Exclusive Chris Jericho Interview

EXCLUSIVE: Chris Jericho Interview -- Irish fans rock!!!

By Phil Allely

Former WWE superstar Chris Jericho has always been involved in music, long before he embarked on a career in spandex that saw him travel the globe and win countless titles across the biggest promotions in the wrestling industry Chris was longing to be a rock star.

Here Phil Allely talks to him about his band Fozzy, their new album release Chasing the Grail and why Ireland has become a favourite place to stop off at during their tours.

‘You know we’ve been going 11 years so we‘ve been plugging away to get what do right for a long time, we’ve just released our 5th studio album Chasing the Grail and it‘s our best yet. We love coming to the UK (and I include Ireland in that statement) in fact this is our 9th UK tour. We love playing live there, be it England, Scotland, or Wales, it‘s always a great atmosphere and each gig rocks’.

It’s been four years since Fozzy last set foot in Ireland for a live show (Chris himself has of course wrestled here as part of WWE tours). Those missing years have seen the band release a new chart topping album and Chris return to the band fulltime since he left the WWE earlier this year.

‘Yeah I guess it was 2006 when we had out last Irish shows, we absolutely love Ireland and the fans are amazing, quite possibly they are the best there are anywhere in the world. The UK fans as a whole are wonderful, they all seem to love the music and have no problem with the fact that I am a household name in wrestling , they see beyond that and view us as a reliable rock band and on stage performers/musicians.
We are all really excited about returning to the UK and of course Ireland, it’s got a great reputation as a place where live acts are appreciated, it will be a fun series of shows and everyone knows what to expect from Fozzy by now’.

Fozzy themselves are renowned for bringing a high level of energy and enthusiasm to each and every live show, their brand of rock is one that needs that and as a man who is well used to performing in front of tens of thousands of paying customers, Jericho is a very good front man to have in a band that has created its own niche in the music scene.

‘I would describe our sound as a high energy one, we are a bit like Van Halen circa 1978, think that with more power, heavier than them certainly, mix in some Metallica, blend a bit of Ozzy, throw in Pantera, then cross with the likes of Journey and that’s our sort of vibe. No one ‘ever’ doesn’t enjoy themselves at one of our gigs, its gonna be rocking and we are all gonna get sweaty, the fans get exactly what we do and we feed off that’.

Fozzy seem to spend more time touring the UK, Europe and further afield than the United States. Chris explained the reasoning behind the choice of countries to visit this year in support of ‘Chasing the Grail‘.

‘We love playing the states, but for whatever reason we seem to end up more in the UK and the fans there really get what we do, so it makes sense to visit them as often as we can. Since 2005 and our very first UK tour its been like that they all got us straight away and understood what we were trying to do, especially Ireland, we have been welcomed with open arms there.’.

‘We never got to Ireland earlier this year (Fozzy did a brief Scotland, Wales, England tour in early 2010) so this is our reason for coming back. Next week we are going to readdress that and make Ireland rock like only Fozzy can.’

New release Chasing the Grail has been gaining favourable reviews since its release and netted Fozzy some great publicity, the album itself is made up of totally new songs which have taken a long time to get released in this format.

‘Well Chasing the Grail has done really well so far, we’ve been featured high on the Billboard charts. The album is our best to date, we’ve got better writing and it all really fell into pace for us. We’ve created a different genre with Fozzy, it’s a melodic and heavy one that fits us into our own niche, we combine great harmonies, cool vocals and superb guitars into our own sound’.

Starting life as a band (Fozzy Osbourne in tribute to the legendary Black Sabbath front man) who specialised in covers, Fozzy quickly dropped the covers from their albums and began to find their own feet in the music industry.

‘What we’ve done is carved out a little niche like 1970s rock band used to be in, the sort we don’t see today, we have a style of our own. It’s a Fozzy sound, which is what we want, we stand ot for our own music and songs and that’s where we want to be.

‘We still do a few covers at live shows, but mainly its our own songs we play and that’s what people want, we were always fortunate you know some of the covers we did years back, when we played them many of the kids in the audience thought they were ours anyway, so we missed out being called a covers band often due to our performances of them, the new album is all us.’

Fozzy have had a few musical collaborations in the past, but do have hopes that a few bands they are friendly with may one day hit the road alongside them or record a track or two with them.

‘Avenged Sevenfold would be great with us, their sound and ours work so well together, Anthrax I’d tour with them no problem at all. To be honest we don’t have a wish list, we have so many guys we know in the industry and are friends with, any would work well if we tried’.

Fozzy really just want to perform, there’s nothing cooler than seeing those people in the front row singing along with you. You don’t see that in the studio when you record or when they play your songs at home. Live shows are the best experiences and we love them. They are the most rewarding part of being in a band’.

You can see Fozzy at Belfast’s Spring and Airbrake venue on Thursday October 14th and Dublin’s Button factory on Friday October 15th. Tickets are available now from Ticketmaster and other outlets.