MICHAEL SWEET 'Guarantees' He Could Help VAN HALEN Make Best Album Since 'Women And Children First'

Michael Sweet says that he would love to help VAN HALEN make another classic album in the vein of the band’s earliest efforts. “Chances are in this lifetime it’ll never happen, but if it ever did, and we co-produced [the LP] together, and I was able, as a fan, a singer, a guitar player, a writer, to pull that out of them, I guarantee you it would be the best VAN HALEN album since [‘Van Halen’], ‘II’ and [‘Women And Children First’],” the STRYPER frontman told “10 Questions With The Musical Mind” in a new interview (hear audio below). “I can say that without even any hesitation at all, because, in a perfect world again, if they agreed to it, and we all worked together and went for that, I guarantee you it would happen and the world would be going, ‘What the eff just happened?'”

According to Sweet, the ideal VAN HALEN album should remain true to the band’s classic sound without attempting to incorporate any of the newer sonical influences which could dilute the group’s original songwriting magic.

“We don’t wanna hear VAN HALEN doing a modern song with no guitar solos,” Michael said. “You wanna hear VAN HALEN like you heard it on ‘Van Halen’ and ‘II’ and ‘Women And Children First’. That’s the VAN HALEN we all know and love, and that was the fire — a burning, ignited, raging fire.”

Back in 2015, Sweet said that VAN HALEN‘s latest studio album, 2012’s “A Different Kind Of Truth”, was one of the most disappointing records he has heard in the last few years.

“I’m a huge VAN HALEN fan — about as big as they come — and I’ve always loved the band and everything,” he said. “And I just feel like the last album… You know when you feel like a band is just going through the motions and they’re just not giving it their best? That’s what I felt with that album. It got some really good reviews — people were saying, ‘This is great. This is great’ — and I’m just kind of sitting there reading them, thinking, ‘Okay, I’m hearing something completely different than these people are hearing, apparently.’ And I have absolutely no clue what I am talking about, because I just didn’t get it. I didn’t get it. There’s qualities there that you’ve come to expect that are still there that you love — you know, Eddie‘s [Van Halen] playing… Eddie could play two notes and cause chins to drop, ’cause he’s Eddie. But… I don’t know, man.”

In a 2016 interview with Canadian podcaster Mitch Lafon, Sweet said that he would “absolutely” front VAN HALEN if he was ever asked to step in as a replacement for either David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar. He added that he “could handle the [band’s] full catalog,” including all the songs from both the Roth and Hagar eras. “I mean, I might have a little difficulty with some of the Sammy songs, but I could sing ’em, absolutely,” he said. “And the thing about it is, I’m a huge VAN HALEN fan, I know the material, I know the inflections. Like STRYPER, if you go on YouTube and watch us do [VAN HALEN‘s] ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love’, I can do the David Lee Roth stuff and hit all the inflections and hit the notes and totally pull it off. I could run around on stage — I’m still in decent shape — and entertain the crowd and get them into it and fit right in, I think. I think it would be a match made in heaven, no pun intended. But, you know, they’ve got David. If they ever decide to take on a new singer, maybe they would give me a call, and maybe I would do it. [Laughs]”