SKILLET's JOHN COOPER Was 'Really Surprised' By Backlash He Faced For Comments About Vaccine Mandates, Wearing Masks

In a new interview with Rock Feed, John Cooper, the frontman and bassist for the Grammy-nominated Christian rock band SKILLET, was asked about the "backlash" he faced during the coronavirus pandemic when he spoke out against protocols around masking and vaccinations for concerts. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, it's really funny. It's funny because I never wanted to be someone talking about [that stuff]; I just wanted to play music. But I felt that we were getting to this crazy place, like when you read about in history when… I like history — I don't know that much about it, but I like it — and you read about this stuff during Leninism in Russia when people are, like, 'Okay, I know something's not going good, but I'm just gonna deal with it. I'm gonna go with the flow.' You also read about it from… There's a Christian theologian called [Dietrich] Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was in Germany in the 1940s, [and he] was one of the first people speaking out against this crazy guy called Hitler that everybody was following — the Christians were following — and he was telling these churches… He had a radio program and he was saying, 'Churches, this guy is dangerous. You need to stop.' And they kept yelling at Bonhoeffer, saying, 'Why are you being so divisive?' And I read about it, and I go… In 2020, I started thinking it's not good for us to… Our founding fathers would not want us to just go along with whatever the state tells you; that's not what America's about. It's okay to push back. And it did cost me a lot. I was really surprised. And I thought that… To me, that was punk rock. I was, like, that's a punk rock thing to do — push back a little bit."

He continued: "I said to somebody recently, I said, 'Look, I'm not being arrogant. I'm only saying, can you tell me what I was wrong about?' The masking? You agree with me now. The insanity of the jabs. I never told somebody not to get a jab. I just said… I was libertarian about it — you do you. It's your choice, not my choice, if you get the jab, and vice versa, so leave me alone. And I don't wanna be responsible for what this may do to somebody if we do vax-only shows. I don't wanna be responsible for that. I don't like it. And then I spoke out about the school closures. I have two kids and they have friends. I'm, like, This isn't going good. I see this is not going good.' Anyway, in the end, I just thought that's what rock and roll is about. I'm gonna speak what I believe is true. I've got love and tolerance for people who disagree. And I would love to get to a place in America where people could just be okay with hearing a different opinion without yelling. It's rock and roll, man."

Cooper previously pushed back against the criticism he received for his comments about COVID-19 vaccine mandates during a December 2021 appearance on Apologia Radio, hosted by Luke Pierson, a pastor/elder at Apologia Church. Addressing the reaction he had gotten from the mainstream media and audience for his assertion that vaccines are a tool of government control, John said: "It's a crazy time because there's, like, a collective mind losing. It's true — the whole country, we've lost our minds.

"In general, I think, I'm a fairly gracious person, or I try to be, where it's, like, I really don't care, Luke, if you get the vaccine or not. And I don't know if you care if I get it. It doesn't matter to me. There's certain things that you can make a choice. But there's been this collective mind… I mean, people going crazy. I fully expect half the country to be eating grass.

"What's really weird to me is that I've been speaking out about my faith in Christ for a long, long time in the mainstream world," he continued. "Now, let's be honest — not everybody in the mainstream world is nuts about that. They don't necessarily love hearing about Jesus, but they have always put up with me — some have supported me even. But I'll tell you what: the most kickback I have ever received — ever — for my faith has been on my stance on vaccine mandates and mask mandates. It is as if I just — like the unforgivable sin.

"I said to my wife, I said the amazing thing that it shows me is that it wasn't the gospel quote, it wasn't the gospel of Christ that made them really, really angry — meaning, 'Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the father unless they come through him.' A lot of people didn't love that message, but they can deal with it. But they will not deal with you speaking out against the state. They will not deal with it. And what you're really witnessing is an actual you've spoken against their God. You did not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's idol of gold. And it is the one thing you're not allowed to do. It's just been really amazing to me.

"So a lot the bands, they just don't know what to do," Cooper added. "And when I say 'they,' I mean we're in there too. We just don't know what to do, because you're in an entertainment industry that's largely driven by social media and media at large. And you're not allowed to speak anything against… I mean, you've got RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE telling people that if they don't get a vaccine… RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE has become the machine. It's crazy. I'm, like, wait a minute — I'm the revolutionary here? I'm the revolutionary and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE is just 'government rock' now. My older brother made up the term 'government rock,' which I find pretty awesome. I think it's pretty great — it's a great way to scoff at someone."

Also in December 2021, Cooper railed against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, saying it was "absolutely insane" that the government was requiring vaccines as a way to contain the virus outbreak, which at that point had killed nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. The now-48-year-old vocalist/bassist, who previously publicly revealed that he was unvaccinated, discussed his views on the COVID-19 vaccines during the final 2021 installment of his "Cooper Stuff" video podcast. He said in part: "It's a new year. I don't know where we're at. I don't know if it's gonna get worse or if, all of a sudden, people are gonna wake up and realize how insane this is, how absolutely insane it is that we are pushing mandates — all over the whole world, by the way — at a time when countries are getting… I think America is, like, 70 percent vaccinated now. Are we close to 70 percent vaccinated? I can't remember. Some of these countries in Europe are 80, 90 percent vaccinated. Some of them have, in terms of adults, 98 percent vaccination rates for people over 15 or 16. At a time when a lot of these countries, basically, for all intents and purposes, should have, quote, herd immunity, which is a whole other discussion, because they have those populations vaccinated but the rates of COVID are still going up, it is absolute insanity to say, 'Well, the answer then has to be mandated vaccines. You're not allowed to come out of your house.'"

He continued: "I'm not telling you not to get a vaccine. I'm not even an anti-vaxxer. Except that the dictionary changed the [definition] of anti-vaxxer and now part of what anti-vaxx means is that if you don't support mandates, you're an anti-vaxxer. So I a guess I am an anti-vaxxer. I'm not against vaccines. I'm not against this vaccine. I'm just against the mandate.

"But the question just remains: when you have 70, 80, 90, 96 percent vaccinated people and your rates of COVID are still going up, why are people asking that question?" he added. "Are people gonna wake up to this finally? I really just don't know. I honestly don't know.

"Last year, I felt like certainly it was gonna get worse before it gets better. I don't think we're out of it yet. I think we're still going to watch a little bit of this getting worse, to be honest with you. But I like to think that we're at least on the backside."

During the summer of 2021, Cooper opened up about his reluctance to wear masks, saying: "The issue of the mask wearing, to me, is nothing more than theater. It is making me jump into an unreality, something that I do not believe, just to acquiesce to either the overlords — overlords meaning government, Big Tech [Editor's note: A name given to the five largest and most dominant companies in the information technology industry of the United States — namely Google (Alphabet),Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft], big business, big media, whatever — to acquiesce to what they want me to do. Even though I know that it's not true, but I'm gonna play the game. And every time I put my mask on, I know that I'm doing something that I do not believe in. In other words, I'm being forced to lie… I'm being forced to jump into something I don't believe, and I'm living by a lie — I'm living by a lie that this mask is actually gonna keep me safe from all harm. To acquiesce to the government, which says that I'm believing something that I know that I don't believe. So now I'm basically living in a fantasy world. That frightens me. And every time I put that mask on, that's basically what I think. I know I'm doing this, I know it's show, I know it's theater, I know my overlords don't even believe in it, because if they did, they wouldn't be breaking all of their own rules."

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.