FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's ZOLTAN BATHORY Talks To WGRD 97.9 FM About VOLBEAT Tour (Audio)

Earlier this week, Ned of the WGRD 97.9 FM radio station in Grand Rapids, Michigan conducted an interview with guitarist Zoltan Bathory of Las Vegas metallers FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH. You can now listen to the chat below.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH and VOLBEAT are teaming up for a fall North American co-headlining tour, it was announced on Tuesday (May 6). The trek, which will also feature support acts HELLYEAH and NOTHING MORE, gets underway on September 15 in Salt Lake City, winding down on October 24 in Las Vegas. Bathory told The Pulse Of Radio this tour has been a long time coming. "We tried to do this actually for two years now," he said. "It just (was) always like, you know, they are in Europe, we are in Europe, so we could just never get it together. And finally, this is actually happening. We've been talking about it practically for years. Since we are good friends with these guys, we can design the whole production together, so it's gonna be even bigger when both bands have the common goal (of) how do we make this tour the biggest possible rock tour of the fall."

One of the unique aspects of the FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH and VOLBEAT package is that the two bands will be sharing production costs. FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH drummer Jeremy Spencer told The Pulse Of Radio that will make for a bigger show all around. "It's better for the fans," he said. "If everyone has all the stuff that they want, that's what makes the show exciting, and the fans are gonna walk away from that going, 'Man, you have to go see that, that was incredible!' So I think it's awesome. The more stuff, the better. Let's have everyone bring all the toys they want."

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH is touring behind its two 2013 releases, "The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell", Parts 1 and 2.

Bathory told Billboard that the band already has "five, six ideas" for songs for its next album, which he would like to see released by the summer of 2015. Bathory explained, "In this environment I don't think that bands can allow themselves to stay in a studio for two, three, four years and wait and try to write some masterpiece."

Tickets for the tour with VOLBEAT go on sale Friday (May 9) and Saturday (May 10) at 10:00 a.m. local time.

Both "Part 1" and "Part 2" of "The Wrong Side Of Heaven And The Righteous Side Of Hell" debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard album chart last year.

The two sets have spawned three Top 10 rock singles: "Lift Me Up", "Battle Born" and the band's version of "House Of The Rising Sun". At least one or two more tracks may possibly be issued as singles in the next couple of months.