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Here is an interview lead singer and base player John Cooper of Skillet. To hear the full uncut radio interview listen here.
Dave: We have John Cooper of Skillet in the house!
John: What up brother?
Dave: Hey man. Thanks for joining us.
John: Cool. No problem.
Dave: John, of course, is the lead singer for Skillet, and you also play bass, right?
John: Yeah, that’s right.
Dave: And your wife Korey is also in the band?
John: Yeah. She plays keyboards, guitar and does some singing as well.
Dave: Then you’ve got Lorie Peters on the drums right?
John: Yep.
Dave: She rocks by the way!
John: Oh yeah, she’s great.
Dave: So I understand that your kids travel with you guys, right?
John: Yeah, we’ve got the kids on the road. We have two kids, a 5-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son, and we have a nanny that comes with us to help out. Man, I’m not gonna lie. It’s hard work. It’s wonderful when we get to have our kids, but it is tough. You finish the show late at night, and you’re all wired up from the show. Then you get to the bus and you end up going to sleep by 1 or 1:30 in morning, and then my wife gets up with the kids at about 5 in the morning. At 7 a.m., our nanny wakes up, and then Korey goes back to sleep for a couple of hours. When Korey wakes back up, she does school with my daughter, then we have sound check, interviews, do the show and then we do it all over again. It is a load of work, but we’re lucky, you know? I get to have my family on the road, and I can’t ask for more than that.
Dave: Yeah, without a doubt man. I think it’s so cool that you guys do that. In fact you guys have that in common with Jeremy and Adie Camp. When we spoke with Jeremy a while back he said they do the same thing. I know it can get crazy, but it must really be rewarding.
John: Yeah, the truth is if Korey wasn’t in the band she probably wouldn’t be out all the time because it is hard work. There are many times when she starts feeling like, “I don’t want to do this, and I don’t want to be in the band.” Or, “I just want to be at home with the kids and be a mom and teach school,” and all that kind of stuff. But that’s not what God has called us to do right now. We’re not forced to make that decision, but before we had children we knew that’s what it was going to mean, and we felt like that’s what the Lord was leading us to do, so we went for it. Life is always going to give you things you have to deal with, and this has been one of ours. But kids are so amazing, and there’s nothing better in the world than having kids and getting to love on them, it’s awesome, you know?
Dave: Yeah, it is awesome. So Skillet has been around for quite some time now. What is it about 10 years now?
John: This is actually our 11th year.
Dave: Wow.
John: I know. Isn’t that crazy man?
Dave: That’s insane, dude. Did you guys start out as Skillet or was it a different name in the very beginning?
John: No, we were Skillet. I know it seems like there was probably a better band name than that, but there wasn’t.
(Laughter)
Dave: No man. It’s good.
John: I had been playing in the same band before Skillet for about six years. Skillet was actually a side project of several different bands in my church. That was the reason we called it Skillet; it was like taking the ingredients from different bands and throwing it all together and making something new. So we thought, “Yeah that’ll be fun. We’ll record a demo and do some outreach for the church.” And that’s how it all got started. Within about a month of doing a demo, we had four songs written and we got a call from Forefront Records, and they were talking about doing a record. I was just freaking out, man. We only had the four songs written, so we wrote a couple more. They didn’t know we had only been together for a month. We were like, “Oh, it’s been a while.” (Laughter) And then within about three months we were doing our first album. It was absolutely crazy, but it was pretty cool, and that was back in 1996 when our first record came out.
Dave: Yeah, that’s crazy man. What a cool story. OK, man. Here’s our BillandDaveRadio.com quick quiz. Just shout out your choices as we go. OK?
John: OK.
Dave: Sneakers, sandals or bare feet?
John: Sneakers.
Dave: Pizza, sub sandwich or a burger?
John: Burger.
Dave: Fishing or hunting?
John: Neither.
(Laughter)
Dave: Tour bus or a plane?
John: Tour bus.
Dave: McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell or Chick-fil-A?
John: Chick-fil-A.
Dave: Wakeboarding or Snowboarding?
John: Oh – I’ve never done either one. Uhh, probably snowboarding. Yah, snowboarding. I’m a little afraid of water.
Dave: Hotel or Camper?
John: Hotel.
Dave: Magic Kingdom, Universal or Six Flags?
John: Six Flags.
Dave: The mountains or the beach?
John: Beach.
Dave: Pac Sun, Old Navy or the Gap?
John: Oh gosh, Pac Sun.
Dave: Early to bed, early to rise or night owl, sleepy head?
John: Oh, uhh … I’m a night owl and medium to rise. (laughter)
Dave: OK, regarding the whole toilet paper thing, when you put it on the holder do you prefer over or under?
John: I like it to roll off under. (Laughter)
Dave: Harley or a sports bike?
John: Harley.
Dave: “American Idol,” “24,” or “Survivor?”
John: “24.”
Dave: Ben & Jerry’s or Haagen-Dazs?
John: Ben … uhh … Hagen uh … no Ben & Jerry’s actually.
Dave: Dirt Bike or 4 Wheeler?
John: 4 Wheeler.
Dave: Read a book or watch a movie?
John: Movie.
Dave: Hey, thanks so much for your time, man. We really appreciate you hangin’ with us. God bless you guys for all you do.
John: You got it. Have a good one man.
Dave: You too. God bless.
To hear the full uncut radio interview with John Cooper of Skillet, or to hear other interviews, go to BillandDaveRadio.Com
Visit Skillet’s website at www.skillet.com
Or their myspace site at http://www.myspace.com/skilletmusic
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