One of the bans that blew up big this past year is Skillet, a three-piece modern rock outfit that caught the attention of Forefront Records, who released their stellar, self-titled debut to rave reviews. Ken Steorts is the guitarist, and as I look back on that past sentence, I wonder why I've become such a brown noser? It's kinda sad! Read on...

WHERE DID YOU GET THE NAME "SKILLET", AND HOW DID THE BAND FORM?"Skillet comes from our manager/pastor's idea of getting us together from different bands and backgrounds and mixing it all up in a skillet to see what would 'cook up'.John and I had our own three piece bands we were leading and played together locally in Memphis until this came about where we could share our talents in Skillet."

HOW DO YOU LIKE THE TOURING LIFE?"Touring is fairly new to us but it is fun and tiring. We are just now going out further from home and staying on the road for weeks, etc. Our wives and babies will be along after a while and that will be better. John got married last week and my wife and I had our first baby six weeks ago."

HOW DID YOU HOOK UP WITH FOREFRONT?"We hooked up with Forefront through our manager who knew Ed Degarmo from years back in Memphis. He sent a tape and Ed liked it."

WHAT ARE SOME BANDS THAT YOU'D SAY HAVE INFLUENCED YOU?John's influences are Christian acts of the eighties like Russ Taff, Amy Grant, Petra. Mine are modern classical music, Kings X, heavy metal from eighties (Iron Maiden), Steve Vai, etc. Trey's are 80s metal, Sting, Peter Gabriel, etc.."

WHAT'S IN YOUR CD PLAYER RIGHT NOW?"My CD player has either "At the Foot of the Cross" for my baby, Rebecca St. James for my wife or Black Eyed Sceva for me at most times."

DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELVES A "GRUNGE" BAND, OR DO YOU CONSIDER THAT TERM OUTDATED? "Grunge is outdated and we never eally considered ourselves that anyway. Ee never listened to grunge bands much and really are uncomfortable with that term. We call ourselves modern rock when we have to call ourselves (something), the newer music is more pop and funky heavy stuff."

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIME?"My favorite song of all time is "How Deep Is Your Love" from the Saturday Night Fever sound track. I was a sucker for a love song as a kid listening to that stuff."

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A FRIEND WHO HAD SPINACH IN HIS TEETH BUT DIDN'T KNOW IT?"Always tell friends about stuff in their teeth before they meet somebody and get embarrassed, I do."