The Drummers: Robert Sweet, Kevin Whisler and Louie Weaver

Published on january 19th, 2020 | by Anthony Martínez

This is a very interesting photograph of Robert Sweet (Stryper), Kevin Wishler (Watchmen, Bloodgood) and Louie Weaver (Petra), during the 19th Dove Awards ceremony held in Nashville, Tennessee in 1988.

Well, in that year, Kevin Wishler was the drummer of the band Watchmen formed in 1984. Unlike Stryper and Petra, Watchmen did not have any nominations, as they only had an 8-song demo tape recorded in 1987. 

Watchmen won the battle of the bands in Washington and decided to fly to Nashville for the Dove awards ceremony, it was here that the band met different musicians from bands like Petra, Stryper or Degarmo & Key, besides they landed a record deal with Regency Records, this led them to record their only album in 1989 "Generation".

Weeks later, Watchmen would come to an end and Kevin would join Bloodgood in place of Mark Welling. Michael and Les met Kevin during a concert in Canada where Watchmen opened for Bloodgood.

On the other hand, Louie Weaver and Petra, were nominated for best Group and best Rock album of year with This Means War! of which they were not winners, well, it wasn't Stryper's night either since they wouldn't get any awards until 1989 with best album and best metal song "In God We Trust".