- 5/12/2025
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00:00There was nothing in it. There was no idea in it. Nothing. Just these folded up weird like a serial killer unabomber who's so anally retentive.
00:07Everything has to be completely folded the right way. So I still got that. I still got it at my house. I'm never giving it back.
00:13Give me back my stuff, whoever's listening.
00:16Rock, metal, prog, and everything in between.
00:20Welcome to this episode of Talkin' Rock with Meltdown.
00:23Don't forget to follow the audio-only Talkin' Rock podcast on all podcast platforms.
00:28And now, it's time for today's conversation. Here's Meltdown.
00:33It's Meltdown here in the studio, and if Punctuality was a rock star, its name would be Chris Jericho.
00:37What's up, Jericho?
00:39If who was a rock star?
00:40Punctuality.
00:40Oh, well, once again, I'm like Spinal Tap. I'm very punctual.
00:45Known for my punctuality. That's something that you learn from being in the wrestling business and being in the rock and roll business.
00:52You never want to keep people waiting.
00:54Yeah.
00:55And I always don't like it when people do that to me.
00:59Like if I'm going to have them on Talkin' Jericho, for example, if you say 12 o'clock.
01:03You know, once in a while, I might be five or ten minutes late, but I always make sure to let somebody know.
01:07But there's a lot of times when you're sitting there just waiting, and it's like, man, I don't like that.
01:11So I always try and be right on time, even a few minutes earlier.
01:14Yeah, no, that's a good way to go through life.
01:17I wish more people did that.
01:18I mean, sometimes you can't avoid it, but for the most part, just be on time.
01:22It's pretty easy.
01:23Especially nowadays when the phones kind of tell you what time you're going to be there.
01:26Yeah, man.
01:26Exactly.
01:27It's not hard to be there when you're supposed to be there.
01:30So here I am.
01:31Well, it doesn't work all the time.
01:32I remember going to see Kid Rock in Cleveland and said our arrival was at 6.15, which it was.
01:37But the parking and everything was so screwed up, we didn't park until 8.30.
01:42Oh, wow.
01:43Yeah.
01:43That Blossom music star, have you been there?
01:45I don't know if I have.
01:47Well, I'll never go back.
01:48I'll just tell you that much.
01:48It was too much chaos.
01:50So anyways, welcome back to the Motor City.
01:53And just real fast off the top here, I just wanted to ask you your thoughts.
01:57You knew Sabu, right?
01:58Of course, I knew Sabu.
02:00Yeah, I worked with him when I was at ECW.
02:03We had one match in 1996, and it was, I think, my second last match I had there.
02:08But Paul Heyman sold that match for 10 years afterwards.
02:13It was back when tape trading was a thing.
02:15He still always advertised that match on his TV shows for years and years and years afterwards.
02:21And actually, I just had Sabu work with us in AEW a couple years ago.
02:27And I always talk to him a lot on Instagram, on DMs.
02:31And he, when I say text, he DM'd me, text me, when we were in Las Vegas
02:37at the beginning of this Fozzy tour.
02:39And he said, are you guys playing tonight?
02:41And I said, yeah, we're at the Counts Vamped, or whatever the venue's called.
02:47Didn't hear anything else.
02:48And then when I got off stage, he had texted me at like 9 o'clock or so.
02:52So we usually go at 9.30.
02:53Can you put me on the list?
02:54I never saw it, because I was getting ready for the gig.
02:57Then I find out, oh yeah, Sabu was here.
02:59I was like, what?
03:00Yeah, he was here.
03:01Like, really?
03:01Like, he didn't come and say hi or anything.
03:04So, and he never mentioned it.
03:05I talked to him afterwards, just up until about two weeks ago, we had a quick conversation.
03:11And he never mentioned that he was at the show.
03:13So it's a very Sabu-esque thing to do.
03:15But yeah, it's a true shame.
03:18Like, what a pioneer in the wrestling business in so many different ways.
03:23So important and so legendary.
03:25A true legend and a true character in the business, for sure.
03:28Yeah, it's funny, I've interviewed and met a lot of wrestlers and stuff.
03:32And I've been around him, but I've never really had a chance to talk to him.
03:35He seemed like kind of an enigma.
03:37Maybe that's just because I never...
03:38He was an enigma.
03:40I think a lot of that was by design.
03:42But also a very good-hearted guy.
03:44Very great sense of humor.
03:45Detroit guy.
03:46He came from Detroit.
03:47That's where I think he grew up here.
03:50But yeah, a very strange guy until you really get to know him.
03:53And then he was just a very, like I said, a very good-hearted, good dude.
03:57So I'm glad that I had reconnected with him.
04:00I brought him on the Jericho cruise a few years ago.
04:04So yeah, I hadn't seen him for a while.
04:07But then over the last few years, we had re-established a relationship.
04:10So I'm glad that we did because, like I said, he'll be missed in the business for sure.
04:15Yeah, I didn't realize you only had one match with him.
04:17Only one.
04:18Wow.
04:18Yeah, one match is all we ever had.
04:20And like I said, it was kind of a tape-trading classic at the time when that was still a thing back in the 90s.
04:28Yeah, you mentioned ECW.
04:29Rhino sat in that very chair last week and talked about how much of an influence you were on him.
04:34Oh, that's cool.
04:34Especially when you guys started out pretty much together.
04:38Well, we didn't start out together.
04:39He started with Edge and Christian kind of in Toronto.
04:41I started a few years earlier than they did.
04:45It's funny.
04:46Rhino's awesome.
04:47He's a good guy as well.
04:48But I just got a text from him the other day.
04:51I guess maybe one month or two or so ago.
04:54I was like, hey, it's Rhino.
04:55How are you?
04:56And I was like, kind of like, okay, whatever.
04:59He maybe got a new number.
05:00And then it's like, hey, it's Rhino.
05:02I just wanted to give you a new number.
05:04Can you give me Adam Copeland's number?
05:06And I realized, oh, this is some kind of a scam.
05:08Like someone's pretending to be Rhino trying to get wrestler's numbers.
05:11So I just blocked him.
05:12But, yeah, I was like, why is Rhino calling Adam, Adam Copeland?
05:16Like, okay, this is a scam.
05:18So I don't even know if he knew about it.
05:19But, Rhino, if you're listening, someone's impersonating you trying to get wrestler's phone numbers.
05:23That's funny.
05:24Yeah, you mentioned talking to Jericho.
05:26And I'm a big fan with the listening, especially when there's a guest, obviously, that I'm interested in.
05:30But I did see a clown in the cornfield over the weekend.
05:33Okay.
05:33And I didn't think it was great.
05:35You know, a lot of people, my friend Spencer from Einstein Kills walked out after 45 minutes.
05:39He didn't like it too much either.
05:42I thought it was okay.
05:43I mean, I think there's so many clown movies at this point in time that, you know, once you see Terrifier with Art the Clown, you can't really top that.
05:51But it's much more of a murder mystery, shall we say, than an out-and-out slasher.
05:56But I thought it was fun.
05:58Like I said, I interviewed the director, Eli Craig, on Talk is Jericho, and we had a good conversation.
06:03But, yeah, I mean, the thing about the movie that bugged me the most is they filmed it in Winnipeg.
06:07I'm like, why wasn't I in this effing thing?
06:09Like, what?
06:10In Winnipeg, no less?
06:12Come on, guys.
06:13It is funny how they did film it.
06:15And it had this Thanksgiving feel.
06:17You've seen Thanksgiving.
06:18I thought in my head I just said that.
06:20Yeah, it definitely had a Thanksgiving feel.
06:21Yeah, right.
06:21Exactly.
06:22And you know what the feel was to me was that not so much in the story or the plot line, but it's like they always try to make, like, this parade look like there's thousands of people.
06:30But you know there's only 20 people, and they just have the cameras on the screen.
06:33Yeah, that could be another reason why it reminded me of Thanksgiving.
06:35Like I said, Thanksgiving was also a murder mystery.
06:37But you're right.
06:38There was the parade, you know, the mysterious killer.
06:41Who is it in the town?
06:43But, yeah, I mean, whatever.
06:45It's a movie to watch and check out, and it, you know, kills 90 minutes.
06:50That it did.
06:51Then I won't get back.
06:52You know what was really good that I saw was Sinners.
06:54That was fantastic.
06:55That was amazing.
06:56I mean, that's Oscar-worthy.
06:59That was great.
07:00Which is very rare for, you know, it's not even a horror movie.
07:03Like I said, it's like a combination of From Dusk Till Dawn.
07:06Right.
07:07Combined with Crossroads.
07:09Yeah.
07:09Combined with Django Unchained.
07:11Yeah.
07:11All those elements were in that movie for me.
07:14Yeah, it's funny because it was like kind of a period piece for like the first hour, and all of a sudden it just like takes a while.
07:19Yeah, like Dusk Till Dawn had that.
07:20But it also reminded me a lot of Crossroads with the blues and how influential, you know, the music and the power of music was.
07:26And I just, I don't know, I just really, if anybody is on the fence about seeing it, I highly recommend it.
07:31No, that movie was really good.
07:32Yeah.
07:32And then you mentioned Terrifier, too.
07:34See, I always say, you know, Terrifier, you know, movies are dumb and fun.
07:38I like those movies.
07:39They're fun, you know?
07:40And of course, you've got your demise.
07:42They're just, you know, bat crap crazy with the kills and all that sort of thing.
07:48But yeah, I was fortunate enough to be in not just one Terrifier movie, but two of them, which is very rare for somebody to return in another film.
07:55But yeah, I mean, what a phenomenon that franchise has become, where Terrifier 3, an unrated horror movie, made $100 million at the box office, which is just unrated indie horror film.
08:08And the budget was about $2.5 million or $3 million, and they made $100 million off it, which is just insane.
08:13I love those Terrifier movies.
08:15Yeah.
08:15So much fun.
08:17So yeah, anyways, got the playoffs going on.
08:19A lot of stuff to talk to before we get to Fozzy, but have you been watching the playoffs?
08:23Yeah, of course.
08:23I mean, the cool thing about NHL being on streaming is that you can just watch it.
08:28I've always been watching it on Max, actually, of course, following the Jets quite closely after they finished number one in the league.
08:34And man, they never make it easy on their fans, I'll tell you what.
08:38That was crazy.
08:39I mean, it was crazy.
08:40And then, you know, they come out of that series, and now they're down 2-1 to Dallas.
08:45And I'm like, come on, guys, put it together.
08:47I figured after that one, they'd go four straight against Dallas.
08:50But you never know what's going to happen in the playoffs.
08:52And to me as well, I just want a Canadian team to win the Cup.
08:57It's been 31 years.
09:00Yeah, since the Canadians, right?
09:0294?
09:0293, yeah.
09:0393, yeah.
09:03So they need to step it up.
09:06But we still have Toronto, the Oilers, and Winnipeg in there.
09:09So fingers crossed.
09:10Almost a 50% chance so far that a Canadian team is going to win.
09:14And that game with Toronto and Vegas was crazy the other day.
09:17Unbelievable finish.
09:20Unbelievable finish.
09:20Yeah.
09:21I mean, that's the thing.
09:21You think, I mean, the Jets scored with 1.6 seconds left.
09:26And Vegas says, hold my casino chip.
09:30And they score with 0.4 seconds left.
09:32Hold my toque.
09:33Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:34So it's, yeah, there's nothing more exciting than NHL playoffs.
09:37And the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in all of pro sports.
09:41I don't care what anybody says.
09:42You know, you got to win 16 times to win that damn thing.
09:45So, yeah, it's exciting, man.
09:47I'm getting into it.
09:48And as a matter of fact, I'll be watching the Vegas-Toronto game tonight before we go on stage.
09:53Yeah, there you go.
09:54Yeah, the game's been wild.
09:57And it's like, you know, here in Hockey Town, we haven't made the playoffs in so long.
10:00That's crazy.
10:01And it's like, I don't know, I'm kind of, I'm frustrated.
10:04I'm at the end of my rope.
10:06Well, I mean, that's the thing, you know.
10:08And it's, you know, it's the same thing with being a Jets fan who very rarely make it out of the second round of the playoffs, you know, or being a Leafs fan.
10:17I think it's one of the longest pro sports franchises without a championship.
10:22You know, that's the pros and cons of loving a team, you know, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
10:29And then the Wings were so great in the 90s with the Iserman dynasty.
10:33It's just like every team goes on a wheel.
10:35They go up and down and up and down.
10:37And you just got to wait your turn, man.
10:39Yeah, I suppose.
10:40Yeah, we did have some very many good years.
10:43So, Fozzie out there touring, like you said, out there for the last month or so in this 25th anniversary tour.
10:48It's kind of crazy to think.
10:50And then, you know, I was searching out some news before, you know, talking to you earlier.
10:55And Blabbermouth always uses that picture in front of the Wyandotte Fire Department.
10:58Yeah, yeah, that's right.
10:59That's right.
11:00Yeah, we went across the street from the District 142 where we're playing tonight.
11:06And, yeah, the fire, what was the deal?
11:09The fire department said we could go take pictures.
11:12But something had happened where originally we were supposed to take pictures with a fire truck.
11:16I'm like, I don't want to take a picture on a fire truck.
11:18Like, that's, what are we, like, you know, One Direction or something?
11:22It's just the monkeys here.
11:24But I said outside the place might be kind of cool.
11:26So, we went inside.
11:27The firemen were all excited to take pictures with us.
11:30And then we went and stood outside the fire department.
11:32And, yeah, there's some good shots there.
11:34So, that was, and I believe we even took some pictures inside District 142 on the staircase.
11:39So, you know, you never know.
11:41Like, last night, the photographer was there in Belvedere, Illinois.
11:46And it's like, where are we going to take a picture?
11:48Well, the lighting looks good in front of the bus.
11:50Let's just stand in front of the tour bus.
11:51Like, whatever.
11:52Because the thing is, listen, you can spend, you know, an hour on a photo session.
11:58When you first start, you do.
12:00And you change looks.
12:01And you do this.
12:01And then when you start getting into it, all we need is one picture.
12:0430 seconds.
12:05Five shots.
12:06Ten shots.
12:06Twenty shots.
12:07One of these is bound to be good.
12:10Or, because in the Photoshop era, one of these is bound to be good for three or four of us.
12:15And if the other guy doesn't look good, you take one of the ones, he looks good.
12:17You just stick it in there anyway.
12:19And no one ever wants to take band photos.
12:21And it literally takes two minutes.
12:22So, it's like, guys, let's just go out.
12:24We'll stand in front of the bus.
12:24Or stand in front of the wall.
12:25That looks cool.
12:27Same thing happened at the fire department.
12:28Yeah.
12:29I can't imagine when you're doing, like, some of these, you know, signings or different things like that.
12:33You must have seen and signed thousands of pictures of yourself.
12:37Oh, gosh.
12:39Hundreds of thousands, I'd probably say, at this point in time.
12:42I mean, it's been 34 years in the business, you know.
12:46And especially now with, you know, everybody, you know, the advent of, like, you know, with streaming, nobody buys physical copies of anything unless it's signed.
12:56And then this becomes a very cool souvenir.
12:57I mean, we sell so many vinyl albums at Fozzie shows because people love that as a souvenir.
13:03They don't listen to it.
13:04Or maybe they do.
13:05But they just take the signed album and then, you know, you put it on the wall or whatever.
13:10And it's kind of a cool artistic piece, you know.
13:13And even with, you know, the conventions that are so popular, the horror conventions, the pop culture conventions.
13:19I mean, I don't do a lot of them.
13:21But when I do, I mean, you're sitting there for eight hours with, gosh, I don't know how many people stand in line for that long signing, signing, signing, signing, signing, signing.
13:30So, yeah, probably 100,000 at least of pictures and action figures and albums and dolls and movie posters and shirts and babies and breasts.
13:40You name it.
13:41I've signed it.
13:42I was going to say, yeah, because you got your wrestling.
13:44You got the band.
13:45You got, you know, Sharknado stuff.
13:48Well, Terrifier is huge.
13:49That's become huge now.
13:51The last convention I did, probably 40% of the stuff I signed was Terrifier stuff.
13:56Was that a convention in Pennsylvania?
13:59The last one it was in Manchester, England, but I did just do one in Philly.
14:03Yeah, you're right.
14:04So I did do that one in Philly.
14:05So, yeah, man, I mean, these things are, you can literally do them every weekend if you want.
14:10You know, and people show up.
14:12They love meeting, you know, these heroes that are doing things now or heroes from, you know, Return of the Living Dead 40 years ago, Reunion.
14:21There'll be, like, you know, 800 people in line waiting to get, you know, a picture with the cast from 40 years ago.
14:28And it's like, really?
14:28I never realized that movie was so popular.
14:31Well, it is cool because we're about the same age.
14:33And it's like, you know, you grow up in an era.
14:35And, like, for example, I just saw Anvil the other day, right?
14:37You know.
14:38Really?
14:38Where'd you see him?
14:39Up at the machine shop.
14:40Oh, okay.
14:40And Don Jameson was there.
14:41And, by the way, he did, he told me, we're sitting there and he's got his CD and stuff.
14:45And he goes, but this one sells the best.
14:47And it was his album, you know, the vinyl, you know.
14:49But seeing those guys that you may have watched as a kid, next thing you know, they're in front of you.
14:54I think people get a kick out of that.
14:55I mean, dude, absolutely.
14:57I mean, even for me, like, whenever I still meet certain people, like, you know, I met Keith Richards a few years ago.
15:05And when you see this person in real life, it blows your mind because it's this person that you've seen, you know, forever and grew up with this guy and a legendary guy, Keith Richards.
15:19And he's standing right in front of you.
15:20And you're like, this is crazy.
15:22Like, he's a real boy, you know.
15:24And so you get that a lot with, you know, when people want to come and see you.
15:29And, you know, plus, like I said, there's a lot of childhood nostalgia, a lot of childhood memories.
15:33So, for me, it's great because you have people that were fans of mine, you know, in WCW or fans of the first Fozzy record or fans of Sharknado or whatever, like you said.
15:44And then you move forward.
15:46Here we are in 2025.
15:47So, it's all those fans.
15:48But then it's new fans from AEW and new fans from Terrifier or Fozzy or whatever it may be that I'm doing.
15:56So, people that have gone on the Jericho cruise.
15:58I mean, I think that's one of the reasons why that one always does so well.
16:01But, yeah, I mean, people nowadays want the experience.
16:07And they don't mind paying for the experience.
16:09You know, like for our VIP program, which is super popular, people know they're going to get something special.
16:15And they don't mind paying for it.
16:17In this case, when we do our VIPs, we do a mini concert, four songs, and usually two or three of them you won't hear later on tonight.
16:26And I'm thinking like when I was a kid, if I had the chance to go to, you know, see Iron Maiden, you know, warm up and do a sound check, but play some songs I wouldn't hear later on, I would have paid whatever I could for that.
16:38So, to me, that's something that I feel that's got some value to it, you know, because people might say, well, why would someone wait to take a picture and sign autographs?
16:47Wouldn't you do that for free?
16:48Of course, I'll do it.
16:49You stay by the bus.
16:49I'll sign your stuff.
16:50No problem.
16:51But if you want to make sure to meet us at a certain time and you get to see us play from two feet away with, you know, 15 other people, that's something cool.
17:01And songs you're not going to hear later, maybe you can ask a question or whatever.
17:05So that's something that's very important in this day and age.
17:08And we take great pride in the fact we provide something very cool for people.
17:11Yeah.
17:11And it's like we didn't have that when we were kids.
17:13No, you didn't have that access.
17:15Yeah.
17:15You know, and there's such thing as too much access, like on social media, for example.
17:21Some people are posting everything.
17:22And it's like, gosh, it's too much.
17:24You know, just stop.
17:25There's a happy medium there, you know, so you want to make sure to give a little bit of access, but not too much where they're like, this guy again, he's taking a picture of his dinner.
17:35Like, who cares, right?
17:37Yeah.
17:38So you mentioned Iron Maiden.
17:39Was that the biggest shows that you guys have played in 25 years?
17:43Well, I mean, we've played a lot of festivals.
17:45Festivals, yeah.
17:46You know, where you play in front of 20, 30, 40,000 people.
17:49But as far as being a main support for a band, which means it was Iron Maiden and Fozzy, that's it.
17:57Bank of California Stadium in Los Angeles in 2019.
18:01It's got to be the biggest show we've played, the coolest show we've played for sure.
18:05They were doing this stadium and they added us to the show.
18:09I'm still not sure why us, but they did.
18:13And it was the, I remember that Rod Smallwood, their manager, we were touring in New Zealand.
18:17And I got a message, we were there in October, and I got an email saying, can you open for us in LA in September?
18:27And at first I thought, it's October, did I miss this?
18:31Like, did I miss the email?
18:33Like, was this last month?
18:34And I'm like, I said, Rod, and I'm like, who's us?
18:37Like, what does he mean?
18:39And I said, who's us?
18:42And he's like, Iron Maiden, you idiot.
18:43And I'm like, I thought maybe you had some other band or something.
18:46And I'm just like, and in September, he goes, yes, next September, like 11 months from now?
18:51Like, that's how far ahead you guys are planning this?
18:54Like, oh my gosh.
18:56Yes.
18:57Yes, we will open for you.
18:58And one of the coolest moments ever for us, opening for Maiden, and obviously the Maiden fans are notorious for being, you know, they're not going to Iron Maiden for anything other than Iron Maiden.
19:12They don't care who's opening, it doesn't matter.
19:15So you got a task in front of you.
19:16We had a great show, though, in the crowd.
19:18We got the crowd to care, to go nuts.
19:23And we had a great show, and we had a great time.
19:24It was one of the best memories that I can have from being in this band, for sure.
19:28Well, I'll tell you this much.
19:29You've created a bunch of street cred, not only in wrestling, but in the rock and roll world over the years, so that might help.
19:34Well, there is.
19:35I mean, that's the thing.
19:36Like, when we first started with Fozzy, we had to work twice as hard to get people's respect because I was in the band.
19:43You know, the wrestler guy is in the band, and, you know, that's fine.
19:48We had never had a problem with that.
19:50But the few things started happening.
19:51One was when Judas started breaking, and we became a radio band.
19:56Suddenly now we have eight top ten singles.
19:59Eight.
19:59I mean, that's getting up there.
20:01You know, it's like, oh, my gosh, that's pretty cool.
20:03Then Judas goes gold, which in this day and age, to have a gold record, and it's on its way to platinum, that's very rare.
20:10And that shuts up anybody who still has a problem with me being the singer of a band.
20:15Hey, dude, I got a gold record.
20:16You can complain all you want.
20:18But then, you know, doing the festival tours and all that stuff is great, but being invited to open for Iron Maiden, like you said, that's some street cred of all street cred.
20:27Like, we opened for Maiden in a stadium.
20:29We've got a gold record.
20:30We've got eight top tens.
20:32Any other complaints?
20:33There's really nothing much more you can say than that.
20:35Yeah, and it's like you did it the way that Dave Grohl did it, the way that Taylor Momsen does it.
20:41They've got success.
20:42They make tons of money in other things, but they started out in a tour bus or in a van or whatever, going to gigs and playing gigs that some guys probably wouldn't even play.
20:50Well, yeah, and you don't start out in a tour bus.
20:52You start out in a van, like you said.
20:54And, you know, to have a tour bus is a big deal.
20:57And that's one thing about Fozzie that we've been really good with, you know, 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, you know, probably 10,000.
21:12I think this tour will top out 10, 12, 15,000 people total.
21:16Now, Iron Maiden does that one night, but we're not Iron Maiden.
21:18But once again, that's still a lot of people.
21:21And you can make a decent living at that.
21:25But you've got to be smart about it, you know.
21:27And that's the thing with us.
21:28I mean, we don't really open for anybody because, you know, for example, opening for Iron Maiden, you know, they pay us a certain amount of money.
21:35But there's no VIP, obviously.
21:37And you're not selling any merch.
21:38No one's going to a Maiden show to buy Fozzie merch.
21:40I think there was like 28,000 people.
21:42I think we sold like three grand in merch or something, like seven cents a head.
21:46But that's okay.
21:47You know that going into it.
21:48And obviously, the benefits of playing in front of a large crowd is great.
21:51But we'll make more on YMDOT tonight than we made opening for Iron Maiden.
21:55And that's just the business financials.
21:57When you open for, you know, you mentioned the Pretty Reckless opening for ACDC.
22:02I'm sure they're getting paid a decent amount.
22:03But DC can pay somebody five grand a night.
22:07They don't care.
22:08Anybody would take that.
22:10You know, like, yeah.
22:11You're not negotiating to open for ACDC.
22:14Yeah, you take what you get.
22:15Here's what you get.
22:16Yeah.
22:16Take it or leave it.
22:17Because if you don't want it, there's any other band in the world will take it.
22:21Same thing with Metallica.
22:23And I know, obviously, probably a Limp Bizkit is getting a decent amount of money.
22:27But, you know, a Mammoth WVH or Ice Nine Kills or the opening of the opening, I'm telling you,
22:33they're not making the money that you think.
22:35Because Metallica doesn't have to pay it.
22:37Right.
22:37You know, you want to go on tour with Metallica for the summer?
22:39Yes.
22:40Where do I sign?
22:41And any band would take that.
22:43So for us to be able to do it our way, I'd love to start building up to bigger venues.
22:47And that's always the goal.
22:49In the post-COVID world, when we went back on tour, it was a huge burst of people coming out.
22:55Because everyone had been stuck inside.
22:57Now here we are two, three years later, there's a huge glut of bands.
23:01Because everybody's out touring, it's harder to draw a crowd.
23:04Right.
23:05You know, so, but I mean, that's show business, man.
23:08It always, like I said earlier about a hockey team, there's a wheel.
23:10You go up and down, you go up and down.
23:11And for us too, you know, you release a new song like Fallen Line that's doing great in streaming and on the radio, that helps build your crowd back up.
23:21You know, and then that's why you have to continue to release new stuff as well.
23:24So there's a whole strategy behind the whole, the rock and roll business is a whole world that you never think of when you dream of being a rock star, quote unquote.
23:32Well, as far as business, like you just talked about Fallen Line.
23:35I think last time we talked about this, you were kind of kicking around doing albums, dropping singles.
23:41So where does that stand?
23:43Well, I mean, so I think our plan, we did it with Spotlight, then we did it with Fallen Line, we're already working on the next song, is just to release songs continuously.
23:53Maybe every four months or five months or six months, two or three songs a year, because what happened with the last record, we did Boombox.
24:01We made it right, we started making it before the pandemic, and then of course, pandemic hits, and then we didn't want to release it when you couldn't tour or you couldn't come promote it.
24:09So we took more time with it.
24:10And there is 12 great songs on that record.
24:13I know every band says that, but I'm really saying like every one of those songs could have been and should have been a single.
24:19Three of them were, all did great.
24:23Three or four of the other songs we play live, and the other five or six just disappear, never to be seen or heard again, unless you listen to the record.
24:32And that bugs me.
24:33There's a song called Ugly.
24:34There's a song called My Great Wall.
24:36There's a song called What Hell Is Like.
24:38I mean, all these songs, they should have been huge hits, but now they're gone kind of forever.
24:43And I didn't want that to happen again.
24:45And I just thought, rather than wait and do an album every two years where half the album is not ever going to be appreciated, let's do two or three songs a year instead.
24:53And every song gets its due.
24:55Every song gets service to radio.
24:57Every song gets a chance to be under the spotlight, no pun intended, on streaming.
25:01Every song will get a chance to be played live, see how it goes over.
25:04And I think that's the way we're going to start doing it.
25:06And the way people consume music now, I think a lot of bands are going to start doing things that way and already are.
25:11Yeah, it's interesting that you say that because, you know, growing up, like we did, you drop a record on and you listen to it.
25:17And there's many songs that some of our favorite bands will never play live.
25:21And they may have been forgotten, but not from the fans.
25:25Well, yeah, because the concept of an album was so, like, I don't remember what the word I'm looking for.
25:33It was a religious experience.
25:35Yeah.
25:36You know, it was a sacred experience.
25:38You would wait, the new Maiden's coming out, the new Metallica's coming out.
25:41What's the cover?
25:42What are the song titles?
25:43What are the lyrics?
25:44What picture's going to be in the back?
25:46You know, you would wait in line to buy a new record.
25:49Those days are gone, you know, and that's just the way it is.
25:51I mean, you can cry about it or you can just accept that, you know, an album cover now is a thumbnail that you look at on a phone.
25:59We still care, but you could literally put, you know, a black thing with a red F on it and it doesn't make a difference either way.
26:08But like you said, you would listen to these songs and some of them would be album tracks, they would be called.
26:15But it's okay because you're listening to Master Puppets from Battery to Damage Incorporated every day anyway.
26:21So even, and they never got played on the radio anyhow.
26:24So all of those songs you'd just be listening to at your friend's house and in the car.
26:28But the experience of listening to a full length album is gone for younger kids.
26:33They just listen to one song.
26:36They listen to a TikTok version of the song, which is 30 seconds.
26:40That's another thing that's a thing now.
26:42We're like, not even the whole song.
26:44No, it's too long.
26:44It's three minutes long.
26:45It doesn't matter.
26:46So, you know, you have to stay ahead of the curve on all those things.
26:50And we've always kind of taken pride once again of being a little bit ahead and watching the trends and seeing how things go.
26:57And you go with it, man.
26:58And that's just the way you survive as a band for decades like we have.
27:02Yeah, I think you mentioned Master of Puppets.
27:05I want to say that Metallica probably plays every one of those songs on tour at one point or another.
27:10Oh, they've played them all.
27:11Yeah, yeah.
27:11That's kind of crazy to think.
27:13Yeah, I think on this tour, they're not doing a lot of it.
27:15But, I mean, they go through phases, you know, because once again, it's, you know, this tour, let's do Master in its entirety.
27:21Or this tour, let's do Kill Them All in its entirety.
27:24So you can always see, you know, and then they stay away from the certain songs for a while.
27:28And then when you get a bigger catalog, that's what Maiden's doing.
27:32Their next tour is all old stuff.
27:34And then they'll do a tour of all new stuff.
27:36And then it's, you know, that's what, and hardcore fans like us go nuts for that.
27:41Yeah.
27:42Hey, and Fozzie, is Rich Ward an original member with you?
27:46Oh, yeah.
27:46Okay, it's you two guys are the originals, right?
27:48Yeah, yeah.
27:49We're partners in the band, yeah.
27:50That's what I thought, for 25 years.
27:51He came from Stuck Mongeau?
27:53Stuck Mongeau, yeah.
27:53Yeah.
27:54Yeah, yeah.
27:55I mean, it's crazy to think, you know, 25 years that we've, you know, we've been doing this.
28:00And, I mean, once again, it's not easy to keep a band together for that long.
28:05We've got a great lineup.
28:06It's the best lineup we've ever had.
28:08And a lot of that, not just as players and singers, but just as people.
28:12Right.
28:12And that's the most important thing, man.
28:14You know, chemistry is everything.
28:17You know, personality is everything.
28:19When you're on the bus for a month, you can't have any jerks on the board, man.
28:22You know, you can't do that.
28:25It disrupts the apple cart.
28:26That goes for crew, your bus driver, everything.
28:29You know, you're on that pirate ship.
28:30You got, everybody's got to be on the same page.
28:32So that's not easy to do either.
28:34But when we've been able to find a great group of guys, all veterans in the business who don't take anything for granted, you know, and that's important too.
28:42You get some younger guys in there that think, oh, this is just how it always is.
28:45It's like, no, you got to work your ass off to get to this point and continue to work your ass off to stay at this point.
28:52And that's something a lot of younger guys don't understand that.
28:56So, yeah, man, it's always a chess game to put together a great lineup, and we've been able to do that for a quarter of a century, which is so insane.
29:08Adding and subtracting for sure.
29:10So what's coming up?
29:11You said you're going to maybe drop another single here in a little bit.
29:13This is the last day of this tour.
29:14You guys have any studio time coming up?
29:16You got any tours coming up this summer?
29:17Well, I mean, we tend not to tour in the summer because everyone else does.
29:23We'll go out again in the fall.
29:25I think we're going to go talk about going to Australia.
29:28We'll go back to the U.K. where we always do very well in February.
29:33And in that time frame, we'll release another song.
29:35We'll probably do the States again.
29:36And we always kind of do the April, May.
29:38In the fall, I think this fall we'll go to Australia instead because we haven't been there in a few years.
29:42We do really well there as well.
29:43So, yeah, I mean, it's usually two or three tours a year.
29:48And we'll put out that next single in the fall, which would be a good time frame because every single you put out lasts for about four months when you go through the cycle of everything.
29:57So that's about time to put out another one and just continue to build.
30:01The video for Fall Online will come out beginning of June.
30:06So, yeah, you just keep putting out content is the word, content.
30:10And but, yeah, that's and that's what we'll be doing.
30:14That's the maelstrom of Fozzy.
30:16Yeah.
30:16Yeah.
30:17But the thing is, too, everybody's in other bands.
30:19I mean, we're doing quarantine gigs, which is the.
30:21That's right.
30:2280s non-makeup kiss band that we have.
30:25We did the Diesel Room.
30:27Yeah, Diesel.
30:28Yeah.
30:28It was a great show.
30:29But, yeah, we'll be doing some of that in May and June.
30:32Rich has Guardians of the Jukebox, which is his 80s cover band, which is amazing.
30:36They're not covering, you know, Motley Crue and Poison, they're covering Lionel Richie and, you know, Maniac and Fame.
30:42I want to live forever and those types of tunes.
30:45So everybody, we just did a podcast yesterday with with with Billy, Rich and PJ on being working musicians.
30:51You got to keep working.
30:53You know, Billy is a guitar teacher.
30:54And when he's not on the road with his other band, he's teaching guitar.
30:58I mean, there's a way to do it, but you got to hustle.
31:00Yeah.
31:00And that's what all the guys in our band do.
31:02And that's another reason why we stick together and why we've got such a great rock and roll band.
31:05Yeah.
31:06You mentioned Kiss.
31:07I kind of forgot about that.
31:08But, yeah.
31:08So, first of all, John Five is from here.
31:10Have you seen his Kiss collection yet?
31:12I haven't.
31:12I was wanting to go to his house to check it out because you have to go to his house.
31:17Have you heard how he's doing this?
31:18Yeah.
31:18I had him on the show a few months ago.
31:19Yeah.
31:19Yeah.
31:20He meets you like in a parking lot.
31:22And then it's like you got to put like a like a bag over your face.
31:25No way.
31:25Yeah.
31:26Yeah.
31:26And he drives people to his house because he doesn't want anyone to know where he lives.
31:30And then you go look around at his museum.
31:32But the thing for me is like I'd love to see the museum.
31:36He lives about 45 minutes outside of L.A.
31:38But I've seen the ultimate Kiss museum that was in Gene's house.
31:42Right.
31:42Yeah.
31:42So, once I've seen that, I don't know what John has that Gene didn't.
31:45And I'm a Kiss fan, but I'm not that type of Kiss fan.
31:48So, I'd like to go see his place.
31:50But I would have to have a whole day free to do that.
31:52And it's very rare for me to have that in L.A.
31:54But I will I do owe him a visit to his place.
31:56Yeah.
31:57No, it's it looks really cool.
31:59But he's got he's like, you know, I've got a Casablanca, the elder plastic bag that the album came in.
32:04I'm like, where did you get this from?
32:07And why do you have this?
32:08You know?
32:09Yeah.
32:09The elder.
32:10I think that that album gets a bad rap, but I don't know.
32:13We could talk about the elder all day long.
32:15Yeah.
32:15Well, let's not real fast.
32:18One one final thing here for you.
32:19Have you ever where's my oh, OK.
32:23Have you ever taken the wrong luggage from a plane?
32:26Oh, my gosh.
32:26Dude.
32:28PJ gave me that one.
32:29Oh, well, that's a good one.
32:30Well, gosh.
32:32So usually when I'm on tour, we don't work Tuesdays and Wednesdays and I'll go do AW on the Wednesdays.
32:39This tour, I took I took the time off storyline wise.
32:43So I was flying.
32:46I did AW.
32:47I flew to wherever the hell I flew.
32:48And I grabbed the bag from the overhead and I took it and put it under the bus because I don't need that bag on the tour bus.
32:56So I go to AW, fly, take the bag, go to where the bus is parked, put the put the bag underneath.
33:02And then we do five shows.
33:03The night that I'm leaving, I'm going directly to Salt Lake City to see Iron Maiden and then going from Salt Lake City on Tuesday to where?
33:14No, no, no, sorry.
33:15Minneapolis on Tuesday to see Maiden, Salt Lake City on Wednesday for for Dynamite where I have a championship match.
33:20And I'm going to be winning the title, the Ring of Honor World Championship.
33:25I opened the bag just to put some other stuff in it and there's all these clothes in there, like nicely folded clothes.
33:37And I'm like, and clothes that I would never wear.
33:38I'm like, what is this?
33:40I'm like, Simon, is there another bag under there like that looks like this?
33:44Like whose clothes are these?
33:46He's like, no, this is it.
33:47And I'm like, oh, no, I took the wrong bag or someone took the wrong bag.
33:53And this is the one that looked exactly the same.
33:56Like it was the same freaking bag.
33:58Now I'm like, what am I going to do?
34:00I've got a title match in two days.
34:03What am I going to do?
34:05So I call my wife.
34:09She sends boots to the arena or whatever.
34:13I call the costume guy to start making stuff on Monday, all these different things.
34:18And I go to Maiden on Tuesday and I'm hanging out with them before the show because once again, they're my friends for many years.
34:24And I'm telling them the story, telling Adrian the story and Dave Murray and Bruce Dickinson is there.
34:30And Bruce is really like, what are you going to do?
34:32Like, what are you going to wear?
34:33I'm like, I don't know, Bruce.
34:35I'm hoping to put together something and we'll figure this out.
34:38So I get there.
34:40Earlier that day, I went to a sporting goods place and bought like some knee pads.
34:44And so I get there on Wednesday and I'm able to put together a pretty damn good looking costume.
34:50The guys made me a new pair of tights.
34:51We've got a jacket made.
34:52Like, it's like, okay, this is going to work.
34:55I go do the match.
34:57I win the championship.
34:59Next day, I get a DM from Bruce Dickinson's wife, who I'm friends with.
35:02And she goes, we watched you last night.
35:05And Bruce was so excited that you had a cool costume and that you won the match.
35:11But he just thought the fact you had a costume, he was so excited about that.
35:14And I was like, that's the coolest thing ever.
35:17Bruce Dickinson watched my match and didn't care about the fact that I won.
35:21He just cared that I had a costume made.
35:24Yeah.
35:24So there you go.
35:25I never did find out who took my stuff.
35:27So somebody else has your stuff.
35:29Somebody has my stuff.
35:29And they said, you have to drop off that bag to a luggage.
35:34I'm like, no, I'm not dropping off.
35:35That's my leverage.
35:36I will keep that till the end of time until this son of a bitch who's got my wrestling gear,
35:40which by the way, it says learning tree all over it.
35:43You know what it is.
35:44It would take two seconds to Google and say, oh, that's Chris Jericho.
35:47You can't sell them because I'm going to see it.
35:49You can't do anything with it.
35:51Did you just throw it away?
35:52I mean, that was like $1,000 or $2,000 worth of gear.
35:55So I'm keeping your stupid, you know, chino pants and your stupid khaki shirts.
36:03There was nothing in it.
36:04There was no idea in it.
36:05Nothing.
36:06Just these folded up weird, like a serial killer, Unabomber, who's so anally retentive.
36:11Everything has to be completely folded the right way.
36:14So I still got that.
36:14I still got it at my house.
36:15I'm never giving it back.
36:17Give me back my stuff, whoever's listening.
36:19You son of a bitch.
36:21Well, I'm glad I asked that story.
36:23So, yeah, I remember Bruce Dickinson was telling me about how he got a hole in his trousers
36:28and his balls were hanging out at a show somewhere.
36:30Well, I mean, yeah, that's Bruce.
36:31Yeah, right.
36:32Bruce is the best, you know.
36:33Well, listen, dude, always great to see you.
36:34Thanks so much for coming in here.
36:36And yeah, Chris from Pot of Thunder told me to throw in the word maelstrom.
36:39So I thought that you would take that and run with that.
36:41Well, I always forget you guys are friends.
36:43So he used that the other night.
36:45But yeah, man, it's always great to be here in Wyandotte, which is not Detroit proper.
36:50It's like a suburb, right?
36:51That's a beautiful place.
36:51Really cool venue.
36:52Yeah, great venue.
36:53So we'll be there tonight, man, for the final show of the tour.
36:56Always a great rock and roll area up here, too.
36:59So it's going to be a great show tonight, man.
37:01We're really excited to end off the tour.
37:04The two most special shows on the tour, the first one and the last one, because there's
37:07just so much more at stake, so to speak.
37:10So we're going to be ready to go tonight.
37:12Well, thanks again, dude.
37:13Have a great show tonight.
37:14Appreciate it.
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