Skillet was founded in 1996 by John Cooper. The team promotes the Christian faith and the gospel position. The discography of the group includes 9 successful albums. Throughout their career, musicians have been nominated for two dozen different awards.
Team building
The founder of the group, John Cooper, always dreamed of a team in which he could be a frontman. In the mid-90s, people's musical preferences changed a lot. Heavy metal and pop metal are a thing of the past; grunge has replaced them. This musical direction was to John's liking. The dream to create your own team could come true. Due to his Christian preferences and the influence of different musical styles, John called the collective Skillet. The biography of the group begins in Memphis, Tennessee. Here the first performances of the music group took place.
The pastor has always admired the talent of the musician. Once he proposed to create his own team with the lead singer of Fold Zandura Ken Sturt. After a joint performance, the pastor decided to become a producer of the group and create a Christian music group. Later they were joined by Trey McLarkin. He was not a rock fan and decided to help the guys until they found a real fanatical drummer. At the same time, John began to train his voice with grunge vocals. But due to the strong influence of Christian music, the result was a voice hybrid. The vocals resembled the music of Kurt Cobain from Nirvana. The name Skillet ("pan") denoted an admixture of different musical directions.
Ardent records and first album recording
The Skillet group quickly became famous and won the hearts of the first fans. A month later, the label Ardent records offered the collective collaboration and recording of the first album. Paul Embersold helped them work on the recording of their debut album. In November 1996, the band released their debut album of the same name, “Skillet”. The songs "Saturn", "Gasoline" and "I Can" gained particular popularity. After the decline in popularity on grunge, the team decided to change the style of execution. They added an electronic sound to their new songs. Skillet started comparing with Nine Inch nails.
During the recording of the second collection of “Hey You, I Love Your Soul”, the band’s collective imagined in what rhythm and genre of performance they needed to compose songs. After that, the musicians tried to collaborate with a major label. They worked with all the companies, but due to the Christian content of their tracks, the Skillet group was not able to sign the contract. The super hit "Locked in a Cage" has won the hearts of many fans. But as soon as the labels learned that the Skillet collective was Christians, they immediately refused to cooperate. As a result, the next release of the group was released on Ardent records.
Dramatic changes and first glory
In 1998, the team joined the wife of John Cooper - Corey Cooper. She invited the team to go on tour in Europe. Participants supported this risky idea. And the risk was justified - the concerts went off with a bang. At the end of the tour, John and Cooper continued to worship at the Memphis Church. In 1999, the team underwent dramatic changes. Ken left the group and Kevin Haland took his place. Later, the musician admitted that he devoted too little time to his beloved wife and two children, so he left the band and found a less busy work.
Already together in Kevin, the musicians began recording the third collection. In early 2000, Skillet released their third album, Invincible. In this collection, post-industrial sounding has become the most pronounced and modern. The song "Rest with Invincible" entered the top five tracks of the year, according to CHR. The musical composition "Best kept secret" received a rotation on MTV. This song is called the most important hit of the collective.
After the release of this album, Skillet's popularity began to gain momentum. The collective was noticed by the media, their videos were played on channels, tracks sounded on radio stations. For the kindness and sincerity of the songs, the group was loved by millions of fans.
Modern Skillet Team
To date, the composition of the Skillet group has 4 members. The main ones are the founder John Cooper and his wife Corey Cooper. Backing vocalist and drummer is now Jen Ledger. Seth Morrison became the lead guitarist.
The discography of the group includes 9 successful albums. The team was awarded a Grammy for the best Christian albums. In 2011, Skillet received a music award for Best Album and Best Artist at the annual Billboard Music Awards. The prestigious Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove Awards were awarded 6 times.