It’s rare to find a talent in the entertainment business that can do it all, and do it all with greatness. If you are familiar with rock music, professional wrestling, and even the podcast world, then you naturally have heard of Chris Jericho. His band Fozzy is set to hit the road on their Judas Rising Tour, stopping at House Of Independents in Asbury Park, NJ on Friday, May 19.
I had the opportunity to chat with Chris about the tour, new music, life on the road, and so much more. I find that wrestling and rock and roll are somewhat similar, as they are both highly intense forms of entertainment that can be very dependent on the audience. Chris is naturally a pro! Having met Chris, I can honestly say he is one of the coolest, humble, hardworking people in the business, and it always brings me great joy watching him tackle so many obstacles with such great success. Check out our conversation below, and “drink it in, man!”
First off I wanted to take the time to thank you for chatting with me, Chris!
Of course, my pleasure.
Let’s start off with a compliment, because you are straight killing it right now in everything you do—Talk Is Jericho, WWE, Fozzy, and more. You are a man who wears many hats. How do you find the time to make sure that each project you tie your name to is as successful as it is?
Thank you very much for that. Well, it’s all about time management. You cannot take on too much at once, especially when you’re talking about Fozzy and WWE, you cannot do them at the same time (nor do I want too). Honestly, this last run I’ve been doing in WWE wasn’t supposed to be this long; but it went so well, and we were all enjoying it so much.
Fozzy had then made the collective decision to take all of 2016 off, so that all worked out. It was the right time. Now that the album is coming out, and the tour is about to start, it’s all aligning. As I said you cannot do everything at once; it’s too hard mentally and physically, and it confuses the market place. I’m not the kind of guy that would make a record and then disappear. I always stay busy; I like being busy. But you also must let people know what is going on, and right now it’s Fozzy time. Naturally, Talk Is Jericho is happening always, because it’s a little less time consuming, but you really need to let people know what is going on, if that makes sense!
Well, it’s all working out for you! You recently announced the Judas Rising Tour with Fozzy, which will be stopping at House Of Independents in Asbury Park on May 19. The tour hits the road in a few weeks, are you excited to get back at it again?
We are. The last tour ended December 2015. But like I said, it felt better to take a year away from playing. When we tour, we play a lot. That creates a lot of demand also when you’re gone for a bit. It makes people have the need to ask, “When is Fozzy coming back?” It’s been three years since our last album as well, so I think it’s a good time frame.
On that note, the new record is coming out in September, and the new single most likely in May, so it’s time to go back on the road. Once we finish the Judas Rising Tour in May, we head on over to England to do The Download Festival, and a few more shows. We are so excited.
Great point. I agree completely with the timing, and it makes total sense. From a fan standpoint, the first time I saw you guys live I had never heard your recordings, and I was an instant fan from your live set. How often do you guys get to practice with your crazy day-to-day schedule?
Absolutely, we must rehearse just like any band. Especially taking a year off. It’s all a part of getting back together. It doesn’t matter how many times you have played a song of yours—it could be 1,000 times—you still need to run it down again and get back into it together. I always say even if you aren’t adding any new songs, you still need to run through everything a bunch to make sure it’s smooth. We must rehearse and get back in that groove!
I don’t like days off on the road, and I am smart with my voice. With any band on tour, once you start playing again the second week of tour is better than the first, the third better than the second, so on and so forth. You get into road shape!
But, yes, to answer your question, we have to make the time to practice! Even when we got back together a few weeks ago for a photo shoot it was great, it’s like getting the gang back together again, a family reunion if you will!
We can’t wait to have you back at it! The last time we saw you was at Starland Ballroom with Theory Of A Deadman.
Yes! That was the last time we were in Jersey, that was a great tour. With Theory we were playing bigger rooms; we love playing the Jersey market, there and NYC were some of the first that embraced us as a band. This time around we aren’t doing a city play, we are doing Long Island instead. But yes, we can’t wait to get to Asbury Park. I saw Striker there back in November. It’s cool, a great place for us to be. People tend to forget how great of a music state Jersey is.
Amen to that! You’re going to love House Of Independents, it’s a great new room.
I heard all about it, we can’t wait.
I also noticed you guys are playing a few festivals this year; do you ever get to take the time to watch as well as perform?
Yeah, we always get to watch! Usually we stay until the end of the festival if we can. When we did Download Festival back in 2012, when Metallica headlined, of course I checked that out. This week, I know at Carolina Rebellion Avenged Sevenfold will be there, so can’t wait for that. They are so fun live. When you show up, we also have a lot to do like press, autograph signings, so it just depends where we are and how much free time we have!
Sometimes you have some great surprises. We got to see Fall Out Boy, Bring Me The Horizon, and more. It’s always a blast to check out who’s going to be around. We have some great festivals this year, it’s going to be awesome!
That’s great, I am jealous! You mentioned the new album is coming out in September. Can we expect to hear a lot of new stuff on this tour?
I think we’re going to play the new single for sure, and a few new ones. I don’t like to overload fans with music they haven’t heard, you know? We have a lot of cool new production. We are all about energy, and everyone having a good time! It will be a great mix.
Our support bands are awesome too, it’s one of the greatest rock and roll packages on the road right now. Obviously, the past year and a half with WWE has been tremendous, and I am ready to get back on the road. We have a lot of fans that we hope return to our show, and we hope to see a lot of new faces out there as well! Jersey is a great rock and roll town, and we can’t wait!
You can catch Fozzy at House Of Independents in Asbury Park, NJ on Friday, May 19. Tickets are available at houseofindepents.com. Don’t forget to keep an ear out for some new Fozzy tunes this spring! For more information, go to fozzyrock.com and chris-jericho.com.
