Interview: Skillet

The last time Skillet played in West Michigan you were opening up for Seether, Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace. What was the experience of doing a secular rock tour like that like for you? Korey Cooper: It's great being able to do both markets. I guess when you do what God tells you to do, you just love doing it. It's a totally different group of people that you're reaching. When all the bands see that you're Christian they don't really know how to act with you, but when they see that you're real people and just nice, all their preconceived ideas of what Christians are like get knocked down. And then you get up onstage and try to rock as hard or harder than everybody else and then you have some cred. [Laughs] It's like, 'Hey, they can rock and it's okay and they love Jesus and hopefully act like him.' It's really not so much that people reject Jesus so much as it is that they reject mean, hypocritical, judgmental Christians.

Do you think that tour helped you to reach a new audience more than you were able to before? You know, yeah. It's good to be able to get out there when you've been around as long as we have. We've been around for eleven years and typically if we can get in front of new fans it's usually always a good reaction. Even if they don't buy the record they're like, 'Wow, you guys are crazy!' [Laughs] Yeah, it was helpful getting out in front of a new audience and to tell you truth the tour we're on now we're getting in front of a new audience as well. It's Winter Jam [an all-Christian music tour] and it's a primarily Christian market, but I think it's more mainstream than we normally go or I think we're allowed to go, I suppose. So we're pretty edgy for this tour, but man, we've made so many new fans it's just great.

Having been around as long as you have do you think the audience that goes to something like Winter Jam hasn't gotten into your music before because the harder rock side of your sound is something they have a hard time grabbing on to? Yeah, we are kind of scary and edgy for a lot of these people. If they bothered to do a little bit of research and see what we're about then they're not as scared, but just kind of looking at pictures or just listening to the heavy guitars that might freak them out. So it's great for us to be on a tour like this because those people are at this tour. A lot of those kids haven't heard of us. The gatekeepers like youth leaders or parents are a bit scared, and then when they see what we're about, yeah, we do rock hard, and we do love it, but we're all about Jesus, you know what I'm saying? [Laughs] Our lyrics are hopefully theologically sound and all that kind of stuff. This latest record I think has been reaching kids more than all of our other records. I think it's because we're dealing with issues and it's where the kids are at. We kind of meet them where they're at and some of our past records perhaps were a little over their heads as far as theology or whatever it was. This one's really hitting them with issues that they're dealing with and it's resonating and I think parents and youth leaders alike are seeing that so it's less scary, I think. [Laughs] It's crazy what kids are going through these days. It's crazy.

In another interview that John had done, when he was talking about the song "Better Than Drugs" off of Comatose, it became almost strangely controversial among some Christians because of the comparison that he made between the appeal of drugs for some people and how that's similar to the feeling of faith for others. Do you think the intentions of that song got completely confused? I don't know. I just think he thought it was a cool metaphor. That's what a lot of people run to. Obviously if you actually praise God, if you have an intimacy there, it is so much better. I didn't think that would be controversial to Christians, that's just a no-brainer. [Laughs] But it ended up being really controversial with Christians and the funny thing we've had people come to our shows recently and say, 'You know, I heard that song and I was on drugs and now I've been drug free for six months.' That was not the intention either, it's a great response, but if only the people who have a problem with it, the metaphor, could hear from these people who literally have been freed from drugs, and that's not because of the song, it's because God did something, you know? That's amazing! That wasn't the point either, but I'll take that perk.

Being on the road so much and having all the encounters with people, what has it been like for you and John to manage raising a family while being touring musicians? Not that we do this on purpose, but it's great for the bands to see us relating to each other in the way that we do. It's great for them to see us relating to our kids in the way that we do. I think it's just kind of like... I don't know, when you see a happy family it's a pretty amazing thing in this day and age. I think that everybody's really liked it. They like the kids being out, not that they want to hang out with the kids late at night when they're drinking or whatever, but it was actually refreshing and nice for them to see a woman that doesn't undermine her husband and wear the pants. That's not typical. To see the way that we treat our kids. That we have discipline; we don't let them get away with everything, but we really love them. I think it was really great for them to see that. I think it's one of those things that sticks out to people that you don't realize because you're just living your life and doing your thing.

What sort of challenges have you faced living life on the road with your family? There're things you always worry about, like, 'Am I giving my kids enough time?' You pray about things like that. Like, 'Is this fair to them?' All of the things that moms would feel, I imagine. And it's just one of those things we just feel like we're supposed to do. Not that I don't pray about it every six months or so. [Laughs] For me, I'm just like, 'Is this okay?' I'm just way, way past the stage in my life where I care about being a rockstar or the whole thing that you do when you're young and idealistic, I'm just so far past all those things that I just don't care if I'm at home with my kids and involved with the church. That would be great too. Just wherever God wants me to be. This is where he wants us to be so he supplies the grape for you. We've got a really great nanny. She's lovely and loves the Lord so when I'm gone, when I'm working, it's the same as far as the discipline and all that kind of stuff. So they get loads of attention, probably more than if we were both home working. We see them way more than that. And just the environments, sometimes you've got protect them from that. If we're doing a club tour, they're pretty much just in the bus or they can walk outside; I just don't take them in because it's nasty. Other than that, like the venues we're playing now, they can hang out. We usually have a dressing room. I think it's a good experience, so far so good.

You guys are touring in support of Comatose, which has been out for almost a year and a half now, so I've got to ask if you've started writing any new songs or started thinking about the next album yet? John's always, always writing. While we were in the studio for Comatose he was writing for the next record. He's pretty prolific with his writing, so that never was the stop, if there is a stop. We had talked about going in [to the studio] January-ish and then we had the opportunity to do this tour, so we said we had to do it because it's going to be really good for us. And then we haven't done a headlining tour yet. So we were like we got to get that in before we put out a new CD, so we're doing that through the end of May, immediately following this tour, and then we're doing the summer festivals. The idea is we're going to go in in May, but we don't have any plans for it yet. That's what everybody's been talking about. We'll probably be leaking something out sometime in the late, late fall. So the songs are there, obviously John always writes in the studio too. On the last record we had, I don't know, twenty songs going in, and then at the last minute he wrote "The Last Night," he wrote "Say Goodbye," he always does that kind of thing too. I think we're kind of looking at May, and we're just touring like crazy until then.