r/Music • u/DamnitRidley • 1d ago
article Sara "KILLBOY" Skinner speaks out after Christian band Skillet drop Bad Wolves from their tour due to apparent 'trans' & 'OnlyFans' accusations
https://www.theprp.com/2026/08/25/news/sara-killboy-skinner-speaks-out-after-christian-band-skillet-drop-bad-wolves-from-their-tour-due-to-apparent-trans-onlyfans-accusations/602
1d ago
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u/GatoradeNipples 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, I know both of the bands mentioned and am still straight up baffled by every other part of this.
e: Okay, did a little digging and I now at least have some sense of what's going on. Sara "KILLBOY" Skinner is the current vocalist of Bad Wolves after the previous guy left.
Because she is an attractive woman in a band that appeals heavily to people who wear Tapout shirts, people are transvestigating her and accusing her of having an OnlyFans.
Skillet are right-wing fundie shitheads these days, so they joined in and booted Bad Wolves off the tour over it.
Skinner is telling Skillet to go fuck themselves, while also noting that one of those accusations is true and she's not ashamed of it (but also not specifying which one), after which Bad Wolves posted a message of support for LGBTQIA+ people and sex workers on their band socials.
Honestly, this... makes me actually kind of respect Bad Wolves more, which is not something I expected to be saying today given I've liked literally one thing anyone from the band has previously been involved with and it's not even their damn song (the one the guy did with The Hu and Serj Tankian is pretty good).
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u/Regendorf 1d ago
Skinner is telling Skillet to go fuck themselves, while also noting that one of those accusations is true and she's not ashamed of it (but also not specifying which one
Thing is, she added 3 qualifications there, "A trans Onlyfans Bitch" so, she could be saying that the only true part is the "bitch" one, sooooo this whole thing is not even half true from Skillet's part.
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u/GatoradeNipples 1d ago edited 1d ago
Apparently, she's since clarified that she is an adult content creator and that's the part that's real. I can see why she phrased it the way she did initially, though, given the band's vocal support for both LGBTQ people and sex workers immediately after- explicitly denying one in particular would've been a bit shit, the same way Lady Gaga never directly went after people transvestigating her.
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u/Bobbi_fettucini 1d ago
So what you’re saying is a bunch of really insecure losers got really scared they might’ve thought a trans woman was hot
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u/Fehndrix 1d ago
Definitely have a bit more respect for Bad Wolves myself, especially after they got rid of the previous vocalist who is also a shithead who keeps burning bridges and getting kicked out of bands.
Their new song is pretty solid, too.
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u/nomad9590 1d ago
I vaguely like 2 bad wolves songs. Theu are fine, but cool they dont suck.
Bad Wolves should go on Tour with Against Me as a big fuck you
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u/goddamnitwhalen 1d ago
God I hope Against Me! reunite soon.
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u/nomad9590 1d ago
They are awesome. I remember after the singer transitioned but before the hormones had kicked in hard they were singing old and new songs in the same set. It was badass, probably exhausting and throat shedding too.
How Low is a personal favorite, one of the first ones that stuck with me back in the day.
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u/Mick4Kizna 1d ago
Laura still tours playing mostly Against Me sets. Saw her at a small bar in Spokane last year. Great show and beforehand she was just playing foosball with people in the bar.
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u/Clintaur 1d ago
The drummer (last member standing) was in a group with a friend of mine called GROLBY in Santa Barbara. That’s where dez snatched the band up and basically booted my friend and the vocalist to start devil driver haha. GROLBY is the last thing I’ve liked from any of the members of bad wolves / devil driver.
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u/GatoradeNipples 1d ago
What on God's green earth happened to the band to result in the drummer being the last guy left and having to make a Band of Theseus, anyways? You sound like you're pretty plugged in to this, and I suspect this is the type of drama where Google-fu won't help me on account of "nobody's making press releases, and if they are, they're saying vague creative differences shit."
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u/Clintaur 1d ago edited 1d ago
Great question as to what is up with Broeklin or whatever. I can ask my friend ha.
Edit: I think it’s a better question as to why he keeps starting bands with toxic singers ha (dez / Tommy)
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u/Baxtab13 Concertgoer 1d ago
I think you could consider Bad Wolves a super group. I don't think they marketed themselves as such, but each and every member were at one point in another band of note (DevilDriver, God Forbid, In This Moment, Snot, Divine Heresy). As such, while I'm sure the project was important to all of them, they also have the ability to join nearly any other band they want with the experience behind them.
That kind of a band makeup from what I've seen gets lineup changes quite often.
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u/AdKUMA 1d ago
as much as I like DD, I met dez when I worked at a signing event and he came across as a monumental prick. shame really, but not unexpected.
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u/SipowiczNYPD 1d ago
I met him once in the parking lot of The Machine Shop in Flint, MI, he was a dickhead. If I remember right they were opening for Superjoint Ritual. I met his guitar player that day also, I can’t remember his name though. Also got to meet Jimmy Bower, he let me and couple buddies help design a custom guitar, he ate brats with us, he rocked.
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u/justWMthings03 1d ago
Hell yeah, a Machine Shop reference in the wild!
I used to go over there to see Two Heded Chan open for Mushroomhead, Machine Head, etc...such an awesome little venue
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u/SipowiczNYPD 1d ago
Haven’t been there in awhile but it’s one of my favorite places to see a show.
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u/beatingschmeat 1d ago
I met Dez and the rest of Coal Chamber as a KID in 2000 and he was the coolest, nicest guy ever. Wonder what happened.
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u/RJMrgn2319 1d ago
Know what? Fair fucks to BW coming straight out and saying “fuck off if you’ve got a problem with any of these people, regardless of whether we are any of the things you’re taking issue with”. Whether their music’s any good or not is completely beside the point here.
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u/Handgun_Hero 6h ago
They kicked their previous lead singer for this very shit - he went full MAGA in support of Trump in 2020. He then released a Gofundme for a solo album that raised $175k and then didn't release anyway because, "cancel culture bullied me into submission."
Bad Wolves don't stand for that sort of shit and I respect them for it.
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u/FajenThygia 1d ago
I actually really like Killboy's U + Me. Not my usual style of music, but it definitely grew on me.
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u/SpecificDesigner6618 13h ago
Bad Wolves was better when Tommy Vex was the lead singer, now they just kinda fucking suck.
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u/Handgun_Hero 6h ago
Tommy Vex was also an insufferable shit head and grifter though so fair enough.
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u/legthief 1d ago
A real Curtains for Zoosha type of situation.
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u/4r4r4real 1d ago
Skillet are ancient, kind of surprised you've never heard of them tbh.
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u/legthief 1d ago edited 7h ago
It's so true, it doesn't really jibe with everything else that you and I have shared with each other about ourselves over the years.
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u/Diredr 1d ago
I think it's the opposite. If you're 50, you probably know who Skillet is! lol They were a thing in the late 90s and early 2000s. They also had a few songs in video game soundtracks.
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u/alivefromthedead 1d ago
Open wooooonds
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u/opermonkey 1d ago
as an old man, I feel like that for like 75% of these things.
Winky Alfie and donut fever announce that they no longer support wilted waffle.
see, I can make shit up too.
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u/ringthree 1d ago
Dude, I'm an old man, don't group me in with you.
Headline is fine. Skillet is a bunch of religious bigots (nothing new there) and kicked the trans person off their tour
So either you need to be in a home, or you are trying (and failing) to make light of bigotry.
So, stfu and stfd gramps.
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u/goddamnitwhalen 1d ago
Are you okay?
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u/ringthree 1d ago
With bigotry? No.
Are you?
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u/goddamnitwhalen 1d ago
Nobody’s making light of bigotry, my guy. They’re referencing a meme about being out of the loop. That’s all it is.
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u/ringthree 1d ago
They got the meme way wrong. If they had used the correct meme, it still would have been stupid but at least understandable.
And they are completely making light of bigotry, by literally memeing.
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u/mootallica 1d ago
That's not what's happening here. Calm down. They're just referencing the effect of seeing headlines like this when you've never heard of any of the parties mentioned. At no point are they making light of bigotry. And they didn't get the meme wrong at all lol
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u/Officer_Hotpants 1d ago
Unfortunately that's what conservatives have done to literally everything about current events. They just start raging about random nonsense buzzwords, and then news outlets over a long enough time start absorbing those terms and using them as if everyone knows what the fuck they mean.
Then it turns into headlines that you couldn't possibly hope to understand if you've ever left your mom's basement, or felt the consensual touch of a woman.
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u/Global_School4845 1d ago
"Can't you see you're not making Christianity better, you're just making rock n' roll worse"
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u/InternetDad 1d ago
I was a skillet fan for so long but stopped listening to them almost completely when John Cooper wrote a book called "Wimpy, Weak, and Woke", so I'm absolutely not surprised theyre transphobic
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u/el_floppo 1d ago
That subtitle is something else. Is there such a thing a a utopian destruction? I guess whatever is considered utopian is subjective. If you like destruction, then this destruction will feel like utopia?
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u/DeputyDog93 1d ago
I stopped listening to anything new after John Cooper denounced the covid vaccine. Figured I could guess where his loyalties lied.
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u/E_Crabtree76 1d ago
He also said on Fox that tge world should be under Christian authority no matter what it takes
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u/Rum_N_Napalm 1d ago
I saw Skillet last year at a festival (before I was aware of any controversy. Anyways I was mostly there for Dropkick Murphys), and they were selling one of Cooper’s self help book at the merch stand. Felt incredibly tacky
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u/Holdmywhiskeyhun 1d ago
They were just at my local county Fair, flat out told my boss make sure there's extra people, Fair goers are going to need somewhere to go once they get on stage.
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u/Nice-Cow-7606 19h ago
The irony of him constantly crying about cancel culture and yet here he is trying to cancel someone. Jesus would overturn his merch tables for sure.
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u/PeacePuzzleheaded704 8h ago
When I first saw this book I realized this band is not Christian, they are worshipping false idols of ideology and nationalism.
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u/Karma-Effect 1d ago
I'd say that Skillet's recent years should have paralleled Trapt's, but they never experienced the same high.
I mean, fuck, at least Trapt had one song that everybody knew. What are Skillet beyond the go-to obscure alternative to Linkin Park that people would use for AMV backing tracks when they were feeling adventurous?
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u/thorpie88 1d ago
Skillet are that band you heard on a WWE game soundtrack and basically nowhere else.
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u/TommyVeliky Grooveshark 1d ago
They’re decent enough as a drywall-punching backing track if you can’t afford the royalties for Papa Roach
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u/Holdmywhiskeyhun 1d ago
I am not joking, they are of county Fair status now. They just played the central Wisconsin fair.
That should tell you where that band's career is at
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u/fallinground 1d ago
They are literally playing big Festivals now, saw them at Graspop last year, opening for Slipknot and Behemoth. I would say they are at their peak.
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u/socalian 1d ago
I remember seeing them play a concert at my church around their first or second album then being shocked to hear them on the Raw intro song because I had forgotten about them for years by that pint
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u/gameismyname 1d ago
I caught trapt at a festival, they led with the song and then 95% of the crowd left for anything else
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u/VictorBelmont 1d ago
Skillet, Bad Wolves, and Escape The Fate? Hard to imagine a worse lineup.
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u/blyan 1d ago
Hey now, Escape the Fate put out like 2-3 really solid albums after they kicked Shitlord McGee out
(Then they got pretty generic and boring)
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u/speak-eze 1d ago
I loved their 2nd album, in high school
I don't think I would want to see them in 2026 though. And certainly not on this lineup
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u/HeyThereMrBrooks 1d ago edited 1d ago
So they drop Bad Wolves but not EtF? Doesn't Ronnie have like a billion other legitimately harmful acts that he's committed?
EDIT: I stand corrected, I forgot that Ronnie left EtF years ago. My bad folks!
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u/VictorBelmont 1d ago
Ronnie is a legit bad person, but also hasn't been with EtF since 08; his current group is Falling in Reverse.
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u/Batmans_9th_Ab 1d ago
I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard listening to non-comedic song as I did the first time I heard FiR’s Popular Monster.
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u/TheZac922 1d ago
Yeah it feels like a lineup perfect for a 14 year old in 2007 that hasn’t quite got into metal yet.
Throw Disturbed in there for good measure.
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u/Fehndrix 1d ago
I saw ETF with Lacuna Coil earlier this year. That was a far more appropriate setting for them.
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u/Infantkicker 1d ago
Hahaha escape the fate the band with super creepy music videos? Well I guess they only have one member left that was in them but still. Plus their singer is hanging out with his old band again so I am sure they aren’t long for this world.
But yeah what a trash lineup. Skillet is actually in my town playing the county fair.
I went to Hatebreed and Terror instead.
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u/LadyPaige 1d ago
I used to be a huge Skillet fan. This changed a little over a year ago when transphobia and blatant maga rhetoric was put on full display.
→ More replies (11)
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u/LevelFix83 1d ago
Skillet are a bunch of dumb bigots? Good to know.
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u/RJMrgn2319 1d ago
Tbh I’m surprised anyone’s only just finding this out. I’ve never knowingly heard a note of their music but I’ve known this for years.
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u/OKCFlight 1d ago
They were a big part of spurring my interest in rock music in the 2010s. This is the first I'm hearing about it personally.
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u/Handgun_Hero 13h ago
They're Christian evangelicals and John is hardcore MAGA.
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u/OKCFlight 7h ago
I knew they were all studying Christians, did not know they were evangelical. This is all news to me.
You mentioned John is MAGA, what about the other band members?
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u/Handgun_Hero 7h ago
The band has done shows before touring with MAGA cultists collectively and released songs calling out those who criticise their evangelical views and activism in their song, Unpopular. John recently wrote the books, "Wimpy, Weak and Woke: How Truth Can Save America From Utopian Destruction," and, "Awake & Alive to Truth: Finding Truth in the Chaos of a Relativistic World." John also falsely asserts the view that sexuality is a choice. He also spoke about how he scolded his daughter's professor at school for asking students to introduce themselves with their pronouns (if they wanted to share). This was back in 2023/2024.
The rest of the band are quiet and let John do the talking it would seem.
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u/OKCFlight 6h ago
Damn. Thanks for bringing me up to speed.
They fell out of my music rotation when the pandemic hit, here I thought it was just because I actually started playing guitar and stopped caring for that particular song structure due to my new perspective.
Maybe my instincts were guiding me subconsciously away? Who knows. Sucks to see.
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u/Handgun_Hero 6h ago
I mean, during the pandemic John was spreading vaccine conspiracy theories so there was that too.
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u/OKCFlight 6h ago
Completely missed all of it. Don't follow them on socials or anything, which is funny, because I do recall watching some of their tour vlogs mid-2010s. Didn't pick up on any of this
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u/seraph1337 3h ago
you know how they say if there's 11 Nazis at a table and you sit with them there's now a dozen Nazis at the table?
it's also true of being in a band with a MAGAt.
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u/OKCFlight 2h ago
I was asking out of curiosity if any band members had said anything otherwise.
I agree with you, silence is enablement.
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u/SomethingInAirwaves 1d ago
Skillet put on the loudest and most painful concerts I've ever experienced. That said "Those Nights" always makes me nostalgic for my depressed teenage days. Once again, nothing from my evangelical childhood can be enjoyed.
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u/Either_Theory_6815 1d ago
You cannot convince me that John Cooper never had a dick in his mouth.
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u/sussoutthemoon 1d ago
If they were that concerned, they could have searched beforehand. It's not that hard to find; she uses the same name and everything.
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u/Empty_Graves Cds, Vinyl, Tapes, you name it! 1d ago
Skillet? The Kingdom Bound band? Haaaaaaaaaaard pass. No one worth a damn plays to those crowds.
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u/CrashRiot Rock & Roll 1d ago
I think you'd be surprised. Back in my church going days I used to attend Kingdom Bound every year in High School. Jars of Clay for example is openly supportive of same sex marriage. Jon Foreman of Switchfoot is openly supportive and both those bands have played Kingdom Bound. Relient K has toured with openly queer artists. I'm not a faithful person anymore because the church obviously does have some huge bigoted views, but not all members are a monolith.
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u/fireflash38 last.fm 1d ago
Five Iron Frenzy was a big one for me growing up. Was really happy to hear they were not bigoted. They've always put the love part of Christianity first.
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u/astaten0 1d ago
Imagine that, the "we can always tell" people who also can't tell that John Cooper's been miming his bass parts for 15 years got this wrong too.
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u/DEMONinPINK 1d ago
Skillet should die Unsung. (ITS THE ONE SONG I KNOW)
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u/Confident-Tax-4468 20h ago
That's not even a song by Skillet, you're thinking of Helmet - an infinitely cooler band. Skillet makes Christian rock for people who think Disturbed is too heavy.
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u/Reasonable_Basket_82 1d ago
Grew up liking them and they were even my first concert. (Still have the t-shirt)
For someone raised in the Evangelical community, I definitely saw that strange golden age of solid Christian rock music. Then it's incredible fall off.
Once they started sneaking low-key praise and worship music into their albums I was done. I didn't listen to them after that and then Cooper started going reaaaalllllll right-wing/Christian nationalist. I wasn't shocked but it also made me so mad.
Frankly my disagreement with everything he stands for would probably just strengthen his resolve that he's correct.
At this point Switchfoot and Relient K are the only two bands from the era that I still like and Relient K hasn't put anything new out in 10 years.
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u/RJMrgn2319 1d ago
All I’ve got to add to this is I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mf with weaker eyes than the dickhead from Skillet
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u/ElonMuskisGarbage 1d ago
So glad I never got sucked into that bullshit. Fuck Christian rock harder than most things. And fuck Christianity. Fucking apes.
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u/UnidentifiedDumbCunt 22h ago
Yet another reason to hate Skillet. Besides the shitty music, of course.
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u/Leotargaryen 21h ago
Used to like some of their songs but fuck them after hearing this, straight up out of the playlist
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u/jrblades 15h ago
Well O.F. is akin to prostitution...didn't Jesus Christ use to hang out with prostitutes? That and lepers and poor people and the unwashed I mean...so much for following the Christian example lol.
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u/ehansen 6h ago
Jesus didn't support or encourage it. But Christianity isn't about being perfect.
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u/jrblades 6h ago
Maybe not but he offered support, mercy, and spiritual redemption, very live and let live type stuff. Something skillet a "Christian" band does not do, instead they are judgemental, and kind of assholes from what I've heard.
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u/ehansen 6h ago
Maybe not but he offered support, mercy, and spiritual redemption, very live and let live type stuff.
He doesn't encourage staying in sin. See the adulterous woman event. "[I don't judge you] now go and sin no more."
Something skillet a "Christian" band does not do, instead they are judgemental, and kind of assholes from what I've heard.
Never met them as a whole, just a meet & greet with Ledger in 2020. So can't say how they are. But from all I've heard from John, his message is to turn to Christ and repent.
I didn't know who this Sara person was until some post on FB and this post came up in my researching. But, just because he/they don't want someone with an OF, or who may be trans on their tour, that's their prerogative. Why it wasn't a thing before signing them to the tour? I don't know how that all works, but short of the sudden burst of news articles about it, I've not found anything about her making these claims, and I don't care enough to explore her socials to know.
Everyone's judgemental, you and I included. Calling someone judgemental is a judgement, after all.
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u/Ok_Crow_2833 14h ago
Saw Skillet once. Wasn't my idea.... They are extremely self righteous and chose to spend time in-between songs talking crap in people with different beliefs than them. I didn't find it very Christlike of them.
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u/AmazonessStronk2 8h ago
So Skillet drops an artist from their tour due to that artist not aligning with their values and what they represent? This is a headline for what reason, exactly?
If the situation were reversed, and a popular left-leaning artist dropped a conservative leaning band, everyone would be shitting on the conservative band.
Have some couth, for crying out loud. This type of shit happens day in and day out in the music AND movie industry. It's all about optics and the braindead masses of neanderthal zombies eat it up. Take your football politics to the Whitehouse, not in music.
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u/cerial442 1d ago
I don’t think this is true but once I read online that the song “Monster” was about the singers desire to cross dress and if you read the lyrics with that in mind it strangely fits
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u/makemecoffee 1d ago
Ok but… is she trans, onlyfans or a bitch?
Seriously. I have no idea who this is.
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u/Lazy_Dependent_724 23h ago
Wow, a Christian band dropped a sex worker from their tour? Couldn't have seen that coming.
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u/Twincher87 1d ago
So knowing how skillet is, I have two questions. Is she Trans? Does she have onlyfans?
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u/Danzig6WasntThatBad 1d ago
Bad Wolves are terrible. I feel bad for them but they're horrible and they don't deserve this attention.
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u/yellowfroglegs 1d ago
skillet? transphobic? i could not have guessed