Skillet singer John Cooper was fairly outspoken during the height of the COVID pandemic. Cooper spoke out against protocols around masking and vaccinations for live concerts at the time. In a new interview with Rock Feed, Cooper was asked about the backlash he faced from his comments.
“Yeah, it’s really funny,” Cooper said. “It’s funny because I never wanted to be someone talking about that stuff; I just wanted to play music. But I felt that we were getting to this crazy place, like when you read about in history when… I like history — I don’t know that much about it, but I like it — and you read about this stuff during Leninism in Russia when people are, like, ‘Okay, I know something’s not going good, but I’m just gonna deal with it. I’m gonna go with the flow.’”
Cooper continued: “Our founding fathers would not want us to just go along with whatever the state tells you; that’s not what America’s about. It’s okay to push back. And it did cost me a lot. I was really surprised. And I thought that… To me, that was punk rock. I was, like, that’s a punk rock thing to do — push back a little bit.”
Cooper reiterated his point that he wasn’t anti-vax, but rather he wanted people to do what they felt was best for them.
“I said to somebody recently, I said, ‘Look, I’m not being arrogant. I’m only saying, can you tell me what I was wrong about?’ The masking? You agree with me now. The insanity of the jabs. I never told somebody not to get a jab. I just said… I was libertarian about it — you do you. It’s your choice, not my choice, if you get the jab, and vice versa, so leave me alone. And I don’t wanna be responsible for what this may do to somebody if we do vax-only shows. I don’t wanna be responsible for that. I don’t like it. And then I spoke out about the school closures. I have two kids and they have friends. I’m, like, This isn’t going good. I see this is not going good.’ Anyway, in the end, I just thought that’s what rock and roll is about. I’m gonna speak what I believe is true. I’ve got love and tolerance for people who disagree. And I would love to get to a place in America where people could just be okay with hearing a different opinion without yelling. It’s rock and roll, man.”
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