamiento de Rhino Records The Heavy Metal Box, una compilación de los mayores clásicos de metal secular con bandas como Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, y Metallica, así como otras menos influyentes como Twisted Sister y Poison. Pagina Oficial: https://stryper.com/

Colabora Con Biblioteca Del Metal: En Twitter - https://twitter.com/Anarkometal72 Y Donanos Unas Propinas En BAT. Para Seguir Con El Proyecto De la Biblioteca Mas Grande Del Metal. Muchisimas Gracias. La Tienda De Biblioteca Del Metal: Encontraras, Ropa, Accesorios,Decoracion, Ect... Todo Relacionado Al Podcats Biblioteca Del Metal Y Al Mundo Del Heavy Metal. Descubrela!!!!!! Ideal Para Llevarte O Regalar Productos Del Podcats De Ivoox. (Por Tiempo Limitado) https://teespring.com/es/stores/biblioteca-del-metal-1 Stryper es una banda estadounidense de heavy metal basado en una temática cristiana, originaria del Condado de Orange (California), Estados Unidos. Los miembros Originales son: Michael Sweet (vocalista y guitarrista, 4 de julio de 1963, Whittier, California), su hermano Robert Sweet (baterista, 21 de marzo de 1960, Lynwood, California), Oz Fox (Richard Alfonso Martínez, guitarrista, 18 de junio de 1961, Whittier, California) y Timothy "Tim" Gaines (bajista, 15 de diciembre de 1962. Portland, Oregon). Durante el año 2017 Timothy fue expulsado de la banda, siendo reemplazado por el reconocido exbajista de la banda de Hard Rock Firehouse, Perry Richardson. En 2004, Gaines (el miembro más inconsistente de los cuatro) abandonó temporalmente el grupo y fue reemplazado por Tracy Ferrie, hasta su regreso en 2009. Formada en 1983 como Roxx Regime, pronto cambiarían su mensaje y nombre a Stryper para convertirse en la primera banda de rock cristiana en ser reconocida en los listados de mainstream,​ siendo con mucho, la más exitosa del género musical conocido como "metal cristiano". En 1983 firmaron un contrato con Enigma Records y lanzaron su primer EP, titulado The Yellow And Black Attack, en una clara referencia a los colores que los identificaron durante los 80´s. A mediados de esa década. Stryper vivió su período más exitoso, particularmente con el aclamado disco To Hell with the Devil (el clímax de la popularidad de la banda), el cual alcanzó la certificación de Disco de Platino de acuerdo a sus elevadas ventas. Stryper lograría dos álbumes más con el estatus de disco de oro antes de su ruptura en 1992. En 2003 Stryper regresó de su retiro para una gira de reunión y subsecuentemente firmó un contrato de varios álbumes con la etiqueta Big3 Records en 2005. Los tres discos publicados con esta productora tuvieron un éxito muy discreto. El nombre de "Stryper" deriva de una versión de la Biblia del Rey Jacobo.​ que dice textualmente "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (“Pero él fue herido por nuestras transgresiones, él fue herido por nuestras iniquidades; el castigo de nuestra paz fue sobre él; y con sus llagas fuimos curados”)​ De esto se deduce que la palabra “stripe” (“llaga”) fue convertida en “strype” (“raya”), en un juego de palabras en inglés como una mención a sus dos típicos colores en rayas en su logo y vestimenta. Para hacer aún más significativo el nombre, el baterista Robert Sweet también creó un retroacrónimo por el nombre de Stryper: "Salvation Through Redemption Yielding Peace, Encouragement and Righteousness" ("Salvación a Través de la Redención Cosechando Paz, Aliento y Rectitud").​ La referencia Isaiah 53:5 (Isaías 53:5), es frecuentemente incluida como parte de su logo. Ambos tocaron en una banda llamada Parliament y Kirkadelic, las cuales recibieron elogios de la crítica de la comunidad roquera del sur de California, hasta que su cantante Clayton Kirk disolvió la agrupación. Los hermanos regresaron a su iglesia bautista después de que su amigo Kenny Metcalf (quien más tarde sería el tecladista original no acreditado de Stryper) los persuadió de hacerlo.​​Inspirados en bandas como Van Halen, pero angustiados con su mensaje, ellos trataron de formar una que exaltara su visión del mundo y creencias.​ Stryper originalmente fue conocida como Roxx Regime, con Michael Sweet en las voces y guitarra rítmica, Robert Sweet en la batería, así como Richard Alfonso Martínez (conocido como Oz Fox, un amigo en común) en la guitarra principal.​ Antes de Fox una buena cantidad de guitarristas acompañaron a la agrupación, entre los que se cuentan C.C. DeVille de Poison. El nombre definitivo de "Stryper" fue adoptado cuando el bajista Tim Gaines se les unió, y fue tomado del pasaje bíblico de Isaías 53:5 "by his stripes we are healed." (“por sus llagas fuimos curados”). Por lo tanto, es un juego de palabras en inglés, al utilizar “stripe” (“llaga”) con “strype” (“raya”) en referencia a sus típicos colores en el logo y vestimenta. En un corto plazo, lanzaron su EP debut titulado EP The Yellow and Black Attack, el 21 de julio de 1984. Durante este período, Stryper abrió conciertos de Ratt y Bon Jovi, lo que ocasionó que algunos fanes y críticos señalaran que en realidad la banda no era verdaderamente cristiana. El primer disco LP fue llamado Soldiers Under Command, lanzado el 15 de mayo de 1985, y se convirtió en el primer disco de oro para Stryper, vendiendo más de medio millón de copias, algo insólito para una agrupación con un mensaje abiertamente cristiano. Aprovechando este éxito inesperado y en atención a la extremadamente limitada distribución de su EP debut (menos de 20 000 copias) su sello discográfico, Enigma Records, relanzó The Yellow and Black Attack el 10 de agosto de 1986 con dos nuevas canciones y una nueva cubierta. Sin embargo, el mayor éxito llegó con su tercer álbum, To Hell with the Devil, el cual vio la luz el 24 de octubre de 1986 y fue su único disco de platino después de permanecer tres meses en las listas de Billboard.​ Eventualmente, vendió más de dos millones de copias, cifra abrumadoramente superior a la de sus dos trabajos previos. En adición a su trabajo más reconocido, fue la primera vez en música cristiana y en un álbum de metal cristiano en lograr esta hazaña.​ "Calling on You", "Free" y "Honestly" fueron muy populares como hits de MTV en 1987, a pesar de ser vídeos sumamente sencillos e incluso similares. Incluso, "Free" y "Honestly" fueron las más solicitadas en ese canal, este hecho los convirtió en la primera banda cristiana en tener cualquier tipo de difusión en MTV.​ "Honestly" es la canción más conocida del grupo y alcanzó un notable nº23 en los listados de Top 40 de Billboard.​ El álbum fue nominado a los Premios Grammy en 1987. In 2010, HM Magazine colocó a To Hell with the Devil en el puesto n.º 3 en su Top 100 de los Álbumes de Rock Cristiano de Todos los Tiempos, y afirmó "cuando este álbum irrumpió, fue multi-platino, y marcó para siempre la ampliación del límite de lo que la música "heavy" cristiana podría hacer”.."​ Heaven's Metal fanzine la ubicó en el n.º 6 en su Top 100 de álbumes de Metal Cristiano de todos los tiempos en su lista.​ A pesar del éxito y el reconocimiento internacional previo, el bajista Tim Gaines decidió no participar en la grabación de este álbum, y por un período de tiempo fue reemplazado por otro bajista, Matt Hurich. Hurich no permaneció más que un mes, a pesar de que estaba equipado con su instrumento y una vestimenta personal apropiada, la cual fue desechada por el propio Gaines por ser demasiado pequeña. Finalmente, Brad Cobb tocó el bajo en este aclamado disco aunque no le causó mayor éxito en su carrera profesional ni fue debidamente acreditado.​ Esto fue motivado porque Gaines decidió reincorporarse cuando se realizaron las fotos promocionales justo cuando el álbum estaba listo para salir, y participó en la exitosa gira que siguió entre 1986-1987. En 1987, en la cúspide de su fama, Stryper participó como espectáculo principal en el Dynamo Open Air Festival en los Países Bajos.​ En ese lugar se tomó una foto promocional en la que se aprecia Matt Hurich. Luego de su breve paso, Matt formó parte de la banda Leatherwolf. En 1989 él participó con el grupo Divine Right quienes presentaban a Kevin Brandow (Petra) como vocalista y guitarrista. En 1986 Brent Jeffers reemplazó a Kenny Metcalf en los teclados y fue incluido en la gira de conciertos de Stryper hasta 1990. El siguiente álbum, In God We Trust, fue publicado el 28 de junio de 1988, y buscó seguir el mismo camino de sucesor al usar una fórmula de sonido algo similar. A pesar de que no fue recibido con el mismo entusiasmo, se convirtió en su segundo disco de oro y la canción "Always There for You", brevemente entró en los nivelas más bajos de los listados de pop al alcanzar el #71, a pesar de que fue otro éxito masivo en MTV. Sin embargo, el disco tuvo una orientación aún más pop que la de sus trabajos anteriores.​ y un buen número de críticos, incluyendo los propios fanes, criticaron las canciones por ser demasiado comerciales y sobreproducidas. En consecuencia, la imagen del grupo se movió más de cerca al estilo glam metal de la época, dando a sus fanes más motivos para criticarlos. Estos factores se tradujeron en ventas comparativamente más bajas, y el álbum solo estuvo 5 semanas en los listados de Billboard.​ El segundo sencillo y vídeo "I Believe in You" alcanzó un discreto nº88 y el tercer sencillo "Keep the Fire Burning" falló en la lista del todo. Al igual que el álbum anterior, Tim Gaines no participó en la grabación y una vez más Brad Cobb tocó el bajo. Gaines regresó para otra gira mundial de conciertos. In God We Trust también ganó dos Gospel Music Association Dove Awards por "Hard Music Album" y "Hard Music Song" por la canción que da título.​ El 21 de agosto de 1990, Stryper lanzó su controversial álbum Against the Law, el cual marcó un cambio radical y drástico en la imagen del grupo y en su mensaje lírico.​ Mientras sus anteriores discos utilizaron los característicos colores amarillo y negro en las portadas y las letras invocaban a Dios y la salvación, en este material se presentó a la banda con ropa de cuero negro y sin siquiera una mención a la palabra "Dios" del todo.​ El sonido que presentaron fue también más pesado y más cercano al metal clásico.​ El baterista Robert Sweet dijo que el cambio de imagen y sonido fue en respuesta a las críticas a su álbum previo y en atención a dejar atrás su imagen glam metal, que para entonces se estaba volviendo poco vigente. Sin embargo, los fanes originales clamaron que volvieran a sus raíces y el álbum se vendió pobremente. Esto fue parcialmente debido a rumores en la prensa (tanto de tipo mainstream como cristiana) que la música de Stryper fue tendiendo hacia un sonido más convencional debido a que su fe cristiana se fue debilitando.​​Entre sus aparentes inconsistencias, los fanes se preguntaron porqué hicieron una versión de la canción de 1975 "Shining Star", un hit #1 de Earth Wind & Fire. El vídeo fue previsto para convertirse en otro éxito en MTV, pero fue el primero para el grupo que no lo logró. Los siguientes vídeos y sencillos fueron "Two Time Woman" y "Lady" (ambos con un concepto visual muy similar), los cuales generaron una difusión mínima. Sin embargo, muchos críticos todavía consideran a Against the Law como su mejor producción musical a la fecha. El 20 de julio de 1991, después de firmar para Hollywood Records, Stryper lanzó su primera colección de grandes éxitos llamada Can't Stop the Rock, la cual presentaba dos nuevas canciones. Una de ellas fue inspirada en la Guerra del Golfo que se desarrollaba en esa época, "Believe". La banda continuó con un tour hasta febrero de 1992, cuando su líder y cantante Michael Sweet se marchó aludiendo diferencias artísticas y con la finalidad de empezar una carrera en solitario.​ Stryper continuó como un trío por algunas fechas en su tour europeo, con Oz Fox como su cantante. Algunas de sus presentaciones fueron con la banda cristiana Bride donde se encontraba Dale Thompson como su cantante. Durante uno de esos conciertos Robert Sweet inesperadamente anunció que Thompson sería su nuevo vocalista en Stryper. Sin embargo, esto fue desmentido más tarde por el propio cantante. Una vez que terminaron el tour y regresaron a Estados Unidos, los tres miembros restantes decidieron que cada uno debía seguir caminos separados. Sin lugar a dudas, y como un efecto adicional, el estilo glam metal que representaba el grupo estaba en franca decadencia y la disposición musical iba hacia agrupaciones de rock alternativo y grunge. Muchas agrupaciones del género debieron evolucionar y otras desaparecieron, entre ellas Stryper. Oz Fox y Tim Gaines formaron su propia banda SinDizzy, y lanzaron el álbum He's Not Dead en 1998. Durante los 90´s, Michael Sweet lanzó un total de cuatro discos en solitario que fueron grandes éxitos en el Mercado de la música cristiana. Robert Sweet tocó en algunas bandas, una de ellas Blissed, quienes publicaron un álbum en 2002. Otras agrupaciones incluyeron King James, dbeality, Final Axe, y The Seventh Power. Los miembros originales de Stryper se reunieron por primera vez en 1999, cuando Michael Sweet y SinDizzy fueron invitados a tocar en un festival de rock veraniego en Puerto Rico. Como una participación adicional, Michael Sweet invitó a sus antiguos compañeros Oz Fox y Tim Gaines al escenario y tocaron algunas canciones de Stryper. Más tarde en 2000, se realiza la primera "Stryper Expo" que tuvo lugar en New Jersey, y fue la primera vez en ocho años que estuvieron juntos el equipo completo de Stryper en un escenario . Una segunda "Stryper Expo" se llevó a cabo en Los Angeles en el 2001.[5] Como parte de su regreso paulatino a los escenarios, la banda actuó por primera vez en Centroamérica, con un único concierto ofrecido en Costa Rica en diciembre de 2000. El concierto para sus seguidores fue histórico, pues se trató de la primera presentación del cuarteto original tras casi nueve años de separación.​ Posteriormente, se efectuó un segundo "Stryper Expo" en Los Ángeles en 2001.​Hollywood Records sugirió a los miembros del grupo que grabaran las pistas para un nuevo álbum recopilatorio de éxitos en 2003, el cual vio la luz con el nombre de 7: The Best of Stryper que también tenía dos nuevas canciones, "Something" y "For You". Un tour lo siguió como promoción, con 36 shows en Estados Unidos y finalizó en San Juan, Puerto Rico. Un álbum en vivo, titulado 7 Weeks: Live in America, 2003, fue lanzado al siguiente año, y el concierto en Puerto Rico fue filmado en formado de DVD, producido y dirigido por Jack Edward Sawyers. No obstante, el show en esa ciudad fue el último con la alineación original de Stryper por algunos años. Gaines se marchó una vez más en 2004 antes de que actuaran en el Night of Joy de Disney, en Orlando. El bajista de gira durante la carrera de Michael en solitario, Tracy Ferrie, lo reemplazó por algunos años. Después del show de "Night of Joy" y con nuevas energías, Stryper decidió retornar al estudio con la grabación de un nuevo CD, Reborn y una gira subsiguiente en el otoño de 2004. Reborn fue lanzado el 16 de agosto de 2005, y fue la primera grabación con material original y nuevo tras largos 15 años. El nuevo álbum recibió una respuesta positiva de fanes y críticos, y algunos de ellos lo calificaron como uno de los mejores de ese año.​ Con un sonido decididamente más moderno incorporó aspectos del rock alternativo y grunge, con pocos solos de guitarra, lo que le dio a la banda el estilo e identidad que trataron de buscar. Algunos temas se hacen familiares al sonido de las grabaciones en solitario de Michael. En efecto, él originalmente concibió a Reborn como un proyecto para relanzar su carrera en solitario.​ Las letras marcan un retorno a la lírica clásica del grupo que habla de Dios y la salvación. En general, el sonido de este disco es más contemporáneo comparado con sus anteriores trabajos y más pesado, con algunas influencias de nu metal.​ También se ha citado como más maduro que su material previo, “menos glam y más sentimiento” de acuerdo a algunas publicaciones. Este fue el primero y el único trabajo con el nuevo bajista Tracy Ferrie. Reborn también fue único por la curiosa variedad del arte de su cubierta, que variaba de acuerdo al formato y región donde se distribuyó. Esta alternancia con respesto a la original de Estados Unidos fue creada por algunos puntos de distribución (como tiendas cristianas) donde se consideró que su cubierta original había sido percibida como muy perturbadora y ofensiva. En 2006. Stryper lanzó el DVD Greatest Hits: Live in Puerto Rico con Music Video Distributors. En noviembre de 2006, anunciaron una nueva dirección administrativa. También anunciaron que el siguiente material a Reborn estaría listo entre la primera/verano de 2007. Sin embargo, en febrero se indicó que Michael Sweet retrasaría la producción de un nuevo álbum por dos años antes de que comenzaran la grabación por motivos personales. La esposa del cantante Kyle fue diagnosticada con una estadificación avanzada de un cáncer de ovarios, y decidió permanecer con ella y apoyarla en su enfermedad. Kyle se sometió a una cirugía y tratamientos el 14 de febrero al 14 de julio de ese año. A pesar de resultados inicialmente satisfactorios, en abril de 2008, anunció que su cáncer había regresado. A pesar de estos problemas familiares, la mezcla para el nuevo álbum de Stryper empezó en enero de 2008, y Sweet dijo que debería estar listo entre julio o agosto.​ Durante este periodo, Michael Sweet fue consultado para participar como un miembro de gira del grupo Boston en 2007 como vocalista y guitarrista, a lo que accedió. Estuvo con ellos durante el tour en 2008, junto con Styx como el acto de apertura. El 5 de marzo de 2009, la esposa de Michael Sweet finalmente murió de cáncer.​ Murder by Pride fue lanzado el 21 de julio de 2009, con el sencillo principal "Peace of Mind" (una versión de Boston), precediéndolo. El álbum alcanzó un relativamente aceptable #73 en el Billboard 200, el #32 en los Rock Albums y el #2 entre los álbumes cristianos. Estilísticamente, Michael Sweet ha comentado, que "después de años de hablar con los fans y escuchar los comentarios como 'más guitarras´, `más solos´y `más gritos he decidido mantener estas sugerencias en mente y así escribí cada canción. Fue importante para mí para tratar de volver al sonido de principios de Stryper pero al mismo tiempo, permanecer relevante en la actualidad. Es cierto que no es una cosa fácil de hacer, pero cuando escucho `Murder by Pride´, creo que se logró”.​​ En adición a que todavía tocaba con Stryper, Oz Fox también fue parte de la banda de metal cristiano Bloodgood, quien también fue uno de los favoritos a inicios de los 80´s en la escena de su género. Desde finales de 2008, Tim Gaines tocó el bajo en un concierto con Tourniquet. Este grupo agregó el tema "To Hell With The Devil" en su repertorio gracias a la sugerencia de Tim. Recientemente, Oz Fox también se unió a Tourniquet en el escenario en una presentación en Alemania para interpretar la misma canción. En setiembre de 2009, Stryper anunció que saldrían de gira con la banda del hijo de Michael Sweet Flight Patterns y el grupo canadiense Manic Drive. El 13 de julio de 2010, anunciaron que el noveno disco de Stryper se llamó The Covering. Aunque tentativamente se lanzaría el 13 de octubre, su fecha final de salida fue el 15 de febrero de 2011 bajo la etiqueta Big3 Records/Sony. Contrario a lo que había publicado anteriormente la agrupación, este álbum no tuvo material completamente original e inusualmente tampoco es de corte cristiano. Es una colección de doce versiones de canciones de bandas que inspiraron a Stryper y la ayudaron a definir su identidad musical, incluyendo a Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Kansas y muchos otros. The Covering también incluyó "God", una grabación inédia y original. Sobre el concepto de este trabajo musical, el productor y líder de la banda Michael Sweet dio sus razones: "A pesar de que este ha sido un disco para causar controversia y unos pocos se harán la pregunta sobre nuestros motivos y razones para hacer covers de las canciones que grabamos, nuestra fe y las creencias nunca se han confirmado más y nuestro mensaje es el mismo que siempre ha sido. Vamos a ir a la tumba con una postura valiente ante Cristo y nunca lo vamos a negar. Al mismo tiempo, queríamos mostrar un lado diferente de la banda...".​El 14 de septiembre de 2010, se lanzó el primer sencillo del álbum, una versión de Black Sabbath, el éxito "Heaven and Hell" (1980), disponible para descargar por iTunes. Para el 14 de diciembre de 2010, el segundo sencillo lanzado es una versión de Kansas, "Carry On Wayward Son" (1976), de igual forma disponible en el mismo sitio. Luego de lanzar The Covering y su posterior gira, Stryper entró a los estudios para grabar un nuevo disco con la etiqueta italiana Frontiers Records, el cual se llamó Second Coming​(en referencia a la segunda venida del Señor) y que salió a la venta el 22 de marzo de 2013 en Europa y el 16 de marzo en América. El disco contiene 16 canciones, de las cuales 14 son clásicos extraídos de The Yellow and Black Attack, Soldiers Under Command y To Hell with the Devil y solo 2 son canciones nuevas, tituladas "Bleeding From Inside Out" y "Blackened". También hay una versión alterrntica de "Together As One" como bonus track para Japón. En forma simultánea, Stryper también trabajó en un álbum compuesto por completo con material inédito. En mayo de 2013, se reveló que el nombre de su siguiente álbum se llama No More Hell to Pay, lanzado el 5 de noviembre del mismo año a través de Frontiers Records, junto con un vídeo de la canción del mismo nombre.​ Michael Sweet, por su lado, terminó su autobiografía "HONESTLY" y la lanzará junto con su nuevo disco este año. Durante el año 2015 lanzan el álbum Fallen, el cual sería el último album con la formación original, ya que a finales del 2017 se oficializa que Tim Gaines deja la banda, siendo reemplazado por el reconocido bajista norteamericano Perry Richardson. El año 2018 lanzan el álbum "God Damn Evil" el cual ha recibido muy buenas críticas debido a su sonido bastante "heavy" y acercandose incluso en algunos temas al Thrash metal. Durante los 80´s Stryper representó el popular estilo glam metal con el que caracterizaron ampliamente sus interpretaciones visuales, solos de dos guitarras consecutivas, con una gran presencia de Michael Sweet y sus fuertes y agudos gritos y el cabello largo de los cuatro miembros. Una marca registrada (y única) es la ubicación del baterista Robert Sweet con su enorme conjunto de instrumentos en posición de lado durante los conciertos, con la finalidad de los espectadores lo puedan apreciar mejor. Este hecho ha propiciado que a Robert se le llame a menudo como un “cronometrador visual” más que un baterista,​ en alusión a que sus compañeros lo pueden observar previamente para coordinar la interpretación. Un elemento característico fue que todos sus instrumentos, logos y trajes fueron pintados con unas rayas amarillas y negras. El número de rayas en los escenarios y trajes variaban y se incrementaban durante el show. Es notable que durante la gira In God We Trust, Robert Sweet también cambiaba hasta su batería pintada en amarillo y negro. La banda explicó cierto simbolismo con respecto a las rayas, una directa referencia al latigazo cervical dado por Poncio Pilato a Jesús, derivado de la versión de la Biblia del Rey Jacobo, tomado de su versículo Isaías 53:5.​ Aparte de sus ubicuas rayas amarillas y negras, Stryper tuvo otras marcas registradas. Durante sus conciertos, lanzaba Biblias al auditorio – específicamente ediciones del Nuevo Testamento con el logo de la banda impreso en ellos. Como una protesta contra el popular símbolo del “666” del que se hacían uso muchos fanes del heavy metal, Robert propuso una alternativa numerológica. En consecuencia, el grupo empezó a utilizar el símbolo “777” que es actualmente referenciado por la Biblia (en oposición al 666, famosamente mencionado en Libro de las Revelaciones como el Número de la Bestia). El número 7 es tradicionalmente (en el simbolismo bíblico) asociado con la perfección divina. Algunos de los actos de Stryper incluyeron cruces tachadas como símbolo del “diablo” y “666” Los Angeles Times reportó en 1985 que “la banda obtuvo ovaciones entusiastas de fans de Twisted Sister gritando y levantando sólo uno de sus dedos al cielo, - una refutación del dedo doble de los `cuernos del diablo´, saludo de los muchos grupos de metal”. ".​ Stryper es reconocida como la primera banda de heavy metal abiertamente cristiana en ganar reconocimiento en el mundo de la música mainstream.​ Sin embargo, no ha estado libre de controversia. Muchos críticos cristianos no aprobaron la asociación del grupo con la subcultura heavy metal, lo cual es a menudo visto asociado con la imaginería satánica.​ Otros detractores cristianos vieron sus llamativas vestimentas como incongruente con la modestia en el vestir asociadas con los sinceros practicantes de la devota cristiandad.​ El tele evangelista Jimmy Swaggart fue un prominente crítico de Stryper, al aludir su práctica de arrojar biblias con el Nuevo Testamento al público, una práctica similar a “arrojar perlas a los cerdos”.​ En 1990, la revista Rolling Stone comentó que la banda empezó a desilusionarse con la música cristiana,​ y de ahí el rumbo algo errático en su dirección musical que siguió en lo sucesivo. Esto, combinado con un notable cambio en las letras de sus canciones en Against the Law, hizo que este material fuera prohibido en muchos establecimientos cristianos. Mientras tanto, The Benson Company, un mercado de artículos cristianos, retiró este disco de la distribución.​ La condena de Swaggart podría haber sido una sorpresa, no obstante, Stryper fue patrocinado por el ministerio de su rival Jim Bakker, quien estuvo agradecido con algunos álbumes de la banda. Stryper ha vendido más de 10 millones de copias alrededor del mundo,​ y se estima que dos tercios de sus discos fueron comprados por no cristianos.​ Ian Christe, autor del libro de historia Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, menciona que el álbum To Hell with the Devil en su libro como uno de los puntos de referencia del movimiento glam metal.​La canción To Hell with the Devil aparece en el lanzamiento de Rhino Records The Heavy Metal Box, una compilación de los mayores clásicos de metal secular con bandas como Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, y Metallica, así como otras menos influyentes como Twisted Sister y Poison. Pagina Oficial: https://stryper.com/

Reading is the most important skill children need to master to be successful in school and life. However, students increasingly are struggling with this most basic of academic abilities. When children have difficulty reading, they can quickly fall behind their peers. Luckily, there are ways to improve almost any child's reading proficiency with good instruction that's based on science.This fascinating discussion with renowned author Denise Eide will explore how the English language works, and the importance of spelling in developing better readers. Eide, who was mentored and inspired by literacy giant Robert Sweet (one of the nation's most-powerful champions of phonic-centered reading reform) will share why students need to be taught the building blocks of words: phonograms and spelling rules, and how understanding the reasons for the spellings of words can transform teaching and learning. Eide will share the “rules” she outlines in her book, ways to teach students to analyze the reasons for English spellings, and much more. We hope you'll join us for this fascinating podcast!

On this episode of THE CLASSIC METAL SHOW, Neeley and Chris start the show talking about Neeley's brother passing away and him traveling to the services for this unexpected death. Chris reveals that he did an awkward podcast, and that he went and had an adventure that spawned from a night out karaoking. They then talk about Neeley's plans with CMS friend Sal in December, which leads to some talk about The Sizzler and Golden Corral. Chris briefly introduces superchats to the CMS on Rumble and Odysee. All our links are available at https://www.linktr.ee/cmsrocks.**NOTE: Everything said here, and on every episode of all of our shows are 100% the opinions of the hosts. Nothing is stated as fact. Do your own research to see if their opinions are true or not.** Please take a moment to subscribe, share and leave us a 5 Star Review for this episode! It helps us grow and do better episodes for YOU!! ROKU: Search "The Classic Metal Show" in the Roku ChannelsAMAZON: Search "The CMS Network" To Add Our Channel

On this episode of THE CLASSIC METAL SHOW, Neeley and Chris talk about the comings and goings on the W.A.S.P. tour, as well as taking calls from callers about the tour. All our links are available at https://www.linktr.ee/cmsrocks. **NOTE: Everything said here, and on every episode of all of our shows are 100% the opinions of the hosts. Nothing is stated as fact. Do your own research to see if their opinions are true or not.** Please take a moment to subscribe, share and leave us a 5 Star Review for this episode! It helps us grow and do better episodes for YOU!! ROKU: Search "The Classic Metal Show" in the Roku Channels AMAZON: Search "The CMS Network" To Add Our Channel

Hello Metalheads-We are excited to share this New Release Showcase Feature Interview Tonight. When it comes to groundbreaking bands in the metal genre, Stryper is renowned for their distinctive brand of “heavenly metal. The group ascended to prominence in the 1980s with Billboard Top 40 hits like “Calling on You,” “Honestly,” and “Always There for You” and had maintained a global fanbase since. Today, some 37+ years after emerging from the southern California nightclub scene, the foursome continues to record, tour and perform for loyal fans around the globe. Stryper returns with a brand new studio album, "The Final Battle" and sees the band growing heavier while also maintaining their trademark melodies, virtuoso guitar playing, and air tight rhythms.  Comprising of three original members including brothers Michael Sweet (lead vocals, guitar) and Robert Sweet (drums), Oz Fox (guitar) and newest bandmate, seasoned bassist Perry Richardson (formerly of Firehouse), the group finds itself creating their finest, most powerful music yet.   Michael Sweet joins The Vernomatic and Metal Walt tonight to discuss the New CD, The current Health situation of the band, The touring landscape that has STRYPER on the road well into  2023,2024 and beyond.  Vern and Walt share their critique of many of the stand out tracks from the new CD as well as fun History Of Metal topics.  A great unique conversation filled with in-depth antidotes and disclosures found only here at Metal Mayhem ROC. We welcome comments,good or bad on this discussion. Hit us up on Facebook, twitter or send a direct message at our website.  Social Media: http://www.stryper.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Stryper https://twitter.com/Stryper https://www.instagram.com/stryper/ https://www.youtube.com/user/stryperofficial https://metalmayhemroc.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/metalmayhemroc https://twitter.com/MetalmayhemR

Date: October 26, 2022Name of podcast: Backstage Pass RadioEpisode title and number:  S3: E14: Michael Sweet (Stryper) - The Final BattleArtist Bio -Iconic rock outfit Stryper is set to release The Final Battle (Frontiers Music Srl), the band's fourteenth studio album. Showcasing hard-charging songs filled with crunchy guitar riffs, full-throated vocals and soaring melodies, the album reminds listeners that the seasoned foursome continues to produce divinely inspired music with enduring excellence. Stryper's career album sales exceed 10 million worldwide, including 1986's multiplatinum release To Hell with the Devil. The band also made history when it notched two songs simultaneously in MTV's Top 10 with videos “Free” and “Honestly.”Today, close to 40 years after emerging from the southern California nightclub scene, the foursome continues to record, tour and perform for devoted fans around the globe. Comprising three original members including brothers Michael Sweet and Robert Sweet (drums), Oz Fox (guitar) and newest bandmate, veteran bassist Perry Richardson (formerly of Firehouse), the group finds itself continuing to create their finest, most powerful music yet.Sponsor Link:WWW.ECOTRIC.COMBackstage Pass Radio Social Media Handles:Facebook - @backstagepassradiopodcast @randyhulseymusicInstagram - @Backstagepassradio @randyhulseymusicTwitter - @backstagepassPC @rhulseymusicWebsite - backstagepassradio.com and randyhulsey.comArtist Media Handles:Website - www.stryper.comInstagram  - https://www.instagram.com/stryperFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/stryperTwitter - https://twitter.com/stryperCall to actionWe ask our listeners to like, share, and subscribe to the show and the artist's social media pages. This enables us to continue pushing great content to the consumer. Thank you for being a part of Backstage Pass RadioYour Host,Randy Hulsey 

Lead singer for Blissed joins the show.  He discusses his first real band, King's Ransom.  Could it be possible to hear this band's old music?  He goes in to detail about how he got Robert Sweet involved in Blissed and it's a very interesting story.  I would say any fan of Stryper, will really enjoy this episode.  Moving on with the group and it's history.   Closing song is by his former band Kings Ransom. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Legendary drummer, Robert Sweet, joins the show. He discusses some fun drum talk, about his sets. What does he want to bring back and what happened to some of the old sets. The treatment Stryper has received for simply being a group of Christians. The pain that comes along of being an aggressive drummer and the nerves before every show. He tells a story about saving his son from death. He also discusses his time on the show Pawn Stars, that was very interesting. Check out the upcoming Stryper shows, the live feed show coming up and the new album. Stryper.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Bio Technology is exciting and rapidly expanding. It is the future of health and healthcare. While the technology is far reaching. One aspect is simulation technology. What is simulation technology? Consider how we use simulation to train pilots,what about using simulation to train surgeons and the surgical team?   In this episode we interview Dr Robert Sweet, MD, a leader in simulation training for healthcare professionals.   Visit our website for all the podcasts, additional resources and social media links Website: theoriginalguidetomenshealth.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoriginalguidetomenshealth/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/guide2menshlth Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-original-guide-to-mens-health/

On this edition of CHRIS AKIN PRESENTS..., Chris sits down with former American Idol vocalist James Durbin (ex-Quiet Riot / Durbin). Durbin checked in to discuss his new band Cleanbreak, the new release COMING HOME, how the band came together, James' musical identity and much more! 

Stryper's Robert Sweet Talks Cedar Rapids Show, and even gives a shoutout to one of our listeners.

Steve discusses his connection with Michael and Robert Sweet.  We discuss the band Judea and their history, which included working on one of the California Metal albums.  Having the chance to play with Titanic, after Robert Sweet.  Re-releasing the Judea music, through Roxx Records and what could be next. Roxxrecords.com  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Learn about Jimi and his musical history.  From starting in the band, Sacred Fire, which were on Star Song.  How he met Rex Carroll and the formation of King James.  He shares a story about a KJ show, that didn't start off good, but took a good turn.  Working with Robert Sweet and Louie Weaver.  He discusses, Ean Evans, who played bass on the first KJ tour.  He then went on to play with Lynyrd Skynyrd, until he had to step aside, due to having cancer.  He unfortunately passed away and Jimi discusses how they honored him.  Lot's of interesting topics, Jimi, discusses.  Be on the lookout for new music from Jimi and King James. Here a link for an old Sacred Fire song-https://youtu.be/NlumwVe0oUA --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

A great conversation with guitar legend, Rex Carroll. We discuss how Fierce Heart was formed and what happens to the band after one album. The creation of Whitecross and plenty of discussion, of the bands history. Rex plays plenty of his songs and solos, during the episode and even gives a super exclusive, sneak peak, for an upcoming Whitecross song. We also discuss his jazz group and King James. He tells me how Robert Sweet and Tim Gaines became part of the first King James album. This is a very detailed discussion and any fan of Rex, or of music, doesn't want to miss this one. Make sure you go to Cameo.com and search for Rex and give a Rex fan, the gift of a cameo video, straight from Rex. It's also only $20! Rexcarrollmusic.com https://www.facebook.com/groups/Christianmetal01/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Larry and Chris join the show to discuss the history of Fear Not. Why the one album at the time. Larry singing on Robert Sweet's solo album and much more.

THAT METAL INTERVIEW presents Michael Sweet of STRYPER (recorded October 2020). The Stryper frontman explains to us his appreciation for his fans and the struggles the band has been through over the years. Michael also expresses his way working with his brother and bandmate Robert Sweet. He also answers plenty of fan questions. Donate to the channel to help create new content! https://www.paypal.me/thatmetalinterv... That Metal Interview Podcast is FREE and ON DEMAND, stream now on Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Anchor, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Deezer, Bandcamp. Listen to The #ThatMetalInterviewPodcast​​​​​: https://lnk.to/uj7sH3k4 Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/InterviewThat Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatmetalinterview/ Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThatMetalInterview Subscribe on YouTube: http://youtube.com/JrocksMetalZone

As frontman for Stryper and a solo artist, Michael Sweet is an icon of Christian metal. Having paved the way for other bands behind them, Stryper took a lot of the heat from both the Church and secular world, as they continued to dominate charts during the 80's and 90's. Now, in a new era, the band finds itself still producing music, but without original bassist, Tim Gaines. On this episode, Sweet talks candidly about those years when the band struggled with their faith, why Tim had to leave the band and what's ahead for Stryper. Plus, we give you a listen to the title track of Stryper's newest album, Even the Devil Believes, and highlight some other Stryper classics!If you would like to support this program and get a Jesus Freaks T-shirt, click HERE!Music in this episode Includes:"More Than a Man" (To Hell with the Devil) - Enigma Records"Against the Law" (Against the Law) - Enigma Records"To Hell with theDevil" (To Hell with the Devil) - Enigma Records"Soldiers Under Command" (Soldiers Under Command) - Hollywood Records"Even the Devil Believes" (Even the Devil Believes) - Frontiers MusicAll music used with artist's permission. This podcast is licensed through BMI.

THAT METAL INTERVIEW presents Michael Sweet of STRYPER (recorded October 2020). The Stryper frontman explains to us his appreciation for his fans and the struggles the band has been through over the years. Michael also expresses his way working with his brother and bandmate Robert Sweet. He also answers plenty of fan questions. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

THAT METAL INTERVIEW presents Michael Sweet of STRYPER (recorded October 2020). The Stryper frontman explains to us his appreciation for his fans and the struggles the band has been through over the years. Michael also expresses his way working with his brother and bandmate Robert Sweet. He also answers plenty of fan questions.Donate to the channel to help create new content! https://www.paypal.me/thatmetalinterv...That Metal Interview Podcast is FREE and ON DEMAND, stream now on Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify, Anchor, Google Podcasts, Pandora, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Deezer, Bandcamp.Listen to The #ThatMetalInterviewPodcast​​​​​: https://lnk.to/uj7sH3k4Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/InterviewThatFollow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatmetalinterview/Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThatMetalInterviewSubscribe on YouTube: http://youtube.com/JrocksMetalZoneSupport the show (https://www.patron.com/thatmetalinterviewpodcast)

Michael Sweet of Stryper returns to the show to talk about their latest release Even The Devil Believes, Cardi B, staying busy when you can't tour, the recent remarks from the CEO of Spotify and more. Always fun when Michael joins the show. Iconic rock band Stryper returns with their 13th studio album, "Even the Devil Believes" (Frontiers Music Srl) -- Available today, September 4th, wherever music is sold. Filled with the band’s signature riffs, harmony-laden melodies and positive themes, the 11-track project is Stryper’s first studio album with Perry Richardson (Firehouse) on bass and background vocals. Fans can purchase the album on CD, Vinyl, or Digital or stream it on their preferred service here: https://orcd.co/stryper "It’s a tough world out there but we’ve somehow been able to rise above and deliver our best one yet,” says vocalist/guitarist Michael Sweet. "We’re very blessed to still be bringing a little ‘church' to the metal world 36 years later. I can’t wait for you all to hear our new album.” With over 10 Million albums sold worldwide, Stryper is renowned for its distinctive brand of “heavenly metal” and extraordinary crossover success. The group ascended to prominence in the 1980s with Billboard Top 40 hits like “Calling on You,” “Honestly,” and “Always There for You,” and has maintained a global fanbase ever since. Stryper is the first band to ever have two songs in MTV’s Top 10 simultaneously with their hits “Free” and “Honestly.” Stryper is comprised of original members Michael Sweet (lead vocals, guitar), Robert Sweet (drums), and Oz Fox (guitar), plus the addition of seasoned bassist Perry Richardson. "Even the Devil Believes" was produced by Michael Sweet. For more information, visit www.stryper.com.

In this episode of Ventures we look at the response to COVID-19 by teams involved with emergency preparedness and innovation at University of Washington (UW) Medicine in Seattle. We also discuss the need and options available for startups to collaborate with UW Medicine to help - not only with COVID-19 relief - but with general medtech and telehealth innovation to provide better care for patients in a post-COVID-19 world. Visit https://satchel.works/@wclittle/ventures-episode-9 for detailed notes and links to resources mentioned. You can watch this episode via video here.    My guests this week are Danica Little (Director of Preparedness at UW Medicine, https://www.linkedin.com/in/danica-little-mha-6b998a2b/), Dmitry Levin (see below for is current three roles: https://cardiology.uw.edu/research/center-cardiovascular-innovation-ccvi), and Dr. Robert Sweet (Urology professor and doctor, Executive Director of WISH - WWAMI Institute for Simulation in Healthcare - https://www.washington.edu/urology/people/robert-sweet/)  6:29 - How did Danica and UW Medicine first respond/act upon the news that COVID-19 was going to be a serious threat in the US? 15:50 - What was information flow like to Danica and her team in the early days? How reliable was it? 18:29 - What was the story of Rob getting involved with the innovation response at UW?24:08 - How was Rob and his team able to organize themselves so quickly to rapidly prototype new innovations at the beginning of the pandemic? 27:50 - What was Dimitri's story of getting involved in the innovation group? 31:47 - Rob explains on how they focused the group on rapid prototyping and small-scale manufacturing32:50 - How was the innovation team identifying the problems to address and what products to focus their work on? 38:48 - How did collaboration across campus and UW medicine in particular work? 43:20 - Rob commenting about their collaboration with Cornell in NYC. 44:26 - Danica commenting about the burn rate at the height (in April) of going through 3000 gowns per day. 50:17 - Danica commenting on the relationship with Microsoft to build reporting systems. 53:38 - What sort of things are Danica and her team focusing on moving into the fall and winter?55:47 - Rob & Danica commenting on the future of telehealth, the needs today, and reimbursement details.1:00:50 - Dimitri commenting on pre-procedural models in XR, which is another layer to the telehealth space. 1:01:57 - What telehealth platforms are clinicians at UW medicine using? How do external companies become approved? How is UW responding to new innovation in the overall market?1:03:30 - How can Medical Assistants, Physician Assistants, interns, and new equipment/devices be a part of the future of telehealth? 1:05:10 - Brief comments regarding the science of the virus as it relates to urology and cardiology. 1:08:35 - Rob plugging the need and opportunity for external teams to partner with the simulation training center and innovation groups at the University of Washington.  1:09:37 - What types of simulation opportunities and scenarios are available? 1:11:55 - Dimitri commenting on device development and putting them in tissue models with realistic disease patterns for testing. 1:13:58 - Rob commenting on a grant they won recently regarding direct 3D-print soft materials with electronic sensors embe

Hair Metal Mixtape #132 - Bloodshot eyes. It's Saturday. Saturn's Day of Jamming with The Stones. We're loosening up because here comes the party. So raise your hands to makin' a mess because that sure feels good to me. Thanks for listening. But first, some NEWS; NEWS Stryper have released a lyric video for a new track off of their upcoming new studio album “Even The Devil Believes” Which brings us to “Hear “N Tell”….. So, this is Stryper’s new track from their recently released lyric video “Make Love Great Again” right here on Hair Metal Mixtape’s HEAR ’N TELL Hear 'n Tell; Stryper - "Make Love Great Again" - Official Lyric Video That was Christian rockers Stryper consisting of frontman Michael Sweet, drummer Robert Sweet, guitarist Oz Fox and bassist Perry Richardson (of Firehouse) who have released this track you just heard “Make Love Great Again” as a new single lyric video from their upcoming new studio album Even The Devil Believes, which will be available via Frontiers Music Srl on September 4, 2020. Be sure to click the links in the show notes to see the video or just head to the ol’ YouTubes or click here > Frontiers Music Srl page. …and that’s the news! This is Hair Metal Mixtape where I bring you a half hour plus of my favorite and hopefully your favorite 70's Glam Rock, 80’s Heavy Metal, 90’s Hair Metal and some New Wave of Hair Metal, Sleaze Rock and everything that orbits around the universe in which we fondly call HAIR METAL. I hope you are maintaining your physical distance from your friends and loved ones for now and yet also engaging in social connectivity forever. Be kind, rewind. Peace, Love, Hair Metal! Welcome to the Zero DB Podcast Feed. Listen where all podcasts are heard. For more info or to reach out go to https://zerodbpodcast.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/zerodbpodcast or https://www.instagram.com/zerodbpodcast/ or write to me at gabrielomar23@gmail.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hairmetalmixtape/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/hairmetalmixtape/support

Scott returns this week with a great interview conducted with Stryper on their tour bus in 2019! As the band was winding down their God Damn Evil tour, they headed south to Atlanta where Scott caught up with them.In this conversation, you'll hear stories about the majority of the Stryper catalog going all the way back to the Roxx Regime days through current day. Some interesting insight is shared by all members of the band.Before the interview gets going Scott is once again joined by Rick from the band Say Never for a quick Stryper fandom discussion that's pretty entertaining.We hope you enjoy the Stryper Tour Bus Interview and SHARE with a friendYou're in Good Company!

ROCK TALK WITH MITCH LAFON PRESENTS -  Mitch Marathon Month with special guest JOEY CASSATA. Guitarist STEVE BROWN co-hosts. (The interview was recorded in early 2019) On this episode ZO2/Eric Martin Band drummer Joey Cassata discusses his recent book Start With A Dream: A Drummer's Journey From Rock & Roll To TV To Broadway, opening for KISS, Peter Criss, his love for KISS, ZO2, Eric Carr & the Unfinished Business album, Robert Sweet of Stryper, we talk more KISS and then KISS again, being on Broadway, Chris Jericho, more KISS... CHECK IT OUT! Get your MITCH MERCH here: https://loudtrax.com/Mitch  The only way to get all my interviews and content is to subscribe to Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon!  Help support the show. Please consider a donation: https://www.paypal.me/MitchLafon See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Special Guests: Brian Douglas and Bex Warner of GitHub. In this episode, the panelists talk about automating GitHub with Probot. The origins of Probot are discussed, as well as making GitHub apps with the GitHub API, automating workflows with Probot, must-have Probots for every repo, and GitHub's V4 GraphQL API. References: Microstates README Probot github.com/integrations/slack github.com/marketplace/pull-reminders platform.github.community/c/integrations probot.github.io/apps/unfurl-links/ probot.github.io/docs/deployment/ probot.github.io/docs/extensions/#scheduler probot.github.io/community This show was produced by Mandy Moore, aka @therubyrep of DevReps, LLC. TRANSCRIPT: ROBERT: Hello everyone and welcome to Episode 105 of The Frontside Podcast. I'm Robert DeLuca, the director of open source here at the Frontside and I'll be your episode host. Today, we're going to be discussing automating GitHub with Probot with Brian Douglas and Bex Warner. I'm really excited about this topic. The idea of automating GitHub workflows with bots is amazing. This is something that I've been wishing the GitHub have the platform support for since I even started using GitHub for open source. Just being able to have a bot to take care of certain things like somebody doesn't leave enough of a PR description and they open up a PR, you can have a bot that just responds to it and saying, "Can you provide more information?" It's pretty awesome. With me as co-host today is Charles Lowell, who is also a developer here at the Frontside. Hey, Charles. CHARLES: Hey, Robert. ROBERT: Before we get into the discussion, I like to make a tiny little announcement. We've been building a composable and an immutable state container called Microstates. I'm sure Charles can talk about this more at length, then we will in the next podcast episode -- 106, but I would like to make a small announcement that Taras who is an awesome developer here just wrapped up a month's worth of work, creating a new ReadMe to describe the vision of Microstates and what you can do with them and everything about Microstates. If you're interested in that, I highly recommend checking out the ReadMe. I'll drop a link in the show notes for you that are interested. CHARLES: If I can add, it really is [inaudible] because it isn't like any other state management solution out there. ROBERT: No, absolutely not. I've been building something with it in React Native over the weekend of the 4th of July and it's amazing. But enough about that, you'll hear about that next episode. For this episode, I want to talk about Probot with Brian and Bex. Hi are you two doing? BRIAN: I'm well. BEX: I'm good. Thanks for having us. ROBERT: No, thank you for joining. This is really exciting. Like I said in the intro, I've been really excited about this project. I do a good amount of open source, I would say and this has been really helpful in all of our repos. We have, I think like 78 open source repos on the Frontside. We have Microstates, like we just talked about and Big Test and all of those repos use some combination of Probots that people have built and it's really nice, especially with the new Checks API that has just come out. You can integrate Probot into that, right? BEX: Yes. I, actually am currently working on shifting one of our bots from using the commits Statuses API to the Checks API. ROBERT: That's awesome. Before we go too deep into it because I want to come back to that because that sounds really cool and what the integration of that is like and what changes because I'm not even really that familiar with it. I just know it was released. I kind of want to go from the beginning here. Where did Probot come from and can we get a little bit of a history for everybody that might not know what Probot is? BEX: Sure. Probot originally started out as this simple idea to make GitHub scriptable. The original idea was you have a single file in your repository that would be like a JavaScript file and it would essentially spell out how the bot would act on your repository and the goal was to make GitHub apps accessible to people because if you ever look through our GitHub apps documentation, I think it can be a little tough to get started. There's, honestly, a lot of nonsense that you have to go through in order to get set up. For one thing, the way our GitHub app authentication works is it requires a JSON web token followed by using that JSON web token to request an installation access token and that process would be really tough for new people to get started. ROBERT: Yeah, it sounds like it. BEX: Yeah, so Probot was created to abstract all of that away and handle all of that authentication automatically and simply leave you with the payload that you get from listening on web token events and in authenticated GitHub client to make authenticated API requests while authenticating as an app. ROBERT: Cool, so that's where it started like a flat JavaScript file in the root but today, you use like EMO files and a .GitHub folder. How do that kind of progress? BEX: Originally, their use case was much simpler and it quickly became clear that a single JavaScript file in the GitHub repo was not scriptable enough and not easy enough to understand. The goal was to make like an API that could make that JavaScript file really, really easy to customize for every API of GitHub and it quickly became clear that that was not really a feasible thing to do. as time went on, it turned into this way to build Node JS applications and essentially, what the configuration files you're referring to are the way in which we make it customizable because right now, there's no way to be officially supported GitHub apps channels to pass secrets because it means you're a [inaudible] and the owners of GitHub apps, so that was just a way to kind of stop that problem. ROBERT: Gotcha, okay. BEX: The actual code for GitHub apps still lives in a Node JS module basically and the configuration file just specifies how that module runs. ROBERT: Right, so they're deployed like Heroku instances, if you want, like anywhere you can host a node app. BEX: Yup. Heroku, Now, yeah. ROBERT: Interesting. BRIAN: As a reason to that, some explorations of doing serverless deployments for Probot, I think there's a couple of issues of them. I'm not sure if anybody's shipped anything like the way they at but it's pretty much it's possible to. BEX: Just a week ago, we even released a new version in which we update our core from Node JS to TypeScript and now that things are typed, we have big plans for serverless. ROBERT: Nice. That's awesome, so then you'll be able to deploy to a Lambda and off to [inaudible]. BEX: Exactly. CHARLES: Can I actually interject here, as kind of a person who doesn't really know the relationship between GitHub apps and the GitHub marketplace and what exactly a Probot is before we hear the origin story. I would love to hear a very high level view of how this ecosystem fits together. BRIAN: I think a lot of people are pretty familiar with interacting with the GitHub API and OAuth integrations. I think I've just spent a lot of time at different companies previously to GitHub, just like making calls, either to cURL or through Node JS or more recently, [inaudible]. GitHub apps itself are a way to take all the things that you had to do to make an integration to GitHub much easier. It has a lot of cool things like OAuth, scopings, so you no longer have ask for all your repos ask access whenever someone logs in with GitHub and the connection between like, "Now have gone from OAuth to Now to GitHub apps," there was a lot of, as Bex mentioned earlier, ceremony that happens to getting set up with GitHub apps and integrations that Probot is like this tool to speed up the process of getting to the point where you just want to script some automation or some sort of workflow and it gives you all that bullet play for you. I don't know if that was a good high level for you Charles. CHARLES: Yeah. I've kind of witnessed this second hand with Robert installing a bunch of things here, so let's use an example, like you did some sort of automation on our repos, Robert, where when someone files a ticket, there's this workflow that automatically adds a triage label, so that we know that this thing hasn't even been dealt with, so we really need to address that issue. It doesn't need to be as a high priority. It doesn't need to be closed as a duplicate of something. One of the different aspects that you described there, how do they fit in terms of serving this workflow onto the end user? Or was that a good example, even? BRIAN: One of the cool thing about GitHub apps and what Probot does for you is that normally, if you want to add a label to an issue, either you Charles or Robert, would have to be admin or maintainer on the team for the Frontside and you could add labels. But somebody who opens up an issue, doesn't have that ability to have write access to your content, which is adding a label. What a GitHub app does, it actually takes a spot as if you would have another user on your platform, instead of creating a dummy account or a dummy user. Probot is basically building a bot for you to then, give you the ability to add that issue. That's sort of workflow that normally would have to happen through an actual real human could not happen through a bot without taking up a spot of like, "I guess, I probably shouldn't speak so ignorant about our platform and what we actually pay for nowadays for GitHub," but I know we used to have like a limited amount of seats for organization, like that seat no longer has now taken up and now, it could be just be used a bot can do something that normally us would take. ROBERT: Right. You no longer have to create a user to do these things. BRIAN: Correct. BEX: [inaudible] within GitHub. It's sort of built in a way that apps can take a lot of power in your repositories. CHARLES: So then, what is the relationship between Probot and an app? BEX: Probot is essentially the framework for building an app. You can definitely make the equivalent of any Probot app outside of Probot. It abstracts away all of, basically, the horrible parts and leave the easy part. CHARLES: Now, I think I'm ready to participate in this discussion. ROBERT: That was perfect, though. That's a great intro because I actually didn't have a total grasp or understanding of the relationship between GitHub apps and Probots. That's really good. BEX: Yeah. Additionally, going back a second. You mentioned the marketplace before. One thing to note that is that there actually are several Probot apps on the marketplace right now. The marketplace is essentially the home for any larger, usually third-party companies that have made apps and Probot is essentially supporting some of those. ROBERT: Interesting, so then my question would then be, do you know anybody selling their Probots. Does the marketplace charge? I'm going to assume it does. BEX: Yes. ROBERT: Okay. Is there anybody charging for their Probot? BEX: Yes. There is a quite a few, in-fact, charging for it. Recently, a pretty popular example is the GitHub Slack integration, which is if you open new issues, you can have them appear in your Slack channel. That whole application was recently rewritten by GitHub. It was previously owned by Slack and that was built on top of Probot. CHARLES: And I actually remember, we upgraded to that version. It's actually way, way, way better. BEX: I'm glad you feel that way. CHARLES: I didn't know the story behind there. I was like, "Oh, I just got a lot of... Awesome," you know? Although I don't know what's the costing. BEX: Yeah, I think that integration is actually free, so that wasn't the best example. I think it's for open source projects, at the very least. BRIAN: Brandon, one of the maintainers for the Slack integration and work at GitHub, also did a really cool talk at the SlackDev Conference a couple of weeks ago, so if you're interested what were the behind the scenes. That integration is all open source as well, so if you have request or you have features that you would like to add to the Slack integration, you can pop into the repo that hopefully will show up on the show notes because I'm not sure if it's like GitHub/Slack, but I guess we'll find that out in the show notes later on. BEX: It's Integration/Slack. BRIAN: But for an example of a paid app of a non-third party, we're not talking like Travis or Circle or another one with the big names but rather, a solo dev created. It's Pull Reminders, which is on the marketplace as of today and essentially, this gives you reminders of your pull quest, so you can actually ping inside the comments and tell Pull Reminders to say, "Tell me about the pull request like next week because it's Friday and I don't have time to look at this." ROBERT: That's awesome. I've also seen the one that's kind of related, that is like you can set your out of office at GitHub, which is actually kind of a neat concept. BEX: Was that the one where we are already changing that profile photos to have the overlay or the one where is just auto-replying to messages because I've seen a couple of -- ROBERT: I think, it's just auto-replies. BEX: Okay. CHARLES: So, it can change like your profile pictures and really, not just related to repo and history related activities but everything? BEX: Anything that you can access via the GitHub API, you can almost access via GitHub apps. There's a list of end points that I specifically enable for GitHub apps because there's something such as delete a repository that there's basically, a very few circumstances under which you want to give that permission to an app. Also, to things very specific like your profile or your personal page. About a year ago, there was an official internal audit of all of the API endpoints because there are lots of inconsistencies over what was and what wasn't enabled for GitHub apps, so they went there and kind of decided, what endpoints should be enabled and what endpoints actually get enabled. Now, that list is much longer than it was a year ago. Now, it's much more comprehensive. ROBERT: That's awesome and is this for the Rest API and the GraphQL API? BEX: Yes. Probot does support both. The Rest API is the one that specifically had all of these endpoints audited. The GraphQL, since it's a bit newer, we sort of built those and more. ROBERT: Cool. I really like working with the GraphQL API with GitHub. It makes it easier than trying to do a bunch of Rest calls. BRIAN: Yeah, there's a community form, it's like a discourse form that the API team actually manages and sort of pipes in there. Again, going back to like, if there's not something in the Slack integration that you would like to have, the form, that community is actually in there, if there's something not in the GraphQL API, that you would like to see. No promises on shipping it within an x amount of time but if enough people are requesting it obviously, there's going to be some resources [inaudible] at. ROBERT: What do you mean? We're doing open source. It has to be done yesterday. BRIAN: Yeah, exactly. And that form is at Platform.GitHub.Community, just a URL to get there. ROBERT: Awesome, that will be helpful to look through and get some recommendations in there. One of my favorite things I was going to say about the new integration for Slack and GitHub is the fact that I can highlight line numbers, paste that linked in and then it just expands it and the chat in Slack. That is so nice and I use it all the time. BEX: Yeah, I love that they built that feature. Actually, the original feature that was built on GitHub to allow those line expansions in the first place, like on GitHub itself, was actually built last summer by some folks who were also a part of my intern class at GitHub last year. ROBERT: Hey, intern power. That's awesome. BEX: Yeah. ROBERT: Everyone there is doing amazing work. I'm also following along with somebody that is also an intern and it's building a weekly digest program. BEX: Oh, yeah. That's actually a Google Summer of Code student. ROBERT: Oh, interesting. BEX: So, being sponsored through Google Summer of Code by Probot as an open source support. ROBERT: Is there anything more to unpack there? That sounds really interesting. BEX: Essentially, we submitted an application for Google Summer of Code because we thought it'd be a cool way to get more people, more students, a mentorship opportunity for the maintainers, basically and we were honestly overwhelmed. We got like almost 100 applications and it ended up being a huge of a deal but we're -- ROBERT: That's a great problem. BEX: Yeah, definitely a good problem but we were really happy. We, initially wanted to accept more students but Google limited us to only two students, so we have two Google Summer of Code students working on projects and one team of women from Rails Girls Summer of Code working on Probot. ROBERT: That would be awesome. What do they working on? BEX: I'm not sure yet. They actually just started a couple of days ago but the other Google Summer of Code student is working on a background checks API to eventually do sentiment analysis of comment history of someone new to your repository. ROBERT: That's interesting. That sounds like there will be some machine learning in there. I might just throwing out buzzwords? BEX: Most likely, I think they're just using some sentiment analysis API, like the perspective API. I don't think they're actually doing that themselves. ROBERT: Okay. CHARLES: Actually, I have a couple questions. Back on the subject of Probot. How does this square with the classic mode of integration because there was a lot out there? I think the first one that I remember that stuck in my mind was like Travis and I don't know if there had to be like a special relationship between the Travis developers and the GitHub developers, that's like, they was able to make that integration happen so many years ago. I don't know how that happened. I just remember it popped up and I was like, "Woah. This is incredible," and we see kind of the integrations gets more and more rich. For someone who's got, like you mentioned a couple of the big names, is the idea that eventually those would be able to be completely supported is GitHub apps or is it they're always going to be kind of a separate track for kind of the really deep integrations? BRIAN: I wasn't around when Travis first integrated with Lyft GitHub and I think that's a really cool integration and I know they have a very nice sized team that's able to do that. I think if we zoom back out like Probot, the way to get started with Probot is that we have the CLI command, which is to create Probot app. I believe it was intentionally copied off of create React app and the cool thing about create React app and create Probot app is that they abstract all the ceremony and boilerplate to get started really quickly. It was like, what developers or smaller teams can get started with integrating with GitHub apps. I highly doubt that Travis is going to rewrite their entire application with something like create Probot app but they're definitely going to be moving towards the new API calls, which would have been like GitHub apps. Part of the Checks API that we had launched at the end of May, Travis had blog post on how their integration with the Checks API works. They're making, though they have a lot of what Legacy endpoints and a lot of Legacy integrations in the way they integrate with GitHub, they are actively moving towards a GitHub app. I don't know if I could actually comment on their status of where they are today, to be honest but actively, we want all new apps and new integrations to follow the model of being a GitHub app, so that way, out of the box, you have access to all the newer features. You have all the access to all the newer GraphQL endpoints, if you want to use GraphQL and that way, we can serve one market, as opposed to everybody who had a GitHub integration from five or six years ago, that was all piecemeal together and sort of duct tape, like we run move away from duct tape everything together. CHARLES: I see. BEX: I definitely agree that I don't think Travis is going to switch to using Probot anytime soon and I don't think most of the large companies will be doing that but I do think, there will be shift towards GitHub apps in general. For those companies that don't already have the buildings of the GitHub app started, I think that Probot could be, in time to free some of them. BRIAN: In addition to that too, Travis and Circle and all the CI integrations, they're doing a really good job. I think the cool thing about GitHub apps is what you take away all that ceremony of getting your checks to work, now we can start opening up the door of like what's the next sort of CICD thing like? There's another term or another, I guess category of applications that can now be built to improve GitHub. CHARLES: The most amazing thing about having a great platform is the apps that you don't foresee, like it just come completely out of left field and you're like, "Woah. I can't believe that's actually a possibility now." When you have started to see some of those, some Probot or GitHub apps, you're like, "Man, I didn't see that coming. That's awesome." BEX: A hundred percent. I think it's the most exciting part of Probot because I think GitHub as a platform, we all know GitHub is the largest developer platform in the world and I think the idea that developers can build on top of this platform is the most exciting idea right now. I have honestly already seen apps that really excites me. The other day, I saw this app that was definitely not near completion but it was essentially updating and issue a comment box over and over and taking response through like checking a box and then listening on that common edit, in order to specify your coffee order. ROBERT: Woah. BEX: I was like, "Do you want an ice coffee or regular? Do you want milk or sugar and cream?" and it was going one at a time. It didn't actually order you your coffee at the end but it was super exciting to watch that. You're just editing the comment. I had never seen that before. ROBERT: That's pretty slick and that's taking the API pretty far. I'm sure there were some parsing in there and each Webhook response are like, "Was this box edited or not." That interesting. CHARLES: Yeah. Actually, now that we're having this discussion is kind of like changing my mind a little bit. Robert and I were actually talking yesterday about trying to standardize on our release management and our plan was basically to have some software that was going to run inside of our CI provider and have kind of a shared library, just a little ntm package that was shared by all of our repos but I'm thinking now, man, we should really explore doing this as a GitHub app. ROBERT: Yes, please. I've had three ideas that I really want to build out as a Probot. I'm just going to list them off and then we can build them all together and take equity and you know. I'm kidding. But the two that really excite me, that I kind of want to do is one concept that we work on this open source project for our clients and if somebody from the outside that doesn't have commit bits to be able to push to master, it would be really cool if we had a Probot that after it had an approved on the PR, from the maintainer, that the person that open the PR could then tell a Probot say, "This is approved by somebody that manages this project. Can we merge?" and then the Probot would then actually merge. I don't know if that's possible. That's something that I definitely wanted to explore. Then the other one, which is less cool, would just be like if we have a couple branches on some of our projects that we want to continue and we're not ready to put it back into master but we want to continuously run the test suite against it, so the idea there would be to have a Probot that would watch for changes on master and rebase as needed and continue to run the test suite and see where you're at. Those are the two things that I'm really excited about to do with Probot but I just want to automate everything with GitHub now. CHARLES: Right. BEX: Yeah, definitely, that first idea was actually pretty viable. I'm curious to know like how you actually get those commit links -- is that what you called it? ROBERT: Commit bits are more like commit permissions, I guess. BEX: Oh, I see. ROBERT: An outside contributor. CHARLES: Yeah, we want to push responsibility to the person who is the maintainer who can approve it but actually, the way we do it at Frontside is the person who actually is making the change is responsible for merging it. Once you get approval, you still have to hit the go button and that's just going to make sure that you're taking responsibility for saying it's done but that doesn't work for open source because people coming off the internet are going to have the right to push but we would like to give it to them, maybe via an app, if there is a maintainer who's approved it. BEX: Yeah. That's definitely something you can do. I've seen quite a few apps that, essentially add outside collaborators to the repo. Are you familiar with the... I forgot what it is called, like the all contributor section, where you cite everyone in your repo and everything and who's worked on it. There was a GitHub app that would add someone automatically after they merge their first change. CHARLES: That's awesome. ROBERT: I may have seen that on React State Museum but I'm not sure. It's a repo that we've contributed to and it has all the contributors at the bottom. It seemingly just kind of popped up there. BRIAN: There's an app that, I would like to mention too that I'm pretty excited about, that it sounds trivial too and it's almost similar... Not similar but it's sort of related to what you were talking about, Rob, with your first app, which is the WIP bot, which is the work-in-progress bot. This is a pattern of whenever I open a PR and I might not ready for a merge but I want to share my code so I can get feedback earlier on, I'll type in WIP so that append to my title of my PR. What this engineer did was every time you do WIP, it's going to go into the GitHub API and actually block the PR for merging, which is a feature available to GitHub. It's nested in your settings but the cool thing about this it actually blocks the PR for merging, so you don't have to worry about getting your, sort of like show and tell code merging the master without being ready. ROBERT: That's one of the first bots that I installed on all of our repos and then you can correct me if I'm wrong, it didn't always have the ability to block the PR from being merged but with the new Checks API, is that something that was introduced? BEX: Not exactly. The way that blocking of merging works is if you set it as the required status, so you can install any sort of CI on your account and have it not being required and ignore it whenever you feel like it, so it's really up to you to make it required. Otherwise, it just isn't checked and that's true for anyone who uses the Statuses or the Checks API. ROBERT: Okay, so that's a Statuses API. Okay, sorry. BEX: Yes. ROBERT: Also, the cool thing about that that I noticed when that was rolled out was I was now able to pick and choose and use workflows on Circle CI and each workflow is broken out as a different status check. I am now required like linting and the build and the test have to pass for these browsers before it can merge, which is really cool to be able to pick and choose. BEX: Yeah. It's awesome. I know personally on some of my repos, I have a few checks that I just don't require because I know I have to make them pass. ROBERT: Yeah. Speaking specifically about the work-in-progress bot, do you know how that works? It's open source, so I am sure I can go look. I think we want to go make a PR. We had some back and forth about this, Charles. CHARLES: I actually just [inaudible] we disagree. ROBERT: Yes. Charles opened a PR and one of his first commits in the PR had work in progress and the title had work in progress and we have this this Probot on our website and it was a blog post. You know, you make a couple more commits and you're further down, you move the work in progress in the title but the PR were still blocked because the first commit on a PR have work in progress in it. I think if it's the most recent commit or if it's in your PR title with work in progress, it should block but otherwise, it should not and Charles feels differently. CHARLES: I have about six commits and the very first one have WIP in the title or in the commit message and it blocked the whole thing but I kind of felt like it actually made me go back and I had to squash it down to two commits because I actually feel that your commit history should tell the story of the development, not like it should an absolute one-to-one journal of what happens but what you are intending. I actually felt that it could help me out because there's six commits that we're kind of all over the place and just kind of slapdash together have made me kind of go back, rethink it and tell a coherent story. I think it did me a service but it was not obvious. I definitely agree with that but I was like, "Why? Why were you still blocking?" ROBERT: Do I really [inaudible] admin privileges? BEX: I would say, I am friends with the creator of the web app. His name is Gregory Mantis and he is actually got a huge work in progress PR shifting work in progress over to using the Checks API and one of the features that he's using with the Checks API is essentially this mark as now work in progress button that will add the special line, like feel free to merge or something like that into your original PR description at the bottom. If that is there, the work in progress app will no longer be blocking. It's essentially like a hard override and honestly, that's the power at the Checks API versus the Statuses API. That's really exciting. ROBERT: Because I have seen the work in progress bot to get into a weird state, where I did remove the work in progress from the title but it didn't quite update and I'm still blocked. It's okay for me because I have admin privileges but other people on the team maybe not and they might be blocked from something that's actually work in progress. It's a lot like that hard override will be probably pretty helpful. BEX: Yeah, definitely. I think sometimes, there's some confusion with that just because of the way what perks work on GitHub and the way our pages are rendered, that you may need to refresh the page before you actually see it take effect. ROBERT: Right, yeah. Overall though, I love that bot. I go weekly, probably to the Probot apps listing and just go shopping. BEX: Wow. I'm actually the person who approves all the Probot apps to the listings so that's pretty motivating there. ROBERT: It's really nice. I am not even joking when I say shopping, I go through and I open up a bunch of tabs, I read through them, "Oh, this could be useful," that kind of thing. BEX: The first app you mentioned, which was like the one that requests more info is actually one that I built, so that was kind of funny. I guess you got that from the Probot apps too. ROBERT: Yup. That one, we definitely use on a couple of our organizations and repos. It has yelled at me a couple of times because of a blank PR. BEX: It yells at me all the time. I think I get yelled at more than people who are actually doing it wrong. ROBERT: I'm a little embarrassed like, "I should do better. I need to set an example." BEX: Definitely. ROBERT: Cool. I'm curious what both of your favorite Probot app is. This ought to be interesting. BRIAN: The app that I'm really impressed with so far, that I actually only use on a junk project at the moment, is the weekly digest one and it's mainly because I built something for this in my previous role at the company but then we shift it, which is basically go through every single repo. I worked at a company called Netlify previously and we had way too many repos to maintain... Oh, sorry, to keep track of and I was moving further and further away from the backend at the time so I was unable to keep up to date with all that was changing. I built a Lambda to watch Webhooks and then give me a digest of what was shipped like issues and PRs closed. It was way over-engineered and I never actually shipped that to actually make it work. But then the weekly digesting came out maybe a couple of weeks ago and it blew me away because I was like, "This is exactly what I needed," and I was trying to make it overly complicated through like a Lambda and like a bunch of Webhooks and this person, with only a few weeks, has the scaffolding of what I needed. That's the one thing I'm pretty excited about. It was already mentioned earlier too, as well. BEX: I guess, I would say one of my favorite ones is the unfurl a link app. I think that one it so simple but so nice. I don't know. I think having that unfurl link preview is just beautiful. Essentially what it does is it listens on issue comment creation or pull request comment creation or issues your pull request or whatever and read through the text or whatever was that issue or pull request and looks for links and then, essentially unfurls them so you can get a really nice preview of what you're going to. I think that's really beautiful and just so simple. ROBERT: Yeah. I love that one too. I have that added to all of our repos. BEX: It's so much nicer. Why would you not unfurl your links when you could unfurl your links? ROBERT: Exactly. CHARLES: I actually have a question. I think it's been touched on, probably at least twice throughout the conversation. I want to actually create a Probot, how do I actually go about deploying it? What does that look like? What does it look like to deploy and maintain it? BEX: We have a page on our docs about deployment and essentially the TL;DR is you can deploy it on any normal cloud hosting service that you wanted to deploy it. There are a few things you need to specify. For example, GitHub gives you a private key that you need to create your JWT and that private key means to be passed into your hosting service however you do that and then, there's a few bits of information that need to be pass in. We have pretty intense docs about it. Honestly, I'm not a deployment person. I usually try to let other people do that and I have never had a problem going through our docs and just getting it working immediately. BRIAN: It's also mentioned that there are examples like Heroku and Now and a couple of other ones. If you have a service that you already like, it's possible it's already in the docs, like steps to how to get that deployed. BEX: Yup and any other services are more than welcome to be added to the docs. Pull request are welcome. ROBERT: Sweet. It sounds like we need to set up a hack date to create a Probot, Charles. CHARLES: Seriously, my mind is brewing. ROBERT: I guess it's not directly related to GraphQL but there's something that I've always wanted to build. For prior history to everybody [inaudible], then the podcast, Brian and I used to work at a company called IZEA and one of the things that we built and I worked on a lot was we would create a collect metrics on people's social accounts that they're connected and do that and graph it over time. This idea came from when I was building up that feature all the way back in 2013, I want to graph the change in GitHub stars. Is there an API available for me to see like weekly GitHub stars or is that something that I still have to manually store and track? BEX: There's definitely an API endpoint to get the amount of stars and I don't see why you couldn't just do that on weekly basis and compare but I don't think there's any track that change API. ROBERT: Gotcha, like a history of it. I could do this by just stealing and looking at what the weekly digest Probot is doing because there is a change in stars section in there. I was just curious if there was now an API that was available. BRIAN: Yeah, that's more unlikely. I'm going to say no without looking at all the reference documentation. I think as far as that database, it's something you'd probably have to collect on your own but it's also a good candidate for a GitHub app, where you build a service that you can actually track stars once you've installed it and then if you want to monetize it, you can actually pay for private repo or whatever stuff like that, if you wanted to. But it sounds like a great opportunity to see this in the GitHub/Probot listings. BEX: I actually just look this app really quick in our docs because I was curious but apparently, you can receive the star creation timestamps. That could be doable through timestamp usage. ROBERT: Oh, and then I just kind of loop through back and build your graph in there. BEX: Yeah. ROBERT: Interesting. All right. Well, [inaudible] I was going to do today. BEX: Yeah. But I think it's exciting to bot the weekly digest and then what you could extract from that into stargazing is that Probot scheduler, which is essentially this all Probot extension we made that triggers a Webhook on a scheduled time period because right now, the way GitHub apps works are so centered around Webhooks. It can be difficult to find a way to trigger an action on something outside of a Webhook, like on a schedule basis. ROBERT: Yeah, that would be really helpful. I can definitely see how that would be a problem, if it's very, very central to reacting to Webhooks and events that happen on the system. BEX: Exactly. ROBERT: You're just hoping that somebody comes through and creates an event at a specific time. CHARLES: Can I ask you a question about, it's definitely on topic of extending GitHub but currently, just a question about, where the line is between what you can and cannot extend? You mentioned, for example in the rewrite of the WIP bot, being able to throw out a big button that says override this merge. Are there any plans to be able to actually extend the UI in novel ways? Everything there right now is happening with API calls, with I assume, UI elements that are related but the UI elements are static. If someone wants to put a novel piece of the UI, that button is going to require an extension of the GitHub UI by GitHub itself. Are there any plans to be able to, I know it's a dangerous waters, perhaps at a limited fashion at first but maybe more so, add different interactions and the actual application. BEX: I think this is actually the most exciting future of GitHub as a platform. In the past, GitHub APIs have only specifically supporting things that you can do through the command line or you can do through GitHub's UI itself. The Checks API introduced the very first non-integration specific UI element essentially and the merge button that I was referring to in WIP is exactly that. It's essentially this button that you can change the text of it to be whatever you want and you can listen on that action and then you can do as an integration or an app, anything that you want based on that. I think that's the most exciting direction for GitHub. Because if you look at Slack, Slack is a platform that has sort of really impressive integrations in that response. Your apps on Slack can really do all of these things, use custom UI elements, so I think the most exciting features for GitHub as a platform is all of this customization and giving the power to the apps. ROBERT: Yeah, that sounds an awesome way to be able to extend GitHub without having to try and throw the feature on to GitHub developers. BEX: Exactly. I feel that a lot of the struggle right now is that there aren't these nice ways of communicating via apps because I feel lot of the apps and bots end up just commenting on issues and pull requests and taking up a ton of screen real estate as a result and I just think that that's not the way that bot should ideally interact with the GitHub platform. They should have their own space to exist and that's the feature I'm most excited for. CHARLES: Yeah. I can think of having like progress bars for CI checks and your various appointments. It's too exciting. I'm glad. That's definitely the response I was hoping to hear. BEX: Yeah. We're excited for it too. ROBERT: Basically, you all have a massive community of a bunch of developers that would want to do this and are willing to get their hands dirty on it. Enabling that community is probably the root of all Probot is about. That's super awesome. BEX: Yup. CHARLES: That's a good place to end, because gosh, it's going to be so exciting to have the millions of developers on the planet, just like surgeon to the APIs that you're developing. BRIAN: One thing to add to that too, about the whole million developers, there's a number that's been thrown out from Stack Overflow and also, some other people who are saying like there's 50 million developers, there's 24 million developers. As far as GitHub, our public user number is 28 million, the cool thing about Probot and GitHub apps is that there's a good chance that all those people that are using GitHub today are not actually developers. They're like PMs or designers and what's really cool about this, like having interactions with that kind of platform in this way is that you can now enable all the non-developers to be able to interact with your GitHub repos and start bringing more designers and PMs onto to the GitHub platform to interact with the developers. ROBERT: That is an interesting point. That is awesome and something that I'm always looking for is a different ways to collaborate with non-developers on my team because... I don't know, developers tend to think everything is always centered around code but it's not. The shifting at work that are awesome, needs a lot of collaboration from non-devs and non-dev skills. That would be really interesting to see. I'm excited for that to play out. BRIAN: Yeah. There's a blog post that was published a month ago, I think about where the design team, design system teams rather, built the integration to Figma to update their icons effectively. I just posted that in the chat to look into but they also built this as a Probot app as well. ROBERT: That is awesome. BEX: Yeah, that one is super exciting. You would have the app comment, the diff between what the old icon versus what the new icon look like and it's just such a beautiful design change to be able to see that shift. ROBERT: Man, I'm happy that this is happening. The future seems super bright. Where can we direct people to get resources to contribute, to get involved and start really going at this? BEX: Basically, Probot.GitHub.io has all the Probot stuff, /app has all the listings for apps you can install today, /docs is where the docs are, if you want to get started and hopefully from there, we link up to the necessary things that you need to do. BRIAN: Also, what I mentioned too via Probot Slack channel, there's a Slack channel as well and they do a weekly call. I think, it's weekly or bi-weekly call to actually chat with the Probot community. If you have questions, you can actually bring your questions to the team. BEX: Yeah, we call it 'Office Hours' and it's once a week and it's under our community page, where we also have a link to our Slack. We have a link to another podcast we run and basically, how to get involved in the Probot community. ROBERT: Those are really helpful resources. I do remember seeing that Office Hours. It's on Thursdays, right? BEX: Yes. ROBERT: I was going to drop in for one and then, I actually forgot. Actually, it might be going on as we talk right now in this podcast. BEX: It starts in half an hour, I think. ROBERT: That's awesome. Cool. Well, thank you Brian and Bex for having a conversation about Probot. This is really awesome. Is there anything that you would like to plug for yourselves? How people can get in contact with you? BRIAN: Yeah, I am BdougieYO on Twitter. Everything you need to know about me is there and I am happy to say hello. I'm also helping with the GitHub developer program, which is sort of getting a soon-to-be announced rebranding. If you go to Develop.GitHub.com/Program and you want to have more conversation about the API and GitHub apps on the GitHub side, you can go there to sign up. BEX: And I am HiImBexo on Twitter. You can ping me in any Probot stuff. I'd be happy to look at any Probot code. I've been looking at it for a while now so I'm happy to do that. ROBERT: That's awesome. Thank you all for having a conversation with us. This was really fun. I'm so excited about everything you can do with Probot. This is a really fun project. I'm happy that this is happening and I will make a Probot in the future. CHARLES: I'm looking forward too. Robert has been excited for quite some time and he definitely talks a lot about it and now, I have some insight as to what -- ROBERT: It's happening, I'm telling you. Well. Thank you for being here and we are the Frontside. We build UI that you can stake your future on. We are specializing in JavaScript. We can build anything that you want throw at us. We do functional programming, React testing, Vue, anything in JavaScript, we specialize in. As always if you want to suggest anything for us to have on the podcast or talk about, you can reach out to us at Contact@Frontside.io and like I teased earlier in the podcast, next episode is going to be all about Microstates, the immutable and functional state container, composable model system that we've been building, it's controls as a brainchild for the past two years. That is next episode and I'm really excited about that. It's a really fun API and expressive to build models with. Thank you, Mandy for producing our podcast and we'll see you next episode.

The Total Tutor Will explain Wrap around Services. Next, The Total Tutor will interview Michael Connelly. The topic will Obama's Education Plan. Next, The Total Tutor will interview Scott Ventrella. The topic will be why personal integrity matters. last, I will interview Robert Sweet former senior White House Staffer. The topic will be how Robert will fix education.

The Total Tutor will interview Joanna Garzilli. The topic will be  Trusting what your body is telling you. In addition, we will interview Vivian Gaspar. The topic will be How to Survive Your Financial Crisis. Please visit my website at www.totaltutor.org for more info. In addition, We will interview Robert Sweet. He will discuss his involvement in the National Right To Read.  

The Total Tutor will interview Mychal Wilson.  The topic will be  Courage of a Whistleblower. We will discuss teacher pay, and Wall Street Protesters.

For more information on The Master's University, visit masters.edu.

Robert Sweet from Stryper on the phone, brother Michael was under the weather. We talk current 2019 tour and 34 years ago this month, “Soldiers Under Command” and where did they get that van for the album cover? Those questions answered.