Hero (Skillet song)
Hero is a song by American Christian rock band Skillet. It was released on May 19, 2009, as the first single from their seventh studio album, Awake. The track opens the album and is 3 minutes and 6 seconds long. It was written by John Cooper and Korey Cooper and produced by Howard Benson. The song appeared on labels Lava, Ardent, and Atlantic.
John Cooper has said that Hero uses a hero metaphor inspired by comic books. He wanted to write about the idea of a hero after feeling let down by people they believed in, and the song’s bridge carries that message.
The music video was directed by the Erwin Brothers and premiered on Yahoo! Music on September 10, 2009. It later aired on Tangle.com and TVU and was shown on the Gospel Music Channel.
In 2009, Hero was used in NBC promotional materials for Sunday Night Football and the NFL Kickoff game. The NFL also used it to promote Sunday night games. WWE included the song in the video game WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, their Tribute to the Troops special, and the Royal Rumble 2010 event. It also appeared in trailers for the 2010 film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Skillet re-recorded the song for their 2010 iTunes Session live EP. A slowed-down electronic remix by The Legion of Doom was included on the Awake and Remixed EP (2011).
Hero appeared on the Christian compilation WOW Hits 2011 and later on Skillet’s compilation The Platinum Collection. It was nominated for Rock Recorded Song of the Year and Short Form Video of the Year at the 41st GMA Dove Awards.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 08:56 (CET).