the metal gods rock show

                                                                         Fozzy     Hard Rock Hell 2 December 2012   

                                  

MG: Hi, Great to meet you, how excited are you to be here in Wales at Hard Rock Hell?
Chris: Great to meet you, yes we are very excited it’s always great to be here in Wales, The festival vibe is always cool and we have never been to a festival that’s not in the summer so it’s all good.

 

MG: How's the tour been with Breed 77 and Soil?
Chris: It’s been really great it’s a really good mix of bands; all the shows have been sold out so far so it’s all good, and it’s a great package for the fans, which have been so energetic and enthusiastic. Any time you do a tour like the one we are on and the numbers are so good it strikes a chord with people. Good mix of bands and they are cool people.

 

MG: It must be really gratifying as well, what with the current economic climate to be selling out shows?
Chris: Yeah I guess so, I mean I know Leeds had been completely sold out a week before we played there , which I am told is really great and a good sign as the Leeds music scene apparently is not to healthy at the moment. So yeah it is very gratifying, I mean we have recently put out a new record and it is the first time we have been here with the new record. We have always had a great fan base here and had great tours here, so we come to the UK as much as we can and to see the reaction from our fans has been totally gratifying and is the right word to use.

 

MG: Do you have any personal favourites on your new album “Sin & Bones”?
Chris: Well as any musician will tell you, it’s like every song is your children and you love them all but in different ways. I think for a life style point “Spider in my mouth” it’s the first song we play live it’s got a great introduction, very cool groove, heavy rhythm, which is what Fozzy is all about.  So from a live stand point it would be “Spider in my mouth” From the songs we don’t do live maybe “A Passed Life”  “Storm the Beaches” which is a bit more epic, but yeah we love them all.

 

MG: Plans for 2013?
Chris: In February we go to Australia for the sound wave tour with Metallica, then back over to the UK and the world.

 

MG: What would you say are the best and the worst things about being on tour?
Chris: Anytime you are on the road, doing what you want to do in front of people that have come and see you play are the best and there are always things you can bitch about , but I never bitch as this is my dream and love playing, you know since I was thirteen years old and to be at this level doing this is a honour, probably the only bad thing is being away from home for long lengths of time missing my family, but other than that everything is roses man, playing rock n roll around the world.

 

MG: So do you have any particular favourite countries to play?
Chris: We love the UK we really really do the fans are just crazy. I am excited to be here tonight at Hard Rock Hell , a festival this size , You know you think festival you thing Download , but this is going to be really cool in a big room.  

 

MG: Yeah with a Burger King at the back of the room!
Chris: Yeah, like Hammersmith Odeon or something with the Burger King There!  

 

MG: What bands first got you into music?
Chris: I was obsessed with the Beatles as a kid when I was about seven or eight I kind of just learned everything about them, I had all their records and that sort of stuff. And then in the early eighties it wasn’t really cool to like the Beatles, and most of the girls I liked where wearing Ozzy, Priest and Maiden shirts at the time, and I thought if I am ever going to get the chance to date these girls I had better check out this music, and the first album I brought was Ozzy Osborne’s Wizard of OZ, and that was it I was corrupted from there!.  

 

MG: Bands that influence the Fozzy sound?
Chris: You can see and tell we like and love Ozzy, Metallica, The Scorpians, and Avenge sevenfold kind of influences our sound. You know seventies rock like Journey, Styx, Queen, Pink Floyd, Kiss bands like that  , back in those days they all had a microphone stand in front of them and everybody sang , I mean we love the harmonies, rather than the backing vocals like Guns N Rose and Nirvana and bands like that used and use . It’s kind of like Metallica and Journey having a bastard child that is how Fozzy sounds. You know the melodic choruses are possibly why the band has got as far as it has, people can latch onto the songs and sing along.  

 

MG: What music do you have on while you are traveling from venue to venue?
Chris: Whatever comes up on shuffle on my IPod, I have been listening to a lot of Pink Floyd, early Queensryche for some reason recently and a guy from Canada called Kim Mitchell, he’s huge in Canada but nowhere else it seems and he plays huge festivals over there. He like the Status Quo of Canada!

 

MG: Finally is there anything you would like to say to your fans and our readers?
Chris: We appreciate the support here in the UK, and love to play all the different places in the UK and will continue to do what we do and keep coming back.

 

MG: Thanks.
Chris :Thank You!

 

Interview by: Seb Di Gatto