FOZZY's CHRIS JERICHO: 'If We Weren't A Great Rock And Roll Band With Great Songs, We Wouldn't Still Be Around 25 Years Later'

In a new interview with The Jesea Lee Show, FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho addressed the fact that some people still don't his band seriously due to his status as a legendary professional wrestler. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Every band has a gimmick. SLIPKNOT wears masks. When METALLICA came out, they played faster than anybody. KISS had makeup. All that is great. FOZZY has a wrestler as a singer. Awesome. Then five minutes into the performance, either it's good or it's bad. If KISS didn't have good songs, it wouldn't have mattered they wore makeup. Same with all the other bands, and same with FOZZY. If we weren't a great rock and roll band with great songs, we wouldn't still be around 25 years later playing festivals high up on the ladder like we are [at the Sonic Temple festival in Columbus]."

Chris continued: "Some bands will come out with a huge push from the radio, and you can tell that, okay, someone's spending some money on it, and they just don't follow up. I mean, we can go through the list of bands. I remember that band from 10 years ago that was the biggest thing, that was the hottest thing, and then, like, where are they now? So you really have to continue to evolve and morph your sound so it's always giving people something new.

"I think you look at the greatest bands of all time, they always changed," Jericho explained. "Always. I mean, look at METALLICA. If they were still playing 'Kill 'Em All' music, it would be boring at this point in time. They had to branch out. GUNS N' ROSES, I watched them last week — 'November Rain' and 'Estranged' and all this stuff. It's, like, [those songs] don't have any place on 'Appetite For Destruction', but they didn't get to the next level until they wrote those types of songs. And that's one thing with FOZZY. We have a sound, but we have no problems adding or subtracting, changing, trying different things. And Bowie was like that. He was always David Bowie, but it was always different. And we take great pride in doing that with FOZZY, and I do it in wrestling as well with the different personas and characters that I create. You have to continue to give people something new without betraying what you are essentially deep down inside. And, once again, if you can figure a way to do that — unless you're AC/DC or SLAYER, who don't have to do that, every huge band in history has done that."

Referencing the fact that he has established a large fanbase through different facets of his career, including his time in wrestling, Chris said: "There's people that still chant 'Y2J' [Chris's nickname] when I do a show, and that's fine because that tells me that people remember that era and it means something to them. 'You just made the list.' I get that every single day. But if I was saying 'you just made the list' every night, it wouldn't be as special anymore. So yes, I appreciate it. It's like [KISS frontman] Paul Stanley says: if the career of Chris Jericho is a 35-year elevator, some people get on the bottom floor, some people get on the eighth floor, some people get on right near the top. As long as you get on, I'm excited. And if you left and came back, or you left completely, I appreciate the fact that people were fans of mine in any era. The long-term ones, I mean, that's amazing as well. And, of course, in this day and age you get a lot of haters, and I can't worry about that. I can't worry about people on social media who absolutely hate everything I do, 'cause they're never gonna like me. I don't worry about the people that don't like me. I focus on the people that do, and I focus on making new fans who like what I do. That's it. The ones that hate me, thank you. Go watch something else. That's fine. Anybody that's listening that has any type of fanbase, don't worry about the haters 'cause they're never gonna like you. 'Cause if they suddenly start liking you, then they're telling themselves that they were wrong. And no one likes to be told that they're wrong or thinking that they're wrong. 'See, I told you he was shit. I told you he sucked.' And it's like, okay… Either way for me, I focus on the people that go, "Man, that was really fun. Thank you for, for being here.'"

This past April, FOZZY released a new single, "I Know Evil". The song served as a high-octane preview for the band's "Twisted Faith Tour 2026", which took place around the band's appearances at the Welcome To Rockville and Sonic Temple festivals.

"I Know Evil" is the follow-up to "Fall In Line", which was released in April 2025 via Madison Records. Prior to "Fall In Line"'s arrival, FOZZY released another standalone single, "Spotlight", which was made available in October 2023. All three tracks were helmed by FOZZY's longtime producer Johnny Andrews (THREE DAYS GRACE, ALL THAT REMAINS, HALESTORM).

Last September FOZZY surprise released its cover version of the OZZY OSBOURNE classic "Crazy Train". The track arrived two months after FOZZY released the official Lawrence Hinson-directed music video for "Fall In Line". The clip was filmed at HM Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada, based on a video concept by Hinson and Mark Willis.

FOZZY's latest album, "Boombox", came out in May 2022 and featured "I Still Burn", which has more than three million views on YouTube. It also included the Top 10 singles "Nowhere To Run" and "Sane".

In January 2022, FOZZY parted ways with longtime drummer Frank Fontsere and replaced him with Grant Brooks (THROUGH FIRE).

Fontsere was a founding member of FOZZY, having formed the group in 1999 with Jericho and guitarist Rich Ward.

When FOZZY announced Fontsere's departure, the band said that he was "stepping down to focus on his family and other projects."

FOZZY is Jericho, Ward, Brooks, Billy Grey (guitar) and P.J. Farley (bass).

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