Skillet Signs With Lava Records

Early this week, it was announced that Skillet will be signing with Lava Records. The band however still remains on Memphis-based Ardent Records for distribution to the Christian market. But opening up to Lava Records, a branch of Atlantic Records, will allow the band's new album Collide to be open to the general market.

Below is a Skillet email update.

Hey Skillet Friends!

We have just finished our first week on the See Spot Rock tour. We are having a great time, and the tour is awesome. The line up is great and I think that the bands are challenging each other to give better performances. We finished up in Florida, which is cool because we don't play there very much. Thanks to everyone who came to the shows. The tour is going all over the country, so we plan on seeing all of you guys.

As I have mentioned in my e-mails, there has been a lot of big things happening for Skillet. There have been many changes and many struggles. I also mentioned that there have been many great things happening for us as well. I have been reluctant to announce this until we were positive it was going to happen, and we are now sure that it is the right time. We have been signed to Lava Records, which is a division of Atlantic Records! What that really means is that we are going to have a chance to be played on mainstream radio and video shows. We have believed for a long time that this move would be in our future. I have prayed for many years that God would use my music to bring hope to people. God spoke to me when I was young about this, and I have known for a long time that in His time He would open doors. The biggest reason that these doors have not opened in the past was because of the message behind our music. Well, we consider that to be our biggest strength, and we continue to pray that we will be used to affect lives.

We will need your prayers and support more than ever now. I have continued to thank you guys for praying for us and supporting us. I have always known that you are the reason that we have remained strong during hard times. We are asking God to use us during this period, and I know that trials lay ahead. I also know that there are going to be those who don't understand why we are doing this and will have questions. There is no way that I can answer all of those questions in this e-mail, but let me say that we are certain that this is what God has called us to do. I also would like to ask that you panheads continue your support for us in terms of radio. We want to come out strong with this release so that we can make a big dent in the mainstream world.

Speaking of radio, our first mainstream radio release will be "Savior." It is getting released to hard rock radio on April 11. The album "Collide" will be released to mainstream retail on May 25. Sometimes you can find our albums in Target or Walmart in the Christian music section, but now it will be available in the rock section. The mainstream release of "Collide" will have one extra song that has just been recorded. There might also be some "behind-the-scenes" footage added as well. This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to Skillet, and we hope that all of you are excited as well!! Again, we thank you for your support!

Stay strong.

john