Wrestle Talk TV: Chris Jericho Interview

He is a wrestling legend, an author and now a globe trotting rockstar. Wrestle Talk TV's Matthew Milligan takes a special look at Chris Jericho and his band Fozzy's rise to fame in the UK.

Many of you reading this will know Chris Jericho as a professional wrestler but if you are a "Jericholic" or even watched the first episode of Wrestle Talk TV to air on Challenge, you will know that he is also now a globetrotting rock star. Jericho formed the rock band Fozzy in 1999, initially as a cover band called Fozzy Osbourne. The band eventually went on to write and record their own music under the name Fozzy and it wasn't long before Jericho's, now infamous, passion, charisma and creativity began to turn Fozzy into much more than a simple wrestler side project.

Yet despite being a non wrestling project, Chris Jericho simply could not escape the love of the fans he had made after his two decade long career in the ring. As a consequence, it soon became obvious that Fozzy would be of great interest for those who loved his battles in the WWE and WCW. With wrestling fans being as loyal and committed as they are often considered to be, it wasn't long before wrestling t-shirts littered Fozzy concerts and the entrance line for a Fozzy gig consisted of hundreds of people discussing pro wrestling.

Due in part to this, Fozzy's popularity grew and in 2005 they came over to the UK to play the Download Festival. The turnout of wrestling fans had never been greater. However, those same fans who went to see their wrestling hero, quickly realized that Chris Jericho wasn't playing around with Fozzy. To the shock of many, it appeared that he was putting as much effort and energy into this as anything he had ever done before. The result? An audience of wrestling fans in Great Britain had rapidly been converted to being Fozzy fans, thanks to the incredible stage presence of one of the greatest performers in the last two decades of pro wrestling history. Yet now, he wasn't JUST a wrestler, he was a bona fide rock God! Since then the UK has been a big market for the band and they have continually come across the pond to play gigs. The band came over to the UK in 2011 to play a headlining UK tour to support their album Chasing the Grail.

In January 2012 Fozzy signed with a new record label and it was hinted by Jericho on twitter that the band would be releasing a new album in August. The album was announced as being called 'Sin and Bones' and on 17th July the first single from the album 'Sandpaper' was released. This was also to be combined with a massively successful in ring return to the WWE, where "Y2J" would have a heated and bitter feud with the WWE's new golden child, CM Punk. After a series of critically acclaimed matches, including a huge grudge match at WrestleMania, it became apparent to all that Chris Jericho had not lost a single step in the squared circle. In fact, many felt that his ability as a performer had only just increased. Was there anything this man could not do?

Fozzy also played at the 2012 Download Festival on the same day as bands they admire such as Metallica headlined the main stage. In his Wrestle Talk TV interview Jericho stated that he aspires to play on the same stage as Metallica next year and then headline the entire festival the year after that. If there is one thing that no one can deny, that is that from a simple look at his history, if the first undisputed champion in history sets his sights on that goal, all bets of him NOT achieving it would be ill advised.

If you missed the interview with Chris Jericho on Wrestle Talk TV, you can watch all four parts plus some exclusive content from the links below:

Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wRfUiqgRcU
Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6rzleFwQQ
Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_lxuxvwopM
Part Four: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBzDgeOZwgo
Releasing A Third Book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgVhVB8xU2A
Raw Going To 3 Hours: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srcCllip3UI
Compares Wrestling & Music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32O7LovOZzA

Plus, if you've never seen Fozzy live before you are in luck because they will be returning to the UK this November. Tour dates and ticket information can be found at: http://www.fozzyrock.com/tour.aspx