Real Answers and Real Drinks: SKILLET (John Cooper) | YES or NO

Speaker 1 Does the stereotype rock star lifestyle apply to Christian bands?

Speaker 2 Well,

Speaker 2 it shouldn't.

Speaker 1 Are we going to spill some tea? What's going on?

Speaker 1 Hello and welcome. to Yes or No, the bibulous battle to discover who knows whom better.
My guest today is John Cooper, lead singer of the band Skillet. How do we play?

Speaker 1 I will ask John a yes or no question. He will select his answer away from my prying eyes.
Then I will guess how he answered. If I guess correctly, I get a point.

Speaker 1 If I guess incorrectly, I lose a point. No matter how I guess, I will probably drink.
Then it is John's turn. Neither of us has seen the questions beforehand.

Speaker 1 The questions cover various and sundry topics, from the philosophical to the anatomical and everything in between. Whoever has the most points wins.
The stakes could be higher.

Speaker 1 Also, Skillett's new album, Revolution, is out now. Let's get started.
John, thank you for coming on this very intense show.

Speaker 2 It is intense. You've already said three words.
I don't know what they mean, but we're going to fight this out anyway.

Speaker 1 Don't worry.

Speaker 2 Biblius? Something like that. Yeah, you made that one up.

Speaker 1 Spanish for library, I think. Oh, good.

Speaker 2 Good. It's good to be here with you.

Speaker 1 Wonderful to have you.

Speaker 1 You are having a soft drink.

Speaker 2 Yes, Dr. Pepper.

Speaker 1 That is America's drink. I am having a hot toddy because I have whatever bubonic plague has hit Nashville.
So this is going to, it might weaken my sharpness, but it might fortify me as well.

Speaker 1 Are you ready to play?

Speaker 2 I'm ready to play, but I did bring you a gift. Is it okay if I give you a gift before we get started?

Speaker 1 It is always okay to give you a gift.

Speaker 2 Okay, I'm going to do it here here.

Speaker 1 I'm buttering you up so that I can beat you real bad first of all I got to give you this sweet skillet vinyl this is sick it is sick every time I acquire vinyl I feel about 14% cooler

Speaker 2 you should because you don't listen to proper music

Speaker 1 now listen the second the second thing I brought for you is my book because I don't read proper books because you don't read proper books but Wimpy Weak and Woke how truth can save America from utopian destruction Yes.

Speaker 2 Now, the main reason I'm giving it to you is because I want you to read the inscription I wrote to you there. We got to read it out loud for the.

Speaker 2 You got to read it out loud for the cameras here.

Speaker 1 To Michael, keep up the good work, and remember,

Speaker 1 remember, some women with purple hair like your show. That's from Corey, John Cooper.
Wow. Yes.

Speaker 2 So people want, they might not know why that's funny, but it's funny because if you show the back of the album, you will see my wife with her purple hair.

Speaker 2 And she wants you to quit being mean about women with purple hair.

Speaker 1 That's true. And your drummer.

Speaker 2 My drummer is the hugest Michael Knowles fan of the crew. She has great taste.

Speaker 1 She does that. But her hair also is.

Speaker 2 It's slightly purple.

Speaker 1 It's a little, yeah, there's a hint to it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 So I've been instructed from them on behalf of purple-haired women everywhere who love God, love reason, love America, and some even like you.

Speaker 1 I've been instructed. It's a small subset

Speaker 2 to smoke you

Speaker 2 like a Mayflower cigar. Wow, that's from my wife.

Speaker 1 Smoke me delightfully. Delightfully like a potent yet refined

Speaker 2 Mayflower cigar.

Speaker 1 I am buttered up. All right.

Speaker 1 Here we go.

Speaker 1 There's a wager. Okay.
Have you heard that? I'm told there's a wager.

Speaker 2 I'm ready for whatever wager you want.

Speaker 1 The wager I have been instructed to propose by my producers is that

Speaker 1 whoever loses has to do a 30-second ad for the other's product. So for you, look, that could be the music, that could be the vinyl, it could be the book.
For me, it could be the Mayflower Cigars.

Speaker 1 It could,

Speaker 1 let's make it the Mayflower Cigars.

Speaker 1 I guess it could be the show.

Speaker 1 Okay. You're in.
I'm in. All right.

Speaker 1 Was Donald Trump a better McDonald's employee than you?

Speaker 2 It's getting intense.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 Yeah, no.

Speaker 1 No. No.
Why?

Speaker 2 It's easy to be a good employee when you only work for 15 minutes. You haven't been there long enough to screw up yet.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know what I mean? He smiled at everybody. He dressed good when he did it.

Speaker 1 He batted 1,000. The customers loved him.
It looked like he did the fries right. Yes.
Were you a good McDonald's employee?

Speaker 2 I think that I was a good McDonald's employee for three and a half years.

Speaker 2 Yeah, great so you know but but yeah you're gonna uh you're gonna do some things wrong you're gonna burn some things you're gonna yell at a few people yeah I yelled at a at a customer only only a couple of times but she just drove me nuts you want to hear the story or not really yeah yeah she she she literally comes up at the front desk they always have me work in front because I'm a nice guy

Speaker 2 but she comes up and I first I said I'm John gotta take your order she's like Are you listening? It was an old one. Are you listening? And I said, yes, ma'am.

Speaker 1 Wait, is this in the drive-thru or this is like to your face? Front desk, to my face.

Speaker 2 Are you listening? And I said, yes, ma'am. And she said, because every time I come, I say what I want and they ask me questions and I don't want questions.
And I said, yes, ma'am, I'm listening.

Speaker 2 She's like, I want a quarter pounder with mustard and pickle only.

Speaker 2 And right then I could see what was happening. But you see, a quarter pounder is actually comes with cheese.
Right.

Speaker 1 Is it a quarter pounder with cheese?

Speaker 2 And I don't know.

Speaker 1 It was almost like I was playing a yes or no game with her. I know.
And she was testing you.

Speaker 2 And I thought, I'm going to have to ask her so I don't screw this up. And I said, all right, now, did you want cheese?

Speaker 1 And she's like, oh my God.

Speaker 2 And she's like slapping the, and she went nuts. And so anyway, long story short, we got the order, gave it to her, and she's opening it.
She's opening it at the front counter to make sure it's right.

Speaker 2 And it was correct. Mustard and pickle.
And by the way, she did not want cheese. And that's why she always has it messed up.

Speaker 1 What kind of a psycho orders a hamburger in the late 20th or early 21st centuries? Just without any cheese? Without

Speaker 1 heard of that.

Speaker 2 Well, Ben Shapiro may, actually.

Speaker 1 That's a good point. Don't you know your own friends? You're right.
I didn't realize this woman was. You're such a bad person.

Speaker 1 She wanted to kosher McDonald's murder. Okay.

Speaker 2 And purple hair people are good too.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 she opens it up and then she's like, you call that mustard and pickle. There wasn't enough.
And so I got so mad.

Speaker 2 I went to the back and I grabbed the huge thing of pickles and the huge thing of mustard and I brought him to the front and I looked straight. I I was like, Tell me when to stop.

Speaker 2 And I was just squirting,

Speaker 2 and all these women behind her were laughing so hard. And it made it worse because they were laughing at her.
Yeah. Donald Trump did not do that.
No. He's a better employee than me.

Speaker 1 He had curated customers, to be fair. But fair enough.
You're up.

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 2 Do you think that strict parenting can cause kids to love what they can't have?

Speaker 2 Strict parenting can cause kids to love

Speaker 2 what they can't have. Okay, so I'm, in other words, I'm not letting them do certain things and now they want to do those certain things.

Speaker 1 Certainly. Woo!

Speaker 1 Because of the word can. It's not always.

Speaker 1 But you can. I had friends, like in college, you know, raised in a very strict environment.
Me, I had my first cigar at 15. My mother would, I was Italian.

Speaker 1 I could have a glass of wine at Christmas, so I was six years old probably. And I never really

Speaker 1 got that into being like blackout drunk or I never went to the hospital or anything for drink, but I had friends in college who did, a bunch of them.

Speaker 1 And I noticed a lot of them came from very strict households where they were told you can't, you can't, you can't, and so they go crazy when they're free.

Speaker 1 And so, but that doesn't mean you want a permissive parent either. What you want is you want a little jiu-jitsu.
You want it to seem like you want to grasp loosely.

Speaker 1 You know, so the kid, he's got a little wiggle room. But then if he steps out too far, then you

Speaker 1 smack it down a little bit.

Speaker 2 A gentle slap. A GS.
It reminds me of a song. Everything reminds me of a song.

Speaker 1 And that's a hold on loosely. Yes.
But don't let go. Yeah.

Speaker 2 You know who that is?

Speaker 1 Well, I thought you just

Speaker 1 said that.

Speaker 2 No, no, that's a real song. Who is it? I'm going to say.
This is part of my new drinking game.

Speaker 1 Is it Gustav Mahler?

Speaker 1 No, it's not. Is that a real bass? Is it Stravinsky? I don't know.
Hold on.

Speaker 2 You need that vinyl I gave you.

Speaker 1 You really need it.

Speaker 2 All right, that's 38 special.

Speaker 1 Okay, my next guess was going to be Cardi B. So, okay, it's 38 special.
Okay, all right, that's fair. Okay.
Yeah, no, that's right. You got to hold on loosely.
Hold on loosely. But don't let go.

Speaker 1 Don't let go.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 There is a video prompt here.

Speaker 1 Watch this video first.

Speaker 2 Do we have to?

Speaker 1 Do we have to watch this? Can we get it again?

Speaker 1 Can we get more sitar? How have you made a living doing this? Oh, that making people watch that.

Speaker 1 That's my day job.

Speaker 1 This is just my hobby.

Speaker 1 Okay, so this is

Speaker 1 for no points, I'm told. Can you name that song? Can I name that song? Yeah.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 1 The Inner Light by the Beatles. Is it?

Speaker 2 Okay, I was about to say,

Speaker 2 it definitely reminds me of the 60s Beatles stuff.

Speaker 1 That was my George Harrison phase. Okay.
Well, that's okay.

Speaker 2 I mean,

Speaker 2 you got to love the Beatles.

Speaker 1 Okay, now this is for the real point. All right, hit me.
So now you got to answer. All right.
Does Skillet need a sitar collaboration for for the next album?

Speaker 2 Okay, I see what we're doing.

Speaker 1 You got to give your honest answer here.

Speaker 2 My honest answer.

Speaker 2 I mean, I already know the answer. I'm feeling the pressure.

Speaker 1 We already know the answer, and the answer is obviously, yes, I will do it.

Speaker 2 That is my answer, yes.

Speaker 2 But there's a good reason.

Speaker 1 Yeah, why?

Speaker 2 There's a good reason.

Speaker 2 Because Metallica had a sitar at the beginning of

Speaker 2 what's the song called?

Speaker 1 I think it's WAP.

Speaker 1 Yes.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Ben Shapiro needs to now do a version of Metallica because all of a sudden I can't think of,

Speaker 2 is it Wherever I May Roam is the one with a sitar, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it could be. Yeah.
In a Gata Divida, yeah.

Speaker 2 What is it?

Speaker 1 I think it's Inigata Divida, right?

Speaker 2 Is it? No, it's not.

Speaker 2 It's not. That's Iron Butterfly.

Speaker 1 But I was totally willing to sing it. I was totally willing to sacrifice a point just for the gag.
Just for the gag.

Speaker 1 And I did it. John, you tell me when.
I will be in the studio. I will get my sitar.
My kid, I think, maybe broke my sitar recently. I'll get it fixed.

Speaker 1 I will pay for it myself in charge of Daily Wire, and I will be in that studio whenever you need it.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 2 This isn't even fun for people to watch so far because we're so in line together.

Speaker 1 We're so close we can almost finish each other's sandwich narrative.

Speaker 2 Yes, we can.

Speaker 2 That is.

Speaker 2 That is wherever my I May Roam Metallica, which is a great song.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 2 See, everything is the song for me.

Speaker 1 You could have played the sitar. Yeah.
You got to play it.

Speaker 2 No, that looked like that didn't look real.

Speaker 1 You know the secret? Actually, sitar? To play it 75% to what you imagine sitar to be is actually extremely easy.

Speaker 1 The hardest thing is to hold it, actually, because you're only fretting like one or two strings. The rest are drone or sympathetic or whatever.

Speaker 1 Now, if you want to be Robbie Shankar, that's a little, I'm not quite there yet. Right.
But it's not that hard. That's why George Harrison could pick it up with a bunch of hippies in the 60s.
Right.

Speaker 1 All right. All right, you're up.

Speaker 2 All right, you ready? Yes. Oh, a video prompt.

Speaker 2 Watch this video, Michael. Okay.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's... Wow.

Speaker 2 This is the meanest show I've ever been on.

Speaker 1 Wow, is that?

Speaker 2 I've been treated so bad. I came in here.
Michael looked directly at me and said, oh, when are you going to do hair and makeup?

Speaker 1 No, I don't.

Speaker 2 Which is literally what you said.

Speaker 1 After they're going to look like that. Now, is that boy George?

Speaker 1 Who are we looking at here?

Speaker 2 That actually is Jim Carrey with blonde hair.

Speaker 1 Right?

Speaker 2 It kind of does look like Jim Carrey, doesn't it?

Speaker 1 That does. That's...

Speaker 1 What year would that have been?

Speaker 2 That is the year 2000.

Speaker 1 The year 2000.

Speaker 1 Sure, a lot of things happen. Look, if we avoided Y2K and all we got was bleach tips, that's fine.
That's okay. So what's the question?

Speaker 2 I can't believe you're playing.

Speaker 2 I'm never coming back to the show again.

Speaker 1 I might not come back either. There you go.

Speaker 2 Since fashion comes in cycles, will this look make a comeback?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it will. I'm sorry to say, but that will come back.
Because right now, actually, it's going to come back soon. Because I remember when I was a kid, the 70s were back.

Speaker 1 And that was a little while ago. Now the 90s are back.

Speaker 1 Just the cut of trousers, everything. 90s are hip and cool again, which means we are less than 10 years away

Speaker 1 from your hair looking like that again.

Speaker 2 Everything. In fact, on the Super Bowl,

Speaker 1 Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Do you see his flared jeans?

Speaker 2 70s. Wow.
And 90s, actually, because Geneco jeans were really big at the end of the 90s. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so everything comes back. It's coming back.
Everything has been done.

Speaker 2 That's from a book called Ecclesiastes.

Speaker 1 I know, you know.

Speaker 2 Everything, nothing new. It's all coming back.
People will do stupid stuff again. That's true.
Even though I'm not saying that my hair was stupid.

Speaker 1 No, it wasn't stupid. No.
No.

Speaker 2 It was, but I wasn't saying that.

Speaker 1 Eat, drink, and be merry is also from Ecclesia.

Speaker 2 Tomorrow we die.

Speaker 1 You know,

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Speaker 2 I feel like that's going to save marriages.

Speaker 1 I agree. I really do.
Even in the pre-order. Even in the pre-already.

Speaker 1 Does the stereotype rock star lifestyle apply to Christian bands?

Speaker 2 It's getting serious, bud.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 1 Really? No, man. I hate losing that point.
But

Speaker 1 really?

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 2 it shouldn't. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But unfortunately, it does.

Speaker 1 So since I have this hot toddy here, are we going to spill some tea? What's

Speaker 1 going on?

Speaker 1 I don't know if I should. Let me call my manager and find out.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 rock star lifestyle, you think, like Led Zeppelin, you know, doing speed balls with like 500 groupies,

Speaker 1 burning guitars and stuff, crashing on the rooms.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, I think that what you're dealing with is the same thing as this.

Speaker 2 Everybody does stupid stuff. And a lot of people present that they present as something that they are not, whether it's hypocrisy or whether it was just a game or whether they

Speaker 2 fell into sin, whatever may happen, lapsed in judgment.

Speaker 2 And unfortunately, I was naive when I first got into the scene. I just thought.
Everybody's going to be totally like-minded and it's going to be whatever. And then you get into it.

Speaker 2 And then you're like, oh, my gosh, I think he's hitting on my wife.

Speaker 2 I'm pretty sure he's hitting on my wife. Same thing in politics.
I don't know if you know that, if you've been around

Speaker 1 once or twice.

Speaker 2 I honestly haven't been that much around the whole political world, but in the last few years I have been.

Speaker 2 And I'm like, you mean the same guy that keeps talking about God and country is here and I'm fine? This kind of seems like a griff to me. And this is just about making money.

Speaker 2 And so, you know, some of that stuff is really disheartening. So I'm sad to say the answer is yes.

Speaker 1 I've talked to members of the federal legislature who have told me something like half of the members of Congress are sleeping with staff or lobbyists or whatever.

Speaker 1 And I actually had this thought the other day. I was at a political event, and it's really nice.

Speaker 1 You go to an event, it's all these people who really like you, and they come up, and they're really adventory, and they want to talk to you and take pictures. I thought, you know, this is funny.

Speaker 1 I am in

Speaker 1 the most niche kind of circumscribed fringe version of that kind of a culture.

Speaker 1 Now imagine your Mick Jagger.

Speaker 1 How on earth, Norm McDonald made this point. He said, you know, people are saying Tiger Woods is unfaithful to his wife.

Speaker 1 But statistically speaking, he said an average guy has about five chances in his life to cheat on his wife. Tiger Woods has about 500 chances every 15 minutes to cheat on his wife.

Speaker 1 So Norm's point was, statistically, Tiger Woods is the most faithful husband in the history of marriage. Much more faithful than any normal married person.

Speaker 1 And so I could see it, because you're a Christian band. Hopefully that puts some limits on your fans and stuff.
But you're still a rock star. Right.
You're still a rock star.

Speaker 1 That's a crazy lifestyle, power dynamic, you know, and all of the temptations probably attend to that.

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 2 Pride's going to get you no matter who you are in the end, because we all have a bent towards that.

Speaker 2 As you know, as well as anybody saint augustine taught us this we have a bent towards sin we are wanting to do sin and if we are not ordering our lives properly ordering our loves properly we will give into that sin and so i think some of the naivety for me it was difficult i mean i might sound really stupid to some people but i really was that naive i just thought we're all going to be in this together

Speaker 2 i want to ask you this and you tell me if you agree yeah yeah

Speaker 2 whether you're talking about politics your friends whatever business music business business. I would much rather be with people that are not like-minded

Speaker 2 and know that they're being real with me. In other words, I would rather be with the bands that I know, well, they probably would sleep with my wife.
Yeah, yeah. And I know that about them.

Speaker 2 And they're not pretending.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 And we can be kind of like friends.

Speaker 2 I like that a lot more than the wolf in sheep's clothes. So I don't like the subversion.
I can't stand it.

Speaker 1 Because you know what you're dealing with there.

Speaker 2 You got to know what you're dealing with. And I really can't stand that.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. That's a great point.

Speaker 2 And I think that's why a lot of, I think then when 16 happened, 2016, I think that's why a lot of people were kind of like, I don't know why, but I kind of like the Trump thing. I don't know why.

Speaker 2 Yeah. But something about it is refreshing.
Like, okay. There's no artifice.
Yeah, I don't really like that he said that, but I kind of like that he's willing to say.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. I know that he believes it.
It kind of blows your mind. Yeah, yeah, right.

Speaker 2 You're kind of sick of it.

Speaker 2 I don't like pretense. Because that's the thing.

Speaker 1 All the guys who speak in nicer ways than Trump or whatever,

Speaker 1 virtually all of them

Speaker 1 think what Trump thinks would do worse than anything Trump is talking about doing. He's just kind of being open about it.
Yes. Yeah.
That's a good point.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I can't say that. Like when Obama would talk about things like being united, and then he'd say something and, but, you know, we can't be united

Speaker 2 until all those racist white people are blowing up.

Speaker 1 Bitter clinging. Bitter clinging and clinging to the gun.

Speaker 2 And you're like, oh my gosh, that's like, that's like the most divisive thing I saw. And so I think people don't like that.
I don't like it.

Speaker 2 I think we're turning a tide when people are beginning to be okay with saying what they think again. And I particularly like that.

Speaker 2 I don't mind being with people that don't like my religion and don't like me. And oh, that's cool.
We can still be friends. At least I know where you're standing.
That's right. That's right.

Speaker 1 That's rock and roll, buddy.

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Speaker 1 This whiskey is made by patriots for patriots, embodying the spirit of the American dream. I know my whiskey, okay? And so I was very, very pleased.
I got this bottle. I said, oh, good.

Speaker 1 Let me give it a try. And it was kind of early in the morning.
I said, I'll just give it just a little taste just to try it. I said, oh, I quite like that.
Oh, yes, wonderful. That's great.

Speaker 1 And I say to my producer, Ben Davies, I say, hey, you can give this a try if you want.

Speaker 1 And then the bottle disappeared. Just disappeared.
It was gone.

Speaker 1 Not by eight in the morning, but it was gone by, I don't know, a few days later. So, where's my whiskey? So, anyway, now we have another bottle.
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Speaker 2 Is the Earth around 10,000 years old?

Speaker 1 I'm nervous. You guessed correctly.
Oh, I'm so happy. I don't think, because it's 6,000.
No, I'm joking. I don't know how old the Earth is.
I don't, I'm not like some devotee of some particular

Speaker 1 branch of evolution or something like that. But I'm open to the possibility.
If a geologist tells me the Earth is,

Speaker 1 I don't know, a bazillion years old, it doesn't really affect my faith. I don't think that's incongruent with the faith or contradictory in any way.

Speaker 1 However, I guess the caveat on that is, I do think that the

Speaker 1 literal biblical account,

Speaker 1 certainly of the age of humanity, is the most accurate

Speaker 1 hermeneutic for understanding history. Right.
How's that for couching my answer? But I think it's an important rejoinder.

Speaker 2 I thought it was a beautiful couching of your answer, and I couldn't agree more. But I did not know that you thought that.

Speaker 1 What do you think? 10,000 years?

Speaker 2 No. No, I agree with your answer.
Yeah. Okay.
Is that safe?

Speaker 1 That is, that is safe. That's safe.
I think that's fair.

Speaker 2 I am completely on your side.

Speaker 2 I do subscribe to a young earth

Speaker 2 philosophy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 But mainly what I subscribe to is like we said, I do believe in a literal Genesis account.

Speaker 2 I don't believe that

Speaker 2 these seven days were billions of years.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 if I get in heaven and I find out you were really wrong about that, I'll be like, like, okay.

Speaker 1 It doesn't affect your eyes. Exactly.

Speaker 2 If there was, for sure, for sure, for sure, I'd be like, yeah, there's lots of stuff we don't understand.

Speaker 1 I also get a kick out. I'm happy with that.
Sometimes the libs will say, like, you're a Christian, huh? You probably don't even believe in the Big Bang.

Speaker 1 It's like, well, you know, the Big Bang was posited by a Catholic priest named Father George Lemaitre.

Speaker 1 And actually, at the time, it was derided by atheists as being too biblical because it was creation out of nothing.

Speaker 1 So, okay, all right, well, that's good. And then I don't lose a point.
I'm going to drink. You should drink.
To that

Speaker 1 saint.

Speaker 1 You need to catch up. That way you can be as loose as I am with that Dr.
Pepper.

Speaker 2 You got to drink Dr. Pepper while you can in case RFK changes the high fructose corn.

Speaker 1 I know. Yeah.
But Dr. Pepper is good too, is the problem.

Speaker 2 It is good, but

Speaker 2 it's one of the things I've liked least about Trump, one of his statements,

Speaker 2 when he's like, I told Bobby, leave the liquid gold, but go nuts on everything. He should have said, but not the corn fruit.

Speaker 2 Well, the liquid gold.

Speaker 2 Leave this.

Speaker 2 I need to have the option to have my soda. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 I'm libertarian when it comes to soda.

Speaker 1 When he said liquid gold, I think he was referring to oil, natural gas, and Diet Coke. So hopefully, Kennedy leaves it.

Speaker 2 Oh, good. So we can be postmodern in the way we see those things.
We're changing words. We're changing.

Speaker 1 I bet that is literally what Trump is.

Speaker 2 Where's the ding? So we can ding so people know to go buy your book.

Speaker 1 That's right. That's true.

Speaker 1 That's speechless. That's the name of that.
That's right. The score,

Speaker 1 I'm sorry to report, is one point to me,

Speaker 1 three points to John.

Speaker 2 But anything can change.

Speaker 1 Anything could change. Anything.
So rapid fire, I am going to read to you within the span of 30 seconds three prompts.

Speaker 2 Okay, so no chit-chat.

Speaker 1 We're going fast. All right.

Speaker 1 Tattoos are a sin. Okay.

Speaker 1 I'm going to have to assume the answer is no. No, okay.
No, okay.

Speaker 1 Is it more likely that we did not go to the moon?

Speaker 1 I'm going to say that you will answer no.

Speaker 1 No. No, okay, good.
That was good. That was a technical win.

Speaker 1 Is nicotine better than coffee?

Speaker 1 You're going to answer no.

Speaker 1 Ah! Darn.

Speaker 1 Do you have a little pouch in right now? I don't. All right, so I got what? I got two out of three.
That doesn't quite take me up, though, to beating you. Okay, you're up.
Okay.

Speaker 2 Are you ready? I'm ready.

Speaker 2 Is Nickelback a good band?

Speaker 1 Obviously, they're a huge best-selling band.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God.

Speaker 1 I'm not saying it's like, you know, Beethoven.

Speaker 2 I love Nickelback.

Speaker 1 Oh, we'll get more to that later.

Speaker 2 Hold on. Were the pyramids built pre-flood?

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 2 Should women be in rock bands

Speaker 1 with purple hair.

Speaker 1 Only the ones that listen to my show. That's it.

Speaker 2 That's it. That's a good caveat.

Speaker 1 So, he's still beating me.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Now, I believe this is the final round.

Speaker 1 These points is worth a billion points each, I think. A billion.
Not quite, but it's worth slightly more than they were.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Final question.

Speaker 1 We're going to answer at the same time.

Speaker 1 So, the way this will work, I'll say the prompt. We will each put down our answer.
Then we will guess how the other person would answer.

Speaker 1 Will we get more information on the Trump assassination attempt?

Speaker 1 I think you will say,

Speaker 1 yes.

Speaker 1 You got mine correct.

Speaker 1 And I got yours incorrect.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm so happy.

Speaker 2 This is the happiest I've been in a long time.

Speaker 2 You need to understand.

Speaker 1 That could have been the game right there. I thought,

Speaker 1 because you're feeling really good about everything in this administration and shaking things up and we can say what we think and all it.

Speaker 1 I thought you would think that Trump is going to get to the bottom of that now that he's in charge.

Speaker 1 I just think that the deep state is really good at not digging too far into things.

Speaker 1 I agree with that.

Speaker 2 I absolutely agree with that. And I know that you're a cynic.
And so I knew.

Speaker 1 Just a realist. I say a realist.

Speaker 2 I feel the same way, but I guess that means that I'm cynical about that as well.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't think we're going to get it. I don't think we're going to get it.
Okay.

Speaker 2 No, the deep state is too, it's too real. It's too deep.

Speaker 1 This is my last chance.

Speaker 2 Is it safer to ride along with Skillet on tour than with Professor Jacob in his Camaro?

Speaker 1 My producers are asking if I want to fill you in on the lore. I don't need fill in.
I don't.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't want to. This is.

Speaker 1 I answered yes.

Speaker 2 I answered no.

Speaker 1 I don't know. No.
Ah!

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 it means that I'm going to lose the game. But

Speaker 1 now that you've answered, I can fill you in. Fill me in.
I have this associate producer who has crashed like five Camaros in the last.

Speaker 1 Is he on the couch? Oh, there he is. He's right there.
There he is, right on the couch.

Speaker 1 He's crashed like five Camaros in the last six months. This guy can't even look at a Camaro without it exploding.

Speaker 1 So I figure, no matter how bad the bus is on the skillet tour, it can't possibly be worse than my associate producer with an American Muscle Car.

Speaker 2 Well, that's a good explanation.

Speaker 2 And to be fair, we haven't had any crazy things happen. It's just that statistically we should.
It's been 27 years and we're going to keep going. The amount of time we're driving means statistically

Speaker 2 it should be that way.

Speaker 2 Even if he should have his license revoked.

Speaker 1 And he should have a while ago. But because he's like 12 years old, you're right.
Just the time scale.

Speaker 1 Is it 27 years?

Speaker 2 Next year will actually be our 30th year anniversary for Skillet, which is absolutely crazy.

Speaker 1 That is crazy.

Speaker 2 You can't tell because I went to hair and makeup before.

Speaker 1 You're actually 75 years old. No one knows that.

Speaker 2 This is this Christian band thing. When you don't do drugs and you're not drinking heavy and all this, you just stay looking young.
Wow.

Speaker 1 And the nicotine, maybe. Maybe you got to hurt you up a little bit, too.
Wow. Okay.
I

Speaker 1 got destroyed.

Speaker 2 And if my daughter was here, you know what she would say? She would say, ooh, you ate him for breakfast.

Speaker 2 You see how I do it? It's a pawn.

Speaker 1 It's a homonym.

Speaker 2 But she started this new thing when they say, oh, I ate it. And what they mean is like, I did real good.
It's like a new young person thing or something. I don't even know what it means.

Speaker 2 She's like, oh, I ate it.

Speaker 2 I didn't leave no crumbs or something like that.

Speaker 1 That's the thing also, when you're the progeny of like a rock star, you get that kind of poetry in your head. You know, I ate, I ate, and this.

Speaker 2 Maybe so. I don't even know what's going on with that.

Speaker 1 Skillet's new album, Revolution, which I had until someone stole it from me. It's out now.
It's available on all music platforms and vinyl.

Speaker 1 Check out this tease for all that matters from their new album, Revolution.

Speaker 1 Better not break into this home. Cause where I come from, we always stay as one where we belong.

Speaker 1 We won't step for this. Cost you everything when you're at war.
These three things I die for:

Speaker 1 my face,

Speaker 1 my family,

Speaker 1 my freedom. That's what's back in me.
Give me a reasonable end.

Speaker 1 I've gotta fight for what I believe in. Believe it's love, loyalty, I face fertility.

Speaker 1 In this land of liberty, it's everything.

Speaker 1 My face,

Speaker 1 my family,

Speaker 1 my freedom's all that matters to me. The thief brought my album back.
Yeah, he bullied them into it.

Speaker 1 Okay, I'm gonna do the ad now.

Speaker 1 Start the clock, please.

Speaker 1 You must listen to Skillet. And there are all sorts of reasons.
John, you know, sure, whatever.

Speaker 1 He knows how to play a trivia game. It's fine, whatever, that's fine.
But the reason that you have to listen to Skillet

Speaker 1 is because

Speaker 1 the drummers and wives of Skillet have the very, very best taste, not only in music, not only in popular culture, but in podcasts.

Speaker 1 And so people with that kind of perspicacity, that kind of precision of judgment, must be musical geniuses, and you could greatly benefit from listening to all of their music, especially the new album, Revolution.

Speaker 2 How's that? That's pretty good. I do want to apologize for the foul language of perpascadine.

Speaker 1 That was untoward of me. It was Portuguese, though.
So hopefully the audience didn't understand it. John,

Speaker 1 it takes a really big, handsome man to admit when he was beaten.

Speaker 1 You played a great game. Thank you for coming on.

Speaker 2 Thanks for having me. Great to be with you.