Skillet gets yanked in so many different directions it's a wonder the rock band doesn't just fly apart.

The secular side of the music industry tells the band it's too Christian and the Christian side says it's too secular.

And sometimes things get so confused that nobody seems to have a clue when it comes to classifying the band.

John Cooper, Skillet's lead singer and bassist, says he heard the band lost a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Gospel Album last year because it wasn't considered Christian enough.

The band, however, recently secured Dove Award nominations for Artist of the Year and Group of the Year. The Dove Awards, of course, are the Christian music community's version of the Grammys.

"I was really annoyed," Cooper says of the Grammy snub, "because there's been no crossover Christian act that has been as upfront about being Christian as Skillet has been. We've taken so much garbage from the mainstream market; they just hammer us about it."

At the same time, Skillet hasn't always been welcomed by the Christian music community.

"When we started, which was in 1996, we were not accepted," Cooper says. "We were just too heavy, we looked too weird and we were too youth-oriented -- the whole thing. It took us a long time to gain acceptance. I never would have dreamed 10 years ago that Skillet or any band as heavy as us would be in the Artist of the Year category.

Skillet and TobyMac, who also has been nominated for a Dove Award in the Artist of the Year category, will perform Thursday, March 18 at Hershey's Giant Center.

Though Skillet, which is promoting its album "Awake," released last year, is touring with another Christian artist this time out, that isn't always the case.

In the past, Skillet -- which includes Cooper's wife, Korey, on vocals, guitar and keyboards, Ben Kasica on guitar and Lori Peters on drums -- has toured with acts like Breaking Benjamin, Puddle of Mudd, Shinedown, Saliva and Seether.

Some rock bands, however, have declined to tour with Skillet because it's identified as a Christian band.

"We got turned down for the Hinder tour specifically because of that, which in some ways is understandable," Cooper says. "Their take was, 'Hey, we're a sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll tour, and you guys are the absolute opposite. And they're probably right about that."

That hasn't stopped fans from both the secular and sacred side of things from buying Skillet's albums.

"Awake," the band's seventh studio album, managed to climb all the way to No. 1 on Billboard's chart for modern rock/alternative albums and to No. 1 on its Christian album chart.

The people buying Skillet's albums are all that matter to Cooper.

"If I get beat up today on the Christian side, that's fine," he says. "If I get beat up today on the mainstream side, that's fine. If we're too Christian or not Christian enough, I don't even care. We just do what we feel we're supposed to do."