Skillet has now become one of those bands with a chance to go mainstream. They have signed with Lava Records, home of Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker, and will re-release Collide on the Lava label on May 25th. “We have been waiting for the door to open for a deal like this for about six years now, and this opportunity with LAVA is a definite answer to prayer,” comments Skillet lead singer John Cooper. “We truly desire to get the message and our music out to an audience that needs to hear a positive word in today's violent world. Lava has been awesome to work with so far, and even though we have only been partnering with them for a short while, I couldn't be any happier with how things are going between us. We look forward to what the future will bring!”
Skillet's Lava deal wasn't the first offer. Ardent studio manager and A&R liaison Jody Stephens has shopped the band from the get-go to the majors. A number of labels almost bit in the past though more often than not, the Christian tag became a hindrance. "We have come close (before)," says Stephens. "There have been A&R people that have said, 'I'd like to sign Skillet.' But it seems like when they took it to their marketing department or their boss, it got vetoed, usually because of the Christian content - they just didn't think the mainstream world would embrace it because of the message."
People are asking if there wasn't a hidden agenda behind Collide ... to prove to the mainstream labels that their faith can be hidden enough to not be a "hindrance" anymore.
When asked in the HM interview about producer Paul Ebersold's ideas for the Savior video, John responded with "He said, 'What if we go more along the lines of somebody that needs a savior, but not God.' Do you know what I mean? Really this whole idea of this whole child abuse thing, and he was just…I was like, 'Man, I don't want a token Christian video, like some message or something dorky.' And he was like, 'Nope, we’re going to do a real touching thing. Nobody in the mainstream is doing social issues.' I really felt God calling me to sing about social issues on this record, so I was really excited about the video thing because there are so many people dealing with that. I thought it was a nice spin on the song, as well. So, that was the idea for the video. The thing that I’m really excited about…Funny thing is, most of my friends I’ve played it for haven't necessarily been that moved by it, but the things with all these labels and mainstream stuff we’ve done…These labels are just freaking out about it."
Has Skillet done a nice job at selling out in order to go to a mainstream market? This album seems to be more about promoting the band to mainstream labels than about Jesus. A far cry indeed from John's comment in a January 2004 interview with Renown Magazine when he said "The only real thing I want to accomplish through my music is to promote radical Christianity. And I guess I don’t really honestly know…well, I guess I know what that means, but I don’t know how that’s worked out. I know that’s what we want to do, we want to promote everything that radical Christianity stands for. Uncompromised Christian life, evangelism, and worship."
