John Cooper ( musician ) - Wikipedia John Cooper ( musician ) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia 's general notability guideline. Please help to establish notability by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond its mere trivial mention. If notability can not be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources : `` John Cooper '' musician -- news newspapers books scholar JSTOR ( August 2017 ) John Cooper John Cooper on April 22, 2017 Background information Birth name John Landrum Cooper ( 1975 - 04 - 07 ) April 7, 1975 ( age 43 ) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. Genres Christian rock, Christian metal, alternative metal, hard rock, post-grunge, industrial metal ( early ) Occupation ( s ) Musician Instruments Vocals, bass guitar Years active 1989 -- present John Landrum Cooper ( born April 7, 1975 ), 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. Contents 1 Career 1.1 Seraph 1.2 Skillet 1.3 Other works 2 Personal life 3 Influences 4 References Career Seraph 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 ''. Skillet Cooper playing bass guitar in 2017 John formed Skillet in 1996 with Ken Steorts. Both had met while touring for previous bands ; John as vocalist for the Tennessee progressive rock band Seraph and Ken Steorts guitarist for Urgent Cry. The bands disbanded soon after, so John and Ken 's 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 John as the only founding member of the band and primary songwriter. Other works Cooper provided vocals for ! Hero : The Rock Opera. According to a review, Cooper did not tour with the rock opera, he only provided vocals for the Rabbi Kai on the soundtrack. Cooper was the co-writer of the Decyfer Down single `` Best I Can ''. He sang on the title track of tobyMac 's album, Tonight, which peaked at No. 27 on the Christian Songs chart. He performed vocals on We as Human 's song, on `` Zombie '', which appeared on their debut self - titled album and made a cameo appearance in the music video for `` Strike Back ''. He signed them to his record label. Personal life Cooper walking off stage with his wife Korey in 2017 John Cooper has stated on numerous occasions that he was born and raised in a very religious family and atmosphere, and listening to rock music was not allowed in his parents ' household. `` You could n't wear black, you could n't listen to anything with drums, anything with guitars, you could n't have long hair, you could n't do this and you could n't do that. Everything was so lifeless. I know I 'd read the Bible and be like... ' This is n't what the Bible says. I like the idea of living for Jesus, but I hate the idea of living for you. ' Ya know ? '' Cooper came from a musical family. His mother was a piano teacher and a singer in the church that he went to. He began singing at a very young age, playing guitar at around the age of 18 and bass guitar at the age of 19. Influences His favorite bass guitar players are Chris Squire and Doug Pinnick. References Jump up ^ `` Skillet Closes Out 2007 With Grammy Nomination And R&R 's No. 1 Christian CHR Song Of The Year ''. CCM Magazine. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. Retrieved April 16, 2008. Jump up ^ US. `` Seraph Gratis muziek, tourneedata, foto 's, video 's ''. Myspace.com. Retrieved July 6, 2011. Jump up ^ ! Hero -- The Rock Opera Tour. Jesusfreakhideout.com. Retrieved on January 9, 2012. Jump up ^ `` tobyMac Tonight Chart History ''. Billboard. Retrieved December 31, 2017. Jump up ^ `` Tonight ( feat. John Cooper Of Skillet ) ''. Amazon.com. Retrieved September 5, 2017. ^ Jump up to : GuitarManiaEU ( November 21, 2013 ). `` SKILLET - Interview with vocalist and bass player John Cooper '' -- via YouTube. Jump up ^ Creation Festival 2010, YLO Interview Skillet John Cooper Korey Cooper Jen Ledger Seth Morrison Kevin Haaland Ben Kasica Trey McClurkin Lori Peters Jonathan Salas Ken Steorts Studio albums Skillet Hey You, I Love Your Soul Invincible Alien Youth Collide Comatose Awake Rise Unleashed Live albums Ardent Worship Comatose Comes Alive Compilation albums The Early Years ( 1996 -- 2001 ) EPs The Older I Get Awake and Remixed DVDs Comatose Comes Alive Awake & Live Singles `` Savior '' `` Rebirthing '' `` Whispers in the Dark '' `` The Last Night '' `` The Older I Get '' `` Comatose '' `` Hero '' `` Monster '' `` Awake and Alive '' `` Forgiven '' `` Lucy '' `` It 's Not Me, It 's You '' `` One Day Too Late '' `` Sick of It '' `` Feel Invincible '' Related articles Skillet discography GND : 1042152500 LCCN : no2012116746 MusicBrainz : e94aee5e - 7bb1 - 4fd9 - 9380 - 176d397a8f16 VIAF : 267591972 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Cooper_(musician)&oldid=835238378 '' Categories : 1975 births Living people American performers of Christian music American rock bass guitarists American rock singers Performers of Christian rock music Skillet ( band ) members American evangelicals American male guitarists Hidden categories : Articles with topics of unclear notability from August 2017 All articles with topics of unclear notability Use mdy dates from January 2017 Articles with hCards All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from October 2017 Articles with unsourced statements from January 2017 Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Español Esperanto فارسی Français Italiano Nederlands Português Română Русский Suomi Svenska Українська 4 more Edit links This page was last edited on 7 April 2018, at 12 : 59. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what kind of bass does john cooper play
Answer: bass guitar