fozzy
Oct
13
1.44pm

HARD NOISE: FOZZY // Judas’ Lion Taming Acolyte


If Chris Jericho, WWE Superstar, author, podcaster, TV host, actor…and frontman of Fozzy had a dollar every time someone saw Fozzy’s video for title track Judas, he’d be a nine-millionaire.

Their seventh album, released today, has already hit #1 on the iTunes Metal Charts in Australia. Jericho doesn’t sleep – or he doesn’t seem to. Will he ever slow his roll? Hell, he’s just getting started. Judas stands as a tribute to the phrase “all killer, no filler”—and we’ve never known Chris Jericho to half-ass anything. In his life. Ever. In between business deals, meet and greets, and touring, he whittled off a thin slice of his time to talk about the new album and his exciting new Jericho Cruise. Spread the mainsail, cap’n!

Let’s talk about the video, Judas. It’s got nine million views, the last time I checked. I mean, that’s a huge number.

Yeah, it’s actually, I just checked it, it’s at 9.3, as it keeps going. Crazy, ’cause it’s just been five months since it was released. I think that’s one of probably the reasons why Judas, the song, how it’s still growing, because the video is still being watched by millions of people. Basically, a million people every month for that video. Which is just making the song grow in the States, after being number one for five weeks on Satellite Radio, and on Active Rock Radio, which is still cool. We’re number eleven this week so we are so close to cracking the elusive top ten which is very, very difficult to do, so it’s a pretty cool position to be in, that’s for sure.

Tell us a little bit about the album and the recording, the general vibe of this album.

Well it comes out on October 13th and the album is called Judas. We have been working on this for a year and a half, almost two years. And a lot of the reviews that we’re hearing so far is best album Fozzy’s ever had. It’s like our Black in Black. But it’s cool as shit. When you make a record you don’t know if it’s good or just not good for sure. You have your gut feelings and your instincts. But what are other people gonna think, what are fans gonna think? Obviously you’ve got to make the record to please yourself, but you want people to enjoy it as well.

A rock and wrestling cruise, I don’t know why no one’s ever done it before. I know it’s super hard to do, but fuck it. Someone’s gonna do it and it better be me because that’s who I am as a performer.
[CHRIS]

When Judas came out, which funny enough was not originally the go-to single by some people in the camp, and the record company especially. Others felt that Judas was the one, or at least one of them. We were right. Then Drinkin with Jesus comes up, people love that one. Then Painless comes up, the biggest record, we kept arguing about what could be the first one. And each song gets a better review than the last. Even with this response to Judas, a lot of people said to me Painless looks better. So, we wanted to make this record like it was a classic feel that those records from like the 80’s, they’ve done with Def Leppard Hysteria or Appetite for Destruction or one of those classic rock albums of the era. And there’s seven or eight singles on all those albums, and we wanted to do a record where if there’s any type of chance to do that, like if additionally we want to release single number four, five, six, we have songs that are just as strong singles one, two and three. So, it took us a while to kind of get in the mindset of what we wanted to do on this record, how we wanted to do it. Once we figured it out, then it just kind let it seek and destroy, here we go.

Moving on a little bit from the album, you’ve got some exciting stuff coming up for yourself. You’ve got the Jericho-cruise, you’ve just released a book. Tell us about the Jericho cruise and how that sort of came about.

Well we played a KISS cruise in 2015, and the moment we got off the boat, it was just a tremendous time and such a cool vibe and such a good feeling for everyone that went on it.

I said I know I could do a Chris Jericho cruise based on the few things I’m known for, rock and wrestling. And it took me two years to get it up and running and to get it going, but lo and behold it got announced last week, and it’s the first time ever a wrestling tournament from Ring of Honour, which is the biggest wrestling company in the world, not named WWE, is putting on a tournament in the middle of the ocean. There will be a ring on the ship and actually will take place as we sail. Combine that with some great rock and roll bands, comedians, live podcasting, fan art displays. All of these type of things that I’m into, that I know that my fans are into because it’s what I do on Talk is Jericho, my podcast every week. A very diverse show, with a lot of different guests. A variety and eclectic kind of people that I talk to. That’s all I wanted for this cruise. So it’s the first time it’s ever been done and my goal is to sell this one out and make it an annual occasion. So, so far so good, man. If we keep going at the pace that we’re going, we’ll be sold out probably by April and we don’t set sail until October, which seems crazy as people think it’s next month, it’s not next month. It’s next year in October, but that’s the way I wanted to do it. I didn’t it rush it…I want to really hammer it and really sell properly.


enslaved e


Cuz as I know, being in show business, like if you go on tour … I mean one time we toured Australia, with Steel Panther and Buckcherry and the promoter at the time, was in a rush to get it organised. And we had two solo shows after the Steel Panther shows and they went on sale ten days before. And we sold a lot of tickets in ten days, but it wasn’t as much as if we had three months of lead time. So, I figured fuck it, just take out all the possibilities of reasons why it won’t work and give it a full year plus to sell. And that’s what we’ve been working on, that’s what we’ve been doing, which is great. And then combine that with the other big announcement the other day about Fozzy Across America, which is on October 14th. We’re renting a private jet and we’re doing three shows in three different shows in three different time zones on the same day.

Wow.

From Ft. Myers, Florida to El Paso, Texas, and Las Vegas, Nevada. We wanted to do something special. You know, a lot of bands deliver albums like usual. We wanted to do something a little more than just putting an album out and actually go sell it across America.

What’s incredible is you do make things special. You do things other bands just wouldn’t touch, or you go the extra mile, and I saw a review for your book, No Is Not a Four Letter Word, and this guy wrote, “I ordered this without even knowing what the title was. I bought this just because it had Chris Jericho’s name on it.” I mean, what’s the feeling when you see that level of devotion in your, I guess fandom, if you want to call it that?

I think it’s mutual respect. My fan base, like I said, there’s a lot of respect. I do a lot of stuff, but I think because I don’t put limits on myself, and I like to entertain and captivate the people who follow me a lot of different ways. Now, there’s never been a shortage of Jericho projects. Take your pick and choose. There all diverse, they are spread over all kinds of different fields. But when my name is on it, I think my fans know it’s going to be 1000% effort given by me. Is it always a huge success? No, but nine out ten times, it is.  I don’t put my name on something I don’t feel comfortable with. I don’t put my name on something that I’ve half-assed. So anything that I do … like you said, if you see a Chris Jericho book and want to buy that, I know it’s going to be good. I don’t know what the subject is. I don’t care. And that’s kind of humbling.

Ya know writing the books, all the things that I do, TV and hosting shows, and all that stuff. It’s because I believe in it and I think I can make it better by being involved with it. Ya know, a rock and wrestling cruise, I don’t know why no one’s ever done it before. I know it’s super hard to do, but fuck it. Someone’s gonna do it and it better be me because that’s who I am as a performer. So, I’ll take the chance and put in the work and ya know … You gotta spend money to make money, as well.  You have to really sell things sometimes to get these things rolling. But if I don’t do it, I’ll always wonder “what if, what if I could have made it work?” So, I think that there is a lot of chance, and I don’t sell my fans out. I don’t want people to buy something just to get their money. If I don’t think it’s good, or I don’t think it’s worth it, I never expect something to buy something or get involved in something I’m doing.

Are you returning to Australia any time soon?

One of my main goals is to head to Australia in 2018. Five years is way too fucking long. Like I said, I want to do it right. I don’t want those tickets on sale ten days before. I want to put them on sale and get them really big crowds, and really build and crack open the Australian market, even further. I think the fan base for us is there. I feel we owe Australia a really great tour. Headlining Fozzy tour with a good package and cool bands, and do it right. We’ll do it like in every other country. For whatever reasons, for sometimes Australia was always different the way they do things. But we don’t want that. We want to do things our way. Which is the most quality, the best package we could put on. We wanna do it right for the people of Australia, cuz you deserve it and we deserve to come back, for sure.

WATCH > Judas


Judas is out today.



Latest News

MORE MUST READS >