Ozzy Osbourne always thought Stryper were “the highest hypocrisy”
Nothing that Ozzy Osbourne ever did was in the interest of some businessman.
Sure, he had to sell a bunch of records every time he went on a new album cycle, but the most endearing part about ‘The Prince of Darkness’ was how much of a straight shooter he could be whenever he talked about the Black Sabbath days or the times working with Randy Rhoads. He was never one to bullshit his fans, but years in the record business meant that Osbourne could see through any phonies in no time.
Because for as much as Sabbath were the kings of heavy metal, there were bound to be a few copycats along the way. Whereas most people who wanted to play hard rock took their cues from bands like Led Zeppelin, the demented sound of Tony Iommi’s riffs is half the reason why everything from thrash to stoner rock to death metal exists today. And even when he went solo, Osbourne wasn’t about to stop haunting the charts, either.
Even though Rhoads brought a certain edge to Osbourne’s solo career, it’s not like one of rock’s wildest frontmen was willing to clean up or anything. He had spent his whole life singing about the darkest fucking corners of the world at that point, and when listening to Diary of a Madman or even later albums like No Rest for the Wicked, he always found his groove when singing about getting into trouble.
Because that’s what goddamn rock and roll was all about, wasn’t it? No one was listening to Little Richard or Chuck Berry for how “safe” it sounded, and part of the appeal of listening to Osbourne was knowing that it might get a few disapproving looks from the adults in the room. So when bands like Stryper started coming out, it’s not like Osbourne was willing to play along with the sounds of Christian metal.
It’s not like religion doesn’t have a place in music, though. Osbourne himself even had a few hints of gospel flair in his delivery when he bellowed out ‘War Pigs’ back in the day, but Stryper was packed with all the wholesome energy of a middle school drug PSA and then tried to slap a bunch of guitar riffs over their tunes to make them look like a more Christian-leaning version of Van Halen.
Although Osbourne was proud to have been an elder statesman to a lot of 1980s groups back in the day, he felt that Stryper was going about it all wrong when they first came out, saying, “Everybody likes the bad guys. Take that band Stryper – that’s the highest form of hypocrisy. They wear the same clothes as me, but they carry crucifixes and Bibles. The difference is, nobody likes to hear a good person. I discovered that many years ago.”
Osbourne does have a point about Stryper’s look, but the problem had more to do with the music that they play. Rock and roll had been music for the outlaws of the world, but had Stryper rebranded themselves as a country act or even a more wholesome take on pop music, they probably would have fared a lot better than expecting genuine metalheads to sing along with ‘To Hell With the Devil’.
It’s certainly not as egregious as when Pat Boone tried his hand at singing metal music, but Osbourne’s critique of Stryper had more to do with their authenticity than anything else. Any band can have the right connections and might even make a few damn good rock and roll tunes, but if there’s no way that anyone believes what they are saying, what’s the point of anyone listening to them?
