{"id":13162,"date":"2012-10-31T14:40:32","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T03:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=13162"},"modified":"2012-11-07T08:50:15","modified_gmt":"2012-11-06T21:50:15","slug":"rich-ward-of-fozzy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2012\/10\/rich-ward-of-fozzy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich Ward of Fozzy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n<\/a>\u201cIf you don\u2019t treat it like it\u2019s a corporation, you don\u2019t treat it like a business it just becomes fun and people do it because they want to do it and then when things become fun you have a tendency to want to prioritize it, and then as we started to prioritize on the band focus on putting more and more of our efforts and time into it and on this record.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Bio: “No matter what people say, bigger is always better \u2013 especially when we\u2019re talking about heavy metal. And heavy metal doesn\u2019t get much bigger than FOZZY.<\/p>\n

The band is the brainchild of Rich Ward and Chris Jericho, two larger-than-life personalities that have spent the past decade shaping their own brand of hard hitting music. Ward is one of metal\u2019s pioneers \u2013 as the mastermind of Stuck Mojo, he soldered metal with rhythmic vocals long before it became fashionable, and front men don\u2019t come more dynamic than Chris Jericho, one of professional wrestling\u2019s biggest superstars, the embodiment of charisma, and the by-product of a lifetime immersed in metal.”<\/p>\n

In one of the coolest interviews I know I\u2019ve done in a long time, it was a pleasure to talk to \u2018The Duke\u2019, Rich Ward who braved Hurricane Sandy to talk to us about their kick ass new album \u2018Sin and Bones\u2019, the upcoming Soundwave tour of Australia and Australia in general and of all things, Journey\u2026 that and what he thinks of our website name.<\/p>\n

Hi Rich, how are you, mate?<\/strong>
\nHey Troy\u2026 May the Rock be with You, that\u2019s the best title of all time.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing, really cool to speak with you, thanks for taking time for me today.<\/p>\n

No thank you for your time, I\u2019m sure you\u2019re getting ready for a show.<\/strong>
\nYeah man, I\u2019m in Albany New York, just had dinner, we don\u2019t go on stage for another couple of hours, so I\u2019m laying in my bunk in my bus talking to Troy in Australia, so it\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n

Oh, how did you go with the weather there yesterday, everyone and everything alright?
\n<\/strong>Yeah we\u2019re fine, we had some heavy winds and some hard rains last night in Toronto and the night before we were just getting the outer bands of the storm when we were in Cleveland, but we got lucky because we came right through here, right through Albany where we are but fortunately for us this town was spared. We didn\u2019t see any flooding or any downed trees, and the sun was out for a part of the time today, so the lucky stars were looking over our shoulders and taking care of us.<\/p>\n

Great to hear, so I have to start by asking that back when Fozzy first started in 1999 did you ever think you’d still be doing it and it would have become what it is some 13 years on?<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely not, I mean it was completely a spoofy fun band that we were doing to have a good time with our new friend Chris Jericho that I met through some wrestlers that I knew through the Stuck Mojo band I was in, and Stuck Mojo was the love of my life and I had no intentions of quitting that band or putting it on the back burner to play in a band called Fozzy and here we are thirteen years later and I\u2019ve made what I think is the best record of my career in \u2018Sin and Bones\u2019 and Chris and I\u2019s camaraderie and chemistry as songwriters and band mates, it couldn\u2019t be better.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got the same drummer I\u2019ve had with me since I was a kid and played on all the Stuck Mojo records and I have the best bass player in the world named Paul Di Leo with me and one of my best friends and greatest guitar players on the planet in Billy Grey playing with me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of those things that in the early years you don\u2019t look past the next day, you\u2019re going and you\u2019re playing cover songs and having a good laugh and it\u2019s your buds and everything and we\u2019re not even thinking of the next gig, we\u2019re just having a good time and I just think it\u2019s down to, sometimes when you just let things blossom organically it\u2019s not something you sit down and try to force this or we should do this and when things don\u2019t become a board room conversation if you know what I mean? If you don\u2019t treat it like it\u2019s a corporation, you don\u2019t treat it like a business it just becomes fun and people do it because they want to do it and then when things become fun you have a tendency to want to prioritize it, and then as we started to prioritize on the band focus on putting more and more of our efforts and time into it and on this record.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have any other active bands when I was writing and recording this record which is the first time in history when I wasn\u2019t multi-tasking another tour or another album that I did in the past when I was writing for Stuck Mojo any leftover songs that didn\u2019t work out I would give to Fozzy and vice versa, if I was writing for Fozzy and this song wasn\u2019t working out I\u2019d hold it for my Stuck Mojo pile of songs.\u00a0 It\u2019s just funny at some point, I think the only person in the world that can multi task beautifully is Devin Townsend, I think beyond him it\u2019s very difficult to honour multiple projects and honour them with 100% clarity and focus, it\u2019s a tough thing to do.<\/p>\n

I can imagine. There are a number of artists now, like the guys in Alter Bridge who have so many bands now, not sure how they do it\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah and that\u2019s true, but I think Tremonti, whenever he\u2019s doing Alter Bridge he\u2019s doing Alter Bridge and whenever he\u2019s doing Creed he\u2019s doing Creed, he does a good job of delineating time and really focussing and allocating his priorities, like where he is now it\u2019s all about his solo record, and Tremonti\u2019s been good like that whereas me, I haven\u2019t always been as organised (laughs) I try to do too much and plus it\u2019s the business side of things, I haven\u2019t been very successful in telling people \u2018no\u2019 and that\u2019s difficult in this business when people always think of it as \u2018Oh the band guys and they\u2019re making this thing\u2019 well it\u2019s not just the band guys, there\u2019s record companies, there\u2019s booking agents and there\u2019s managers and then you have outside of that your road crew guys.\u00a0 You take six months off to write a record, what are your road crew guys doing?\u00a0 There\u2019s so many thing to take into consideration and there\u2019s lots of external pressures in this business and I\u2019m just not good at saying no, so someone says \u2018hey, I know you\u2019re in the middle of doing a record but can we go out and do a six show run of the west coast, we have some promoters that want to do it?\u2019 and instead of saying no, I want to focus on the record, I say \u2018OK\u2019 and I think that\u2019s where Devin and Tremoni are good, they\u2019re very good allocators of time and discipline and I\u2019m just a wreck (laughs) so it becomes difficult, but as I get older I\u2019m getting better at it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Congratulations on \u2018Sin and Bones\u2019, it’s a killer record. It actually feels like \u2018Chasing The Grail\u2019 had only just been released, were you all amped to just get back in to the studio and make a new record?<\/strong>
\nOh thank you.\u00a0 Yeah it came down to, we were looking at sales figures for \u2018Chasing the Grail\u2019 and also because of Chris\u2019 wrestling schedule and other contributing factors like we talked about earlier in the interview, we didn\u2019t do a tonne of touring on \u2018Chasing The Grail\u2019, so the shelf life of the record wasn\u2019t as long as we would\u2019ve liked it to have been, and it sold well, we were really happy with it but it felt like it came to a point where it was time to consider doing something forward to really move the band forward.\u00a0 I had just come out of a side project with Mike Portnoy called The Adrenalin Mob and I met Paul Di Leo from that and that was a great experience for me as playing with Paul was really inspiring as he and I play identically, we\u2019re very groovy players and I was really inspired to write with Paul and as I said earlier, my drummer Frank and I have been playing together since we were kids and I just thought this was a good time to get back in the studio and write.\u00a0 We had been talking to the guys at Century Media and they wanted to put out a new record for us and all the pieces were just lining up as if it was just meant to be to go back in and make a new record, and then as it would be, we had an offer to do a big late summer full time festival run for seven weeks of touring which was ironically coincide right when the record had finished being recorded.<\/p>\n

Everything just fell in place and it was just meant to be and I\u2019m glad that we did because in the old days the 70\u2019s or 80\u2019s bands were putting out an album every six months or every year, now we get an album cycle of being two or three years and I think it can be a happy medium.\u00a0 Sometimes things can just be organically, just let them unfold, you look at how things are going, you look at the music industry on how it is, and CD sales are down and instead of buying records people are spending money on concerts and you want to constantly keep your fan base energised and the best way to do it is A) Put out a new record and B) Stay out on the road, so we just knew that we needed to work hard to keep both things moving.<\/p>\n

This really is a heavy record but there’s also a very big melodic sense to the album, how do you manage to blend these song melodies with the heavy riffs?<\/strong>
\nWell that\u2019s kind of like my passion is I love heavy music, but melodically all my favourite bands are late 70\u2019s AOR bands like Journey and Styx and Foreigner and Queen, Night Ranger, and Boston, Boston is one of my favourite bands of all time and so Chris, he also loves the same bands, so Chris will send me fourteen, fifteen, sixteen sets of lyrics and he pretty much allows me to create the melody to his lyrics along with the riffs, so I feel like over time our trademark is exactly what you said, marrying these really heavy aggressive metal riffs with this kind of melodic vocal approach and I feel like we\u2019re one of the few bands out there doing it and again it\u2019s just something that happened really organically. \u00a0My favourite guitarists in the world are all these riffy guys, I\u2019m absolutely in love with Dimebag and Zakk Wylde and Doug Aldrich and Vivian Campbell growing up with \u2018Dio\u2019, and Randy Rhoads, so I grew up with those guys but I always wished at times that Dime and the rhythm section of the Pantera band could\u2019ve played with Paul Rodgers, you know what I mean?\u00a0 What would that have been like?\u00a0 To me that has always been my kind of dream band to have these heavy cool riffs and blend them with this classic melodic approach.<\/p>\n

Now, you’re heading back to Australia to play Soundwave, what can we expect to hear set wise on the tour?<\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t even know how long of a set we have, I\u2019m one of these just show up and then, I feel like I\u2019m in the Marines, you\u2019re the first to go and the last to know, and I kinda like it that way as I always look at touring as being at war, like thirty minutes before we go on its game face and ok, what\u2019s the set and visualising the inside of the venue filled with folks and giving then 110% of their expectations.\u00a0 I still want to be the greatest band in the world, I\u2019m still that fifteen year old kid before I ever played my first gig standing in my mirror air guitaring in my mirror to \u2018Number of The Beast\u2019, I\u2019m still that guy, I still get mad when I play with a band on a festival that I feel was better than us on the day and I don\u2019t ever want to be the second best band and I don\u2019t care if that means I have to set myself on fire and extinguish myself in a pool full of goat urine, I will do whatever it takes to be the best and the craziest and people who have seen us before they know what to expect.\u00a0 We\u2019re a super energetic band ala Van Halen, Chili Peppers, the classic super high energy show but we also incorporate the classic Priest, Maiden and Accept classic metal show approach and I kind of feel like we\u2019ve found the perfect blend of metal and fun time rock and roll which plays really well in a festival environment.<\/p>\n

Being here a couple of times now, do you have a memory of one of your trips that stands out that you can share with us?<\/strong>
\nYeah we\u2019ve been twice and I have to say it feels like that all I did was take a fourteen hour plane ride and landed back in my hometown of Atlanta, because people are just like they are back in the south, Australians are so laid back and friendly and cool and they make you feel so welcome.\u00a0 So, my favourite memories, obviously the gigs are great but part of \u00a0being special of being in a band is having the opportunity to travel and hanging out after the shows with the locals and going to the local food spot to have a curry or a pastie or whatever, and to me staying in World Tower on one of the top floors in Sydney and overlooking the harbour, and going to the Sydney Zoo and the game park in Adelaide, I mean some of my fondest memories of all time being a touring musician have come from going to Australia and I\u2019m going to do the same thing this time, I\u2019m going to play my butt off and on my days off I\u2019m going to be the ultimate tourist and see as much stuff as I can.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll also be happy to know that today Journey just announced their first tour ever of Australia at the same time Soundwave is on so you\u2019ll be in town when they are\u2026<\/strong>
\nOh my God! That\u2019s awesome, I just saw them two weeks ago and they were amazing, they were so good, anybody who is in Australia that hasn\u2019t seen the band, I mean they are completely reenergised with Arnel the new singer, he\u2019s an amazing singer, close your eyes and its 98% Steve Perry and yet he has this youthful, great, na\u00efve way about him, na\u00efve I mean in the best way possible, that thing where he\u2019s not jaded and we\u2019ve done this for a million years let\u2019s get this show over with, you can genuinely see the joy in his face. \u00a0I don\u2019t go to many concerts as I see so many bands go through the motions or they\u2019re just on tour to help finance their drugs and alcohol addictions or it gives them an opportunity to stroke their egos.\u00a0 For me it\u2019s all about that moment of being on stage with 110db of guitar crushing in my back and having that energy exchange with the audience and I\u2019m so happy that one of my favourite bands Journey has continued that with Deen Castronovo on drums and Arnel, those guys have really injected the band with a new integrity and a new feel of excellence.<\/p>\n

On a side note, I absolutely love your solo record \u2018My Kung Fu Is Good\u2019, would you ever consider another?<\/strong>
\nYeah I\u2019m going to do it, just those things have to be specifically for when I have a lot of downtime and have a story to tell, that record was a breakup record.\u00a0 There are a couple of songs that weren\u2019t specifically tied to the breakup but most of them are, and so for me to do a solo record I don\u2019t want to do just a trivial, \u2018have a good day\u2019, it has to be something to me that is helping to tell a story that means a lot and whether that or what that is hasn\u2019t struck me.\u00a0 Musically I\u2019m there but lyrically I\u2019m not there right now, so those are my pet projects, I make those for other lost lonely hearts, sentimental softies like myself who are total rockers but deep down inside we all think Pink Floyd and Peter Gabriel are the greatest.<\/p>\n

Lastly, do you have a message for your Australian fans?<\/strong>
\nJust that you guys are the greatest in the world and I\u2019m so excited to come back and bask in your shining faces and enthusiasm and we\u2019re going to have a great show and just so honoured that Soundwave has invited us to come out, and we\u2019re going to exceed expectations and come and have a great time, so if anyone wants to take me to get the greatest curry in Sydney or Melbourne I\u2019m up, let\u2019s do this!<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Atlanta, GA, USA<\/p>\n

Band members: \u00a0<\/strong>Chris Jericho \u2013 Vocals, Rich Ward – Guitar\/Vocals, Frank Fontsere \u2013 Drums, Paul Di Leo \u2013 Bass, Billy Grey – Guitar<\/p>\n

Website: <\/strong>www.fozzyrock.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> Sin and Bones (Out Now \u2013 Century Media)<\/p>\n

Read our review of Sin and Bones here<\/a><\/p>\n

SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL \u2013 FEBRUARY\/MARCH 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL VENUES AND DATES
\n<\/strong>SATURDAY 23 \u2013 BRISBANE, RNA SHOWGROUNDS \u2013 SOLD OUT!
\nSUNDAY 24 \u2013 SYDNEY, OLYMPIC PARK \u2013 SOLD OUT!
\nFRIDAY 1 \u2013 MELBOURNE, FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE \u2013 SOLD OUT!
\nSATURDAY 2 \u2013 ADELAIDE, BONYTHON PARK \u2013 SOLD OUT!
\nMONDAY 4 \u2013 PERTH, CLAREMONT SHOWGROUNDS \u2013 SOLD OUT!<\/p>\n

For more information head to www.soundwavefestival.com
\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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