On this date in 1964, Sidney Matthew Sweet was born in Lincoln, Neb. He briefly attended the University of Georgia in 1983 before dropping out to focus on his music. Sweet is a singer, guitarist, bassist and keyboardist who has been writing and recording music since he was a teenager. As of this writing, he’s recorded 22 albums, many in the “power pop” genre, including “Girlfriend” (1991), “Altered Beast” (1993), “100% Fun” (1995), “Sunshine Lies” (2008), “Completely Under the Covers” (2015, with Susanna Hoffs, a box set of all three “Under the Covers” albums), “Tomorrow Forever” (2017) and “Tomorrow’s Daughter (2018).
In 2010, playwright Todd Almond made “Girlfriend” into a rock musical. His songs have been included in numerous television and film soundtracks. He also makes and sells pottery and owns the Lolina Green Pottery Studio. He lives in Omaha with his wife Lisa.
When asked by The Onion in 2000 if he believed in God, Sweet replied that he believes in nature: “I don’t think there’s a God like the God everybody’s taught about.” In 1991 he recorded “Divine Intervention,” which Slant magazine in 2004 called “the most melodic paean to agnosticism ever written.” In a 2016 interview with Magnet magazine, Sweet said, “People see what they want in ‘Divine Intervention.’ If they’re religious, they might think, ‘Awesome. That’s when God comes.’ But I was saying that he’s not. I was coming out as an atheist, in a way.”
Photo by Charlie IIevwellin of Sweet in 2006. CC 3.0
