John Cooper

professionally credited as John L. Cooper, is an American musician, singer and songwriter. He has been the lead vocalist, bassist and co-founder of the Grammy-nominated American Christian rock band Skillet since 1996 and his side project Fight the Fury since 2018. Cooper was briefly in experimental rock group Seraph from 1989-1995. The band released a four-song demo, titled Silence E.P., before disbanding. The track listing was "Alone", "Silence", "Wild Honey", and "Fading Love Cooper formed Skillet in 1996 with Ken Steorts. Both had met while touring for previous bands; Cooper as vocalist for the Tennessee progressive rock band Seraph and Steorts as guitarist for Urgent Cry. The bands disbanded soon after, so Cooper and Steorts' pastor encouraged them to form their own band as a side-project. Coming from different styles of rock music, they decided to name the experiment Skillet. Soon afterward Trey McClurkin joined the band as a temporary drummer. Skillet was only together for a month when they received interest from major Christian record label ForeFront Records and were signed soon afterward. Ken Steorts left the band in 1999 and Trey McClurkin left the band in 2000 leaving Cooper as the only founding member of the band and primary songwriter.