From the outside, Skillet’s John Cooper doesn’t look like the typical Christian singer trying to bring hope. His clothing is typically pretty dark and leather, he’s covered in tattoos, and his music sounds pretty edgy. Yet his music and podcast, “Cooper Stuff” have had a major impact addressing cultural issues facing America today. One particular issue that concerns Cooper is the growing mental health crisis in America, especially amongst teens.

“The amount of people suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts and who think that they don’t matter is so overwhelming to me. It just breaks my heart. That’s one of the things I really, really care deeply about, is people that are struggling with suicidal thoughts and mental health — those kinds of things,” he told Crosswalk. He believes that the country’s growing godlessness is to blame. “I believe it’s a result of a society who has just thrown God away [and] who has said, ‘We don’t believe in God. There’s nothing but the material world. There’s nothing but the way I feel.’ And if there is no God, they really find it hard to find a reason to live.”

Cooper’s own music, very different from the hymns you’ll hear in church or the poppy Christian songs that are aired on most Christian radio stations, wants to be its own “revolution” against the darkness. “The song ‘Revolution’ is speaking specifically to that depression, that angst, the fact that people feel that there’s nothing left to live for. And so the chorus of the song says, ‘Sing a revolution song. We’ve got the fire of hope in our hearts, march to the beat of love.’ We have to tell people about the hope we found in Christ,” he said.

Skillet has found a lot of success in both secular and Christian circles, with the band forming nearly thirty years ago. Cooper’s wife, Corey, is also part of the band and the two of them have to navigate the culture as their own children grow up. “Because we’re living in a time where to even say that you believe in God … you really won’t be taken seriously, especially if you’re talking about terms of academia, or if you’re in a college course. My daughter’s in college, and so if she even says, ‘Well, yeah, but what about the existence of a higher power?’ — she’s laughed at because, really, the university now is one of just stark materialism,” he warned. His song “Unpopular” focuses on what it means to be a Christian in a culture that looks down on it. “And so this song is going, ‘Hey, if it’s unpopular to say that you believe in Jesus Christ, then today’s a good day to be unpopular.’”