SKILLET's JOHN COOPER: I Didn't Even Know That We Were Making 'Positive' Music

In a recent interview with the Peoria, Illinois radio station 105.7 The X Rocks, SKILLET frontman John Cooper spoke about the band's knack for mixing hard-driving rock, grunge, metal and alternative sounds with a life-affirming, Christian message. He said: "It's funny. I was doing an interview recently — I don't remember where we were — and I was actually laughing about it. Because I didn't even know that we were making, quote, positive music. When you start writing music, you're not smart enough to know what you're good at and what you're bad at — you're just kind of, like, 'Oh, I have got this idea.' [Laughs] You sing it, and maybe it sucks; maybe it's good. And people kept saying, 'Man, it's really positive music.' And I was, like, 'Is it? I don't know.' [Laughs]

"The DNA of who SKILLET is, I think, comes a lot from my personality and outlook on life," he continued. "Life is going to be really sucky sometimes, and you can either embrace the suckiness and say, 'Yeah, it sucks, and it will never be any better,' and you can live that way, or you can embrace the suckines and say, 'I'm gonna embrace it and I'm gonna beat it, because I don't want to be that cynical person that looks back at my life and is depressed — never did what I wanted to do; never became who I wanted to become. I don't wanna live that way.'

"The [new SKILLET] single 'Legendary' — that's what 'Legendary' is about," Cooper added. "It's not about actually being legendary, like, 'In two thousand years, everyone will know the name John Cooper.' Nobody's gonna know who SKILLET is in five hundred years. But it's about making your life count. You're only here for a short time. Don't get to be 80 years old and go, 'Crap! I never became who I wanted to become.' Own your life."

SKILLET's tenth full-length album, "Victorious", was released on August 2 via Atlantic.

In support of "Victorious", SKILLET is headlining a tour with SEVENDUST and special guests POP EVIL and DEVOUR THE DAY.

SKILLET has sold more than 12 million albums. The band's past four releases — from 2006's "Comatose" to 2016's "Unleashed" — have been certified at least gold by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA). SKILLET's 2009 album "Awake" has gone double platinum.