FOZZY Frontman Talks Next Album, Illegal Music Downloading, iTunes (Video)

TheSuplex.com conducted an interview with FOZZY singer and WWE wrestling superstar Chris Jericho on November 5, 2011 when the band played in Coventry, England. You can now watch the chat below.

On the status of the songwriting sessions for FOZZY's new album:

Jericho: "We're working on it right now. All the lyrics have been written for awhile. And Rich [Ward, guitar] wrote, I think, six songs already, maybe seven songs. So we hope to [record] it in December, January and February and have it out, hopefully, in June, in time for next summer's festivals."

On how the music industry has changed in the last few years:

Jericho: "It's changing, and it has over the last 10 years. There's pros and cons to everything. First of all, that's the way it is, so you have to either embrace it or be left behind. Now record sales are basically a fraction of what they used to be, and new music is almost a souvenir for fans to have to give them a reason to come to the live shows and to buy a t-shirt, or whatever it is. There's still people like that always buy every song that I have, but I think differently than a lot of people, a lot of kids, nowadays. So you have to just kind of go with that. And as far as record companies [are concerned] and [declining sales of] actual records, CDs, albums, whatever you wanna call them, it is kind of a drag, a little bit, because you do spend a lot of time making music and you want people to enjoy it, you want people to hear it, and you also want, if there's money to be made, you wanna make it. People are basically taking your art for free a lot of times, which isn't really fair, but you just have to think of other ways to [generate revenue and survive]. And we always have a really good personal connection with the fans. We have a great VIP package before the shows; it's almost become like a secret society for FOZZY fans. And that enables us to sit down, have dinner, do souncheck for the fans a private little show and people always wanna be a part of that. So there is other ways for bands to stay afloat, other than just selling records, but you have to be smart about it."

On whether the Internet and illegal downloading has changed things for the worse:

Jericho: "I remember when I was a kid, I used to have a cassette tape when I listened to the radio, and anytime a song would come on that you wanted to have, you would press 'record.' And then I would have a whole cassette recording of 10, 15, 20 songs and it would have the DJs [saying], 'And this is METALLICA' So is it really that much different? At least now you get good-quality sound. I mean, the Internet, you have to use it as a billboard; it's an advertisement for your band, or whatever it may be. And everybody has an opinion on the Internet. So if you're gonna go on the Internet, you've gotta tread silently and carry a big stick. You can't be pissed off if you read a bad review on the Internet. If somebody's gonna listen to my song, does it really matter if they pay 99 cents? What if there's a word of mouth? 'This song is great, this is very cool, and the band is coming to town, and maybe I wanna go see them play that song.' You know what I mean?! So you've just gotta kind of think ahead of the curve rather than behind it."

On having music available on iTunes:

Jericho: "There's still some holdouts AC/DC and Garth Brooks. I think [BLACK] SABBATH not all the SABBATH records are on there. But in this day and age, if you're not on iTunes, you don't exist your record doesn't exist so for us the most important place to be sold is on iTunes, and then Amazon, 'cause anybody can get it. And then in the record stores, which are fewer and fewer and fewer nowadays. So you've gotta be on iTunes you really do."

FOZZY recently parted ways with bassist Sean Delson and replaced him with Paul DiLeo (ADRENALINE MOB).

FOZZY released the "Remains Alive & Chasing The Grail" two-CD set on July 18 via Edel's international rock label earMUSIC.

FOZZY was already on the map as the band with the pro wrestler singer, but "Chasing The Grail" broke them as a proper band. It hit #6 on the U.S. Heatseekers charts and the single "Martyr No More" was a theme song for the WWE Royal Rumble. "Remains Alive" is a 2005 live album (recorded in Australia) that was previously available in digital format only.

FOZZY's latest album, "Chasing The Grail", sold around 2,200 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 6 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.