About Fozzy
Fozzy is an American heavy metal band formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999 by lead guitarist Rich Ward and drummer Frank Fontsere. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist Chris Jericho, Ward, second guitarist Billy Grey, bassist P. J. Farley and drummer Grant Brooks. Jericho has characterized the band by saying, "If Metallica and Journey had a bastard child, it would be Fozzy." As of September 2022, the band has released eight studio albums and one live album. Their first two albums consist of primarily cover songs with some original material, while their albums since have made original material the primary focus.
Fozzy started as Fozzy Osbourne, a play on the name of the singer Ozzy Osbourne, and was a cover band assembled by Ward from whatever musicians he could find in a given week. In 1999, Jericho and Ward met in San Antonio, Texas, after a wrestling show and Jericho was invited to play with the band. Their first show was held at the now-defunct club "The Hangar", in the downtown square of Marietta, Georgia. Jericho sat in on a few sessions, but did not plan to play with them permanently. In 2000, Jericho rejoined the band and became its frontman under the persona of Moongoose McQueen, and the band went on tour. As part of the band's "gimmick", Jericho refused to acknowledge that Moongoose McQueen and Chris Jericho were the same person. When interviewed as Moongoose, he would stay in character the whole time and even feign ignorance of who Chris Jericho was. On the other side, Chris Jericho was a "huge fan" of Moongoose and Fozzy.
The band shortened its name to Fozzy, and adopted the satirical back-story that they had signed with a record company to move to Japan to be huge rock stars, but the company went out of business, leaving them stranded for 20 years, while all their demos were snatched and recorded by other bands. Soon afterward, Fozzy produced their first album, self-titled and featuring mostly covers of bands such as Dio, Krokus, Twisted Sister, Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe and Judas Priest. Also, at one time the band considered changing their name to Big City Knights.
Fozzy's second album, Happenstance, was produced in 2002, again with mostly covers of bands such as Black Sabbath, Scorpions, W.A.S.P. and Accept.
After the Happenstance tour ended in 2003, the band dropped its back-story and Chris Jericho's McQueen persona. In January 2005, they released their third album, All That Remains, which had entirely original tracks, including the singles "Enemy", "It's a Lie", "Born of Anger", and "The Test". All That Remains included guest appearances by musicians Zakk Wylde , Bone Crusher, Mark Tremonti , Myles Kennedy , Marty Friedman and Butch Walker . The album sold over 100,000 copies. In 2005, "Enemy" was the theme song for WWE No Way Out and in 2006 for a promotional video for TNA Bound for Glory. In 2005, the band played the Download Festival at Donington Park, England.
Soon after the release of All That Remains, a fourth album was announced.
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