FOZZY/STUCK MOJO Guitarist Says He Came Close To Calling It Quits

FOZZY/STUCK MOJO guitarist Rich Ward has posted a lengthy message on his official web site reflecting on the recent FOZZY/STUCK MOJO European tour and offering an update on his THE DUKE solo album, due in Europe on April 25 via Spitfire Records. An excerpt from the posting follows:

"The last few months have been a blur. Let's step into our time machine for a second and travel back to the fall of last year. After Spitfire's head of A&R in the States, Rob Gill, saw THE DUKE perform at the August 2004 Atlantis Music Conference, it seemed all that was left was the drying of the ink. So I went into pre-production mode — writing, listening to older demos and going through hours of unfinished material trying to assemble the best ten songs for the debut DUKE release. I don't handle the business side of things so, while I got the music ready, my manager, Mark Willis, would deal with the label. (As a side note, Mark and I have been great friends with Rob Gill for years, which made this deal even more appealing to all of us.)

"For the two months that followed, FOZZY's live schedule really picked up and my focus naturally shifted to those shows and helping prepare for the release of 'All That Remains'. Every other day or so I would call Mark and ask, 'What's up with Gill? Where are we with Spitfire? Where's the money for me to start on this record? Have you talked to him? Will you make me a sandwich?' The response for three months was usually that he was working on getting everyone at the label on board. That seemed reasonable. I wanted everyone to be on board, but why does it take several months to make it happen? With each passing day it looked more like this deal was going away. Then Mark called me one day and said, 'OK. I'm working out the money with Gill and it looks like we're finally moving forward.'

"A couple of weeks later, in early December, I got the word from Mark that the deal with Spitfire/Eagle was DEAD! We were going to have to start sending out demos and showcasing the band again. WHAT HAPPENED? Apparently, not everyone was on board at the label. After ten years of being signed to and dealing with not one, but four different record companies, I just said F@$K this. I called Mark and said, 'Get me a deal for a STUCK MOJO record and then I'm out.' STUCK MOJO? My thinking was that 'All That Remains' was an amazing FOZZY record, THE DUKE demo was something that I was really proud of and all that was left was to put out one last great MOJO record and go out with a bang and then I'm done. I'll play music for me and I'll get a job to make money. The timing seemed to be perfect. Bonz [STUCK MOJO rapper] and I had spoken about the possibility of doing another record a couple of months earlier, Frank (Bud, drummer) had been chomping at the bit to do another MOJO record, so the timing seemed perfect to do the MOJO thing."

Read the rest of Rich Ward's message at DukeRocks.com.