A true headbanger: when Chris Jericho isn't using his walls of Jericho vs an opponent in the ring, he produces the wails of Jericho as the lead singer of Fozzy

Wrestling Digest, Oct, 2002 by Steve Knopper

EVERY NOW AND THEN, CHRIS Jericho finds himself in a room with Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith; or Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith; or even Zakk Wylde, longtime lead guitarist of Ozzy Osbourne's backing band.

These hard rockers are big wrestling fans. They admire the way Jericho beat "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and the Rock last winter to become the first undisputed world champion of modern wrestling.

Jericho, likewise is a big fan of these rockers. In fact, he's more than a fan. When he not grappling in the ring, he grappling with a microphone, fronting the heavy metal band Fozzy. Jericho's band just released "Happenstance," its second CD, which features a mix of originals interspersed with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest covers.

But in the company of those who rock for a living, Jericho doesn't dare trade war stories of life on the stage. "I kind of just lay back," he says. "When you're dealing with guys like Zakk Wylde, who have sold millions of records, you don't want to say, `We played in front of 300 people.' I never try to put myself at their level.

"It'd be like an independent wrestler going up to the Rock and saying, `I just had 10 good matches in a row in Sheboygan and I was really super-popular.' You just kind of stay away from that with the greats."

Humility is not the virtue you'd normally associate with Jericho. He refers to himself as "Y2J" and "the Ayatollah of Rock & Rollah" and, in a recent letter to Web site detractors, he declared: "Well if you didn't like my match tonight, then you are out of luck if you're a Jericho fan, cause it was the best you're gonna get, jerky. That was CJ at his finest. Wrestling at its finest." Like all WWE heroes, Jericho is as skilled in the trash-talking arts as he is in muscling people to the floor.

With Fozzy, a touring metal band that performs Judas Priest's "Freewheel Burning," the Scorpions' "Big City Nights," W.A.S.P.'s "L.O.V.E. Machine" at 300-seat metal nightclubs and German rock festivals, Jericho is back in the minor leagues. "It's a little bit nerve-wracking because it's a whole new world," he says. "You're starting from scratch. Every little victory we get with the band, every album we sell, it's a huge deal."

Then, almost in the same breath, his hype instinct kicks in. "We definitely don't hold back. That's one of the similarities--I don't hold back when I'm in the ring. I'm in constant movement, letting the music flow through me. We're definitely not a band that stares at our shoes and is unhappy to be there," he says. "I've always had a little natural ability, singing-wise, and, obviously, doing what I do for my day job before a live crowd is sort of the same principle. You have to be able to entertain the crowd, entertain the masses."

Fozzy can trace its origins back to veteran Atlanta guitarist Rich Ward's metal band, Stuck Mojo, which through connections wound up filming a video involving Diamond Dallas Page and Raven. ("Raven and his Flock showed up and started beating up the band and Diamond Dallas came in and saved the day," Ward recalls.) At one point, Jericho approached Ward, saying he was a big Stuck Mojo fan. Ward invited Jericho to sit in for one night with the guitarist's other band, Fozzy Osbourne.

Thus was born the latest major rock-and-wrestling experiment. [See the sidebar on the opposite page for other rock-and-wrestling experiments.] "He absolutely walked on as one of the greatest front-men of rock & roll at the first gig," says Ward, 33, who divides his time between Fozzy and his new band, Sickspeed. "He has a tremendous amount of raw talent--his voice is very strong and he has a good ear for melody."

Born Chris Irvine in New York City, Jericho grew up in Canada and, early on, aspired to be a hockey player. (His father, Ted Irvine, played 12 seasons in the NHL.) Cut from his high school team, he briefly pursued a career as a newspaper sportswriter, then made his pro wrestling debut in late 1990. After four years in WCW, he landed in WWE, which gave him his televised debut on a 1999 "Raw" episode.

It should be noted that for all his athleticism, Irvine was also a band nerd in high school. After seeing Twisted Sister open for Iron Maiden in concert, he started his own band, Scimitar, in his basement, like countless metal kids in the '80s. Scimitar played Metallica covers and a few of Irvine's original compositions. Jericho also performed in a school disco orchestra and a drum-machine band called Great Caesar's Ghost.

During his first few years in WWE, Jericho played a babyface character who didn't get much attention. Turning a little mean and flaunting his ego led gradually to the world championship: matches against Austin and the Rock It also gave him more theatrical depth for his singing career. In Fozzy, Jericho becomes Moongoose McQueen, an arrogant frontman who claims that famous metals groups have at. ally stolen-his songs. "He actually plays almost a heel character on stage--the very arrogant quintessential frontman who can do no wrong--and speaks to the fans as if they're the ones who are fortunate to have shown up for the show," Ward says. "It works great."