Chris Jericho has made the most of his career as not only a professional wrestler but a musician and actor as well. Some defining moments of Jericho’s wrestling career were when he won both the WWE and World titles by defeating Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock on the same night. Jericho is now one of the biggest stars in the AEW (All Elite Wrestling) league.
Since 1999, Jericho has been the lead singer of heavy metal band Fozzy. The band is composed of lead guitarist Rich Ward, rhythm guitarist Billy Grey, bassist P.J. Farley, and drummer Grant Brooks have released 8 studio albums as of 2022 and plan to put out new singles soon.
The band adopted a satirical back-story that they moved to Japan to be huge rock stars, but the record label they signed with went out of business, leaving them stranded for 20 years, and subsequently, all their demos were snatched and recorded by other bands. The group’s most recent album, Boombox was released in 2022 after four years of working through the pandemic.
Jericho created his own party on the sea back in 2018 where he put together all of his favorite activities in one event. The 2025 Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager At Sea Cruise: Six on the Beach is coming back for its sixth voyage January 31 to February 4. The cruise will start in Miami, Florida and travel the seas to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
The cruise will feature live All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Ring of Honor (ROH) wrestling events, comedy shows, live podcasts, and live music. Fozzy will be playing during the sail away, pumping up guests for the event filled cruise.
We caught up with Chris Jericho and got to chat about events on his upcoming cruise, his favorite cruise moments with Fozzy, and his must pack items when travelling at sea.
Chris Jericho’s Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager At Sea Cruise currently has a few open cabins so there is still time to jump onboard this one of a kind vacation experience and rock out with your favorite wrestlers and artists.
What inspired you to do the first Chris Jericho Cruise?
I think it was in 2015, Fozzy got invited to play the KISS Cruise and probably about a day and a half in I was thinking, “Man, I could really do this with the wrestling slant.” What really kind of spurred me on it was that we were playing on the pool deck with Fozzy and I was like, this is crazy, how still it is and how solid it is. The amps aren’t moving side to side and the drums aren’t moving side to side. You could wrestle here. You could do a match on this and not have to worry.
My goal was to do wrestling on the ocean, not pull up somewhere on the side of an island and do it while you’re docked. I wanted to do it in the middle of the ocean. As soon as we got back, I called my manager, Mark Willis, and we started looking into it. It took about three years to get it all figured out and up and running. The hardest part was they had to figure out a way to secure the ring. If there was some kind of crazy storm with lots of waves, you couldn’t have the chance that the ring would move back and forth. We actually had to invent a sort of technology and apparatus that would prevent the ring from moving. Once we figured that out, we were ready to go.
So how has it evolved since the first cruise? Have you learned any lessons over the years?
Absolutely. I mean, the whole organization of it, how do you do it? We’ve been partnered with Sixthman who are the promoter of the cruise. On the first cruise, I lost a lot of money because you don’t really know what you’re doing.
I got a lot of good advice from Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons from their experiences on the KISS Cruise. I think at that point they had done maybe eight of them. Once the first one was on the books, I was able to make the changes that made it a better cruise all across the board.
When you do the first one, it’s more of an experiment to see how it’s going to work. The concept was a success. As long as the concept was a success and people were interested in going, then I knew that you could make it even more successful, more fun.
I’ve talked to several fans that have gone on your cruise and they have all had positive experiences. I’ve never spoken to anybody that had a bad one, so I think that says a lot about it.
Well, that’s cool to hear. I have heard that before quite a few times. I think the difference is that I wanted to make it not just wrestling, not just music, but everything that I’m interested in. We’ve got a lot of comedy on board. We’ve got the paranormal side of things on board and all the different activities and games. I wanted to make it kind of a barrage on your senses to where it’s almost like going to Disneyland. You almost can’t do everything and see everything that you want.
You really have to be present and be living in the moment and be a part of it. It really is non-stop from the moment you get on to the moment you get off. That’s one of the reasons why it’s very versatile. There’s a lot of diversity, and there’s just a lot to do. I didn’t make this for wrestling fans or for this type of fan, I just made it for anybody that likes to do fun stuff. I have a lot of people that say “We don’t even like wrestling, but we love the cruise.”
I ended up hiring Brad Williams, who’s one of the top stand-up comedians in the world today, because he’s a huge wrestling fan. He’s a good friend of mine. I have him book comedians that he thinks are going to fit the vibe of the cruise. You could come just for the comedy and have enough of that just to have fun. There really is something for everyone. I take great pride in that because it’s not easy to book this type of cruise. There’s a vibe to it as well. It’s all built around a good time. The reputation kind of precedes that at this point.
Do you have a favorite cruise moment from the past?
I think the favorite one every year is the sail away because Fozzy plays it every year. It really is kind of like the culmination of this year’s work. It’s the Chris Jericho Cruise. I’ll never overcharge myself, I’ll never rip myself off, and I’ll never not show up. I have a lot of work to do on the cruise. It’s usually anywhere from, I’d say, 16 to 24 shows and appearances over the course of the four days.
It’s not party time for me, it’s work time. But that’s okay, because that’s kind of what the concept of the cruise is. The sail away is the fun part. We work for almost a year putting this together, usually a month after the cruise is done. We’re booking the talent and putting together the lineup for the next cruise. I’m very hands on with this as you can tell.
I love it. I did the Jay and Silent Bob Cruise last year and Kevin Smith was everywhere ten times a day. Everybody on the boat appreciated that so much because they came for that.
Kevin and I discussed it when he was wanting to put together his cruise, and he took advice from me. People like seeing Kevin around on his cruise. They like seeing me on my cruise. I see every act. Everybody; even if it’s only 20 minutes of a certain act or whatever it is, I’ll make sure to check everybody out. I can at least see each band once.
In between my shows, it’s like, “What’s next?” I think people appreciate that you’re not just kind of sitting in your high tower ignoring everybody. A lot of people think when they first agree to go on the cruise, that you’re just going to be besieged and barraged by fans all the time. That’s not the case.
The more you’re out, the less people bother you. You take a couple pictures and sign autographs or whatever. That’s not a big deal. You really figure out what the people want from you, which isn’t a lot. They just want you to be involved. I like it anyway. That’s why I put together the lineup of everybody I want to see. That makes it pretty easy to be a part of all the festivities.
What are your must pack items for the cruise?
Costumes. We always have theme nights with fun costumes, so those are always a must. Other than that, you really don’t need a whole lot because everything’s on board. People don’t understand just how huge the boat is. It’s like a floating city. A lot of people are like, “Oh, I don’t like boats, man.” I’m like, “This isn’t really a boat. It’s more like a spaceship.” As long as you pack your costumes and pack your appetite for a good time, you’ll pretty much be all set for the Jericho Cruise.
When can we expect new music from Fozzy?
We are working on a couple new songs right now, and I think that’s kind of the way it’s going to be. From now on, we are just doing singles. I think the last record we did, Boombox, we worked on it throughout the pandemic took about 3 or 4 years to do. Then once you release it, you release three singles to the radio. You played three more live and then you got six songs basically that are just kind of lost in space.
We didn’t want to do that anymore. I think the way that people consume music is different now as well. I think song by song is the way to do it. Each song gets its focus and gets the spotlight and I think the next one is going to be ready to go in a few months.
Well we have something in common. I spent a lot of time in Japan at one point, and I lived on Lawson’s, and I read that you also love Lawson’s. What is your go to item in there?
I was a big Lawson Station guy when I was living there and touring there, which was the mid 90’s. I always loved the Pocari Sweat, which was a Lawson staple. It’s like a Gatorade type drink, but they’re very literal with it. I really went through a phase where I loved the chicken fingers. I’m not sure how much chicken was actually in there. But it tasted good at the time. I would always buy Tokyo Sports. I learned how to read Japanese when I was there, so Tokyo Sports would help me learn to read it. You could buy it there at Lawson’s.
You’ve traveled all over the world wrestling and doing music. Are there any hidden gyms or places you tell people to visit?
I mean, Japan is one of them, and not just Tokyo, because you want to get a sense of the whole country. There really is a whole style to that country. If you get the culture, you love it. If you don’t get the culture, it’s a very strange, weird place. I really like the UK, I love Scotland, I love Ireland, those are great countries. I was just in Vietnam last year, which was an amazing country. That was a lot of fun there. Traveling around Australia is awesome, you know, pretty much anywhere that I’ve been, you can find the good and the bad, but those ones are some of the standouts for me.
What’s your perfect day in Tampa?
Well, usually I’m in Tampa when I’m off the road. This has been a great time of year because all my kids are now home. The best thing about Christmas when you have kids is when they’re little and when they’re older because they all come home. It’s been a pretty good season just for that. I just like to relax. I do a lot of kickboxing when I’m home.
I love this place called the Wild Rover. It’s about 15 minutes from my house. It’s a little English pub and all they have there is cover bands, but not random cover bands. There will be a Phil Collins cover band, a Scorpions cover band, a Boston cover band, a U2 cover band. You’re like, “How are these bands making money? How is the Scorpions cover band making money?” and they’re f*cking awesome too. We always try to go there. Whenever I’m in town, I’ll call over there and see who’s playing that weekend and we’ll go buzz on over there.
If you ever do a retirement tour, who would you include?
I don’t know. I’m not really into that sort of idea, at least at this point in time. I’d have to deal with that when the time came. One way of doing it is the big grandiose farewell tour, and the other one is just doing a match and then just disappearing and no one ever sees you again. I kind of like that.