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The Voice alum Cassadee Pope has spent the last decade making a name for herself in Nashville as one of country music’s most outspoken talents. Now, she’s explaining why she’s ready to leave the genre behind.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the “Take You Home” singer explained that she decided to return to her rock roots (Pope originally fronted the pop-punk band Hey Monday before appearing on The Voice season three) after experiencing significant backlash for speaking out against racism and transphobia in the country scene, specifically from other stars such as Morgan Wallen and Jason Aldean’s wife.
“I realize every genre has problematic people in it,” she said of her decision to leave country. “I’m not saying there’s not a frontman in a band who hasn’t been accused of something in rock music. But I guess rock is in my bones more. You’re not completely ostracized and shamed for speaking out.”
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When Wallen was caught on camera using a racial slur in 2021, Pope was one of many artists to speak out about the incident, saying she was “disgusted” and that his behavior “does NOT represent all of country music.” Looking back, though, Pope said she regretted the way she handled her response. “I was just another angry white person who just learned about racism,” she said. “If that were to have happened today, I would have had a different response.”
Pope spoke up again when country star Jason Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean, made a series of transphobic comments online, thanking her parents for not “changing her gender” after she experienced a “tomboy phase.” When the beauty influencer continued spreading dangerous misinformation, Pope called her out, saying, “You’d think celebs with beauty brands would see the positives in including LGBTQ+ people in their messaging. But instead here we are, hearing someone compare their ‘tomboy phase’ to someone wanting to transition.”
She would later be joined by fellow country star Maren Morris, who famously referred to Brittany Aldean as “insurrection Barbie” in her response.
The Voice winner told the publication that, unlike her Wallen comments, she never felt embarrassed with how she responded to the beauty influencer’s post. “In that moment, I felt so proud. I had no feeling of regret. I just kept my head down and kept going,” she said. “It’s only been the past few months that I’ve let my guard down in therapy and said, ‘Wait, I actually wasn’t OK.’ But I think that kind of comes with the territory of including activism in your life.”
Pope is not the only former country singer who decided to depart the genre. In September, Morris said that she would be stepping away from the country music industry after witnessing the rise in “misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic” messaging in the industry. “I’m trying to mature here and realize I can just walk away from the parts of this that no longer make me happy.”
In the wake of the nation’s 50th mass shooting so far this year, John Mellencamp says enough is enough. The singer issued an urgent statement on Friday (Feb. 16) just days after the killing of a popular Kansas City DJ/radio personality and the wounding of more than 20 people at Wednesday’s parade celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVIII win on Sunday.
“Excuse me for saying the obvious truth. I do so out of love for this country and the pain of learning, once again, that children have been killed by gun violence,” the longtime gun control advocate wrote in the note, which did not specifically mention the violence that marred the Chiefs celebration. “If we as a country want to find the collective will within ourselves to change our gun laws, let’s stop playing silly political games. Show the carnage on the news. Show the American people the dead children and others who have been struck down. Show us what guns and bullets can do to the human body.”
A popular Kansas City DJ and radio personality, Lisa Lopez-Galvan, 44, a married mother of two, was killed on Wednesday when unknown assailants opened fire near the end of the parade attended by a reported one million fans. Despite more than 800 officers on site to secure the route, the burst of gunfire killed Lopez-Galvan and injured 22 others, with half the victims under the age of 16.
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“The news media need to be brave enough to let Americans see what slaughtered children look like,” Mellencamp said, echoing the calls from many gun control advocates in the wake of the 2012 slaughter of 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, CT and the 2022 murder of 19 students aged 9-11 in Uvalde, TX. Shortly after the latter, the New York Times asked, “Would disseminating graphic images of the results of gun violence jolt the nation’s gridlocked leadership into action?” referring to intransigence from the political right to tighten gun laws to prevent future incidents.
While experts and photo editors struggle with the ethical quandary of whether showing graphic images of children killed by weapons of war — a majority of mass shootings employ military-style assault weapons with large magazines — might seem exploitative, or could move the needle toward tighter gun laws, the media often shies away from showing gory images. In both Uvalde and Sandy Hook, horrific images of the carnage were not released to the public.
The Times noted that other explicit, disturbing images the media has aired from the Holocaust and the Vietnam War to the current war in Ukraine and the 1955 image of a 14-year-old Emmett Till’s brutalized body after two white men beat, shot and dumped his body in a river have prompted public outcry and action.
Mellencamp, 72, said in his note that he recalled the shock and horror the nation felt when images of young soldiers killed in Vietnam began appearing on the nightly news. “When I was a teenager, there was a war in Vietnam,” he wrote. “In the beginning, no one paid much attention to this problem in a foreign land until the media shouldered the responsibility and showed America how our sons were being slaughtered. Once these images were shown on TV, there was overwhelming demand for that war to be ended immediately.”
The musician and father of five children added that as a dad and a human being “with deep empathy for the parents whose children had their lives ended so suddenly and so senselessly: Show America the carnage. I am not being callous, and I know it will be painful to see. But, sad to say, I think it’s the only way to shock America out of its stupor.”
Mellencamp released his 25th album, Orpheus Descending, last year, which included the anti-gun violence track “Hey God.” “Weapons and guns, are they really my rights?/ Laws written a long time ago/ No one could imagine the sight of so many dead on the floor,” he sings on the track, adding, “Hey, God, if you’re still there, would you please come down? We can’t take it anymore.“
The shooting at the Chiefs parade left at least nine children injured, with a spokesperson for Children’s Mercy Hospital telling WBAL that the 11 children being treated there — nine for gunshot wounds — were between 6-15 years old. The city has long struggled with high rates of gun violence, matching a record in 2023 with 182 homicides, most of which involved guns.
In the wake of the Chiefs parade shooting, Democrat Sen. Steve Roberts decried his state as having “some of the loosest gun laws” in the country, while Republican Sen. and gubernatorial candidate Bill Eigel tweeted what has become a consistent refrain from conservative politicians and Second Amendment defenders in the wake of the nation’s near-daily mass shooting incidents.
“To the liberal gun grabbers already trying to use this KC tragedy to push your radical gun control agenda, hear me now: NOT IN MISSOURI,” Eigel tweeted. “One good guy with a gun could have stopped the evil criminals who opened fire on the crowd immediately. Guns don’t kill people. Thugs and criminals kill people.”
See Mellencamp’s statement below.
At this point the only question might be: what genre can’t Post Malone tackle? The lanky rapper who began his career rhyming before pivoting back-and-forth between rock, pop and every combination in-between appears to be ready to fully take a country detour. After wowing the crowd at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas last weekend with his meditative take on “American The Beautiful” on acoustic guitar, Posty surprised fans again on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 15) with a brief snippet of a new collaboration with Luke Combs.
Smoke in hand, Malone energetically plays air drums and shakes his head as he sings along to a song that appears to be called “Ain’t Got a Guy For That.” At press time spokespeople for Malone and Combs had not returned Billboard‘s request for additional information on the song.
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In the brief snippet, Combs can be heard singing “No VIP up at MIT/ And they still won’t let me fly the time machine,” before Malone grabs the chorus, “She’s searching for someone good who’s gonna built it back/ Ain’t I ain’t got a guy for that/ Ain’t got a guy for that (x3).”
Combs posted a comment on the snippet, matching Posty’s beer emoji and adding a fire one, while Malone’s label, Republic Records, commented, “LFG [cowboy emoji]” and Republic’s relaunched Mercury Records added, “in your country era fs.” Over Super Bowl weekend, Combs posted a pic with Malone and Peyton Manning.
Malone has been dipping his toe into country lately, including making his first Country Airplay chart appearance last year on a “duet” version of Joe Diffie’s “Pickup Man”, which debuted at No. 54 just after Posty teamed up with Morgan Wallen and HARDY to play the song at the 2023 CMA Awards; the track will appear on HARDY’s upcoming Hixtape Vol. 3: Difftape, due out on March 29.
Speaking to Access Hollywood at the time, Malone teased his own country music project when asked if he has a country album in the works. “I think so… yes,” he said.
In addition to covering Brad Paisley’s “I’m Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin’ Song),” Malone has performed on stage with a number of other country stars, including Blake Shelton, Little Big Town and Darius Rucker and he has been pictured in the studio or in writing rooms with Paisley and Combs.
In a June 2022 visit to Howard Stern’s SiriusXm radio show, Malone first hinted that a country turn might be in the offing. “To be honest, there’s nothing stopping me from taking a camera or setting up in my studio in Utah and just recording a country album and me just putting it on f–king YouTube,” Malone said. “I’m allowed to do that… I split my time between a lot of different things because I am happily obligated to do concerts and show love to my fans … and then I’m happily obligated to write music and make beats by myself, and I’m happily obligated to, you know, take care of my family. So, it’s a lot of time, and it’s about finding that space to allot that time. If I get another year to myself, maybe I’ll make a f–-king country album.”
In the meantime, the Malone country era will continue on April 28 when he takes the stage at the Stagecoach Festival, which will also feature sets from headliners Morgan Wallen, Miranda Lambert and Eric Church, as well as Jelly Roll, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson & Family, Leon Bridges, Ernest, HARDY, Bailey Zimmerman and many more.
Watch Malone jam out to the Combs collab below.
It’s been almost four years since Lady Gaga dropped her Chromatica album. And while her Little Monsters have waited patiently while the singer played her Las Vegas residency and suited up to play Harley Quinn in the upcoming Joker: Folie à Deux sequel alongside Joaquin Phoenix, on Wednesday (Feb. 14) she gave them hope that new […]
02/15/2024
That 1984 compilation is essential, but let’s go deeper.
02/15/2024
Maren Morris sounds perfectly fine on her own on a cover of Billy Idol’s 1982 classic “Dancing With Myself.” The countrified, sultry take on the new wave rocker’s ode going it alone dropped on Thursday (Feb. 15), along with an appropriately one-woman music video shot inside Nashville’s iconic Grimey’s record store.
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As you might expect, Morris layers the original snarling rock tune with banjos, strummed acoustic guitars and her signature smoky vocals on the track produced by Gabe Simon (Noah Kahan, Lana Del Rey). In the visual, Morris dances her way through the aisles of the empty independent record store, pulling out pieces of vinyl and hoisting them over her head in between trips to a makeshift stage where she croons the song’s onanistic refrain into into a mic for an audience of none.
Morris, who finalized her divorce from husband Ryan Hurd earlier this month, told Yahoo! Entertainment that the song is a celebration of her single life. “I’m in this new slate in life and I want to sort of lean into the vulnerability of the lyrics, because when I was [writing] them down, I don’t know, it kind of struck this melancholic note and I feel like that’s such a relatable theme to singleness,” she said. [Being single] is fun and you’re really getting to know yourself, which is important because you are the longest relationship you’ll have in your life so you need to tend to that one. But there’s also, you know, moments of bittersweetness when you feel on those occasional nights a little lonely.”
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The singer said filming in Grimey’s was especially sweet because it’s located in East Nashville, which is where she lived when she first moved to town. “I just put my entire heart into not giving a s–t and dancing and looking stupid,” she said. “I felt really emotionally connected to the song. … I just was like, I am dancing with myself.”
After announcing last year that she was planning to “step back” from making country music — which she told the outlet was misinterpreted at the time — Morris said she’s in the “early creative stages” of writing her next album after going back to the drawing board on the project she was working on before the divorce. As for whether the album will be more pop than country, Morris said it’s “too early to tell.”
“Dancing” is Morris’ first new music since she dropped her two-song 2023 EP The Bridge. The singer will receive the Visionary Award for her commitment to speaking out about injustice at this year’s Billboard Women in Music Awards on March 6, where she will also perform.
Watch Morris’ video for “Dancing With Myself” below.
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Among the seminal albums celebrating momentous anniversaries this year is Tina Turner’s classic What’s Love Got to Do with It. Originally released on June 15, 1993, the soundtrack to the singer-songwriter’s biographical film by the same title is being repackaged in honor of its 30th anniversary. The brand-new special edition collection will be released on April 26 […]
It’s a good time to be Benson Boone.
The 21-year-old Washington-born singer-songwriter, who got some early exposure on American Idol and has since gained a following of nearly five million on TikTok, had scored a pair of Billboard Hot 100 hits early in the 2020s with the piano-led ballads “In the Stars” and “Ghost Town.” But for his latest single, the love song “Beautiful Things,” he added some power to his balladry, going electric with a mid-song guitar kick-in reminiscent of Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever.” The single immediately arrived not only as his own biggest hit, but one of the breakout songs of early 2024, debuting at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and jumping to No. 3 just two weeks later.
Now, Boone, who records for Night Street/Warner Records (signed by executive vp of A&R Jeff Sosnow to the latter label), is preparing to head out on his first U.S. headlining tour as his smash single continues to climb the charts, even topping the Billboard Global 200 this week. And while his first two minor hits gave him a little taste of stardom — momentum which faded about as quickly as it appeared — this time, he says he’s not going to let this opening close again.
“I’m very prepared for this moment — and I haven’t been in the past,” Boone explains. “My two other songs that have done well — I wasn’t prepared for them. I teased them without even having the song fully ready. So much happened so fast, and looking back, I could’ve done a lot better at keeping that moment [going]. But this one, I’m ready. I’ve been ready for this one.”
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Below, Boone talks about the inspiration for his new signature hit, why he thinks the song has already taken him to a new level, and if those inevitable Eilish comparisons were something he had in mind while writing it.
You’ve had this song in the can for a little while now. Do you remember about when you first recorded it, first came up with the idea for it or anything like that?
I wrote it on my piano September 29th. I’d just moved to L.A., and I’d moved my grandma’s old piano up to my living room. I couldn’t sleep one night, and I didn’t know what to do, so I came downstairs and started playing the piano. That’s when I wrote the melodies for “Beautiful Things.” The next day I had a session, and I took it into the studio.
Were the lyrics inspired by any specific relationships in your life?
Yeah, it was inspired by a relationship that I had just gotten into — for the first time in my life, I felt like I was extremely out of control of the way this relationship would turn out. Meaning like, in the past, I feel like I’ve always known that I could be the one to end a relationship. This one felt very different. It was the first time that I’d really been actually, genuinely terrified to lose something.
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The song pivots sonically in the middle. Did you always conceive the two parts as one song, or did you figure out a way to bridge them together?
That night that I wrote it, I couldn’t figure out a chorus for the verse melody, so I moved on to a different idea. I actually wrote both of those ideas as separate songs. When I was in the studio, Jack [LaFrantz] — the guy I wrote it with — was the one who suggested [bridging them], because I showed him both of the ideas. He’s the one that suggested that we make it one [combined song].
The structure of the song did take a long time to figure out because we didn’t know if we should do it all slow, and then do one chorus at the end, or if we should do three choruses. It took us two weeks — after we had already built out production — to redo everything, and that’s where we finally cracked the code. I’m very happy with the way it turned out.
What gave you the confidence that the song could work in this format? Was it the sort of thing where you just heard it once and were like, “OK, this is gonna work”? Could you already start seeing in your head that that moment would sorta play on social media?
I think I knew after I heard the chorus with production that this could be a really big song. With teasing on social media, and with promoting your music, you never really know what’s gonna go. All I can do is try my best to push it. But I was really hoping this one would go, because I do love this song.
And outside of any TikTok video, it just feels like a big change for me — a change in the right direction, that’s more like my other music that will be coming out.
When I’ve been talking about the song with co-workers and friends, a lot of times the song that keeps coming up as a reference point for it is “Happier Than Ever” by Billie Eilish — another song that starts slow, has that big kick-in moment, and then ends on 10. Was that song something that you thought about at all?
I wasn’t really thinking about a particular song when I wrote this song. But that’s an incredible song, and I guess in ways, yeah, “Beautiful Things” has a structure sort of like that. It’s incredible to have songs that change very drastically from beginning to end. A lot of the songs that I’ve written in the past couple months have that — tempo changes and production changes, and everything picks up a little bit, or slows down a little bit. But yeah, I mean — Billie Eilish. That song’s incredible. So good.
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You said that this song is maybe a little more in line with music you have that’s coming out. Is that sort of a specifically guitar-oriented thing? Not many of your songs before this had such a prominent guitar sound to it, but this one is pretty rocking. How does that fit in with the rest of the stuff you have coming up?
A lot of my stuff in the past has been very piano-based. Obviously, I still have a lot of piano in my songs, but there definitely have been more heavier guitar songs, which I’m very happy about.
I love the guitar. But overall, since the last time I released music, my voice has been maturing a lot. My style has been changing just slightly. And I think the songs that I will be releasing in the next couple months are closer to what my future looks like for releasing music. I’m very excited.
Are you already envisioning what kind of a big moment “Beautiful Things” is going to be when you go out and play it on tour?
Yeah, I’ve thought a lot about that, like how cool it’ll be to sing that chorus with everyone. The night of the release I did a pop-up show in Utah — I announced it like an hour before, and a couple thousand people came. It was really awesome: I sung the song for them, and it was so incredible. To hear so many people that screamed that song with me, it’s pretty crazy.
Beyond the tour, is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to this year?
Man, all I’ve been thinking about is the tour, and I’ll be going some places that I’ve never been before. But after the tour, and after all the shows, I’m really looking forward to just being with my friends. I think we’re gonna go on a trip to Greece and have two weeks and just live my life.
A version of this story originally appeared in the Feb. 10, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Songs that were performed at and/or snagged wins at the 2024 Grammy Awards saw bumps in U.S. streams and sales toward the Billboard charts, resulting in multiple gains, re-entries and even debuts on the Feb. 17-dated tallies.
Perhaps no one benefited more from the Feb. 4 ceremony than Tracy Chapman, whose 1988 single “Fast Car,” as previously reported, returns to the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since October of that year, re-entering at No. 42. (Older songs are eligible to appear on Billboard’s multimetric charts if in the top half and with a meaningful reason for their re-entry.)
“Fast Car,” which was performed as a duet with Luke Combs during the broadcast, earned 6 million official U.S. streams Feb. 2-8, a boost of 153%, according to Luminate. It also accumulated 35,000 digital downloads, enough to send it to No. 1 on Digital Song Sales for the first time.
Gains for Chapman’s catalog weren’t limited to “Fast Car,” though. In all, on-demand streams of Chapman’s music totaled 13.5 million, a 217% jump from 4.3 million listens Jan. 26-Feb. 1.
She also racked up 50,000 total song sales, a 5,909% boost from 1,000 Jan. 26-Feb. 1.
Chapman’s next-best-performing song, “Give Me One Reason,” hops onto Digital Song Sales at No. 15 thanks to 7,000 downloads, up 3,544%. It also earned 2.6 million streams, a leap of 40%.
Chapman’s music dots the Rock Digital Song Sales ranking as well, in addition to the appearances of “Fast Car” (No. 1) and “Give Me One Reason” (No. 3). Other entries include “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” (No. 7; 2,000 downloads, up 5,600%), “Baby Can I Hold You” (No. 9; 2,000 downloads, up 2,557%), “Stand By Me (Live From The Late Show With David Letterman)” (No. 10; 2,000, up 4,149%) and “The Promise” (No. 15; 1,000, up 2,740%).
As previously reported, Chapman’s self-titled 1988 debut returns to the Billboard 200 with 15,000 equivalent album units earned. The set also appears on Americana/Folk Albums and Top Rock & Alternative Albums at Nos. 4 and 13, respectively, and her Greatest Hits reaches the former at No. 16 (7,000 units).
Chapman’s original wasn’t the only version of “Fast Car” to see chart movement. Combs’ cover rebounds to the top 10 of the Hot 100, leaping 20-8 thanks to 13.6 million streams, a gain of 26%, plus 17,000 downloads, up 1,168%.
Toward the top of the Hot 100, SZA’s “Snooze” ranks as the top-performing song affiliated with the Grammys in terms of overall streams, jumping 10-5 on the strength of 16.6 million listens, up 29%. “Snooze,” which also garnered 3,000 downloads (up 285%), was performed during the ceremony and also won for best R&B song.
Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” a winner for a pair of awards (including record of the year) and another tune performed during the broadcast, returns to the Hot 100’s top 10, blasting 32-10 with 11.3 million streams (a jump of 51%) and 26,000 sold (rising 2,157%). It’s Cyrus’ first time in the top 10 with the song, an eight-week No. 1 in 2023, since August.
Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?,” represented on the broadcast during a performance as well as its win for song of the year, vaults 31-20 on the Hot 100 with 9.4 million streams, up 16%, and a 300% jump in downloads to 8,000.
Overall, 14 songs performed during the Grammy broadcast or pre-telecast (which was streamed via the Grammys’ YouTube page prior to the main broadcast) were part of the top 2,000 most streamed titles in the U.S. Feb. 2-8 and had at least a 5% bump in streams for the week.
Performed:
SZA, “Snooze” (16.6 million streams, up 29%)
Luke Combs, “Fast Car” (13.6 million streams, up 26%)
Miley Cyrus, “Flowers” (11.3 million streams, up 51%)
Billie Eilish, “What Was I Made For?” (9.4 million streams, up 16%)
Olivia Rodrigo, “Vampire” (9.4 million streams, up 14%)
SZA, “Kill Bill” (8.6 million streams, up 15%)
Travis Scott feat. Playboi Carti, “FE!N” (7.5 million streams, up 17%)
Dua Lipa, “Houdini” (7 million streams, up 8%)
Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car” (6 million streams, up 153%)
Travis Scott, “My Eyes” (5.9 million streams, up 11%)
Billy Joel, “Turn the Lights Back On” (4.5 million streams, up 340%)
Bill Withers, “Ain’t No Sunshine” (3.7 million streams, up 12%)*
Laufey, “From the Start” (3.7 million streams, up 5%)**
Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Proud Mary” (1.7 million streams, up 5%)***
*performed during the in memoriam segment by Jon Batiste**performed during the pre-telecast ***performed during the in memoriam segment by Fantasia
Of note, Billy Joel’s “Turn the Lights Back On” was also amid its first full week of availability after having been released Feb. 1.
Six songs that won awards during the main ceremony or premiere ceremony were within the top 2,000 songs in U.S. streams Feb. 2-8 and were also up at least 5%.
Won:
SZA, “Snooze” (16.6 million streams, up 29%) (best R&B song)
Miley Cyrus, “Flowers” (11.3 million streams, up 51%) (record of the year, best pop solo performance)
Billie Eilish, “What Was I Made For?” (9.4 million streams, up 16%) (song of the year, best song written for visual media)
Boygenius, “Not Strong Enough” (2.6 million streams, up 45%) (best rock performance, best rock song)
SZA feat. Phoebe Bridgers, “Ghost in the Machine” (2.4 million streams, up 36%) (best pop duo/group performance)
Killer Mike & Andre 3000 feat. Future & Erykah Badu, “Scientists & Engineers” (2.2 million streams, up 773%) (best rap performance, best rap song)
Though she didn’t make the Hot 100, Joni Mitchell sports a sizable boost in streams and sales of her catalog after she appeared during the broadcast to perform “Both Sides Now,” flanked by Brandi Carlile, Allison Russell, Lucius and more. The ‘60s classic returns to Digital Song Sales at No. 10 via 9,000 downloads, a 3,507% leap. The song also accumulated 473,000 on-demand U.S. streams, up 213%.
Mitchell’s catalog soared 126% in overall on-demand U.S. streams, from 1.4 million Jan. 26-Feb. 1 to 3.1 million Feb. 2-8. In all, she garnered 14,000 downloads, a gain of 1,361%.
The Billboard 200 features multiple Grammy-related gains in addition to the aforementioned Chapman re-entry. SZA’s SOS, a winner for best progressive R&B album, leads the pack at No. 3 with 53,000 units, up 28%. Taylor Swift’s album of the year-winning Midnights, meanwhile, jumps 9-5 with 51,000 units, up 35%. The full rundown can be found here.
Wrestling star Chris Jericho’s hard-rock band, Fozzy, has released eight albums since 2000, including three consecutive sets from 2012 to 2017 that charted on the Billboard 200. (2014’s Do You Wanna Start a War fared best, peaking at No. 54.) Fozzy, which most recently released Boombox in 2022, regularly tours the United States, making radio station visits and doing other local promo along the way. Jericho spoke by phone from his Tampa, Fla., home.
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How important for you and Fozzy is the recognition that comes with chart hits?
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We never realized how important rock radio is to a band’s success until we started getting played on rock radio, and that started with “Judas,” back in 2018. We’ve had six Top 10 hits since on the mainstream rock charts. It really makes a difference for the band’s growth — people coming to the shows, the notoriety of the band. We’ve become a radio artist now. Every song we’ve released gets played across the country.
Do you go through all the radio promotion exercises, visiting stations across the country, or do you avoid it?
No, no, no, I don’t avoid anything. Any type of promotion that I can do, I’ll do it. If you put something out, you want to make sure people know it’s out there. You visit a radio station, they’re going to play your song more… It really is a long-term chess game with a lot of strategy involved.
When a Fozzy song hits the charts, how do you celebrate?
It’s always cool. But this is a business. We’re not playing rock star in Fozzy. If we hit No. 1, I’d celebrate, because that’s the highest you can get. “Judas” got to No. 5 and they’re playing it in football and hockey and wrestling stadiums around the world — but how can we do this for the next song? We’re always looking forward. It’s not like, “Wow, we’ve made it because we’re on the radio.” You make it when you get to the Shinedown or Van Halen level, when you’ve had 20 No. 1 songs.
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How much does your recognition as a wrestler help streaming and sales?
We’ve had to work twice as hard to gain people’s respect over the years, just because I’m in the band. But that’s changed, now, where I think Fozzy stands on its own. People aren’t playing our songs on the radio because I’m a wrestler, they’re playing our songs on the radio because people like them and we’re good. Once we got past that initial hump years ago, people look forward to hearing the new Fozzy tunes — they know it’s going to be perfect for radio, it’s going to be catchy, it’s going to be melodic, it’s going to be heavy.
What are you working on now?
Our Boombox record took about three years to make. We were calling it Chinese Fozzocracy because of the pandemic. You didn’t want to put out a record without being able to support it. We put the record out and three songs went Top 10, three more songs went over great live and the other three songs went to the Fozzy Dead Song Graveyard. And that was a shame, because all those songs were great. Now the idea is to do one song at a time. That way, every song gets a chance to live or die on its own.