FOZZY's CHRIS JERICHO: 'Nobody Can Tell Me I Can't Do Something Now'

Master T of RX Music recently conducted an interview with FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho. You can watch the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether he's "living the dream":

Chris: "When I was a kid, I wanted to be in a rock band and I wanted to be a wrestler. It seemed insane to want to do not just one of those things, but both. It seemed insane to everybody but me. I never had any reason to doubt myself and I just thought, 'This is what I wanted to do.' It always made me laugh how other people had so much opinion about what I wanted to do with my life. It's, like, 'Worry about your own thing and leave me alone.' Here we are, all these years later and this is exactly what I do. All the other things you're talking about like the podcast, acting and radio shows and books, it's all a byproduct that I achieved through these two seemingly impossible dreams."

On how he stays so "laser-focused":

Chris: "It's passion. You have to have that passion. It's the old adage: if you enjoy what you do, you never work a day in your life. That's really the case. So, yes, the schedule can be busy at times. Yes, for most people, they couldn't do it or wouldn't want to do it, but for me, this is what I've been doing since I was a teenager. It's all I know how to do. Then, like I said, once I got some steam in wrestling and some steam in FOZZY and achieved these goals, now all of a sudden, I've become dangerous because nobody can tell me I can't do something now. If I feel I want to do it and I feel I have the desire and affinity for it, then I'm gonna do it. Nine times out of 10, it works. When I moved away from Winnipeg to go to Calgary to go to wresting school at 19, there was an event in my life that's like either I stay in Calgary and continue or I go back home for good. When the decision was made to stay in Calgary, it was now there's no turning back. I have to make it. I have to do this. And that's never gone away for me. My fourth book, 'No Is A Four-Letter Word' is the title of it. [It is subtitled] 'How I Failed Spelling But Succeeded In Life'. Never tell me 'no' when it comes to a career decision or getting something done. On the tour, there's always things like, 'Oh, we can't get CO2 today' or 'We can't fit this on the stage.' It's like 'No. We can and we will. Go do it. Take care of it.' 'Well, I can't.' 'Just do it.' The guys always get it done. When you have that attitude, it always benefits and helps you succeed."

On FOZZY's trajectory:

Chris: "We're a 17-year overnight sensation. About 2010 is when we decided to make FOZZY our full-time gig. You can see the direction and the rise and the moment of the band since then. But once the 'Judas' record came out, and the song 'Judas', it just took things to a completely different level. It was one of those things it was the right song at the right place at the right time. The week the song came out, it did a million views on YouTube and we never had anything that big before. It's like 'Why do you think it is?' I don't need to analyze it and I sit back and A, enjoy it, and B, harness it to continue to build. Here we are, 17, 18 months later after that song came out and we have three Top 10 songs and have been touring basically nonstop for the last 18, 19 months on the strength of that album. It has made FOZZY a completely different band and taken us to a whole different level."

On what the "Judas" album represents for him:

Chris: "Like I said, we now have a signature song, like 'Enter Sandman' [METALLICA] or 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' [DEF LEPPARD] or 'Dust In The Wind' [KANSAS] or whatever. A song that everyone knows is a FOZZY song and everyone that thinks of the band FOZZY knows 'Judas', everyone that hears the song 'Judas', knows FOZZY, and that puts you on a completely different level. We set out to make this record to make an album that, if the record company wanted to do six singles or seven singles or 10 singles, we wanted to do a record that had that, and we did. It really translated and took us to a completely different level. I'm most proud of his record out of all those we've done."

On what made "Judas" successful for FOZZY:

Chris: "The big difference was we worked with a producer and a songwriter called Johnny Andrews. In the past, Rich [Ward, guitar] and I were in charge of everything and all the songwriting laid in our hands and all the decision making. When we decided to go with Johnny, he's the boss. He's the principal. What he says goes. It's hard [to hold back]. It's having someone come in and tell you, 'We're not using any of your lyrics. Don't do a guitar solo in this song. Don't do this, don't do that.' It's like 'Who the hell does this guy think he is telling us what to do?' But what Rich and I realized is that Johnny had a real vision for the album. It's like everything he said wasn't to be vindictive or to be a pain, it was because he had an idea and a thought of what he wanted this record to be. Once we all got on the same page, collectively, then suddenly it's, like, 'Okay, I get it. It doesn't matter who wrote the lyrics. All that matters is that I'm the one who sings them and has to introduce them to the world and has to sell them.' That's basically what happened. It's a great partnership where I think all of us learned a lot about songwriting, about musicianship, about how to create something great out of nothing. I'm really looking forward to going back and working with Johnny again. He's our Bob Ezrin or Bob Rock at this point."

FOZZY recently inked a new record deal with Sony Music.

The group's last three albums — 2012's "Sin And Bones", 2014's "Do You Wanna Start A War" and 2017's "Judas" — were released through Century Media.