The second band on that stage in 2005 was a little known American hard rock outfit named Fozzy. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in the audience that looked on with surprise as the identity of the highly energetic and built like-a-brick-shit-house frontman dawned on them. “Holy shit!” I thought. “That’s Chris Jericho.” It’s not every day you go to check out a band to find their frontmen is one of the most highly decorated athletes in the WWE.
Since then, the wrestler’s ‘other job’ became his priority as the band have gone from strength to strength, releasing five albums of anthemic and hard hitting heavy metal, doing numerous intercontinental tours and tag teaming with the likes of Metallica at festivals such as this year’s Soundwave.
Sin And Bones, the band’s latest release, is their fastest selling to date, and the lead single Sandpaper has been rising up through the billboard singles chart like Mankind Mick Foley climbing a ladder in a no-holds barred cage match. “It’s been amazing man.” Beams Jericho. “All across the board people have gotten behind it and we’re really proud of it. It’s cool to know that something that we’ve spent so much time on and believed in so much is getting that type of reaction.”
Jericho spoke to me on the phone from the road as the band are currently part way though a string of US tour dates that saw them playing the East Coast. It’s a testament to their will and determination, seeing as the same time Fozzy were planning to lay waste to venues across the state of New York a super storm named Sandy had the same idea. Luckily for the band and fans alike the hurricane that left so much destruction in its wake that it was even blamed for Mitt Romney’s election loss didn’t cause Fozzy too much bother.
“It kinda did for the last couple of shows last night and the night before but hopefully all that’s over now. We’re in Albany in upstate New York and it left this place alone so it’s all good.” Explains Jericho.
Apart from relentless and potentially life threatening touring habits, Fozzy must be doing something right. I enquire as to whether Chris and the rest of the band did anything differently this time round that he can attribute to Sin And Bones being received the way it has. “We’ve just streamlined our sound, we just really concentrated on the very heavy riffs and very melodic choruses, a lot of singing, a lot of harmonies. We really wanted to create a certain vibe throughout the record, that all ten songs fit this certain vibe that you can listen to all the way through. It’s almost like it’s telling a story, not that it’s concept record, but just in vibe and in tone and in mood. It’s the best of what we have to offer and it really shows people who we are and what we sound like as a band.”
It goes without saying that Fozzy owe a lot of their success solely to the fact they have Chris Jericho as their frontman. Not only does his already immense profile as a WWE wrestler attract a certain amount of attention to the band, but there are skills Chris has honed through wrestling that are easily transferred to making music. It becomes clear after talking to Chris that he is not a singer, or a wrestler, or an actor, or a comedian. First and foremost, he’s an entertainer.
“I’ve been playing in bands since I was 12 years old. I always wanted to be the David Lee Roth or the Paul Stanley of Wrestling. To bring the rock and roll frontman image to wrestling. You get to make a connection with the crowd and make sure they have a great time. It doesn’t matter if it’s music or wrestling or being in a play or whatever. When you’re performing in front of a live crowd your only goal is to make sure that they’re as loud as they can possibly be and are having the best time they could possibly have.” There’s also the connection between wrestling and rock n roll that is spandex, I suggest. “Well yeah, I think spandex in rock and roll went out in like 1989.” Jokes Jericho.
Australian Audiences will be able to see the man in action in February and March next year as they body-slam Soundwave Festival, which Chris is stoked to be a part of.
“Yeah, we’ve had a great history in Australia. “ he exclaims. “We released our last record through an Australian label and we’ve been to Australia a couple of times. Great fans, great rock and roll country. We’re excited to play for all of our fans and make thousands of new ones. Our goal is to kick everybody’s ass and be the most talked about band of the night. That’s what we wanna do.”
BY ADAM ROBERTSHAW
