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?

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?

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. 

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.