Fozzy

Fozzy
Fozzy performing at the 2015 Festival of Friends
Background information
Also known as	Fozzy Osbourne
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Genres	Heavy metal, progressive metal, hard rock, alternative metal
Years active	1999 (1999)–present
Labels	Megaforce, Palm, Ash, Riot! Entertainment, Century Media
Associated acts	Stuck Mojo, Dangerous New Machine, Sick Speed, Adrenaline Mob, Walking With Kings, Avenged Sevenfold, Jeff Rouse, Alien Crime Syndicate, Duff McKagan's Loaded, CyberStar
Website	www.fozzyrock.com
Members	Chris Jericho Rich "The Duke" Ward Frank Fontsere Billy Grey Randy Drake
Past members	See: List of Fozzy band members

Fozzy is an American heavy metal band formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999 by lead singer Chris Jericho and guitarist Rich Ward. The band is currently signed to Century Media Records and has released two studio albums through this label. The band's current lineup consists of Chris Jericho, Rich Ward, Frank Fontsere, Billy Gray and Randy Drake. Jericho has characterized the band by saying: "If Metallica and Journey had a bastard child, it would be Fozzy." As of July 2014, the band has released six studio albums and one live album. Their first two albums consist of original material and cover songs, while their third, fourth, fifth and sixth albums consist of all original material, except for Sin and Bones & Do You Wanna Start A War which include covers of Black Sabbath's Faries Wear Boots & ABBA's SOS.

Fozzy started out 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. 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 front man 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.