Skillet was recently in Tupelo, Miss. for Winter Jam. (@brandonspeck)

@brandonspeck

When I talked with Skillet frontman John Cooper a few weeks back, we talked about the band’s super-busy tour schedule and how that used to have an affect on the changing lineup. The band stays on the road. It just completed Winter Jam and has now announced the Rise Tour headed to Brazil for five October shows, that will follow a busy summer festival season.

Since the band started in 1996, six members have come and gone, as well as four touring and session members.

“You tour for three, four, five years straight, it’s a lot of work, hard to have a family, hard to meet someone and get married,” Cooper said. “A lot of people have said, ‘I want to meet somebody and I can’t do it out here. I want to have a normal life.'”

Cooper keeps going in large part because he and wife Korey (rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals since 1999) write all the music together. But the other two members, drummer Jen Ledger and lead guitarist Seth Morrison have been in since 2008 and 2011, so things are steady for Skillet.

Here is a clip of Cooper and Jeremy Camp doing “Monster.”

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