WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2010
Most people know Chris Jericho as won of the best WWE fighters around with 9 championships under his belt. But when he isn't in the ring he is the stage with his group Fozzy. Levi Buckley got a phone call from him to talk up the upcoming Australian tour.
Your touring Australia in December, are you looking forward it?
Yeah we came over in 2005 we had a great time and a great tour so we’re really excited to come back. We just finished up a long tour in the UK England, Scotland and Wales. I was really happy with how the band went. The crowds were great, the shows were great. The band sounds as tight as we’ve ever been. We played a lot of new songs and they went over great. We’re really excited come back to Australia we had a great time last time we were there it’s been a long time coming but were ready to come back and kick some ass.
You just mentioned the crowds are responding well to your new songs. What can Australia expect from your live show?
Just a great rock n roll band playing great tunes. It’s very energetic and we on a great show. Like I was saying we just finished up our last tour I’m proud to be on stage with those guys they are great musicians. We have always prided ourselves on having an energetic, entertaining live show and it’s gotten us to the next level over the last year or so. It’s going to be a show like no other! We are going to make sure everyone has a good time and we’ve always had that mind set but now more than ever. It’s a great combination of what we’re doing on stage the songs that were playing and the reaction were getting.
I know you must get compared to your wrestling career quite often, when people come to your shows do you find a lot of people know you from WWE and do you see many WWE shirts at your show?
You do and that’s to be expected, not as much as it did before. It’s cool whatever gets people through the door to come in and check out the band. I’d say at this point 80% of people at the venue are there because they like Fozzy and the other 20% are there because they like Jericho as a wrestler or Jericho as an author or Stuck Mojo as a band or whatever it might be. When we first started there were a lot of people curious about what Jericho was going to be like but 11 years in and 5 albums down the line most people come to the show have Fozzy albums are Fozzy fans and have heard Fozzy songs on the radio or whatever.
What I find interesting is there’s a similarity between wrestling and rock musicians and that is age is no limitation I know Hulk Hogan’s still out there doing it and so is Ozzy Osbourne. Do you think you will keep doing it as long as they have?
That’s one of the cool things about being in a band is that you can do everything longer. I’ve been wrestling for 20 years I really don’t have much more I can do on the job its cool that I can still continue to do it. That’s why I love the fact that the band has grown to where we are now. I’m sure there will come a point where the band is the number one thing. It’s been cool to have two dreams since I was a kid and have two jobs so to speak with different varying levels of success but both of them are very successful. I love the fact that I have a music career that’s growing and becoming as successful as my wrestling career. It’s a cool choice to have to make that’s for sure.
What passion came first?
I’ve been a musician way longer then I’ve been a wrestler, I’ve been playing in bands since I was 12 years old it’s something that I’ve always done and even when I started wrestling at 19 I still played in bands I wrote songs and recorded demos and all that sort of thing. I did the bar circuit with my band I didn’t just wake up one say and say “hey I’m going to be the singer of a rock band”. One of the reasons Fozzy is growing is because people know this is real it’s not some kind of gimmick or some sort of novelty its part of who I am as a person. I’ve played music since I was a kid and I will play it till the day I die. It’s one of the reasons of the quality of the band, the albums were doing and the shows were putting on. The fact that people know this is the real deal and I think when people start to sniff that they get to trust the band more and get into it more. This is not some sort of frivolous fun thing were doing because were bored millionaires we’ve been doing this right from the start since 1999 playing everywhere from the biggest stages in the world like Download and to small places like little dumpy towns in the United States. It’s like we’ve done it all and everything in between and it’s genuine and it’s real it’s the reason we’ve been able to grow to where we are right now.
I was having a listen to your albums ‘Chasing the Grail’ it defiantly has a modern sound to it but at the same there’s an old school sound there too. What music do you listen to? And what inspired the album?
What inspired the album? Chris Jericho and Rich Ward we both have different styles and influences. We both obviously love the staples of Iron Maiden, Metallica, Ozzy, Priest, Dio, The Scorpions and those sorts of bands. I’m a huge Beatles fanatic and Rich is as well we both love Pink Floyd and there’s also the Dream Theatre side the Rush side. Another influence we have that most metal bands don’t is stuff like foreigner bands with a lot of melodies and a lot of harmonies both guitar and more importantly vocally. All of our vocal melodies are very much based on that style of music and I think when you combine that with the heaviness of the band and that’s why Fozzy’s sound is a little bit different from most is because we have that element to us. That’s one of the reasons why it’s all worked out really well, we all believe in singing first and foremost and a lot of other bands don’t concentrate on as much anymore. I think that makes us even heavier having two different sides a melodic side combined with a really brutal heavy side.
At one point you used to be an Ozzy Osbourne cover band, do you still add in a cover to your set list?
We were never an Ozzy Osbourne cover band we were basically a cover band of the songs we enjoyed when we were growing up. I think the only Ozzy song we did live was ‘Suicide Solution’ and we did ‘Over the Mountain’ on our first record which was 11 years ago. So we don’t do any Ozzy cover or any covers its mostly original songs at this point in time.
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Most people know Chris Jericho as won of the best WWE fighters around with 9 championships under his belt. But when he isn't in the ring he is the stage with his group Fozzy. Levi Buckley got a phone call from him to talk up the upcoming Australian tour.
Your touring Australia in December, are you looking forward it?
Yeah we came over in 2005 we had a great time and a great tour so we’re really excited to come back. We just finished up a long tour in the UK England, Scotland and Wales. I was really happy with how the band went. The crowds were great, the shows were great. The band sounds as tight as we’ve ever been. We played a lot of new songs and they went over great. We’re really excited come back to Australia we had a great time last time we were there it’s been a long time coming but were ready to come back and kick some ass.
You just mentioned the crowds are responding well to your new songs. What can Australia expect from your live show?
Just a great rock n roll band playing great tunes. It’s very energetic and we on a great show. Like I was saying we just finished up our last tour I’m proud to be on stage with those guys they are great musicians. We have always prided ourselves on having an energetic, entertaining live show and it’s gotten us to the next level over the last year or so. It’s going to be a show like no other! We are going to make sure everyone has a good time and we’ve always had that mind set but now more than ever. It’s a great combination of what we’re doing on stage the songs that were playing and the reaction were getting.
I know you must get compared to your wrestling career quite often, when people come to your shows do you find a lot of people know you from WWE and do you see many WWE shirts at your show?
You do and that’s to be expected, not as much as it did before. It’s cool whatever gets people through the door to come in and check out the band. I’d say at this point 80% of people at the venue are there because they like Fozzy and the other 20% are there because they like Jericho as a wrestler or Jericho as an author or Stuck Mojo as a band or whatever it might be. When we first started there were a lot of people curious about what Jericho was going to be like but 11 years in and 5 albums down the line most people come to the show have Fozzy albums are Fozzy fans and have heard Fozzy songs on the radio or whatever.
What I find interesting is there’s a similarity between wrestling and rock musicians and that is age is no limitation I know Hulk Hogan’s still out there doing it and so is Ozzy Osbourne. Do you think you will keep doing it as long as they have?
That’s one of the cool things about being in a band is that you can do everything longer. I’ve been wrestling for 20 years I really don’t have much more I can do on the job its cool that I can still continue to do it. That’s why I love the fact that the band has grown to where we are now. I’m sure there will come a point where the band is the number one thing. It’s been cool to have two dreams since I was a kid and have two jobs so to speak with different varying levels of success but both of them are very successful. I love the fact that I have a music career that’s growing and becoming as successful as my wrestling career. It’s a cool choice to have to make that’s for sure.
What passion came first?
I’ve been a musician way longer then I’ve been a wrestler, I’ve been playing in bands since I was 12 years old it’s something that I’ve always done and even when I started wrestling at 19 I still played in bands I wrote songs and recorded demos and all that sort of thing. I did the bar circuit with my band I didn’t just wake up one say and say “hey I’m going to be the singer of a rock band”. One of the reasons Fozzy is growing is because people know this is real it’s not some kind of gimmick or some sort of novelty its part of who I am as a person. I’ve played music since I was a kid and I will play it till the day I die. It’s one of the reasons of the quality of the band, the albums were doing and the shows were putting on. The fact that people know this is the real deal and I think when people start to sniff that they get to trust the band more and get into it more. This is not some sort of frivolous fun thing were doing because were bored millionaires we’ve been doing this right from the start since 1999 playing everywhere from the biggest stages in the world like Download and to small places like little dumpy towns in the United States. It’s like we’ve done it all and everything in between and it’s genuine and it’s real it’s the reason we’ve been able to grow to where we are right now.
I was having a listen to your albums ‘Chasing the Grail’ it defiantly has a modern sound to it but at the same there’s an old school sound there too. What music do you listen to? And what inspired the album?
What inspired the album? Chris Jericho and Rich Ward we both have different styles and influences. We both obviously love the staples of Iron Maiden, Metallica, Ozzy, Priest, Dio, The Scorpions and those sorts of bands. I’m a huge Beatles fanatic and Rich is as well we both love Pink Floyd and there’s also the Dream Theatre side the Rush side. Another influence we have that most metal bands don’t is stuff like foreigner bands with a lot of melodies and a lot of harmonies both guitar and more importantly vocally. All of our vocal melodies are very much based on that style of music and I think when you combine that with the heaviness of the band and that’s why Fozzy’s sound is a little bit different from most is because we have that element to us. That’s one of the reasons why it’s all worked out really well, we all believe in singing first and foremost and a lot of other bands don’t concentrate on as much anymore. I think that makes us even heavier having two different sides a melodic side combined with a really brutal heavy side.
At one point you used to be an Ozzy Osbourne cover band, do you still add in a cover to your set list?
We were never an Ozzy Osbourne cover band we were basically a cover band of the songs we enjoyed when we were growing up. I think the only Ozzy song we did live was ‘Suicide Solution’ and we did ‘Over the Mountain’ on our first record which was 11 years ago. So we don’t do any Ozzy cover or any covers its mostly original songs at this point in time.
link
WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
9/7/08 Unforgiven. Beat Batista, Kane, JBL, Rey Mysterio.
11/3/08 Regained the title from Batista.
WWE CHAMPIONSHIP
12/9/01 Vegeance. Beat Stone Cold Steve Austin.
World Tag Team Championship
5/21/02 w/Chris Benoit. Beat HHH & Stone Cold Steve Austin.
10/22/01 w/The Rock. Beat The Dudley Boyz.
10/14/02 w/Christian. Beat Kane & Hurricano.
Intercontinental Championship
12/12/99 Beat Chyna.
1/3/00 Beat Chyna.
1/23/00 Beat Chyna & Bob Holly.
5/4/00 Beat Chris Benoit.
11/21/01 Beat Chris Benoit.
9/16/02 Beat Rob Van Dam.
10/27/03 Beat Rob Van Dam.
9/2/04 Beat Christian.
3/10/08 Beat Jeff Hardy.
Hardcore Title
5/28/01 Beat The Big Show.
European Title
4/2/00 Beat Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle
9/7/08 Unforgiven. Beat Batista, Kane, JBL, Rey Mysterio.
11/3/08 Regained the title from Batista.
WWE CHAMPIONSHIP
12/9/01 Vegeance. Beat Stone Cold Steve Austin.
World Tag Team Championship
5/21/02 w/Chris Benoit. Beat HHH & Stone Cold Steve Austin.
10/22/01 w/The Rock. Beat The Dudley Boyz.
10/14/02 w/Christian. Beat Kane & Hurricano.
Intercontinental Championship
12/12/99 Beat Chyna.
1/3/00 Beat Chyna.
1/23/00 Beat Chyna & Bob Holly.
5/4/00 Beat Chris Benoit.
11/21/01 Beat Chris Benoit.
9/16/02 Beat Rob Van Dam.
10/27/03 Beat Rob Van Dam.
9/2/04 Beat Christian.
3/10/08 Beat Jeff Hardy.
Hardcore Title
5/28/01 Beat The Big Show.
European Title
4/2/00 Beat Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle