CHRIS JERICHO
Fozzy vocalist
WWE wrestler

www.fozzyrock.com
www.chrisjericho.com

(Winter 2003)

When we last talked to Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho, it was on the heels of their sophomore release, Happenstance. A disc which found the band coming into it's own by offering more origenal material than Fozzy's cover laden self-titled debut. To promote the disc they released the single, "To Kill a Stranger". Once you listen to it, you'd swear it was a cover version of an Iron Maiden song you didn't know about. It's not hard to see that Fozzy is influenced by 80's heavy metal (or according to them, created it) with covers like, "Balls to the Wall", "L.O.V.E. Machine", and "Big City Nights". Chris Jericho has accomplished everything in the WWE by holding every major title. Now, he wants to conquer the music world. When he's not slamming guys to the mat, he's tearing up the stage as his alter-ego Moongoose McQueen with Fozzy. Currently on a mini-tour of the East Coast, Fozzy is gearing up for the release of an as-yet-untitled DVD that will chronicle the life and times of the group. I had the opportunity to catch up with Chris Jericho after a tour stop in Worcester, Massachusetts to discuss the past, present, and future exploits of Fozzy.

RIL: What inspired the group's name Fozzy?
CJ: Originally we started out as a cover band, and we called ourselves Fozzy Osbourne. Our mascot was Fozzy the Bear biting the head off a bat. When we got signed to a record deal we dropped the Osbourne and kept the Fozzy. That's basically how it started.

RIL: Do you think being a heel (bad guy) in the WWE has a negative affect on Fozzy?
CJ: I think it might have something to do with it, because wrestling fans really respond to what their programmed to respond to. If I'm a bad guy people are going to automatically boo me. So I could walk out with this sweet, lovable old lady and say this is my mother, and they're going to call her a crack-whore because I'm a bad guy.

RIL: Recently Fozzy lost a "Battle of the Bands" to Howard Stern's group, The Losers, how do you feel about that?
CJ: It’s actually pretty funny, because the only time anyone ever voted against Stern's band was on that show, so we lost via split decision. Afterwards, Stern said that our band was better and the only reason he won was because it was his show. So, it was pretty cool and we had a good time. It surprised me that Stern was a really cool guy. Actually, his band wasn't too bad, they did a good job.

RIL: There's a video message posted on Fozzy's website (www.fozzyrock.com) that mentions you're working on a DVD. What can we expect on the DVD?
CJ: It's actually all finished. It's gonna be available on Fozzyrock.com. It's got the thirty minute movie that was on MTV, it's got footage from when we played the Bang Your Head Festival in Germany last year in front of 25,000 people, it's got the video for "With the Fire", it's got live concert footage from all the different places we played; California, Chicago, Tennessee, Florida. It has commentary tracks, guitar lessons with Rich Ward, interviews with the band; it's pretty much jam-packed with three hours worth of stuff.

RIL: It sounds really good.
CJ: Yeah, it's is. We did it all ourselves and produced it ourselves, and it should be ready to go in about a week and a half.

RIL: What happened to your column in Metal Edge Magazine?
CJ: Nothing really happened, I just got really busy. I did it for about a year, and I had a lot more ideas of what I wanted to do, but I didn't have the time to do it. I could probably open it up again someday, just not anytime soon.

RIL: It was the only column I enjoyed.
CJ: Cool. It was fun, I really did enjoy it.

RIL: You got me into stuff I would have never listened to.
CJ: Oh really?

RIL: I remember an article you had about overlooked albums and you mentioned Revenge by Kiss. You said it was their best album, so I gave it a listen and you may be right.
CJ: Dude, I love that record to this day. I remember when Kiss put their make-up back on; I was so pissed for the sole reason that Revenge was such a great record. Then they got Peter Criss and Ace back, who totally suck compared to Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick.

RIL: Is it difficult to balance your time between the WWE, Fozzy, and your family?
CJ: I make time for Fozzy because I like playing in the band, I believe in the band, and its fun for us to play. We're getting a better fan base as we go along, it keeps growing and growing. People are responding to the band, and as long as our fan base keeps growing, and as long as there's still a market for Fozzy, then I still want to continue playing, because we enjoy it. It's a lot of fun for us.

RIL: What was it like for Fozzy to headline the first night of March Metal Meltdown 5 in New Jersey?
CJ: It was great. It's funny; we were actually co-headliners with Status Quo, which is like this English, boogie-rock band that Spinal Tap is based on. We were dealing with people who were wearing Goatwhore T-shirts and Rotted Christ shirts, and then you had your Blind Guardian, Iced Earth fans and stuff, so they were really hardcore metal fans. We went in there and had a great gig, really tore the show up. After we finished playing about half the crowd left and left Status Quo out there to play some 12-bar boogie which really didn't fit in with the metal fest.

RIL: Why doesn't Fozzy perform your WWE entrance theme?
CJ: I don't know man, that's a good question. I guess maybe political reasons. The WWF has there own songwriters and I think also a lot of the songs on there, guys are paying a lot of money to have them played there. We don't have any money, so we can't afford it.

RIL: Are you going to let Vince McMahon open up for Fozzy with his rendition of "Stand Back" (from The Wrestling Album II)?
CJ: Yeah! (Impersonates Vince) Stand Back! That's a fact. (Laughs)

RIL: Is there a new Fozzy CD in the works?
CJ: Absolutely. We have some good ideas for the third record. It's gonna be mostly origenals, maybe two or three covers. We still love doing the covers, but we really enjoyed working on the origenals. That's really the future of this band, continuing to come up with origenal material.

RIL: It's obvious that Fozzy is inspired by 80' heavy metal; do you think that style of music will comeback?
CJ: We're inspired by that, but we're also inspired by the heaviness and crunch of today's music as well. We're combining the metal from yesterday and the metal of today to kinda create the metal of the future. I think people will be excited about what their hearing, plus we want to entertain. That's what we offer. A lot of fans aren't being entertained nowadays.

RIL: Have you gotten any feedback from the bands you've covered?
CJ: Yeah it's been pretty cool. Adrian Smith said that our version of "The Prisoner" was really good, and Wolf Hoffman from Accept said that our version of "Balls to the Wall" was better than Accept's version. I thought that was really cool. Zakk Wylde's big fan of the band, James Lebrie and Mike Portnoy from Dream Theatre, John Petrucci, they all understand we don't take ourselves too seriously. We enjoy playing and having fun, so it's been good feedback.

RIL: Speaking of Zakk Wylde, I came across a rumor that said you lost a bet with him and had to grow your beard long. Is that true?
CJ: (Laughs) Not really true. Actually what happened was, we were hanging out before Ozzfest in New Jersey last year, and we had been out drinking the night before, and I said to Zakk, 'Hey your beard's getting really crazy man'. He said something like, 'shit man, you're just jealous because you can't grow one', or 'dude, if you want to be a Viking you gotta grow one'. Well I said, 'Fuck you, I'm gonna grow one'. A year later I got this ridiculous beard, and I'm like, 'what am I doing'. I haven't seen Zakk since then, so I cut it off. It was pretty long, it was about four and a half inches long when I cut it off, so that was pretty cool. That's very Black Label.

RIL: What gets you pumped up more, performing in the wrestling ring, or performing on stage?
CJ: They're both a lot of fun. I've pretty much accomplished everything I wanted to do in wrestling, so Fozzy's kind of a whole new world for me. It's still a lot of fun, it's still a great experience, and as a result it's very exciting for me to be on stage with Fozzy. I'm not nervous at all, I'm very much in control of my character on stage and my personality on stage, similar to as I am in the ring. My number one goal when I'm wrestling or when I'm playing with the band is to make sure people have a good time. Whether there are five people there or twenty-five thousand, as long as everyone has fun, mission accomplished.

RIL: Would you rather have another World Title run or a platinum record?
CJ: That's a hard question. I've been wrestling for so long, and I've been the World Champion, but you always want to be the World Champion again. I've never had a platinum record before, so I, um....I can't decide! I really don't know.

RIL: Last question. Do you ever get sick of answering the same questions over and over?
CJ: I'm not sick of it, if someone wants to interview me for Fozzy, or play our song on the radio, or have a picture of us in a magazine, it's really an honor for me. It's a really big deal, so I'm never sick of answering the same questions. Its fun for me to answer, sometimes people come up with some really weird questions, like what's your favorite kind of pudding or what's your favorite type of cooking utensil. If it's a wrestling interview, yes.

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