Chris Jericho Chats Fozzy, Sonisphere and WWE

26 October 2011

We recently caught up with Fozzy front-man and former WWE Superstar Chris Jericho to chat about changing line-ups, whether he'd have been a wrestler if music took off first and originality in wrestling and music.

-You've announced a new video for 'Enemy'. Can you tell us a bit about that?
It seems like the more we tour, the more 'Enemy' seems to be the cornerstone of our set. As well-received as a lot of the songs are, when we get to the point where it's time to do the last song, people are chanting for 'Enemy'.

We thought it'd be a good idea to give it an updated video release, showing some live footage from the UK, the States and elsewhere, to reinvigorate that song and get it in people's faces again. It has been five years since it came out, but still...it's one of those ones that people always want to hear. We thought in between album cycles would be a good time to give it a shot in the arm.

-The video is coinciding with a new website launch. Are you excited for that?
Yeah, totally. We've been working a new website for a while. It's one of those things in this day and age, there's so much you can do with the website - so much you can really miss out on if you don't have a good one.

We decided to revamp the whole thing and do some new stuff with it, take it further than it's ever been. It was the perfect time to coincide that with the release of the new video.

-In other news, Paul Di Leo recently joined as bassist, replacing Sean Delson. What can you say about Sean leaving?
It's just one of those things where all the fruit lined up, and it was time for Sean to move on. It was probably the most amicable split in rock and roll history. Paul and Sean have been tweeting each other, going out for coffee. Sean still helps us out when he can, with different organisational things behind the scenes.

Paul's a perfect fit for the band - the way he looks, the way he plays, his attitude, his experience. I really am likening this to when Adrian Smith replaced Dennis Stratton in Iron Maiden. It's just one of those things where there's kinda been a missing element to the band that's been added since Paul joined.

We've only done one show together, but just watching him play, even in soundcheck, was like..."oh my gosh, why haven't we done this sooner?"

-Was Paul someone you'd worked with before in any capacity?
No, it was just one of those things that fell on our lap. Rich kept telling me about this guy called Paul Di Leo. We'd been thinking about making a change with Sean for a while now, probably the last six months or so, but there was never really any rush.

No-one ever wants to go through that whole process of getting rid of a member, trying to find a new one. When Paul was, kind of like I said, dropped in our lap, we knew it was the right time to move forward.

-You were in the UK in June, but you'll be back next month. Are you looking forward to being back again already?
Yeah, we love the UK. This round is more smaller cities. We have such a great fan-base in the UK, and we never want to punish people because they grew up in High Wycombe or Wrexham instead of London or Manchester.

It's just a little thank you to all those fans we have over in England, Scotland and Wales. We really wanted to do one more little swing before it was time to move onto the next record.

-We last talked at the Manchester show right at the beginning of your last UK run. How was the rest of the tour?
One of our best ones, because it was a combination of headline shows, festival gigs - doing Sonisphere was amazing - then doing the shows with Anthrax and supporting them.

It was a real huge step forward. It was one of those tours where it started out like...okay, we really have to prove a point here - this is our chance to really take ourselves to the next level. By the end of it, it was mission accomplished across the board.

-You mentioned Sonisphere, which must have been an incredible experience?
Yeah, it was. To be on a show of that size, to play Knebworth, which is a legendary venue, you know? To be on the same bill as Metallica, Slipknot, The Big Four, some of the biggest bands on the planet!

I mean, there were a couple of reviews that were saying that the best live bands of the whole weekend were Metallica, Weezer and Fozzy! Any time you can read reviews like that, you know that you've done your job properly.

We fought really hard to get on that festival, and I think one of the reasons we were on it was the loyalty of our fans. It was because of their voice being heard.

-Are you glad that there seems to be a wider acceptance of the band now, rather than being dismissed as "Chris Jericho the wrester's band"?
It's something we've dealt with for all our career, I guess it's the way that it is. It's very cool now that people have moved beyond that. They've decided that it's either good music or it's bad music. I think we've rose above that over the last few years especially, where now it's not even a factor now. It's like "Oh wow...Bruce Dickinson's an airplane pilot. Cool" I don't think people really care anymore.

-That said, is your passion for wrestling still there, or has it subsided at all since you were there in 2010?
I don't know if it's subsided, but I had two dreams as a kid. One was to be in a rock n' roll band, and one was to be a wrestler. Wrestling took off first, but I still continued to play music, recording demos and writing songs.

Now that the band is taking off on such a big level, I'd be crazy not to pursue it, cos it's part of who I am. There isn't a person on the planet who can out-trivia me when it comes to metal.

It's not like I woke up one day and said "Hey, I wanna be a singer in a rock n' roll band". Yeah, I still watch wrestling as much as I can - I still love it.

It's not like it was before in 2005 when I felt like I had to get away. Fozzy's at the point now where my wrestling career was 10 years ago, where it's on the verge of going to the next level. There's a really good reputation about our band, a real good buzz about our band.

-Well you mentioned how both wrestling and music were your two ambitions as a kid. Where do you think you'd have been if music kicked off first? Do you think you'd have ended up getting into wrestling at all?
It's hard to say. Music is something you can always do in your basement or your room. I remember I used to record demos with a friend of mine in his farm-house. It's a lot easier to pursue, whereas wrestling's, I guess, a more overall commitment.

Because that was the one that worked out first, I could still continue to play music and continue to dream about it, and try and practice. You can't really set up a ring in your backyard, and mess around when you don't really know what your doing, whereas music you can always kind of dabble in it.

I would've always been a huge wrestling fan, no doubt about that. I mean, I probably would've known more about wrestling now than I do. I really don't know about wrestling trivia, I'm more of a music or pop culture guy.

Had the band taken off first, I probably wouldn't have been a wrestler, but I would've been more of a fanatic, collecting all the dolls, watching the pay-per-views, all that sorta stuff.

-You do keep your name out there in Twitter. Recently, you tweeted about people stealing moves and ideas. Was that a sarcastic dig at Kurt Angle, who did a similar thing a few months ago?
No, not really sarcastic. It was a little bit more tongue-in-cheek, maybe less serious, than Kurt was, but it is kinda funny. I think it's cool that people are influenced by some of the stuff I did, but some of the blatant, I guess rip-offs would be the word.

If I like Metallica, it's cool to write a heavy riff, but if I start playing 'Master of Puppets' and pass it off as my own, it's kinda a different thing, you know?

It seemed like there was a certain time where I'd turn Raw on every week and somebody would be doing something that was not even a Boston Crab or something, but something that's very much identified as a Chris Jericho-ism.

The more original and unique performers can be, the bigger they're gonna make it. That's just proven by the track record of the big stars in the past that have made, and that goes for music, wrestling, acting, anything like that. If you do something different, you're more apt to take it to the next level.

-Also when we spoke in June, you hadn't really started work on your next book. Has anything more been planned about it yet, or is it still in a similar place?
No, I mean, I've definitely written down 60 or 70 ideas of stories I want to write about. It's not like I blindly signed a deal for my new book. I kinda had all that stuff.

Even though it's only been four years now, there's still a lot of stuff that's happened, a lot of major stuff in my life, a lot of cool stories.

I probably could start writing it now if I wanted to, but I want to take a bit more time to live a bit more, get some more stories under my belt, and also, writing a book is a huge commitment.

-Finishing off on the subject of Fozzy, do you have any plans for a new album yet, or is the focus on touring?
No, no, we're already in the works. Rich has already written six or seven songs, and I wrote all the lyrics about three or four months ago.

Definitely when this tour's done, we'll put our noses to the grindstone and get it recorded. We want to have it out next summer, for sure, cos we want to do all the festivals next summer in Europe. There's some big tours we're going to be doing. So, it's very important to have it done and ready to go by March.

Female First - Alistair McGeorge

We decided to revamp the whole thing and do some new stuff with it, take it further than it's ever been. It was the perfect time to coincide that with the release of the new video.

We've only done one show together, but just watching him play, even in soundcheck, was like..."oh my gosh, why haven't we done this sooner?"

It's just a little thank you to all those fans we have over in England, Scotland and Wales. We really wanted to do one more little swing before it was time to move onto the next record.

We fought really hard to get on that festival, and I think one of the reasons we were on it was the loyalty of our fans. It was because of their voice being heard.