(RNS) — When John Cooper, the frontman of Christian rock band Skillet, first saw that some called the band’s new cover of the Christian hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” “demonic,” he thought it was a joke.
“Truthfully, we haven’t had any pushback like that, probably in 20 years,” Cooper told Religion News Service. “I don’t remember the last time anybody said Skillet was satanic.”
Though some conservative Christians condemned the rock group’s edgy, grunge sound when they first debuted in the 1990s, these days, Cooper’s critics are more likely to come from the left. Skillet is known for appealing to both secular and Christian audiences, but that doesn’t hinder Cooper from sharing that he views abortion as “pure evil” and “baby murder” and opposes “the transgender theory being taught in schools.” In 2023, he detailed his convictions in a book called “Wimpy, Weak, and Woke,” which describes Marxism, postmodernism, social justice and critical race theory as “prevailing lies that are destroying America.”
This month, though, it wasn’t progressives taking Cooper to task — it was a handful of fellow conservative Christians.
“The problem with Skillet is that he uses demonic rhythms to praise God, period,” one Baptist pastor wrote on X in response to the band’s cover of the ancient Advent hymn. “American Christianity’s embrace of rock (and its various cousins) is a spiritual travesty.”
An end-times Christian account also chimed in: “If the Devil sang hymns, and sometimes he does, this is what it would sound and look like.”
The concern was linked to a crescendo near the end of the band’s rendition of the song. While most of the hymn is a stripped-down piano-led arrangement, Cooper lets out a guttural yell at the song’s three-minute mark, leading into a full-rock sound with drums and electric guitar. While the critiques came from an outspoken few, the defense of Skillet was swift.
“I think I listened to the Skillet ‘Emmanuel’ song 30 times today,” wrote Calvinist Theologian and anti-woke activist Owen Strachan.
“The intensity is appropriate. In fact, it’s fantastic,” said former Christian musician turned apologist Alisa Childers. Allie Beth Stuckey, a conservative Christian commentator, wrote: “Love the good news of Christmas proclaimed across all genres!”
And it seems like the attention has had an impact. The song has earned the No. 1 spot across several Billboard charts, including “Christian Digital Song Sales,” “Holiday Digital Song Sales” and “Rock Digital Song Sales.” RNS spoke with Cooper about the story behind the song, his response to critics and whether Christian music can ever be “too metal.” This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did Skillet decide on the arrangement for this song?
It was Korey’s brainchild (John Cooper and Korey Cooper are married and bandmates). She wanted to have this juxtaposition of the quietest part of Skillet that you’ve ever heard, and the loudest part of Skillet that you’ve ever heard. It’s communicating the rawness of our humanity. Things are still not perfect, people die, kids get cancer. We’re crying out, ‘Lord come quickly.’ But there’s also a second meaning. When you are considering the first Advent of Christ and what that would have meant for the Son of God to enter into his own creation, the Kingdom of God invading the earth, this is the most important thing that ever happened in history. And so there’s that invasion aspect. And then, what that would mean ultimately, in the Passion and the cross, the defeat of death, Christ upending the entire cosmological order, turning it upside down. How would you express that in music? I don’t know, but we tried.
The music video starts in a hospital room setting. What’s the significance of that?
Korey and the director decided on the treatment for the music video. The empty hospital bed hit me in a profound way. This is not why we did it, but on a personal level, my mom died when I was 15, and she was sick with cancer for about three years. She went into remission for a time, and then it came back strongly and brutally. It felt like an endless season of watching someone waste away, and it was terrible. It was during the holidays. She died in January. So every year, for 20 years after that, it would be a struggle every holiday. Death hit me at a young age, and I felt that the video was all about that longing. I can’t take any credit for it, but I love it.
Can you talk about the feedback you’ve gotten on this song?
Skillet’s “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” artwork. (Courtesy image)
Our fans were instantly beyond thrilled. I was a little taken aback — it was very exciting. Then, I’m guessing it wasn’t even that many people, but online, it felt like suddenly there was a big campaign of people that thought it was satanic, or that it was a desecration of something holy. I thought it was a joke at first. When I realized it wasn’t, I didn’t really care. I went to Bill Gothard seminars as a kid. Rock music was viewed as an evil thing in fundamentalist homes, and I grew up that way, and so I usually just feel bad for people like that. They don’t really make me mad. And I learned a long time ago that nothing you say and no amount of loving them is going to convince them.
But then I saw so much support for us, from all sorts of Christian theologians, from across denominations. I was really stunned. I do think things have changed from where they were 20 or 30 years ago. So many people didn’t understand Christian rock music, and now all these people support us. These are very traditional Christian people. I think the bigger story here is the amount of people who believe that it’s good to use art to share the gospel, and that it’s more about the intent than about the genre.
Has Skillet’s audience evolved in any significant ways over the last three decades?
When we first started, it was a mostly Christian audience. But if you come to a Skillet show now, I think that 70% of our audience probably would not self-identify as evangelical Christian. Now, there might be a lot of spiritual but not religious people, or progressive Christians, and others who are not religious at all. And Skillet has a younger audience than most rock bands and most Christian musicians and has held onto the older people that were with us. I love it, because I think that music should be bringing people together. We don’t care what you believe or where you come from, we want to share that message with people that aren’t Christians or that don’t go to church, or maybe they grew up in church and they’ve lost their faith.
What’s the draw for younger listeners?
One aspect might be that Skillet was one of the first hard rock bands in history to have girls in the band. There’s a whole generation of young girls growing up playing metal now, learning guitar, learning drums. And our material is always emotional and resonates, I think, with young people.
I think we’ve done a good job on social media being ourselves. I am very vocal about what I believe, and sometimes that makes people upset, but I think people also know that I’m an extremely inclusive person. I’m friends with everybody, and I don’t mind that they’re not Christians, and they don’t mind that I am. I think there’s something authentic about being able to say, I’m not apologetic about who I am at all. This is what I believe. But you don’t have to agree.
I do think there’s an element that’s very special about Skillet, because me and Korey are married. This coming year will be the 30-year anniversary for Skillet and 29-year anniversary for our marriage. We raised our kids on the road. Everybody knows we’re a family. It makes Skillet feel like it’s about more than music.
Do you think a band can ever be too heavy metal to be Christian?
I wouldn’t put boundaries on music like that. But there’s that famous saying that goes, I don’t know how to define it, but I’ll know it when I see it. Is it possible that I could hear something and just be like, whoa, that just doesn’t feel right to me? Maybe. I tend to think it’s not about the sound. I think it’s about an intent of the heart and the lyrics you are saying, what it’s being used for.
