JOHN COOPER: 'Without STRYPER, There'd Be No SKILLET'

In a new interview with Hudson and Aly from "The Hudson Show" on RadioU, John Cooper, the frontman and bassist for the Grammy-nominated Christian rock band SKILLET, was asked to name his favorite 1980s Christian metal band. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, man. Well, I'm a huge PETRA fan. And I don't think you'd call PETRA metal exactly — I call them rock — but PETRA is, to me, the all-time greatest Christian rock band. And so if I was gonna say my favorite Christian metal band… I was a big fan of a band called BARREN CROSS. I don't know how many people know who BARREN CROSS was. But BARREN CROSS was sort of IRON MAIDEN-ish, and they had an amazing vocalist. And I loved BARREN CROSS."

Cooper continued: "The truth is I just loved all of it. I mean, I loved WHITECROSS. STRYPER, of course — you have to love STRYPER. Without STRYPER, there'd be no SKILLET. There'd probably be hardly any Christian metal about STRYPER. And so I love all of that stuff. It's tough to… I was just a fan of Christian metal. And when you're a fan of Christian music, you just kind of jump there with both feet, and then you end up loving everything. So, I don't know. That's my story. DELIVERANCE. DELIVERANCE was a great Christian thrash band."

Back in September 2021, STRYPER's Michael Sweet took to his social media to pose a question for his tens of thousands of followers: "Should SKILLET & STRYPER tour together? If this post breaks records with comments and shares then I’ll take that as a yes;-) Go!"

Several other prominent hard rock musicians responded to Sweet on both Instagram and Twitter, with QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Todd La Torre, who is an atheist, writing: "That would be a hard no." FOZZY's Chris Jericho was more open to the idea, saying: "That would be a great tour for u guys!!!" Former SALIVA vocalist Josey Scott was equally enthusiastic, writing: "YES!!!! I grew up with SKILLET in Memphis (the singer anyway) and he's always been a very cool cat man! And they friggin' STRAIGHT UP, DROP IT OFF BRO!!!!"

Sweet's post came one day after SKILLET and STRYPER shared the stage at the Rocktember Music Festival in Hinckley, Minnesota.

In various interviews over the years, Cooper has said that he "always had faith in God" and that his mother was a "Jesus fanatic." He also claimed that he was willing to put his career on the line to take a stand for Christ.

In April 2021, Cooper told the "Undaunted.Life: A Man's Podcast" that it was perfectly fine for Christians to play rock music. "I would say that music is created not by the Devil; [it is] created by the Lord," he said. "All things were created by God. So instead of thinking that the Devil owns a genre of music, I would say capture that music and bring it back into subjection under the Lordship of Christ."

Three years ago, STRYPER and SKILLET were among the artists featured in "The Jesus Music", a Lionsgate documentary that explored the ascent in the success of Christian contemporary music (CCM) and its often untold roots. The film told the story of the genre and how "the universal power of music from these artists shine through from their messages of passion, sacrifice, and redemption that inspire millions of devoted listeners," according to an official synopsis.