In a new interview with Sylvia Alvarado of the Las Vegas radio station KOMP 92.3, FOZZY frontman and wrestling superstar Chris Jericho was asked if his experience and his time in wrestling has helped him with the storytelling of writing songs and performing in his band. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yes, and it still does to this day, because being a lead singer is being a storyteller, and you are the party host, and you are kind of the leader of the show. The ebbs and flows are dictated by the lead singer, by the frontman.
“When I first started wrestling when I was 19, 20 years old, I was not the biggest guy, but I knew I could have the biggest personality and the biggest charisma, and I took a lot of that from rock and roll frontmen — Paul Stanley and David Lee Roth and Freddie [Mercury] and Mick Jagger, always keeping that in mind of being a rock and roll frontman in a wrestling ring,” he explained. “Then when we started FOZZY, I took those qualities that I had learned from rock and roll that I’d brought into wrestling and brought them back into rock and roll.
“You are playing a character when you go on stage,” Jericho continued. “And you see that Alice Cooper talks about that, and Ozzy [Osbourne] talks about that. And anybody that is a pure frontman — Paul Stanley is a character on stage. So that is something I’ve always adapted into FOZZY as well. You are playing a character. You do go on stage with a little bit of more pomp and circumstance… Well, those the best wrestling characters, too — your own personality turned up to a thousand. And that’s what people wanna see. I mean, at least I know that I do, and it never changes.
“Rock and roll is rock and roll. Same with wrestling,” Chris added. “You wanna see larger-than-life characters. I always laugh when people go, ‘AC/DC, they’re not larger than life. They’re just working-man rock and roll.’ Really? ‘Cause one of the most famous characters in rock and roll history is Angus Young, who’s dressed up in a schoolboy suit, and the singer has a the Englishman’s cap on, which that’s the gimmick of AC/DC. So there is a gimmick in every rock and roll band. And you need to play that part and be, like I said, larger than life, ’cause I think that’s what people love about show business, is that element. Not that you’re a pompous jerk, but you have a little bit of an air to you that makes you somebody that people would wanna see on a stage… That’s why I love THE STRUTS. I love Luke Spiller. He’s like [David] Bowie and Freddie [Mercury] reincarnated in 2025. You want that rock star on stage. And so it’s the same with wrestling too. You want the larger-than-life personalities. And I just happened to do both of those… And like I said, there’s a lot of similarities between the two, because it’s show business. And there’s nothing like being in front of a live audience. So when you have that energy from a crowd, that’s when you know if you’re succeeding with your show. And you can do the most perfect rock show ever, but if the crowd’s kind of lukewarm, then it’s not perfect. You can go do a show where you forget the words and mess up some notes, but the crowd’s going crazy. That’s what you want. Same with wrestling. You could have the best match ever, or you could have a match where maybe there’s not a lot of moves or maybe there’s not a lot of high flying or whatever it is, but if the crowd is going crazy, that’s what it’s all about. That’s show business.”
The 2025 leg of FOZZY‘s 25th-anniversary tour, dubbed “2025th Anniversary Tour”, features support from LILIAC and THE NOCTURNAL AFFAIR. The trek kicked off on April 17 in Springfield, Missouri and will conclude on May 12 in Wyandotte, Michigan.
The first U.S. leg of FOZZY‘s 25th-anniversary tour ran through October 21, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. Support on the tour came from THE NOCTURNAL AFFAIR and CLOZURE.
FOZZY‘s latest single, “Fall In Line”, was released on April 17 via Madison Records. The track is the follow-up to FOZZY‘s previous standalone single, “Spotlight”, which was released in October 2023 via Madison Records/The Orchard. The track was helmed by FOZZY‘s longtime producer Johnny Andrews (THREE DAYS GRACE, ALL THAT REMAINS, HALESTORM) and sonically refined by mixer Jacob Hanson (VOLBEAT, AMARANTHE, ARCH ENEMY).
FOZZY‘s most recent album, “Boombox”, came out in May 2022 and featured “I Still Burn”, which has more than three million views on YouTube. It also included the Top 10 singles “Nowhere To Run” and “Sane”.
In the spring of 2023, FOZZY spent time on the road with UGLY KID JOE as part of the latter band’s first tour of the United States in 27 years.
In January 2022, FOZZY parted ways with longtime drummer Frank Fontsere and replaced him with Grant Brooks (THROUGH FIRE).
Fontsere was a founding member of FOZZY, having formed the group in 1999 with Jericho and Ward.
When FOZZY announced Fontsere‘s departure, the band said that he was “stepping down to focus on his family and other projects.”
FOZZY is Jericho, Ward, Brooks, Billy Grey (guitar) and P.J. Farley (bass).
Image credit: Rok-Sho
Source: blabbermouth.net
