FOZZY's CHRIS JERICHO On Business Of Touring: 'You Can Make A Decent Living, But You've Gotta Be Smart About It'

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho spoke about the challenges of going on tour up-and-coming and midsized bands, particularly as it relates to the costs of transportation (vans or buses) and merchandise management. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "You don't start out in a tour bus. You start out in vans, and to have a tour bus is a big deal. And that's one thing about FOZZY that we've been really good with over the last 25 years, is we've got a great business model where we can go on a tour, play a great tour, great shows, play in front of thousands of people — probably ten thousand; I think this [spring 2025 FOZZY headlining] tour will top out ten, twelve, fifteen thousand people total. Now, IRON MAIDEN does that in one night, but we're not IRON MAIDEN. But once again, that's still a lot of people and you can make a decent living at that, but you've gotta be smart about it."

Chris continued: ""That's the thing with us — we don't really open for anybody, because, for example, [when we opened] for IRON MAIDEN [in September 2019 at the Banc Of California Stadium in Los Angeles, California], they [paid] us a certain amount of money, but there's no VIP, obviously, and you're not selling any merch. No one's going to a MAIDEN show to buy FOZZY merch. I think there was, like, twenty-eight thousand people [in attendance at the gig], and I think we sold, like, three grand in merch or something like seven cents a head. But that's okay. You know that going into it, and, obviously, the benefits of playing in front of a large crowd is great. But we'll make more in Wyandotte [Michigan playing a headlining show] tonight than we made opening for IRON MAIDEN. That's just the business financials. When you open for — you mentioned THE PRETTY RECKLESS opening for AC/DC. I'm sure they're getting paid a decent amount, but AC/DC can pay somebody five grand a night. They don't care. Anybody would take that. Yeah, you're not negotiating to open for AC/DC. Here's what you get. Take it or leave it, 'cause if you don't want it, any other band in the world will take it. Same thing with METALLICA. And, obviously, probably a LIMP BIZKIT is getting a decent amount of money [to support METALLICA at stadiums on their 2025 tour], but a MAMMOTH WVH or ICE NINE KILLS or the opening of the opening [bands at those shows], I'm telling you, they're not making the money that you think because METALLICA doesn't have to pay it. You wanna go on tour with METALLICA for the summer? Yes. Where do I sign? And any band would take that. So for us to be able to do it our way… I'd love to start building up to bigger venues, and that's always the goal. In the post-COVID world, when we went back on tour, there was a huge burst of people coming out, 'cause everyone had been stuck inside. Now here we are, two, three years later, there's a huge glut of bands 'cause everybody's out touring. It's harder to draw a crowd. But that's show business, man."

The 2025 leg of FOZZY's 25th-anniversary tour, dubbed "2025th Anniversary Tour", features support from LILIAC and THE NOCTURNAL AFFAIR. The trek kicked off on April 17 in Springfield, Missouri and will conclude tonight (Monday, May 12) in Wyandotte, Michigan.

The first U.S. leg of FOZZY's 25th-anniversary tour ran through October 21, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. Support on the tour came from THE NOCTURNAL AFFAIR and CLOZURE.

FOZZY's latest single, "Fall In Line", was released on April 17 via Madison Records. The track is the follow-up to FOZZY's previous standalone single, "Spotlight", which was released in October 2023 via Madison Records/The Orchard. The track was helmed by FOZZY's longtime producer Johnny Andrews (THREE DAYS GRACE, ALL THAT REMAINS, HALESTORM) and sonically refined by mixer Jacob Hanson (VOLBEAT, AMARANTHE, ARCH ENEMY).

FOZZY's most recent 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 the spring of 2023, FOZZY spent time on the road with UGLY KID JOE as part of the latter band's first tour of the United States in 27 years.

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 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).