John Cooper spoke with The Hudson Show On RadioU ahead of Skillet’s upcoming performances on the Winter Jam 2025 Tour. Asked about his favorite Christian metal band from the 1980s, he said, “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.”
“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.”
“But the truth is I just loved all of it,” the singer added before explaining, “I mean, I loved White Cross. Stryper, of course. You have to love Stryper. Without Stryper, there’d be no Skillet. There’d probably be hardly any Christian metal without Stryper.”
“I mean, I love all of that stuff,” he concluded. “It’s tough. I was just a fan of Christian metal, and when you’re a fan of Christian music, you just kind of jump in with both feet, and then, you end up loving everything.”
Stryper made a name in the 1980s as the first openly Christian heavy metal band in the mainstream media and often faced criticism over it. Christians blasted them over their association with the metal genre, which was seen as Satanic.
Still, the band remained active through decades since their debut with 1984’s ‘The Yellow and Black Attack.’ Their fifteenth studio album, ‘When We Were Kings,’ came out in September 2024. Two months later, Skillet released their own new record, ‘Revolution.’
Skillet is now preparing to headline Winter Jam 2025 along with Anne Wilson, KB, Colton Dixon, Newsong, and Micah Tyler. The tour starts on January 10 in Columbia, South Carolina.
