FOZZY Frontman: 'We Want To Be The Best Band In The World'

Jonathan Newsome of Rock. Nothing But… recently conducted an interview with FOZZY frontman and WWE wrestling superstar Chris Jericho. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Rock. Nothing But…: Let's talk a little bit about "Sandpaper". It's the new single from you guys. I personally love the song. I realize most want to leave lyrics open for interpretation, but this song really intrigues me lyrically. Would you mind giving us a little insight as to what the song means to you?

Jericho: Well, this all started with the riff that Rich [Ward, guitar] was playing last summer when we were on tour over in Europe. It sounded, for some reason, I said, that reminded me of sandpaper. So, usually how I write songs is, I'll come up with a song name, and then work my way backwards from there. So, when I heard the riff, and came up with the sandpaper idea, I just put it away. Then, when it was time to write lyrics for it, I don't really know where it came from. I guess, technically, it could be more of for people that kind of rub you the wrong way. An abrasive type of a feeling, kind of a sandpaper type of a feeling. A lot of my lyrics are story based. A lot of my lyrics just kind of sound good with the rhythms that are going on. Kind of an "I Am The Walrus"-type vibe maybe. [laughs] But, I think this one is a little bit deeper where you can create your own mental pictures for what it is. I think more than anything, it's probably about people that rub you the wrong way, and how you deal with them deep within your psyche. Either that or just a good fucking rock and roll song. One of the two.

Rock. Nothing But…: It features M. Shadows from AVENGED SEVENFOLD. How did he become involved with this song?

Jericho: Shadows and I have become really good friends over the last couple years, and when we were in the studio recording that cat scratch, whiplash, that little intro part; I thought, I'm not really feeling it like I am for most of the other stuff. I thought, Shadows might sound good with this. So, I called him up and he started to put some thoughts into it. Worked on it a little bit, and gave me a couple of ideas for the arrangement of the song. So he kind of went above and beyond just to make it, not only what we were asking for, but kind of what he was thinking, too. He put a lot of time and effort into it, so that was great.

Rock. Nothing But…: You are about to hit the road with FOZZY. You guys are playing Uproar this year alongside some of the biggest names in rock. Obviously, performing is something you have a ton of experience at, but do you have any plans to set yourself apart from the other bands on this tour?

Jericho: Well, our attitude is, we want to be the best band in the world. I think that one of the things that we have on our side, when performing, is it's very entertaining, very energetic, very hard-hitting. I think that people who have never seen us live are usually blown away the first time, because they didn't expect it, and we really like that. So, going on Uproar is our first U.S. tour from coast to coast. It's the first time that we've been in front of thousands and thousands of people. Obviously, we have a huge fanbase, but it's going to be ten-fold by the time we finish this tour, as well as during it. So, I think that we are a very road-tested machine like band that will be showing what we can do, and we're excited to have this opportunity. We're going to make the most of it every single night. We want to steall the show every night. We want to be the band, when people say, "You know SHINEDOWN was great, PAPA ROACH was great, but fucking FOZZY just blew us away." We have that power, we have that capacity, so we are looking forward to it.

You can read the entire interview from Rock. Nothing But…. The chat is also available for streaming as an audio file using the player below.

Interview (audio):

"Sandpaper" audio stream: