Category Archives: Interviews

Boobs, blood and the Butcher Babies

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What’s not to like about the Butcher Babies? There are boobs, there’s blood, and the band’s brand of horror metal is about as heavy as metal gets. Sure, a majority of the attention is intentionally directed at the blood-spattered and nipple-taped front women (former Playboy TV personality Carla Harvey and statuesque model/actress Heidi Shepherd), but the Butcher Babies are not just about the boobs. Instead, that’s almost like an insidious setup to lure listeners in before the macabre musical onslaught of Harvey, Shepherd, Henry Flury (guitar), Jason Klein (bass) and Chrissy Warner (drums) shrieks and shreds your ears into submission. Though they admittedly revel in the shock value of it all, there’s a little bit more to the band’s songs of serial killing and torture tactics. The video for “Mr. Slowdeath” from the band’s self-titled (huh huh, I said “tit”) EP plays out like a mini horror film, and the Harvey-penned Butcher Babies comic book further’s the band’s creepy concept. Just off Otep‘s Destroy to Create Tour with One-Eyed Doll and Arcanium, the Butcher Babies return to their Sunset Strip slaying grounds tonight for a show with Fozzy and Picture Me Broken at The Roxy Theatre tonight. Then the band heads out on a West Coast tour in November with Gemini Syndrome and Dr. Acula. In the meantime, here’s a recent interview Wrestling with Pop Culture did with the Butcher Babies.

Carla and Heidi met while working for Playboy TV, and the rest of you guys have played in bands like Amen and Scars of Tomorrow. But how did the five of you come together to create the Butcher Babies?

Shepherd: Carla and I played in a punk/metal cover band years ago, and Chris actually used to come to those shows, and Henry had gone to a couple, too. But we all didn’t know each other. Carla and I quit that band and wanted to do something heavy and original together. So we took what we liked, which was each other and nipple tape, and formed the band.

Looks like Heidi Shepherd (left) and Carla Harvey (right) need a ride. Would you pick up these hitchhikers?

So it was a pretty organic process of forming the band?

Harvey: It turned out that way, but it wasn’t at first. We went through a lot of band members at first and we just couldn’t find the right core group of guys. But when we just looked in our own backyard and realized they were right there, it got a lot easier.

Warner: I was spying on her!

Shepherd: Yeah, peeping Chris over here. It was interesting because we did go through a couple of members and we just couldn’t find people that had the right vision or that had the same vision as us. Finally, the second we stepped in a room together, it was really apparent that we all had the same exact vision. And it all took off from there.

The band obviously has a strong visual presence. How did the whole blood-and-boobs thing manifest itself?

Harvey: Every band has an identity and we all are fans of horror films. So putting on some blood just added to our show and it felt kind of natural, especially with our music because it’s dark, heavy, groovy thrash metal.

Shepherd: We write about a lot of things that give you nightmares, things that scare you like serial killers, monsters and things like that. So it definitely fits in with that realm. With the nipple tape, Carla and I and the whole band are big fans of Wendy O. Williams. She was the first female to really go balls out – or tits out, if you will – in heavy metal. So we really appreciate that she paved the way for females like Otep and ourselves to really explore everything we wanted to do. So it’s more of an ode to the late Wendy O. Williams.

Klein: Chris has some nipple tape on right now. I haven’t been able to get it to stick. I tried once, but I have too much chest hair.

Harvey: Heidi had that same problem, but we got that taken care of.

Klein: Yeah, she ate up the razor so it wasn’t sharp enough for me to use.

How involved are each of you in writing the songs? Is it more of a band effort or are certain members more involved in coming up with the songs?

Even when not covered in blood, the Butcher Babies are intriguingly menacing

Harvey: We all sit in a room and write together. It’s very important to us that our songs represent each member, so we are very hands on.

Shepherd: Musically and lyrically everyone puts a hand in the cookie jar. So it’s a very collective process where we all feel free and comfortable to get very creative with each other. Every person here is very talented at writing lyrics and music, so why not use them all to their full potential?

Harvey: It also makes everybody, when they’re performing, feel like the song is coming from them. If we had one member writing everything, we’d be up there performing, but not really feeling it.

You have an EP out, but when will there be a full-length album?

Shepherd: We are always writing, but we’re looking to have our full-length out early next year. We definitely have enough songs for it, it’s just about finding which songs we want to really represent ourselves with. The EP took a long time because we’re always evolving and we wanted to really put out something that we felt was 100 percent worthwhile.

Carla, you also have a comic book out. Tell me a little about that.

Harvey: You can get it at Deepcutproductions.net and it adds a bit of mythology to our band. People seem to love it and I get emails every day about how much people like it. I wrote it, so it’s just really fun to see it come to life. We worked with an artist named Anthony Winn, who works for Stan Lee, which is amazing because Heidi and I have gotten to pal around with Stan Lee a little bit.

And you’re working on a novel?

Harvey: Yeah, I’ve written a novel that I hope will be out at the beginning of next year. And I have another comic book coming out. We’re all very creative people. Our main focus is the band, but I’ve loved writing since I was a kid and I’m able to use my band as a platform to get my other material out to people. I’m so thankful for that.

I doubt many people would hesitate at helping Heidi Shepherd (left) and Carla Harvey (right) get cleaned up (photo by the Psyco Boys)

Shepherd: We all have careers besides the Butcher Babies. Butcher Babies is our main squeeze and it’s all of our dream that’s coming true. But we all have other gifts and talents.

Klein: I’m a stripper and that’s kind of paying for our fuel.

Flury: I’m a rodeo clown and that also helps pay for gas.

Shepherd: I’m a Justin Bieber impersonator and I’m really good at looking like a 40-year-old lesbian.

Warner: So those are your other jobs? My other job is riding your mom!

You get paid for that? But back to the book. What’s the novel about?

Harvey: It’s about loneliness and the breakdown of the American family. That’s all I want to say about it right now, but I’ve had a lot of interest in it and I’m really proud of it. I know it sounds funny talking about such serious things when we wear nipple tape on stage.

So what else do you all actually do outside of the band?

Shepherd: I do commercials for television and that’s a lot of fun. I’ve been in television my entire life and I was a radio DJ on morning shows for a long time. Eventually I would like to get back into radio, but Butcher Babies is the center of my attention now.

Flury: I’m a graphic artist.

Warner: Me? What job? This is the only one I’ve got. Drums, baby. That’s my life.

www.butcherbabiesofficial.com

 

Susan SurfTone still making waves in the surf rock scene

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For almost 30 years, Susan SurfTone has been quite comfortable being a woman in the mostly-man’s world of surf rock. But even before she made a career out of strumming jangly riffs and garage-y instrumentals, SurfTone was kicking ass as a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, where her training included squaring off against male opponents in the boxing ring. After releasing her first solo album Shore last year, SurfTone has been instrumental (pun intended) in unifying the surf scene in her new hometown of Portland, Ore., most notably with the recent compilation PDX A G0-Go: Making Waves Up North. Featuring contributions from bands such as the Surf Weasels, the Outer Space Heaters and, of course, SurfTone herself, PDX A Go-Go can also be credited for the newest addition to SurfTone’s live show: go-go dancer and PDX A Go-Go cover model Seana Steele. “I saw her dancing with the Surf Weasels and I guess you could say I stole her away from them,” says SurfTone. “They’re on the comp with us, so they weren’t too mad about it. Actually, they’re drummer’s playing with us now, so I guess I raided them.” Already working on a new album for release early next year, SurfTone and her band embark on a brief West Coast tour beginning tonight and concluding Saturday with a performance at the L.A. Derby Dolls roller derby bout. Before hitting the road, SurfTone and Steele talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about PDX A Go-Go, FBI sparring and general badassery.

How did the PDX A Go-Go compilation come about?

SurfTone: I hadn’t played live in Portland in about six years, but right after Shore came out I started getting some gigs and realized there were some really good surf bands in Portland. They had a steady crowd of people coming to the gigs and I thought it would be good to document that with a compilation CD because I don’t think there has been a compilation CD that had anything to do with Portland surf bands. I thought it was a new thing to do and it also helped solidify the relationships between the bands. Now we’re all friends and it’s a virtual love fest up here.

You’re doing a few West Coast shows this week. Do you have any plans to continue touring and maybe taking some of these bands on the road with you?

SurfTone: I hadn’t planned on taking any of those bands out with me. Sometimes day jobs get in the way. But we’re thinking of doing another European tour in 2013. I’ve done four European tours, the first of which was in ’96. Then I did some more tours there between 1996 and 2001 and I haven’t been back since. So I think it might be time.

One of this week’s tour dates is at a L.A. Derby Dolls bout. I’d imagine Susan SurfTone and roller derby will complement each other nicely.

SurfTone: The Derby Dolls seemed like a good gig. My dad was a baseball player, so I guess I just kind of like sports.

Before you were a badass surf guitarist, you were in the FBI and did some boxing. What was it like being that kind of badass before getting into music?

Paul Barrall, Avory Gray, Susan SurfTone, Seana Steele and Dan Ferguson (photo by Jeff Wong)

SurfTone: Some people say I’m a badass, but I don’t know if I believe them. I’m afraid of spiders, so I don’t know what badass is afraid of spiders. But I went into the FBI right after law school. We went to Quantico, Va. to the FBI Academy for training and part of the training was boxing. My father had shown me how to box because I’m an only child and, like I said, my dad was a baseball player, he was good at football and he was pretty much a natural sportsman, so I learned how to play everything. He taught me how to box and I was one of the few women who really knew how to do it. My fight partner was the smallest guy in the class and I always felt really bad for him because I could always give him a pretty good go-round and all the other guys in the class would make fun of him if I decked him, which happened a few times. He got me good a few times, too. I learned what it felt like to have your head snapped back, that’s for sure. We also had a guy who had been a Golden Gloves champ in our class and we had this one woman who wasn’t very popular. The day before I had to fight her, he came to me and gave me some lessons so I could go out and make short work of her, which I did. So that was kind of fun.

How long were you in the FBI and how did you go from that to fronting a surf band?

SurfTone: I was in just short of three years. I quit because I wanted to play music. I was working in New York City and I really wanted to put a band together and start playing in the clubs. I asked them if they had a problem with it and they said they did, so I had to quit. I was 28 at the time and it was either do music or not do music, and I decided I wanted to do music. So I left the Bureau and started a band and 30 years later, here we are.

Did you ever consider pursuing fighting since you seemed to be pretty good at it?

SurfTone: Oh, God no. Back at that time, women didn’t box. This is all new. I think I’d be too small for it anyway. I’m not all that big, so I think I’d probably get knocked on my ass by a good female boxer.

Maybe you’d have a fighting chance in wrestling.

SurfTone: No. I’d get pinned, believe me.

Seana, how do you fit in with the band? Do you rehearse with them before going on stage or do you just go with the flow of the music?

Susan SurfTone by the "Shore" (photo by Robbie McClaran)

Steele: I normally do one rehearsal so I can become familiar with the set and have practice doing it live. But overall I just do freeform dancing. That’s kind of the spirit of go-go dancing is just letting go and having fun. Susan and I are also working on bringing a fusion of fashion and music because I’m also a model. We recently did a photo shoot for the artwork for the next album, so I’m assisting in creating that amalgam.

You mentioned your recording schedule a little earlier. Do you have any idea when the new album might be out?

SurfTone: We’re recording it the first week of February and if all goes well, I would expect to see it sometime in April. I think I’ve got two more songs to finish writing for the new record. Then I go through the process of re-demoing that to have clear versions of them in the studio. Seanna’s walking in Portland Fashion Week for one of the designers and will be walking to one of the songs off Shore.

Steele: That’s on October 11 and Nelli Millard is the designer.

SurfTone: Nelli’s Russian, and part of what I did when I was in the FBI was I worked in New York and I was in the foreign counterintelligence unit. I chased KGB agents around New York City and just kind of kept an eye on them to make sure they weren’t doing anything they shouldn’t be doing. So I keep making these jokes about Nelli being a Russian designer.

For more information, go to www.susansurftone.com.

Anthrax’s thrash metal spreads to Mars, Canada and other new realms

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Always the purveyors of pummeling metal mayhem, Anthrax continues to shred musical boundaries more than 30 years into its career. After last year’s release of Worship Music, the band’s first album with front man Joey Belladonna since 1990’s Persistence of Time and first original album since 2003’s We’ve Come for You All, Anthrax has been on the road almost nonstop including its recent stint on the summer Mayhem Festival. As one of the originators of thrash metal in the ’80s, Anthrax has continued to be on the edge of musical breakthroughs, collaborating with Public Enemy to help usher in rap rock. Last month, Martians were introduced to Anthrax when the band’s “Got the Time” became the first heavy metal song to ever be played on Mars, thanks to NASA rover Curiosity. Back here on terra firma, the band prepares for another first as it makes its Canadian debut when the third leg of the Anthrax/Testament co-headlining tour begins on the West Coast before heading north for the autumn. With all these firsts, the timing couldn’t be better for Anthrax to make its Wrestling with Pop Culture debut. And here it is, a conversation with Belladona.

This year’s Mayhem Festival has been called one of the most successful in the tour’s history. That success has to be attributed, at least somewhat, to a solid lineup including veterans such as Motörhead, Slipknot, Slayer and Anthrax. How do you feel about Anthrax’s contribution to this year’s Mayhem Fest?

Joey Belladonna (back right) and Anthrax are still as innovative as ever (photo by Matthew Rodgers)

Any tour that’s got a great package, good people that are working together every day – we woke up every day and were always busy doing chores to get that thing going all day – and great music, it’s going to be successful. We’re just here to play good music and we’re happy that everybody likes that. Whether it was successful or not, we’re still going to be able to bring a good day of music by our standards.

Anthrax has quite an extensive history with some of the other bands you toured with on Mayhem, particularly Slayer, who you toured with in 201o on the American Carnage Tour and back in 1991 on the Clash of the Titans Tour. How did atmosphere on those tours compare to Mayhem, where you were also touring with a bunch of other bands from various generations?

We’ve done a lot of festivals like this. There are tons of these things in Europe where there’s three days worth of a mixture of bands, and you’ve got all kinds of different styles going on in one day. The big thing about Mayhem is you’ve got a lot more buses, a lot more trucks, a lot more people and it’s the same people coming out each day and it’s very busy. But we got it down. One day the stage would be a little further, some days it would be a little closer. But it’s basically the same  in one way or another. You tour and you have to kind of schedule your day around everything. We were going on earlier, which was different. We don’t usually go on so early on a rolling festival. But that was probably the biggest difference, other than the amount of people and trucks that were rolling together at the same time.

From what I understand, you guys chose to headline the side stage rather than play the main stage, right?

That’s what I hear. I actually didn’t chime in on that one. But it was really cool because there’s something about going on first on the main stage. I would have been fine with it either way, but it was a lot of fun. It was a smaller stage, but we weren’t thinking like that and it really wasn’t all that different. It was still a concert to us.

I know Anthrax, and Scott Ian in particular, have worked with WWE in the past, but I don’t think you were in the band then. Do you know if we might hear Anthrax in WWE again anytime soon?

From Mars to Canada to Europe, Joey Belladonna (left) and Anthrax are thrashing throughout the galaxy (photo by Matthew Rodgers)

No, I wasn’t around when they did that. But it would be nice to do some music for them. I don’t know if I’ll be getting in the ring, but I think just being part of that whole scene is cool and having some music involved with it would be really cool. I know a lot of people dig that stuff and [Chris] Jericho comes out to our shows all the time. And Triple H has used Motörhead’s music for a long time, and we have the same management. So, who knows?

Worship Music came out a year ago and it was your first album with the band since 1990’s Persistence of Time. Do you foresee yourself recording and touring with Anthrax again in the near future? Are you guys working on any new music yet?

Right now, we’re rolling and touring a lot. We don’t stop until December. We’re going to bring Testament and Death Angel out again for a third time in Canada in September and October. In November and December it will be us and Motörhead in Europe. But we’ve got some B-sides we’ve been rolling on, some more classic stuff. So we’re thinking of maybe doing an EP of B-sides. It’s still a tad bit early to be digging into any new stuff yet, and we’ve been so busy we need a little bit of downtime just to recharge. But I’m very excited to do something new once we have some time to sit with it. I’m sure there are some riffs in people’s package of ideas, but nothing collective yet.

For more information, go to www.anthrax.com.

Asking Alexandria puts its “Reckless” days in the past with upcoming album, tour

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The Ultimate Warrior has been known to say some pretty fucked up things. But when he gets in your face and says stuff like, “You want to be a fucking monster? Be it, body, mind and soul, every-fucking-thing. I saw that fucking belly. Rip that fucking gut into an eight pack. Look like a fucking god up there. LOOK LIKE THE FUCKING IMAGES THEY PUT ON THOSE T-SHIRTS! BE SOMETHING!,” it can be pretty intimidating. Especially when he also makes you do 50 push-ups and run around a parking lot with heavy chains draped around your neck. But in the case of Asking Alexandria front man Danny Worsnop, whose sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle appeared to be steering the band into oblivion just as last year’s aptly-titled Reckless & Relentless (as well as the Stepped Up and Scratched remix album) was released, it was clearly very motivating.

Having just finished this summer’s Mayhem Festival, Worsnop and his bandmates look to put the finishing touches on the band’s third album before heading to South America for a fall tour. Before all that, however, Wrestling with Pop Culture had an opportunity to talk to Worsnop about Asking Alexandria’s appearance on the pilot episode of The Warrior Show, the band’s use of electro and dubstep in its heavy metal sound, and the short film that shows the debauchery that led up to the band’s encounter with the Warrior.

Those cowboy boots you’re wearing look familiar. Aren’t those the same ones you have on in the pilot episode of The Warrior Show?

Yeah!

How did Asking Alexandria’s inclusion on that show come about?

It came about as an elaborate ploy to get me to lose weight, via my record label and the Warrior. I had gotten up to 210 pounds and it was their elaborate way of posing to me, “Danny, you’re going to be on a TV show.” I was like, “Hell yeah, I’m going to be on a TV show!” I didn’t realize at the time that it was just a ploy, but it worked.

It being the pilot episode, do you know what the status of the show is now?

I don’t. I haven’t seen him in a while because I’ve been on the road. I’m going to try to get together with him and find out.

How long ago was that episode recorded?

It was Nov. 10, the day before we recorded our live DVD, which was also never released.

The whole band was part of the show…

Yes, but it was very much targeted at me.

Have you taken the Warrior’s teachings with you since the show was recorded?

I’ve lost 30 pounds!

You were also chugging a bottle of wine at the beginning of that show…

And I’ve quit drinking since then and quit drugs. I’ve had a life turnaround, not directly because of the show. There was other stuff involved with the alcohol and drugs, but the weight loss can definitely be attributed to the Warrior and his show.

Your latest album came out last year, and a remix album came out around the same time that you were doing The Warrior Show.

We didn’t actually write any of it. It was all other artists’ takes on what we’ve written previously. We mentioned that we wanted to do it and people started approaching us. So we just selected the best ones and put them on the CD. I think they came out really well and the respective artists did a really good job of interpreting the music.

Your last album had hints of electronica to it, so I guess it lends itself to that kind of thing. Is that something you think you’ll continue developing as you record your next album?

We’re writing our new album right now and there hasn’t really been any of that yet. But I guess we’ll see, through the recording process, what comes out of it.

How far along are you with the new album?

I’m halfway through recording it. I’m recording the second half in September and it should be out in late November/beginning of December. We also have a short film called Through Sin + Self -Destruction available on iTunes. It consists of three songs and it’s a story about debauchery in Los Angeles. There’s talks of there being a full-length movie next year. It’s autobiographical, but not jumping on this trend that’s currently forming. It’s not for cinema release or anything, it’s just some insight into our story, which is very interesting. It’s a very, very long story, so the film is going to be about two hours long.

Given that you’ve worked with the Warrior now, have you guys ever been approached by other wrestlers who want to use your  music as their entrance themes or anything like that?

There were talks with WWE for a short time about us doing the opening credit music. That just kind of dwindled out, but I think that’s something I’d like to try and re-establish and go with. We’ve done some stuff in the MMA community, but not really much within the wrestling community, although I would like to. There are two fighters in England that use our music.

For more information, go to www.askingalexandriaofficial.com.

From SummerSlam to the Uproar Festival, Jericho rocks the ring and stage

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With the release of Fozzy‘s new Sin and Bones album on Tuesday, the band’s inclusion on the Uproar Festival tour starting tomorrow and his match against Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam on Sunday, it could easily be argued that Chris Jericho is the busiest man in the entertainment world right now. And that’s not even mentioning his weekly Rock of Jericho radio show, his best-selling books, his numerous TV appearances or his acting career. But for the next few months, Y2J’s focus will be on Fozzy, whose new album is above and beyond anything the band has previously released, proving that the satirical hair metal premise the band began with is long since gone. Before he hits the road for Uproar and challenges Ziggler at SummerSlam, Jericho takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture once again.

First of all, congratulations on the new Fozzy record. It’s definitely the band’s best album yet and it seems like I’m not the only one who feels that way.

Thanks, man. Yeah, it’s been totally cool to get a great response to a record we’ve spent so much time on. When it comes out and people say it’s your best work ever, give it ten out of ten and all this other sort of stuff, it’s a great reward for your psyche.

One of the things I really liked about it is has a darker feel to it, as well as a good bit of ’80s metal influence. From the Dexter-inspired “Dark Passenger” to Avenged Sevenfold‘s M. Shadows joining you on “Sandpaper,” how would you say that darker influence came about?

I had a bunch of lyrical ideas based around song titles, so I went backwards from there. Then when I finished all the lyrics, I realized there was kind of a dark tone to all of them. Rich [Ward, guitarist] had been writing a lot of riffs that were dark as well, so we decided we wanted to make a record similar to Metallica‘s Black Album, which was a very cohesive record that fit. Even though there was a lot of diversity on it, every song kind of lead into the next and had the same tone and vibe to it. That’s what we wanted with Sin and Bones, and I think we achieved that. There’s a lot of diversity on the record, but it all fits into the same mold and the vibe is more of a darker type of tone.

I’m a big fan of Dexter and I just loved the concept of the Dark Passenger that he talked about. I don’t know if the song is about Dexter per se, but it’s definitely the same vibe, having this Dark Passenger inside that caused him to commit these unspeakable acts. I get a lot of ideas from TV and those type of things. I wrote another song called “Walk Amongst the Dead” that’s an iTunes B-side that’s based on The Walking Dead, a zombie type of thing. But it didn’t start out that way. I was thinking about Anthrax‘s Among the Living and I thought, “What about ‘Among the Dead’?” Then, “What about, ‘Walk Amongst the Dead’?” Then I started writing it and was like, “Wait a minute. This totally should be about zombies, so I’ll go there.”

But all my lyrics were based around the song titles. The song title “Spider in My Mouth,” I read that in a Stephen King book years ago and had the thought process of, “What would it be like if somebody woke up with a spider in their mouth?” I thought it would be a cool song title, but it wasn’t really about waking up with a spider in my mouth. It started there and went from there.

You’ve clearly always been inspired by ’80s metal singers, but your singing on this album is much more accomplished than on previous Fozzy albums. Did you take vocal lessons before recording this album? Were there particular singers you drew inspiration from on Sin and Bones?

I took singing lessons a few years ago, but not recently. I’m not just inspired by ’80s singers. I like Bruce Dickinson, but I’m also a big fan of Matt Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold. But I’m not trying to emulate anyone in particular because everyone has his own voice and I don’t want to sound like anyone else. I just open my mouth and sing and that’s the voice that comes out.

Fozzy started out as a fun thing for you and your friends in Stuck Mojo, but there have been some lineup changes since then. Aside from you and Rich, who else is in the band now?

The three guys that have been in the band the whole time are myself, Rich and Frank Fontsere, our drummer. Billy Grey, who was with us in 2002, rejoined the band for Chasing the Grail. Then we got Paul Di Leo on bass, who is just a monster player. You can hear how the bass has changed from Chasing the Grail to Sin and Bones since he’s become a primary element of the band. I think adding him to the band and his performance is one of the highlights of Sin and Bones as well.

As you’re in-ring dealings with Dolph Ziggler have heated up over the past few weeks leading into your match at SummerSlam this Sunday, we’ve seen you return to your Ayatollah of Rock ‘n’ Rolla persona. The timing is good since you’ll be touring with your rock ‘n’ roll band over the next few months. Was that a conscious thing or did that all happen by chance?

It just kind of happened organically. The fans decide what they want to see and over the last three or four months they’ve been really cheering for me. I had a good three-year run as a bad guy, but after a while what’s bad is good and people just started enjoying my work and cheering for me. So I decided to just go with it and not fight it. It’s good to be out on the road with Fozzy and have my character in WWE be a good guy. Even though I keep them completely separate, a lot of times when you’re the bad guy people think you’re an asshole all the time. So it’s nice to be a nice, fun guy for once after all these years of being a jerk.

You’re one of the few wrestlers who can successfully go from being a heel to getting the fans back on your side pretty quickly. Why do you think you’re able to do that when many wrestlers are either good or bad and can’t convince the fans they are capable of changing?

I’ve been wrestling for 22 years, so I just have the experience and know how to do it. There are subtle intricacies that you need to do to make both things work in different ways. But the experience makes it a lot easier.

When you made your WWE return several months ago, you debuted the latest in your wrestling ensemble, which is your elaborately lit jacket. Will we be seeing that at the Uproar Festival or is that reserved strictly for wrestling?

No, that’s only for wrestling. If I wore that on stage, I’d also have to wear tights and kneepads, and just wouldn’t look right.

There are a lot of other bands on this tour whose music has been used by WWE and other wrestling promotions. Are there any particular bands you’re looking forward to seeing and touring with?

I’m a big Shinedown fan. I love Papa Roach, so I’m excited to see those two bands and Godsmack, obviously. It’s going to be fun and we’re excited. We did a tour last year with Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine, which are two of my all-time favorite bands. But this one will be fun and it’s our first full-fledged coast-to-coast tour in the States and it’s one of the biggest tours of the summer. So to be part of it is huge for us and we’re excited. We’re ready to go out there and tear people’s heads off and be one of the best bands every night and be one of the most popular bands every night. That’s what our  mission is.

I interviewed Rick DeJesus from Adelitas Way a few days ago and he mentioned some comments you had made about his band on Twitter. Is there perhaps a friendly rivalry developing between the two bands?

No, I wasn’t saying anything about them. I just wanted more of the Twitter followers they had. I just said I wanted Fozzy to have more Twitter followers than Adelitas Way. And now we do, so there you go. I hope I didn’t hurt his feelings.

I think it just encouraged him to step things up on this tour. But this has been a big week for you. The album was released on Tuesday, the tour starts tomorrow and you’re wrestling Ziggler on Sunday at SummerSlam. Regardless of the outcome of that match, when do you think we might see you in the ring again? Do you have plans to keep touring after Uproar ends?

We’ve got tours booked all the way up until next March, so we have a busy schedule coming up. You can’t do both at the same time, so we’ll see. I’m sure I’ll come back to WWE at some point, but until then I’ll be on the road with Fozzy.

You wear many hats these days, and they all seem to fit equally well. But who would win in a fatal four-way between Jericho the wrestler, Jericho the rock star, Jericho the radio show host and Moongoose McQueen?

Well, Moongoose McQueen dies years ago, so he wouldn’t be much of a factor. So it would have to be a three-way draw.

For more information, go to www.fozzyrock.com.

Adelitas Way looks to start an Uproar this August and September

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Photo by Olaf Heine

The members of Adelitas Way come from Philadelphia, California, New York and West Virginia, but it was only appropriate that they came together in a city known for decadence and risk-taking. But with a willingness to take calculated risks in order to push the band to the next level of success, things definitely seem to be paying off for this Las Vegas quintet. The band’s anthemic party rock first broke into the mainstream when the song “Invincible” was used as the theme song for WWE Superstars show. The band went on to record “A New Day,” originally used by The Legacy, then by Ted DiBiase when that faction disbanded. The band has appeared on Raw, performed a pre-show concert at 2009’s The Bash pay-per-view and had its music included in WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, so Adelitas Way owes much of its success to WWE. But the work ethic and relentless touring schedule of singer Rick DeJesus and his crew haven’t hurt, as the band has performed with just about every big name in modern rock and has seen even more success with 2011’s Homeschool Valedictorian than it had with it’s self-titled 2009 debut. This Friday the band sets out on arguably its biggest tour to date as it performs on the main stage of Uproar Festival. As he prepares for this August/September jaunt, DeJesus talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about touring with Chris Jericho‘s Fozzy, the band’s post-Uproar plans and returning rock to its former splendor.

Many wrestling fans were introduced to Adelitas Way when WWE used the song “Invincible” as the them song to Superstars. Then you also worked with WWE on The Legacy’s entrance music and appeared on Raw. So your relationship with WWE is obviously a good one, but how has that affected the band when it comes to broadening your fanbase?

WWE has been great to us. We’re a young, hungry rock band and while people are shying away from rock bands, which is what we all grew up on and what everybody knows, WWE has welcomed new rock bands with open arms. That’s definitely helped widen our fanbase and all they want to do is help young bands out, let rock thrive and be badass, honestly. That’s one of my favorite things about WWE and WWE has been a great partner for us.

Have you done any new music for WWE aside from the stuff I just mentioned?

Photo by Kristian Dowling

We discussed doing some stuff like maybe collaborating on pay-per-views, but at the end of the day WWE is all about exposing new, fresh bands. They gave us a great opportunity to work with them and I’m sure we’ll do a lot more things with them, but I like that they’re using new bands and continuing to find new bands that the world can find out about. It’s not all about us all the time. I love the fact that they’re really trying to bring in new music and really trying to put rock out to America.

Adelitas Way is getting ready for the Uproar Festival, which begins this Friday and includes several other bands whose music has been used by WWE. Are there any particular bands you’re looking forward to touring with on Uproar?

Of course. We’re really good friends with Shinedown, Papa Roach is our homies, Aaron Lewis from Staind is a great guy, so I think it’s going to be the funnest thing to do from the summer into the fall. I can’t wait to get out there and start doing it because every day I’m going to wake up and do what I love to do and put on the best shows people have seen. I think Uproar is going to be a place for us to showcase what we’ve become, take it to the next level and show people we’re not messing around here. We’re going to put on one of the best live shows they’ve ever seen and I’m excited about it.

I’m particularly curious about Chris Jericho‘s band Fozzy. Have you seen Fozzy perform before? What do you anticipate from Jericho and his band on this tour?

Photo by John Shearer

For some reason, on Twitter and here and there, he comes after us a little bit. I wish nothing but the best for Chris Jericho and I love all his dreams and aspirations, and hope he does amazing on Uproar. I think when he sees what we do on Uproar, he’s going to show a little more respect to us as a band than he has been. He doesn’t now what’s about to come and he doesn’t know the pain that we bring. He’ll get a little taste of it on Uproar and hopefully we can be friends.

I wasn’t aware that he has tweeted about you. What kind of things has he been saying?

He thinks we’re some young amateur band, but I don’t think he knows what we’re about and I can’t wait to show him. I wake up every day to put on the best live show that people have seen. I practice and I work my ass off, so I look forward to the challenge. Chris threw a couple of tweets out trying to, I don’t know, I just saw a couple of things. I get that he’s trying to get more followers for what he’s doing and stuff like that. I don’t play the Twitter game often, but I do play the rock game and I’m ready to have him come out and see what we do. Hopefully he can get an understanding of how hard I work and how much I love to perform.

Your most recent album, Homeschool Valedictorian, has been out for more than a year now. Are you working on any new music to be released anytime soon?

I’m an artist, so I never stop working on new things. I wrote Homeschool Valedictorian right after our first record. I just write about my life and things that I’m going through, so I just continue to write. I never stopped writing after the first one and I never stopped writing after Homeschool was written. So I have a lot of the third record already put together and it’s going to be the best thing we’ve done. There’s a lot of things that are special off our last record, but I want people to know that we ain’t going nowhere and there are plenty more things to come. Everything gets better, better, better all the time. I want to raise the bar with every record, every show, everything, and I’m not fucking around, man. I’m not here to be lazy and not put the work in. The harder you work, the luckier you get. I’m working harder than anybody in the business right now, so I’m going to get real lucky soon. I’m just letting it be know we’re going to continue on this road. We’re going to put out a third record eventually and it’s going to be great. And we’re going to give the fans everything we have. I’m excited, man. I can’t explain to you the enthusiasm I have about the future of rock music in general. I love being part of this era because it’s coming back, man. I don’t know when the shift happened with the alternative and dubstep, but somewhere along the line people forgot that rock’s the real deal, and we’re going to take it back.

I’ve done numerous interviews lately that touch upon the fact that ’70s and ’80s style rock is seeing a resurgence, not only from the bands that were around then, but from newer bands that were influenced by those bands. 

Photo by Olaf Heine

I believe there’s a generation of stars in this era that just haven’t been tapped into like Pete [Loeffler] from Chevelle, Lzzy Hale form Halestorm, Brent Smith from Shinedown. There’s an era right now of rock stars that need to be role models, not these Jersey Shore people on TV or these bands that aren’t really playing or singing. I don’t know, it’s all about talent and soul. I grew up on rock ‘n’ roll and all I want to do is offer that influence on this generation because I know they haven’t had a chance to hear it. At the end of the day, you’ve got to make it undeniable. We get an opportunity to come out and rock, and rock radio gives us a lot of love, we get to play great shows, and we’ve done damage, man. But so far, everyone has said “no” to us. You try to get on late night TV and they don’t want a rock band. You try to get on MTV and they don’t want a rock band. They treat us like we’re the plague. They don’t want to put us on nothing. We get laughed at sometimes. But you know what? We’re doing it without all them. We’re going to make them have to play us. We’re going to make so much noise that they’re going to have to put us on that shit. I want to make it undeniable and the way you do that is by putting on something special. That’s what I plan on doing every night.

Do you have a particular time frame for the new album or any additional touring plans after Uproar?

No time frame, I just like to go with the flow and let things guide themselves. We’re doing Uproar, then touring with Creed, then we’re going out with Theory of a Deadman and we’re going to keep beating the doors down until everybody who thinks they don’t need rock on their shows or in their movies realizes they have to have it. When you make noise, people have to listen. We love to tour and playing live is one of my favorite things to do. But I want people to appreciate when we come to their town. I don’t want to come through too many times, but people are still trying to find out about is right now, so I will. So we’re going to keep riding the success of Homeschool Valedictorian, and I think there’s a lot left. Then we’ll take some time off and work as hard as we possibly can to try to make one of the best rock records to come out in the next couple of years with our third record. I think it’s gotten to the next level with Homeschool Valedictorian, and I want it to get even bigger moving forward.

For more information, go to www.adelitaswaymusic.net.

Dirtfedd gets down and dirty this weekend at Knotfest

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Discovered by Slipknot‘s M. Shawn Crahan in 2006, Lincoln, Neb.’s Dirtfedd has maintained a loyal Midwest following while gradually gaining more fans across the country. But the band’s biggest exposure came during this summer’s Mayhem Festival, headlined by Slipknot and featuring Dirtfedd on a smaller side stage during the day. The band, which complements its hardcore metal with keyboards and effects that provide a somewhat industrial/black metal feel, didn’t seem to mind getting down and dirty with the fans all summer, performing with more energy than some of the main stage acts. This Friday, Dirtfedd continues that mayhem with a performance at Iowa’s Knotfest alongside carnival rides and bands like Prong, the Urge, Serj Tankian, Machine Head, Lamb of God, Deftones and, of course, Slipknot. Dirtfedd will follow that up with a few more shows in Omaha and Lincoln before finishing up its new EP. Wrestling with Pop Culture recently caught up with bassist Scott Root and guitarist Eric Marshall, who had this to say.

A lot of people weren’t very familiar with Dirtfedd going into this year’s Mayhem Festival, myself included. I understand you released an album a few years ago, but what have you been working on recently?

Root: We have an album called The American Nightmare that was released in 2009 and produced by Shawn Crahan from Slipknot. We’re hoping to go back in the studio with Shawn because we have a lot of music written. We’d like to put out a five or six-song EP in early 2013, maybe spring.

How was the first album released? Was that an independent release or were you signed to a record label?

Marshall: Our first album came out on eOne Music, which used to be Koch Records, and it was just a one-album deal.

When you played the Mayhem Fest, you played the Sumerian Records Stage, which was basically a large tent. And your merch stand was the most punk rock/homemade-looking one there. Is that part of the band’s aesthetic or was it just done out of necessity?

Marshall: We came out with a small tent and realized we were the only band on the whole tour that didn’t have our name plastered all over our tent. So we went out and bought some spray paint and stencils and put our name on it.

I’ve heard more than once that this year’s Mayhem Festival was one of the most successful ones yet. How has that translated for Dirtfedd? Have you seen an influx of new fans or more traffic to your website or anything like that?

Root: It’s been awesome. Every single day there was a line of people that wanted to talk to us and ask us about our band and our music, and maybe pick up a T-shirt. These were all brand-new fresh faces for us, so we just played for as many people as we could, talked to as many people as we could and just tried to make it grow and get ourselves out there a little more.

Have you done any national tours previously or was Mayhem your first time?

Marshall: This is definitely our first fully national tour. We’ve done small stints here and there with DevilDriver and a small tour with Dope, which was our first official tour. And we did a few radio festivals with Slipknot and Korn a few years ago. But this was definitely the first full national tour we’ve done, and by far the biggest.

A lot of the bands you’ve shared the stage with have worked with WWE or otherwise professed their affinities for professional wrestling. Is that something Dirtfedd has ever done and, if not, would you be interested in providing entrance music or theme songs for wrestling?

Marshall: I think it would be awesome. I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to it.

Root: We’re always looking to try new things. Whatever we can do to get ourselves out there.

Marshall: Wrestling is one of the more extreme forms of entertainment and heavy metal and punk rock are the more extreme forms of music. So it’s kind of cool when those two things mesh together like that. We’ve had an amateur MMA fighter use our music. We have a song called “Trained to Kill” and one dude used it for his entrance music. That’s the only fighter I know of to use our music.