SKILLET's JOHN COOPER Says Some Of His Band's Christian Critics 'Believe That The Music Is Inherently Full Of The Power Of Satan'

During an appearance on The White House Pod - Dare To Dream, the podcast hosted by film and television actor, director and producer David A.R. White, Christian rock musician John Cooper, frontman of the band SKILLET, was asked if his group has faced any criticism about its hard rock music being demonic or sinful. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " Yeah, for sure. I remember watching a documentary about Lenny Kravitz years ago, and I remember Lenny Kravitz saying, 'I was too black for a lot of people, and I wasn't black enough for other people. I wasn't rock and roll, but I was too rock and roll,' where he was trying to find his lane. It was some kind of quote like that. And I always felt that was with SKILLET. It was, like, 'It's too heavy, but it's not heavy enough.' 'It's too spiritual, but it's not overtly Christian enough.' 'It's too this.' And I think for us — so, yes, we've dealt with it. I think for us, it was just, like, 'Hey, I'm gonna be real. I'm gonna be myself. I'm gonna be unapologetically authentic,' and I know that some people are not going to like that we sound a certain way, or that I said something a certain way, or that I've got tattoos all over me, or whatever it may be. And I don't really care. I'm not trying to please them. I will never be able to please them."

He continued: "That's one of the things I learned growing up in the church I grew up in, which had a lot of great things about it. But I just know for a fact I will never be able to convince a Bill Gothardite [follower of the teachings of American Christian minister, speaker, and writer Bill Gothard, who previously said says listening to Christian rock is 'fellowship with demons'] or somebody from your Mennonite church, I will never be able to convince them that hard rock is not evil. They just believe that the music is inherently full of the power of Satan, and there's nothing I can do, and so there's no reason to try. So for me, I just went, 'Hey, I'm not here to do that with them. I'm just gonna be myself and be full of joy.' And if I meet somebody that really does wanna have a good-faith debate about it, I'll talk with them about it."

SKILLET's 2009 hit "Monster" recently became the first song by a Christian rock band to reach one billion streams on Spotify. The track has surpassed four billion global streams.

SKILLET has reportedly sold more than 23 million albums, averaging 12 million monthly Spotify listeners.

Earlier this year, SKILLET's European headline tour drew the largest international crowds in the band's history, including record-breaking ticket sales at Zénith in Paris.

Last month, Cooper pushed back against people who think hard rock is inherently "demonic", telling Fox News Digital: "I would say, I just think that you're misunderstanding something very basic, which is that music does not belong to the devil. Music belongs to God, and it's the intentionality. It's the lyrics. It's what you do with it. It's not in a sound. It's in a heart posture. And I would just say to those Christians, 'You're not just getting the issue of music wrong, I would say you're getting the gospel wrong.'"

He added that he doesn't believe any style of music "in itself carries some inherent evil."

"I just don't think that that's right," he said. "And I think that God gave us creative expression."

The ability to write a song, he said, is an "amazing gift of freedom God has given all of humanity."

"Talk about a God that says, 'I'm going to give you a very powerful gift, and it's up to you how you choose to use it,'" he said. "Man, that is powerful."

He said he doesn't subscribe to the idea that "because [rock music] sounds a certain way, it is pagan or something like that. I just can't be down with that."

"So, I would just say to critics, I would say, 'Hey, you can have something that sounds incredibly beautiful that is actually offending God in its intentionality, in its lyrics," he explained.

SKILLET's new independent EP, "After The Storm", will arrive on October 9.

Produced by David Cowell (SLEEP THEORY) and the band's own Korey Cooper, "After The Storm" marks both a return to SKILLET's heavier musical roots and one of its most personal creative statements to date.

SKILLET will support "After The Storm" with a nationwide U.S. Live Nation headline tour beginning this October.