Interviews : Fozzy (Chris Jericho) – 10/11/2010

When Chris Jericho isn’t beating the shit out of someone in the WWE arena, he is fronting the heavy metal band Fozzy. Fozzy have been steadily making a name for themselves for the last 10 years, but the release and high praise of their latest effort “Chasing the Grail” has seen them soar to new heights and they are currently kicking arse all over the planet.

In wake of their fast approaching Australian east-coast tour, we caught up with Jericho for a few words.

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Metal Obesession: Hey Chris, first up – happy birthday for yesterday!

Chris Jericho: Thanks very much man!

MO: Any nice presents?

CJ: Uhh I got a hangover, that’s about it.

MO: Oh Nice! So over to Australia in December, looking forward to getting back out here?

CJ: Absolutely man, it’s been 5 long years. We absolutely loved it the first time we were there. I think that this time around will be even better, we’ve just been touring Europe and the new songs are going over great.

MO: Well we’re looking forward to having you. Chasing The Grail has had some incredible reviews, you’ve been happy with how it could be received?

CJ: Absolutely, we spent a lot of time on this record to make sure we got it right. The reviews have been great across the board worldwide and it’s really pushed Fozzy to the next level. The sales are the best we’ve ever had, the buzz for the band is bigger than ever so it’s a really cool time for us at the moment. It’s been a long time coming, we’ve been playing together for 11 years, it’s great to see it paying off. Every time we do a new record we just want people to enjoy it, but the reviews for Grail have been well beyond that so we are stoked.

MO: Wormwood impressed me a lot, at a 14 minute track length it becomes obvious that you have a few progressive influences.

CJ: I had wanted to do a long song for a long time, I’ve always been a fan of Rime of the Ancient Mariner and all the longer Iron Maiden Songs. I love progressive bands like Rush and Dream Theater as well. I was writing about the Book of Revelations – pretty heavy stuff, I ended up with like 8 pages of lyrics so that became our longer song. I think it was a big step for us, because it’s really hard to make a 14 minute song seem like it goes by a little quicker and I feel like we’ve achieved that. It’s one of the biggest talking points of the album.

MO: Definitely, would it be your favourite song on the album?

CJ: It was definitely one of my favourites because I felt like it was a baby of mine. I think Grail might be my favourite song on the record though, it’s the most fun to sing.

MO: So you started off as a bassist, ever get out the four string for a bash?

CJ: Yeah I started playing bass when I was 12 years old and started singing whilst playing playing bass shortly afterwards. I’ve been playing in bands a long time! I get the bass out every once in a while, but my career as a bass player ended in about 1988 so I tend to leave it up to the professionals.

MO: You’ve been a metal fan for pretty much forever man, I can’t believe that you took the name Jericho from a Helloween album!

CJ: Yeah that’s true, I’d always loved Helloween and Walls of Jericho happened to be in my car when I was looking for a wrestling name, I had about 10 minutes to make a decision and I think it worked out pretty well! It was always my dream to be a musician, and always a wrestler as well so I feel very fortunate that I’ve had a chance to pursue them both and been quite successful.

MO: If you could put any four metal musicians, alive or dead on a stage together, who would they be?

CJ: James Hetfield on rhythm, Steve Harris on bass, Eddie Van Halen on lead, Mike Portnoy on Drums and Michael Kiske on vocals.

MO: Does it get annoying when you are being interviewed for Fozzy and people ask more questions about wrestling? Obviously you take your music just as seriously.

CJ: Well yeah I do a bit, but I think that I’d be pretty arrogant to be that way. I’ve spent 20 years building my name in one field and to not even mention it or acknowledge it would be foolish on my part. It is a big part of who I am, and it’s one of the reasons we were able to get the band off the ground in the first place. I think many bands have some kind of a gimmick or something to get themselves started, but in the end it all comes down to the whether or not the music is any good. I’m sure Kiss got asked a million questions about the makeup when they got started, but once everybody got over that they started paying more attention to the music. I think it worked the same way with our band. When we started out it was just a Jericho fan obsession that got people to the shows, at this point I don’t think it really matters what I do in my spare time. I’m proud that after 11 years the bands can stand on their own, people will always ask wrestling questions, but that’s just part of who I am.

MO: Do you ever incorporate one of your classic covers into your live set?

CJ: At the moment we’ve been playing two covers in our set, but we’ve adopted the old Metallica mindset and we choose songs that are pretty obscure. I think with one of the songs we cover people actually think it’s our song! We’ve been doing mostly songs off Grail now which is really cool, they have been going over really well.

MO: For someone who doesn’t know Fozzy, sell your band in a sentence.

CJ: Put Metallica, The Beatles and Journey in a blender. Fozzy is the result.

MO: Wow, that’s an interesting way of looking at it!

CJ: Well yeah, obviously we love out heavy bands but we also have a really strong sense of vocals and vocal harmonies that we all got from our love of bands like The Beatles, Journey and Foreigner – bands that always had 3 or 4 singers. That just makes our band even heavier, you listen to a song like “Pray for Blood” and there are blast-beats and shit going on everywhere but the melody uses a lot of harmony and it makes a big difference.

MO: One more mate, If the world were to follow you now, where would you lead them?

CJ: Straight to the Fozzy show in December!

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Catch Fozzy live at:

Dec 02 – The Hi Fi – Melbourne, AUS
Dec 03 – The Factory – Sydney, AUS
Dec 05 – The Hi Fi – Brisbane, AUS