'You can't go burning down places.' Skillet rocker, Kenosha resident John Cooper talks about unrest on 'Fox & Friends'

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

performs during the Exit 111 Rock Festival at Great Stage Park Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019, in Manchester, Tenn.

Scores of celebrities have spoken up after Jacob Blake was shot in the back at close range by Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey Sunday, leading to protests, fires and two deaths.

But a popular entertainer who spoke on "Fox & Friends" Saturday about what's happening in Kenosha actually lives in Kenosha.

John Cooper is the frontman and bassist for Skillet, a Grammy-nominated Christian rock band with three gold-certified albums and one double-platinum certified album to their name.

It's the adopted home for the Memphis native, where his wife and bandmate Korey Cooper was born. The band's drummer Jen Ledger also lives in Kenosha.

"You see this stuff on the news on Portland, Seattle, New York City or Chicago, you see it, you think, it can never happen in your town of Kenosha, Wisconsin. " Cooper told "Fox & Friends" weekend co-host Pete Hegseth Saturday. "My in-laws have lived here their whole lives and never one night locked their doors ever. ... This is a great place, people love each other. It’s not a hateful place, it’s not a racist place."

During his interview, Cooper spoke in front of a mural painted by his wife, their daughter Alexandria, and Ledger. It depicts a woman holding an anchor and a quote that reads, "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."

"There are really, really good faith people protesting," Cooper said. "They want to see the world become a better place, become more equitable, become more loving, become more forgiving. The problem is there’s not enough condemnation against the violence...when people are burning down your city and slashing your tires and threatening to come in to my neighborhood."

"I want to see more love and more equity, I want all those things too," Cooper said. "But you can’t go burning down places that you love."

In the interview, Cooper also criticized Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers for turning down an offer of federal help Tuesday for dealing with the unrest in Kenosha.

"If the governor is not going to accept the federal government help, what are you left with," Cooper said. "I should be out playing concerts rocking the free world and instead I’m hunkered down praying for the very people that I might have to hurt that night. That’s something that Americans should not have to deal with. I don’t want to have to hurt anybody. I’m praying for safety, I’m praying for them, I’m praying for their souls, I’m praying for racial justice, I want all those things, but you can’t come and threaten people’s families in America."

Evers accepted help on Wednesday, with President Donald Trump authorizing up to 2,000 members of the National Guard from neighboring states to go to Kenosha.

"It has been a remarkable change in the last 48 hours," Cooper said. "It’s become near dead silent at night which is a real blessing."

Cooper has been posting video commentary from Kenosha on his Facebook page this week, including from a prayer vigil Thursday and from outside the Speedway gas station where members of the Riot Kitchen, a Seattle group that provides meals to protesters, were taken away by law enforcement officials in unmarked SUVs.

"My Christian brothers and sisters out there, who I love, who keep saying, 'This is about justice,' this crap is not about justice, this is nasty, and people are doing a lot of nasty stuff down here," Cooper said in one video. "I never thought I would enter into a time where I actually had to strap on my AR to keep my family safe because I'm five blocks away from where they're burning down (businesses)."

Cooper has said in videos he would offer more commentary, interviews and video clips from Kenosha on his "Cooper Stuff" video podcast on his Facebook page Monday.

The Skillet frontman wasn't the only one from Kenosha who appeared on "Fox & Friends" Saturday. Scott Carpenter, the manager for B&L Office Furniture, was also interviewed about the business which was destroyed in the unrest on Monday.

"Being in this for 42 years, you just can’t fold up and shut the doors and say, 'Oh well, I’m defeated,'" Carpenter said. "I’m not going to let this defeat us. We’re going to push forward. If we show that this defeated us, the people who did this, they won."

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.