Skillet

Skillet formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1996, born out of a small church music scene rather than a traditional club circuit. The band started at Covenant Community Church in Memphis, where John Cooper, Ken Steorts and Trey McClurkin all played in a praise band until their pastor suggested that they joined forces to make a new band, despite having divergent musical backgrounds. John Cooper had been the lead singer for the Tennessee progressive rock band Seraph, while Ken Steorts had played guitar for Urgent Cry. The trio's disparate influences gave the group its name and its early sound, and Skillet was only together for a month when they received interest from major Christian record label ForeFront Records, releasing their demo album Right Upside Your Head in 1996 before issuing their self-titled debut that October. Their early records leaned into a post-grunge approach before their 1998 follow-up, Hey You, I Love Your Soul, shifted toward a lighter alternative rock style. The band's real commercial ascent began in the mid-2000s. Skillet's 2006 release Comatose followed 2004's Collide, which launched the group into the public eye and garnered the band their first prestigious Grammy nomination, with Comatose becoming their best-selling project to date. That momentum carried into 2009's Awake, widely regarded as their true breakthrough. Awake was released on August 25, 2009, and debuted at No. 2 on the national U.S. Billboard 200 chart, making it the band's most successful entry on the chart. The album spawned enduring hits, including "Monster," which became the band's breakthrough single, charting at No. 4 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. This era also cemented the band's classic lineup: Awake was the last album to feature guitarist Ben Kasica and the first studio release to feature drummer Jen Ledger , who was recruited as Skillet's drummer in 2008 when she was just 18, after the band attended her local church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and was asked to audition to replace their existing drummer, Lori Peters, who was retiring. Skillet's career arc from there was marked by steady chart success, award recognition, and a reputation as tireless road warriors. They are known for a relentless touring schedule, which garnered them a top five ranking in the Hardest Working Bands of 2010 by Songkick.com. Guitarist Ben Kasica departed in 2011 and was replaced by Seth Morrison, rounding out the lineup that would carry the band for the next decade, alongside John Cooper and his wife Korey Cooper on keyboards and rhythm guitar. The band has released ten albums, two of which, Collide and Comatose, received Grammy nominations, and multiple releases, including Rise, Unleashed, and Victorious, continued to chart in the Billboard Top 5. Their honors include Rock Contemporary Album of the Year for Victorious, as well as Rock Contemporary Song of the Year for "Legendary," marking eight Dove Award wins for the band by 2020, and their song "Legendary" became a fixture in pop culture as WWE's Monday Night Raw theme song. Skillet remains active today, still led by John and Korey Cooper alongside Jen Ledger and Seth Morrison. Their latest album, Revolution, arrived in November 2024 via the band's own Hear It Loud imprint, marking a new independent chapter after leaving Atlantic Records twenty years after Collide was first reissued under Lava Records, with Cooper citing a desire to become fully independent and control their next steps. Looking back on nearly three decades of work, the band's legacy is substantial: after nearly three decades, eleven albums, and thousands of shows worldwide, Skillet has received two Grammy Award nominations, a Billboard Music Award, three albums in the Top 5 of the Billboard 200, and multi-platinum, platinum, or gold RIAA certifications across twelve singles and four full-length albums. They stand as one of the defining crossover acts to bridge Christian rock and mainstream hard rock radio.