Skillet frontman John Cooper talks about the risks of talking politics and why he wants to ‘stay in his lane’
We live at a time when it seems like everything is politicized and everyone is jonesing to make their opinion heard. That’s all well and good, but probably not what you want to hear when you show up to a concert, as John Cooper, frontman of the rock band Skillet, pointed out during an appearance on OutKick’s “Tomi Lahren is Fearless.”
When you shell out some serious coin, do you really want to be lectured by a seventy-something musician who’s rolling in money about the evils of Donald Trump?
Me neither, and count Cooper as one of the few entertainers who understands that.
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Lahren asked the rocker about his openness when it comes to talking about faith and politics, and if there are risks involved in doing so.
“Yeah, definitely. I would say there’s not as much of a risk if you’re on the left because you will get praised by all of the powers that be,” Cooper said. “Now, of course, you’re still risking something — there’s going to be some fans that don’t like it, so I don’t want to say they’re not risking anything. That’s actually not fair, but you will get opportunities from some of the institutional powers.”
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But while he has no problem talking politics, he gets where people are coming from when they want entertainers to zip it on the political talk.
Skiller’s John Cooper performs at Velocity Festival in Dyersville, Iowa. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
“I agree with people when they’re like, I don’t want to see some actor come up and yell at me about Iran or whatever they’re on about; I don’t even know if they even know what they’re talking about, you know?”
It would seem Lahren knew precisely the type of person he was referring to.
“Yeah. Like the (Bruce) Springsteen of the world,” she said.
The two agreed that Springsteen’s penchant in recent years for going on mid-concert political diatribes is wearing a little thin.
Skillet frontman John Cooper talked to OutKick’s Tomi Lahren about the risks of musicians talking about politics. (Photo by Gina Wetzler/Redferns)
“It just gets a little bit exhausting,” Cooper said. He then pointed to a lyric in Staind frontman Aaron Lewis’ 2021 song “Am I The Only One,” in which he talks about how he “quits singin’ along/Every time they play a Springsteen song?”
However, as Cooper noted, Springsteen’s politics don’t change the fact that he’s an incredible songwriter. It just shows that artists have a choice when it comes to getting political or focusing on the music.
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“The Boss is amazing,” Cooper said. “One of the greatest songwriters, certainly, of (his) generation, and I still listen to him. But I’m like, ‘I don’t want people to feel that way about me.’ I know some people do, but I’m trying to stay in my lane as best as I can.”
