FOZZY Frontman: 'This Is Definitely As Close To A Masterpiece As Anything We've Ever Done'

Jesse Capps of Rock Confidential recently conducted an interview with FOZZY frontman and WWE wrestling superstar Chris Jericho. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Rock Confidential: There was a huge buzz online for months about [the new FOZZY record "Chasing The Grail"]. You've got to be excited to see it finally hit the streets.

Jericho: Absolutely. This album has been done and in the can for six months so we're really excited to unleash it on everbody. You spend time working on a record and you obviously want to make it the best you can. We heard it and realized we had something really special and we wanted everybody to hear it. We wanted to make sure all of our ducks were in a row and make sure we could give it the best possible impact when it was released. This is definitely FOZZY's "coming of age" record. We really show people what we can do as a band and who we are as a band. It's very catchy and very hard. It will make FOZZY fans very happy and if they weren't a fan before I think it will open a lot of eyes.

Rock Confidential: Not to take away from anything FOZZY has done before, but this album seems like the defining FOZZY album. There was just something about the first listen that made me step back a little and think "this is the one."

Jericho: This is definitely as close to a masterpiece as anything we've ever done. I think there's a lot of factors for that. We first started the band as more of a fun thing; just getting together and playing some tunes for fun. We've been together for 10 years now. We have a great core of musicians that have the same beliefs. Our last record was kind of our first "real" record, as it was all of our songs and no covers. "Chasing The Grail" is the first time Rich [Ward] and I wrote songs from scratch. I wrote all the lyrics and he wrote all the riffs. He had my lyrics as he was writing the riffs and putting it all together and playing things back and forth for me. You're also dealing with a band that had hundreds of gigs under our belt. As a singer I had a lot more control over my voice and the direction in what I wanted to do. Rich knew exactly where he wanted to go with it. From our first ballad to our first 14-minute DREAM THEATER type of song and everything in between, there's a lot of diversity. We didn't really plan to write a ballad or a 14 minute song, it just came out that way. It's a very honest FOZZY record and the best FOZZY record as far as what we can do as a band after all these years and experiences.

Rock Confidential: What was the entire writing process like this time around? When did you make the decision that this was going to be the defining FOZZY album?

Jericho: We just knew because of our experiences. We didn't have that to work with before. We've had a lot of practice and a lot of experience. Rich and I were very motivated this time. The lyrics came from a different place than before. I spent a lot of time on these lyrics. I did research. The "Wormwood" lyrics took three weeks to write. I thought the book of Revelation would make for a great song so I basically read the Bible for three weeks and wrote lyrics accordingly. We never really did any preparation before. Rich always had the riff and I'd put the lyrics to it. We really had a stronger chemistry this time. After our last record we knew we had to follow up with a great set of songs. We knew this could be huge for us if we did it right. I think we did.

Rock Confidential: I've talked to a few people who relied heavily on the Internet when it came to writing new material and making edits. Did you use the Internet to help make this record or were you able to work face to face most of the time?

Jericho: We sent a few files back and forth but we talked on the phone quite a bit. Rich lives in Atlanta and I live in Tampa. We just really concentrated on having a lot of communication. We did use the Internet to our advantage but more importantly we just spent a lot of time on the phone exchanging riffs and exchanging ideas. It was like we were in the same room because we were always in contact with each other.

Read the entire interview from Rock Confidential.

"Let The Madness Begin" audio stream:

"Martyr No More" audio stream: