Skillet Frontman Shares Opinion Of Politicians Using His Band’s Music

Every election cycle, inevitably there’s a politician or politicians who use popular songs at their rallies only to be told by the bands or performers that they don’t want their music used in that capacity. Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, John Fogerty, Neil Young and Guns ’N’ Roses are just a few artists who have objected to their songs being used at political rallies, namely by former president Donald Trump.

Skillet frontman John Cooper was recently asked by the “On the Road to Rock” podcast for his opinion about politicians using popular songs and if he would be OK with his band’s music being used.

“This is my personal opinion, and this could change,” he said. “I don’t want somebody later to say, ‘Well, you said blah blah blah.’ My personal opinion at today, I don’t care who plays my song at their political rally, because I believe in America over party. I believe in the foundations of this country. And plus, we have this thing called social media, and let’s just say, hypothetically, let’s say that you’re running for president, and you’re playing my song, and let’s just say that I don’t like your platform. I can always go on social media and say, ‘Hey, I wanna make it clear, this dude may be using my song, and I’m happy for him to use it. It doesn’t mean that I’m supporting his presidency, but I love America.’ You can do that. There’s a lot of ways you can go around it. Now, I do think there’s a difference. Let’s just say that you then wanted to use my song on one of your paid advertisements on a commercial. Now we’re getting into something. But if you’re playing my song at a political rally and you’re walking out and my song’s playing, I go, hey, you know what? Go America. It’s the best country in the world, and we can disagree on some things.”

Cooper’s full interview can be viewed below.