PipemanRadio Interviews John Cooper of Skillet at Aftershock 2023

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Hey, you have THENTO censure for
se Wow crazy you whycoup America. It's

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time for the Adventures of Pipe Man
on W four c Y dot com West

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Pomp Beats, his number one internet
radio station. Here's your host, the

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Pipe Man. Tell me, I'm
not crazy. That's a psycho in my

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head. I say that, making
it till I come the s A s

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I Radio Side Bastore Season Ride.
It's the Pipe Man here on the Adventures

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pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with It's John Cooper

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with Skillet. What's up everybody?
I said after Man, I'm gonna see

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you again. Oh, it's great
to see you. Last time we were

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together, it was one hundred and
four degrees outside. But that tent.

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I was telling your guy man that
tent, it was ridiculous. That was

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some of the hottest I've ever been. Oh man, We're just dripping doing

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those interviews totally. And my eyes
were burning the whole time I was talking

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to you. I couldn't even like
look because I was my eyes were burning,

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you know. But that's part of
the gig, right, you know,

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like power through it, you know. And I always talk about how

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do bands go and perform like that. You know, it's like you have

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to, but you die afterwards.
I'm sure. Man. When I hit

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the stage, I got so much
adrenaline I didn't even notice it, you

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know. I'm just like, it's
time to unleash the beast up here.

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We got a job to do.
And then and then it's after the show,

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or maybe like towards the last ten
minutes, I'm like, oh wow,

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I'm not starting to feel so good. Right, that was a hot

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one. But it's good to see
you again. And people that can't see

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us, they don't know that your
hair is not blue this time. I

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know, right, it's not green
this time. It's normal where you go.

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And the last time he said,
hey, last time I saw you,

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it was red, I was telling
MBAs. So I've been like you.

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I've been on tour. I've been
on festival since August. So when

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I was coming here, I was
all faded and stuff, and I'm like,

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fuck it, I'm just taking just
for men and doing it myself.

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You know what, We're gonna rebel
by being normal, right, We're gonna

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rebel by going oh natural, that's
the new rebelling. That's it. But

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it is funny because like so many
people I know, they don't even recognize

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me. They're like, hey,
I only know you was the guy with

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the weird hair, that sort of
thing. Right there you go. If

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I shaved my beard, no one
would would remember what I look like.

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I know I always look weird,
like I've been shaved my beard in forever,

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but I look weird to me without
a beard. You used to my

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son's and my son said, dude, about three months ago, He's like,

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don't ever shave. He's like,
you just you look terrible without a

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beard. I said, wow,
son, I've had women tell me that.

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Well, I don't know which one's
worse. You're your own kid,

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or or the or the ladies.
Uh well, keep just keep the beard.

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Well, my kids, when they
were younger, there was one time,

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like for one day, I shaved
my beard and like, oh my

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god, grow back. You look
so weird, like they were freaking man.

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When I first grew my beard,
we were doing a Q and A

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at a festival and they could just
ask fan questions. And this young lady

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she got the microphone. She's like, she's like, I just want to

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say, you look terrible with a
beard, and everybody start laughing at me,

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and I said, hey, I
said, look, I hear you.

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I know that. I know the
girls don't really like it, but

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they do. Women do. That's
what I said to her. I said,

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girls don't like it, but women
do. And it was it was

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like drop the my It was hysterical. She was laughing hard. It was

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killer funny. So there you go. There you go. But we came

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to tell the other things besides beards, even though it's fun. Yeah,

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there is one more beard thing.
I'll tell you know, trip you out.

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I had a go team most of
my adult life because I couldn't grow

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a full beard till I hit fifty. Like I am not shitting you.

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Bus wouldn't grow. You can even
see how this is so much thicker than

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this. This never grew till phially
keeps you looking young. There you go,

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got a babyface. Same went to
sunglasses. That's right, all pictures

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are with sunglasses. So let's talk
about what you guys are up to now,

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yes, tell me? Yeah,
yeah, Well man, it is

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great to be back at after shot. We've had a busy, busy year.

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We kicked off the year on this
awesome tour called rock Resurrection tour with

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my friend's Theory of a Dead Man
sainting Sonium, which is killer to be

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torn back with Adam from Santa Sonia
again. We toured together in about two

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thousand and seven with Three Days Grace, and then we toured with Theory and

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I was asking Tyler, I said, bro, can you remember what year

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it was? And neither one of
us can. It's either twenty eleven or

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twelve. Who can remember this stuff. The point is is it was great

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to be back with Theory because they're
just cool. They're just nice people and

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no headaches, no stress, nobody's
arguing about whose gear goes on, I

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love blah blah blah. It's like, hey, we want to do a

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killer tour. If the tour wins, we all win. And everybody everybody

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just agreed. It was magic.
It was honestly magic. And so the

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tour went so good that I said, me and Tyler were like, why

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aren't we doing this again? So
next week we leave on the second run,

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which is longer than the first run. The first run we did twenty

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three gigs. This one's thirty two, and Santa Sonia is back out with

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us. So just a killer year
seeing the fans. People are so happy

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to be back at tours. People
are just thrilled. Everybody wants to pretend

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that the last few years never happened. Let's move on. I love that.

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Move on and that's what we gotta
do. Just move on. I'm

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so happy that we have live music. We need it so bad, the

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world needs it. Like, yes, that's why people were so pissed off

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because they didn't have live music,
Like that's our therapy. Well, and

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yeah, it is there. One
hundred percent agree with that. And I

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also think that music has the ability
to cross boundaries with people that you're like,

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I can't stand this person. They
don't vote like me, they don't

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believe me, they don't believe in
the same god I do, or whatever

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whatever that boundary is all. Well, you know, you turn on Michael

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Jackson and you find out everybody likes
it. You turn on its Alka,

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everybody's like, well, okay,
I don't care you vote for let's let's

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rock out. Music brings people together. And you know, I'm a personal

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believer that everybody should have freedom of
speech. I don't care what you believe.

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If you hate me, if you
hate what I believe, feel free

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to say it. I do not
mind. It's okay to do that.

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But can we have something that we
all agree on that we can maybe be

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quiet for a little while and rock
out. That's music, that's sports,

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and it's music, and that's all
we have left. So don't do not

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take it away from us ever again. Are gonna go real bad? You

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know? On that note? Like
I have a brother that watches the news

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incessantly, okay, which I have
no desire I like, And who asked

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me, dude? You not?
Like? No, I don't really care.

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I've been on tour and I don't
even hear anything about politics. I

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don't even know what's going on and
don't care because what does it do?

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It just makes people argue, angry, upset, Like what good comes out

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of it? That's all like you're
saying, we just bond together, especially

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in this rock and metal community.
I mean, we're like one family.

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There are no outsiders here, there
are no there is no division here.

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We're just all inclusive, one group
of a family of people for one common

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cause, great music, like skill
it. Yeah, well thank you,

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I appreciate that. Yeah, that's
the that's the amazing thing about music,

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and I know what you mean,
since they get on the road and now

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people also have to remember, I
mean, I'm not supposed to say how

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old I am here, but they
have to remember that, you know,

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when skill has started, and a
lot of these bands were listening to When

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we started, there was no such
thing as cell phones. I mean,

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there wasn't You couldn't watch the news
on your phone. There's no social media.

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So you get on the road and
you really didn't have a choice but

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to unplug, right, And I
kind of think life was better because I

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mean, I'm not just you know, I'm not trying to just moan about,

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you know, all the things that
had changed. There's some really wonderful

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things about social media. In fact, you can get music out to the

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entire world because of social media.
It's wonderful. But man, it was

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kind of nice not knowing, you
know, Ignorance really is bliss. Sometimes

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it's oh, do you just see
that so and so on. Nope,

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I was on the road, Yeah, didn't have cell phones, didn't have

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laptops at the time, no internet
access in the van. You know.

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It was Yeah, people you're up
on stage and they're texting and and then

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you get back after why aren't you
answering me? Because I'm rocking the free

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world? Baby, I've seen a
million faces and I rocked them all.

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Bon Jovi, Oh yeah, because
I'm in the middle of playing rock and

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roll man, and ignorance can be
bliss. There's no question, oh no

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doubt. You know it's funny.
On that note. My youngest daughter,

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one time I was on the phone
with her not that long ago. I'm

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like, you know, some days
I just want to drive down the road

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and take my laptop, iPad and
phone and just throw it out the window

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and keep driving. She goes,
Dad, who U can? You're just

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as addicted as anybody. I'm like, yes, but I remember a time

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when we didn't have it, and
it was a better time. There was

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less anger, there was less arguing, there was less worrying, less stress,

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less anxiety. You know. I
think all this constant connection is what's

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creating a lot of mental illness and
panic attacks and anxiety. And that's sad

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because that's something we need to help
people with. I am in I mean,

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I can't aim in that enough.
There's something really unhealthy about always needing

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to be the star of something,
in needing the accolades of the world.

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Young people on social media, I
feel so bad for them growing up in

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this world because they post a picture
or they post to whatever, and really

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what they're looking for is to belong
somewhere. We used to have that in

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family, and we used to have
that in community in our neighborhoods or are

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our various church you know, religions
or whatever it was in the local neighborhood

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that everybody kind of belonged to.
Now you don't have that because people are

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finding their quote unquote community on the
digital sphere, and so they need everybody

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to say you're beautiful, you're awesome, great work, and if you don't

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get it, then you feel like
crap about yourself. And that's what's happening

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with young folks. So yeah,
you know, if I can encourage I

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don't want to preach to people.
If I can encourage people with your families,

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you know, I'm sure there's people
who listening to have kids and wives

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and husbands, sit down as a
family and be that for your kids so

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they don't have to get it somewhere
else. I love that. What's your

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favorite thing about being an artist?
Being an artist, dude, it sounds

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like I'm patting myself on the back. I am not. This is the

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most humbling thing. But oh,
you're totally humble. I'm gonna tell people

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because I know you, you're totally
humble. So well, that's that's nice.

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But dude, when you meet somebody
that says like your song saved my

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life, honestly, sometimes I want
to go. Maybe you don't know Hawaii,

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I'm in Skillet. I'm not Metallica. You know, like I'm not

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you know, I'm not at I'm
not three Days Grace. I don't know.

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I don't know who who you think
you're talking because you just don't imagine

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it when you're writing your own song
that it would have that power, even

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though I know other people's songs had
that sort of power for me. You

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don't think I'm gonna do that.
So you know, we just play these

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air Force bases, did a whole
run. It was awesome with a Hoopa

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stink. It was really fun.
But meeting these people that serve meeting somebody

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that says I lost my leg in
Afghanistan and I I did not think I

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could ever get get used to living
without it, and I was depressed.

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PTSD the pain was too much,
And he said, but I would get

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up a night and I would pray, and I would turn your music on,

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and your music got me through to
the next day. And now I

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am a counselor to other people in
the in the military for PTSD. I'm

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out, you know, I start
tearing up. He's teering. I think

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that can't possibly be true. It's
the best thing about being a rock star.

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See. I love hearing that because, like, my son's in the

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military, and sometimes at festivals,
if they're near where he has, he's

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like, can you get me tickets
for me and my team? Like some

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of them they really need it.
Yes, And oh my god, how

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like unbelievably over the moon gracious they
are like you just made their whole life

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by giving them a ticket to a
weekend music. Oh my gosh, here's

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my pledge to you. I'm going
to give you my tour manager's number,

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and if he's ever around or his
friends are ever around, all you gotta

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do is text us and we make
that happen easy as a snap of the

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fingers. I will not say no. So give him a number, hit

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him up, say my son's coming
with his bodies We'll give those dudes whatever

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they need. Man, nice people. I appreciate that, and like,

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I know you're all about that.
You're like one of the most altruistic artists

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out there and it shows in your
music. And so I'm so glad you're

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here at Aftershot because this is a
badass festival and it wouldn't be badass without

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you. Oh, I can't wait. Thank you, brother, oh man,

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I can't wait myself. Thank you
for being once again on the Adventures

205
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of pipe Man. Yeah, thank
you for listening to the Adventures of pipe

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Man. I'm w for CUI Radio.