Welcoming a New Member: Ben, Seth, and Jonathan

This week is a music blog sort of week, don't you agree? I think I need to take a week off from all this intense stuff anyway. Let's talk about Skillet, shall we? OK!

I've had a Tumblr blog for a couple of months now, mostly because I enjoy blogging so much that I needed a daily blog as well as a weekly blog. There are a lot of obsessive weirdos on Tumblr, so I was fitting right in with my Legend of Zelda/Skillet blog. I had a ridiculously small amount of followers for the first month, but I didn't care. I was having fun blogging! I didn't care who cared.

I follow a lot of Skillet blogs, and one day, as I was checking out my feed, I noticed I had a lot of Skillet spam. Hundreds of pictures of John, Jen, Korey, and even Seth decorated my feed. I was enjoying it, until I got close to the end of my feed and I hadn't seen a single picture of Ben. As is my way, I got a little upset and completely changed my blog to a blog about Ben Kasica. You can see it here.

History lesson break: Skillet is composed of John Cooper, (hey, Skillet just came on the radio!) who plays bass and sings, Korey Cooper, who sings back-up and plays keys and guitar, and Jen Ledger, who sings back-up and plays drums. Up until February, they had a forth member, Ben Kasica, who played lead guitar. But Ben left the band to pursue other things, and spend more time devoted to his other ministries. Ben was my favorite member of the band, so I was pretty heart broken when he announced his departure. I've written before of how that was the final nail in the coffin for my Skillet obsession, long story, you can read about it here.

Along with may other "Panheads" (Skillet fans), I eagerly awaited the reveal of the new guitar player. A lead guitarist is essential to Skillet's live shows, so we all new it had to happen soon. Our anticipation was quickly rewarded, as rumors of a new trial guitarist sprang up. His name was Jonathan Salas.

I Googled his name the minute I heard, and was... disappointed to say the least. I knew that it would be hard if not impossible for Skillet to find someone to replace the likes of Ben, but I knew they could do better than this. He wasn't a bad guitarist, in fact he was quite talented, I'm not saying he wasn't. But he wasn't Skillet. He didn't fit in, he wasn't what Skillet needed, it just didn't work for me. Apparently it wasn't working for Skillet either, as no more than a month after Jonathan started touring with them, he left.

More drama ensued among the Panhead community. We had to say goodbye to Ben, welcome Jonathan, and say goodbye to Jonathan in such close proximity, and now a new guitarist was on the way. I have to admit that during these events, I was in an all time Skillet obsession low, so I'm not entirely sure how things went, but as April came to a close, Seth Morrison entered the Skillet.



I liked him much better than Jonathan. I liked him before he even joined Skillet. He entered a contest Thousand Foot Krutch was holding for a new guitarist, and I voted for him. I was pretty happy that he was going to try out my favorite band, twice...

You can see Seth in action with Skillet here.

The main point of this post is to let my fine Tumblr followers and blogger followers alike that I'm not holding anything against Seth for replacing my favorite guitarist. I might sound a little bitter at times, but I really enjoy the changes, and I'm eager to see if Seth stays or not, and what he's going to bring to the next record. I'm also excited about what Ben has been doing with his recording company Skies Fall Studios, and his clothing line with Life. Love. Music. I have a blog devoted to him yes, but I'm no longer sad about his departure. I will miss his involvement with Skillet very much, but all of us have to go through changes, and follow the path the Lord is leading us down. I wish Ben, Seth, and Jonathan the best in their new careers!