By Jonathan Williams

With a hard rock sound somewhere between the party swagger and balladry of Mötley Crüe and the driving post-grunge of Stone Temple Pilots, Rev Theory has established itself as one of the top acts in today’s rock scene. The band has become a touring machine over the past few years, playing upwards of 200 shows a year and sharing the stage with the likes of Buckcherry, Avenged Sevenfold and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Having released its latest album Justice in February, Rev Theory is currently on the HardDrive Live Spring Fling tour with the likes of Saliva, Emphatic, Madam Adam and Seven Day Sonnet (followed by a few dates on the Uranium Tour 2011 with Black Label Society, Hourcast and Anchored).

Aside from its relentless touring schedule, Rev Theory has also benefited from its tag team-like partnership with WWE, which has not only used Rev Theory songs as official pay-per-view themes on a few occasions, but also enlisted the band to record “Voices,” which has been used at Randy Orton‘s entrance music for the past few years. With WWE choosing the title track from Justice as the official theme song of this Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view, guitarist Julien Jorgensen takes a moment to talk about the role WWE has played in the band’s success.

Rev Theory has established quite a relationship with WWE, having your music chosen as the official theme song of several pay-per-views and having Randy Orton use your music during his ring entrances. How did this relationship with WWE come about?

Yeah, we’ve had Randy Orton’s theme song for quite some time and I think that’s one of the most popular and celebrated theme songs in a long time. It’s done well for us. Then we did “Light It Up” for WrestleMania XXIV in 2008, and they used “Hell Yeah” for One Night Stand. This time around, for Friday night SmackDown, they licensed “Hangman” as a theme song along with Green Day, so they have two theme songs for that. So, yeah, it seems to be a very fruitful relationship. They just dig the music and we obviously like the exposure, so it works out great.

Our label and management created a relationship over there and Neil Lawi at WWE [vice president of music] has become a great friend of ours and a champion for our band and just took a liking to the music. And their musical director, Jim Johnston, who does all their music and is just a really talented guy, he really dug the band and liked what we were doing. Those two guys really seem to steer the ship as far as musical content for WWE. We went up and met them in Stamford, made a connection and they continue to support our band, and we continue to deliver.

Green Day’s “Know Your Enemy” is used during the opening of SmackDown, so do they use your song for commercials?

They use it for promo spots and throughout the actual show, when they come back from commercials I guess “Hangman” is featured. I guess it goes well with some of the highlight clips they show.

And you guys have also appeared on WWE shows and performed at a couple, right?

Yeah, we just did Monday night Raw. We didn’t perform this time around, but we were in the front row hanging out. We were also at WrestleMania back in 2008 and we also did another Monday night Raw where we did a skit with Jesse and Festus at the time, and they showed the band in the front row. And we’ve done a couple of other things, gone up to Stamford for a couple of interviews and we did a performance of “Voices” for Randy Orton outside at an event in Sacramento.

It seems like your career really took off as a result of WWE’s use of your music. Do you see a lot of crossover between WWE fans and your fans?

Absolutely. Growing up being wrestling fans, and going to the events now, it really is like being at a concert. You’re constantly entertained, there’s a huge light show and it’s like a huge concert with a lot of music, most of it rock based. They tour just like a band and a lot of their shows sell out. We’re seeing all of these fans spill over and they’re just rock fans that dig music and like coming out to shows. WWE fans definitely make up a lot of the fans in our audience.

When you guys write new music now, do you find yourselves writing songs specifically with WWE in mind? Do they ever ask you to write songs specifically for WWE?

We actually never have that in mind, which is the crazy thing. We just don’t think about that and we never have. We just write songs the way we want to write them and it just seems to fit for what they want to do. They dig it, it works and people are digging it. It’s funny, I guess. It’s one of those things where you don’t even try to do something but it just ends up working out a certain way. So we’re going to continue not to try and write music for them so they’ll continue to use it.

With Orton’s entrance music, was that a song you were already working on? Did you specifically want to do his theme music because you guys are fans of his or did WWE ask you to contribute to that song?

They came to us. We had already established a relationship with them and he’s such a big star in WWE that it was a great opportunity for us. Jim Johnston coordinates most of the theme songs, so it was his idea and he came to us. He sent us over a rough demo version of the song and we basically produced a demo version of it and did the vocals for it on the road based on what he wanted. Then Rich [Luzzi] laid the vocals down, we did some background vocals and we sent it back up to him and he did his finishing touches on it. So it was a collaborative thing between WWE and us, initiated by them.

Is there anyone else in particular you’d like to see using your music?

We really dig a lot of the guys. We’ve met a lot of the guys and guys like Triple H have been super cool. We’re actually friends with the Miz and he’s a super nice guy and is a real rock fan. He just got a good new theme song, but he was always complaining that his theme song wasn’t badass enough. They finally gave him one that’s pretty rocking, so he’s pretty happy now.

There’re a couple of guys we’d be happy to work with and do that for. But at the end of the day, Randy Orton is just a badass and he’s a super cool cat. I don’t think we could ask for having a theme song for a better guy.

You mentioned being a wrestling fan growing up. Did that kind of spectacle influence you as a musician and performer?

As far as being a kid, the music didn’t really stick with me other than maybe Hulk Hogan‘s “Real America.” Everybody had their own thing, but it was more about the characters and the show and basically being onstage. A lot of what they do is what performing is all about. A big rock show is not exactly like a WWE performance, but it’s similar: there are big lights, big music and all that stuff. The energy from the crowd is there and you only get one shot to do things. We realized that when we did Monday night Raw and the Rock came back after being retired for seven years. This guy gave a 20-minute sermon and it gave you chills. He was on point, he had his thing down and it was like he was performing a song up there. It was off the cuff, yet somewhat rehearsed, and he was performing, had one chance to do it and that type of feeling is similar to being onstage with a band.

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