John Cooper recently joined The Hudson Show on RadioU to discuss Skillet’s upcoming performances on the Winter Jam 2025 Tour. During the interview, he shared his favorite Christian metal bands from the 1980s.
“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,” Cooper said.
He went on, “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.”
The singer also expressed his appreciation for the genre as a whole, saying, “But the truth is I just loved all of it. I mean, I loved White Cross. Stryper, of course.” He then noted, ”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. 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, widely recognized as the first openly Christian heavy metal band in mainstream media, faced significant criticism in the 1980s. Christians often condemned their association with the metal genre, which was frequently linked to Satanism. Despite this, the band has remained active, releasing their fifteenth studio album, ‘When We Were Kings,’ in September 2024.
Two months later, Skillet released their own new record, ‘Revolution,’ and are now preparing to co-headline Winter Jam 2025. Joining them on the tour are Anne Wilson, KB, Colton Dixon, Newsong, and Micah Tyler. The shows kick off on January 10 in Columbia, South Carolina.
