Talk Is Jericho Baby Talk Is Jericho Alright, welcome to Talk Is Jericho. It's the pod of Thunder and Rock and Roll and let's start things off as we do every Friday with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or Duff Macaegan and the Duff Macaegan joke of the week. Hey Chris Jericho, Duff Macaegan, you know I went to my butcher yesterday and he said for the first time he said, I'll bet you money, Duff, you can't reach to meet on the
top shop for the freezer in there. And I said, I can't do it, the stakes are too high. Thank you very much, everybody. I think the delivery is half the fun or all the fun with the Duff Macaegan joke of the week. Funny, funny stuff, Duff, we love you so much. It's all the fun as well with the legitimate Grammy Award winner on the show today. Guitars, Daron Malacchian from System Of A Down and Scars On Broadway makes his talk as
Jericho debut. He's also a huge wrestling fan, watches everything from WWE to New Japan. He's got a couple of favorite wrestlers he'll tell us about. He's also a hockey fanatic, a long time Edmonton Arleau's fan and is now a lovin' that lost Angela's Kings. He's gonna tell us what's up with System Of A Down, why they continue to tour just a little bit but not making any new music. But lucky for us, Daron is still recording new music
with his other band Scars On Broadway. We'll talk about their latest album, Dictator, and why it took years to come out. And you can actually see, check this out, both System Of A Down and Scars On Broadway. Next weekend, both bands are playing at the Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio. System on Friday, May 17th, and Scars On Broadway playing Sunday, May 19th. Systems also playing the Chicago Open Air Festival on Saturday, the 18th, so
it's a little weekend there of Daron. You can get tickets at SystemofADown.com or Scars on Broadway.com. Alright, so Daron Malachi and his coming up. And that's thanks, in part, to all the great talk as Jericho sponsors who make this podcast possible, including Arman Hammer's new Cloud Control Cat litter. Alright, my three cats, Mr. Mittens, Stickers and Indy are loving this new litter. I can tell because they aren't throwing it out
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more power to you. Alright, before we get to Daron, thanks to all of you for the great comments about the Simitar Song Sour Grape that I played for you on Wednesday. I actually got another long-aw Simitar Song to share for you. That was my high school band. If you want to hear more about it, take a listen to last week's TIJ episode School of Rock,
CJ's first bands. We had such a blast, me and Rich Ward, Frank Fonsore and Billy Gray from Foszy talking about our high school bands, being in our teens, learning how to play guitar and all the different songs that we recorded. We actually had songs Simitar did. Very more of a punk vibe. Rich said we kind of reminded us of the dead candies. That's totally kind of what we were into. And the reason why we had more of a punk feel is no one
could really sing at that point in time. So guys, we'll just shout into the ghetto blaster to the boombox as we were recording. So you'll hear the whole story of Simitar on high school of rock. We are three piece. I'm on bass, Kevin A. Hoff on guitar, Warren Rumble on drums, and special guest vocalist Curtis Feist. This is called Baby Psycho. Yeah. Baby Psycho went in and you're gonna hear it coming up right here right now. Simitar, Baby Psycho.
All right. This Baby Psycho recorded that I believe in about November of 86. Thanks to Kevin A. Hoff for dusting that off and sending it to me so I can play it for all of you. If you want to hear more Simitar songs, we do have some more. But I think we'll just stick with Baby Psycho and Sour grapes for now. This is the week of Simitar and is the week of
system of a down, the day of system of a down. Let's keep the rock and roll going with Darren Malacchi and from scars on Broadway and system of a down on talk is Jericho starting now. I can hear him. William Shatton is the water and headphones. I can hear you just fine. Yeah, you're right. William Shatton. We don't need headphones. But I'm here with Darren Malacchi and I got it. Yep. Which we were just talking about how people mispronounce
your name. Yeah, it's not Malacan. My actual name is Daron Malacchi. Because this is our Armenian. Yes. Yeah. So because the American pronunciation should be Darren. Yeah. Yeah, Darren. I get that too. It's a real last name is Irvin. But I get Irving Irvine. After while you just accepted it. I just never correct people. Whatever you call me, it every while. Yeah, only the real people know you real friends with your actual name.
My family calls me Daron. Okay. Because that's the proper. But you guys, you actually are from LA, right? Yeah. I was born in LA. Right. But you're the whole system of a down couple of them were born in Lebanon and Shabu, the bass player was born in Armenia. Now, it's interesting though. Like I've been to Iraq a few times. I was not the same country into Afghanistan a few times. Not really the most rock and roll areas of the world. They are
now. Have you seen it? Is there been an influx of? I hear about a lot of fans from Iran places where it's illegal to even play rock and roll music. And you know, you got these kids kind of that were inspired by us. Because you hit in underground scene somewhere in Saudi Arabia. Right. Or Iran or you know, because when you go, I was actually in Saudi Arabia last year, Saudi Arabia last year when you go that they don't round, man. I've never been there.
But I've heard. Like you said, you play music or you drink a glass of wine or it's punishable by literally death. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because you guys were the first rock band from that that are kind of well, that's our background. Yeah. There was no others. No, no, actually people would tell me when I was growing up that I had no chance to make it because who else that's Armenian ever made it in music. And is there is there actually worked against
us in the early club days too? Really? Yeah. Yeah. We saw a little bit of, you know, the dudes that were white who were getting signed before we were, I guess. I mean, we're considered white too. But you know, it's funny. I had living color on and they were time when they first started like in 87 or 86 that they went to things like to say Sony music. And they showed up there and then they sent them to the R&B floor. There was different. Yeah. And it was like, no, we're
rock bands. Stop rock band rock band. No way. I believe that back then. Once again, I'm sure you had the same type of, in a different way, in a different way. You know, we would have people directly tell us that like, you know, who's going to get you guys in the south, they don't even know what Armenians are. Or in places where the band became huge, you know, people would tell us that, people would just wouldn't get us because we're Armenian and we look different. And we sound
a different too, actually. See, that's the interesting thing. You sounded different. Like I had the, Stuart Copeland was on from the police and talking about how he grew up. It's not in Saudi Arabia, but it was somewhere like that. Maybe it was even Iraq. His dad was, I've heard that. Yeah. But he said that's where he got some of his rhythms were like they were reggae rhythms with it also the Eastern influence. And you listen to those police songs and there's a real feel to it.
Yeah. Because of that. And you guys had that as well. Yeah. I mean, it's not, I wasn't really planned. I mean, I write a huge amount of the music for a system of a down. I never really plan it that way. It just kind of, I grew up with the mix of Western music and Eastern music in my life as a kid. So just kind of naturally is like this mutation. That system sound is like this mutation of everything I've kind of grown up with in one, you know, you know, I was listening to the
Stars and Broadway, the dictator record and this, I think his songs is, is it can kill? Yeah. Very eloquently written. There's like a flute in the background or something. Yeah. It's got a very Middle Eastern part, Middle Eastern flavor to it. It's a very system of a down sounding type of vibe. Yeah. You'll get that from scars. You'll hear some similarities in the sound. And that's just because it kind of came from the same place. What does it say? Because you wrote a lot of the tunes.
As soon as I heard that, I was like, oh, that's totally right. But I was kind of expecting to hear from this record. Yeah. You know, when you guys started playing together though, was it in high school? Or were you kids? A little after high school. Serg is like eight years older than I am. So, so yeah, there was a little bit of an age difference. He was way out of high school. He had gone to school for business. I'm not sure he had planned his life going in the route that it did.
I was, I'm the youngest guy in the band. So I was, I was pretty much fresh out of high school when the band formed. And yeah, you know, I just started playing clubs by the time I was like 22, 23 years old. I was on the road. But this was what I'm asking is that it's interesting to me that you guys all flock together. Did you grow up in the same part of town? Well, there's a big Armenian community in LA. Gotcha. And, you know, just like Koreatown where there's a certain area
of the city where all the Armenian guys live. I mean, Glendale, Glendale has is kind of like that. Gotcha. You could say, but we don't, we didn't all come from Glendale. Okay. I lived in Glendale. Well, the rest of the guys kind of came from the valley area. Shavu actually came from like Burbank area. So the first time I heard you could you talk about how you played these kind of these strange rhythms in a way and all this stuff was when Chapsu, he came out. Yeah.
And to this day, I still use this as an example when, you know, you hear a band with a, with a single or something on those lines or with a record really go, there's no singles on this or the sounds so strange or radio programmers will probably never get this. I always go, do you think anybody got Chapsu, when it first came out? Like definitely the weirdest song that's now an iconic song in a lot of ways. But I can't imagine it's almost like a modern day bohemian
rhapsody to me. Oh, thank you. Yeah. That is so weird. But it's, you know what I mean? Like, what was it like when you guys first, I think the band was gaining a lot of momentum from our first record. Yeah. And we were on the Osfest and we were just touring really hard at that time. We opened the first slayer, Metallica. I mean, you know, so the band was gaining a lot of momentum. And we never did anything to conform to it. I mean, as you said, it's kind of a weird song to end
up on the radio. Sure. So I think they just, they kind of conform to us. They saw here as a band that's kind of gaining a lot of momentum, a lot of talk. And I think they just felt radio and MTV at that time. I felt like they felt like they needed to jump on it. And so it feels nice, you know, to not have to conform to them at the end of the day. And we've just, you know, and musically, I've just always written the songs that I've wanted to write and the styles that I've
wanted to write. Even system of a down doesn't have this like, I mean, we have a sound, but there's no rules. We have like softer songs, funny songs, serious songs, political politically driven songs. And so, you know, it's nice not to have any rules, you know, once again, we made the bohemian rap city comparison. It's a very queen style of band and that you could play all this very diverse type of styles, because no one really expects, you know, ACDC's not going to come out with
Chop Sui, because you would never expect that in order to want to hear it. If you guys, you don't to not have those rules with your songwriting, you have a definite sound because of it. Well, I mean, I feel different all the time. You know, I got different things going on in my life, or just different, we don't always wake up pissed. And we don't always wake up happy. And you know, so it's nice to express those moods and have fans that expect that from me and my writing,
too. So it's a nice freedom that I feel like I have as an artist. What year was your first record? 98. So it's interesting, because look at the thing, it's only 20 years ago, but think how much the business has changed since then. Everything's changed. Everything's changed. And it's interesting to me, because you said two things. It were very integral to an early band, a young band's development. One was MTV, which there was still kind of the last
drags of what MTV was. And there was CDs and CDs. Well, we were like, we caught the music business, the old style of what the music business was. I feel like we were the one of the last few bands that, right, sure, experienced that before, you know, all the streaming and everything. Did MTV was pretty influential and getting you guys to the next level? When they played Chop Sui, I remember I was in, I don't know where I was, but it was definitely not a neighborhood
that looked like they were into heavy metal. And so we were at the mall. And there was so many people recognizing me. All of a sudden, while I'm walking in the mall and that, and that was like the first time I'd experienced that, you know, and it was pretty much when MTV, yeah, when MTV played, it's, it's, it's, it's changed out because if you want to see a video, you just go on YouTube and watch it. But I think it's changed, but it's still ashamed to me that MTV
now is all reality shows and games shows and there's no music on it. Yeah. And I guess you could say, well, it's just not the way that things are anymore. But still, if I knew every Saturday night at eight was going to be, you know, the headbangers ball, I would still tune in and check it out because you said up for that. Yeah, of course, right? Yeah. Through all the air is eighties, nineies up to, to when it stopped. But yes, you can see all
videos on YouTube, but you have to search them. It was cool just to go and know for the next hour. Here's the block sometimes. I don't know what to search for. Right. You know, so I get, that's why I'm not big on the Netflix and stuff. I'm still a TV guy. Right. I watch a lot of wrestling. So the other one I was going to mention was you mentioned Osfest, which was huge and breaking
you guys disturbed. Sure. Those, a lot of men slip not slip not as well. They were we when when we graduated to the main stage, I remember slip not was this band that nobody heard of on the second on the second stage and they became like the big buzz and the big talk and yeah, man, a lot of bands broke out of the Osfest. It's I don't even think there are tours like that anymore that kind of do that. They had a couple of afters. There was uproar that Monster Energy was doing
and they had another one Mayhem tour thing. But Osfest was kind of the template to start it off. So when you guys started it, when you guys were first or second stage opening. Second stage band. Yeah. Some of the bands that were on the second stage were a couple of the bands that we were playing with in LA back in the day like incubus was on the second stage. I remember motorhead was closing the second stage. Yeah. We got to see some lemme and some interesting moments. Yeah.
He had a turquoise bus, an old eagle and he would sunbathe next to the bus in these turquoise like speedos. And it was just, you know, we get to see that all the time. He wore the Daisy dukes too. They were cut about the same. Those aren't even short slept. Yeah. There's no legs on them. Did you ever go drinking with Lemme at all? No. At that time, I was too shied even talked to anybody. I was just like, what the f***? I'm in like the, this is like a crazy dream that I'm in.
These are all the people I grew up idolizing and now I'm like on the same tour with them. And, you know, you'd go and have lunch and I'd end up having, I had lunch with once with motorhead drummer Mickey D. But he used to play for King Diamond back in the day. So I was like a huge King Diamond fan. So I sit there and talk about like the opening fill of them, you know, I'm just geek out, you know, and that kind of thing. It was just, it was like a dream come true.
It was the exact same thing for me. This is years ago. Dockin was opening for, I don't know, maybe poison or something, but it was the new revamped Don Dockin band where he had Mickey D was on the drums. And afterwards, I went to the rock club and all the chicks were gathered around Don Dockin and all the other good Mickey was in the corner. I was like, dude, I love King Diamond Man and he's like, oh, thanks a lot. Maybe the big chewing tobacco. We just talked about
King Diamond for 30 minutes. I got his autograph. And I say, yes. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. So, yeah, I was like being at summer camp with like all the bands that I grew up listening to in a lot of ways. And Ozzy was such a huge thing for me when I was a kid. And so, yeah, I was just crazy. Were you handpicked for that? It was your record company involved? Or was it a Sharon decision? I can't remember. Remember, we were kind of an up and coming hot band that I think a lot of
people wanted us on, you know, their festivals and shows at that time. And I can't remember who really put it together. I mean, we've we signed with Rick Rubin. And so Rick had a lot to do with us going out with Slayer in the early days. But I'm not sure how much he had to do it. How was that for Mix with Slayer? Because obviously notorious for having very hard fans to please. Yeah, it was interesting. In those days, I was a lot more like you could say punk glam. My little we had a lot
with the band. It had like a whole makeup kind of thing going on. Oh, really? Yeah. And early in the early days, it was like very theatrical with the makeup. And Slayer fans really weren't into that too much. And I remember we were in Poland opening up for Slayer. And there were like dudes in the front row with like SS flags and looking at me, like, cut my throat and just making signs at me. So I started like blowing kisses at them and making it worse. They started throwing coins.
And then the show like we just ended up getting booed. And I think Serge got hit in the head with a bagel or something. And we just cut our set short. But yeah, you know, and sometimes when they wouldn't do that, I would get in their face and kind of be like, you guys aren't cool enough Slayer fans because you're not booing us. I kind of get in their face and almost make them boo us.
Yeah, and make them boo us if they weren't doing anything. I was like that when you go when you're opening for a band, you get the one guy in the front row is got his arms crossed and looking at the ground and always try and get him. Why are you there? I know. Maybe they're for another band, but you don't have to just stand there like with the worst look on your face. Like at least like watch. It's the same. It's the same thing with people that like say bad things
on my Instagram page. Why are you on my Instagram page if you hate me so much? We played a festival in Spain just this the summer. And there's one of those festivities were two two stages are side by side. And there's a really good crowd for our set. And the next band was Dragon Force. They're on the next stage. So you got a whole good crowd here. And they're all just looking forward at the empty stage. I'm like, you guys can't go in there. You can at least look over here.
Yeah. Right. Like you hear it. Just like if something else just to kill time until they start. Like just give yourself something to do. Yeah. It was it was the same kind of stage thing that was going on in Mexico and scars plays, you know, earlier in the days. So, um, you know, we had the same people that were on that side. And then we had our fans on this side. And they were just like
some people were just not having it. You know, yeah. What are you going to do? You know what? You end up becoming some of those people you end up becoming there because I was sometimes I was that kid that was hard to impress. And some of the bands I didn't like it first ended up being my favorite bands later on. Right. So, you know, you never know those kids might become
huge fans. That's the beauty. Like you said, when you're opening for Slayer doing an auspester, whatever it may be, when you do your own show, you're preaching to the choir. Yeah. You can just bask in the glory of your own awesomeness. But when you go open for somebody or play a festival, you got something to prove. You got something to prove. Yeah. And if you get the crowd at the end of it, that's a almost a better feeling than having a sold out show where
you're headlining. Yeah. I have both of those worlds going right now. Exactly. Exactly. One last thing I wanted to say about auspester. I remember I was hanging out with Zach Wilde. And somehow Ozzy came and addressed him and talked about something. And you guys were on. I can't remember what year it was. You're right close to the top. Maybe right underneath Ozzy. Well, we had lined it one year. Ozzy wasn't even playing the auspester one year. And we
picked, yeah. And then someone was talking about like, he's actually a great band. I was like, yeah, great band. But the singer sounds like a fucking heavy metal Tazan man. I always try to imitate search with that hazy voice. Did you ever get a chance to see him at Ozzy? Yeah. As you rose the ladder. Yeah. I mean, when you back him and we made friends with his kids and Sharon. And it was just, I once went to
Ozzy's house for like a photo shoot. Yeah, I was really cool for a kid that grew up seeing the guy in my, I used to see Ozzy having dinner with my parents and me and my dreams when I was like seven. You would invite you. I want to talk about about scars on Broadway. And you mentioned we were talking with Dictator, how some of the songs have a very system of down feel as they should because you wrote them. Was
this ever meant to be any of these songs meant for system of a down? Well, I mean, if system was making a record, then there were, I'm sure a few tracks off that that I'm probably would have presented. The song, the first track off the album lives, we actually rehearsed as system of a down once, but we just never released a song as system of a down because I remember hearing a year ago, two years ago, system of down working on a new record. Well, just rumors. We, we, there
was nothing set in stone. Three of us were rehearsing together and Sarah wasn't involved in those rehearsals because it's you mentioned that you're playing the festival coming up in Chicago, Sonic, Temple or whatever. Yeah, whatever it's called. You guys Google it, but you're, you mentioned you're playing with both bands. Yeah. So you guys different days, different days, but you guys still do system of down gigs, but just no, no new music or anything like that being worked on. Yeah,
and you know, it's that's fine. You know, I think people, I'm not sure when rock and roll came out back in the day that people imagined people doing it when they're still like 75, 80 years old. And I don't know. I think some bands kind of last forever and people expect every band to be that way. And it's just not, not every band goes until they're, you know, dead, you know, system for us was a great thing that we did at that time. And we've all kind of changed and gone
in different directions. And that's okay too. And, you know, that's, that's just our story up until right now. You know, they're, I just don't feel like sometimes fans feel like they, like we have to keep doing system of a down, but I don't know. It's just, it feels like I, you know what I'm talking about. I think I think sometimes, and I used to be like this when I was a kid too, like Iron Maiden, like, oh, they must hang out all the time. Like Mattal
come us go like, like, like, those none of those bands hang out. That's all bunkies, Beatles movies, where they would like open four separate doors and they walk inside this all one big house. Like, you just live together and hang out together all the time. It's not the case. I mean, being in a band.
Most of the time, it's not the case. And I think because you have a band like the stones, like you mentioned at 75 still playing, that's unannomely because it's hard to keep a band together, especially original members, especially to alpha males, because every band has the two leaders. You know what I mean? So I understand what you're saying is that sometimes it runs its course. And
you could still continue, but it might only be a few years ago. I mean, how many of those bands that we grew up, I don't want to talk shit about bands, but a lot of them don't really put out great records anymore. And if they did, would people want to hear them? I don't think so. I think people just listen to the old stuff and love the old stuff on the most part. Right. And I don't know. I think the first five or six albums is usually the glory, yeah, the best work a band usually has,
you know, and that's kind of what we have. You know, for example, Pantera, for other reasons, you're never going to get another Pantera record again, but they have those five records. And that's what you got. You know, I went to kiss a couple times on this tour. And people are going nuts for it. They love it, but the complaint that I hear the most is that they play, and this is so ridiculous to me, because I'm an 80s kiss fan because that's when I got into. Okay.
I'm an all-era kiss fan, but they play Heavens on Fire. They play Psycho Circus. They play a song called Say Yeah. Those are the only three songs they play post 1983. And those are three songs that people are still complaining about. It's like, why do they do, you know, I stole your love, and they say they still have 20, five or history songs like off lick it up. It's a great album.
I agreed. To me, all those albums are great. I love all those songs, but my point is, even with the 20 songs set, 17 songs, basically from the early A's or 70s, the three ones that aren't still people complain about. And those are not new songs, but to the people in the crowd, but they're new songs. Yeah. So like you say, if if KISS can't even get away with this from album that's 25 years old, which chance you don't have to have love now, would you have, right?
Yeah, but you know, sometimes look, man, if Ozzy and Savas didn't go out and do their separate thing, you never had crazy train, you never had Barca at the moon, you never had so much great Ozzy stuff. Agreed. So, you know, sometimes it's a good thing that people go their own way. The Beatles. I mean, George Harrison had such amazing songs on his own after the Beatles. After the Beatles. Yeah. I always love the fact that the next record George puts out after
the Beatles spit is all things must pass a triple album. Yeah, all that stuff. All the songs are getting rejected, rejected, rejects. Okay, I'll do a triple. Yeah. And then they were great. They're a great music. It's a great record because there was a point in time when you guys weren't active at all with system of down like that. I don't know if you guys had just had been taking a hiatus or had
actually broken up since about 2010 or 11. We've been playing live every other year or so doing some kind of thing live, you know, because I remember we played download probably around that 11 in England and you think you guys were headlining it was a huge deal because around the same time rage gets the machine did a couple shows too. And those are the two bands kind of from the same era that I just appeared. It's because it's still a headlining festival band that you're in,
which is pretty cool. It's great. Yeah. I mean, I'm very lucky to have fans that still come out and want to hear the band and see the band. I mean, not longevity definitely is a rare thing in this business. So I'm very grateful for that, you know, especially without no any albums for so long. Right. Yeah. And our fans are still dedicated. I look out in the audience and I see a lot of young faces, people that were probably just born when we were coming out, you know. And so that's it feels
good. Yeah. So do you do a lot of touring with scars on Broadway? Not crazy endless touring, but I mean, we just did a tour of the West Coast. We finished it off in LA. We did like a five show kind of tour. What words you play in LA at the will turn? Okay. So it's a good theater. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, man, I mean, if I can get in front of a thousand kids, two thousand, that's great for me. Yeah. And so you have a fan base that falls you down and out of scars. I brought
a lot of people that, you know, there's some people that hate scars because it's not system. And then you have a lot of people that know that I'm like the main writer of systems. So they kind of, you know, follow scars as well. So, you know, obviously scars doesn't have the following that systems, but I'm not really, it's not a competition thing for me. I mean, I have songs. I'm not just going to systems not really getting together and getting on the same page. So I'm not
just going to sit there and wait around. I've got so much material to put out. So it's hard to do that too. Well, I have done that. I've just kind of sat and waited to see what's happening with system for like 10 years. That the scars album, you're taught dictator. I wrote and recorded that album in 2012 and held on to it. Wow. Yeah. Thinking that some of those songs might go with the system. Yeah. That's amazing. I just kind of, I was pretty, to me, system is always the home ship. So I was
kind of putting that, you know, first, the, the mothership comes first. So I was like, oh, if they're gonna, we might need these songs. So I kind of just waited and waited till we just weren't coming to a, you know, an agreement and getting on the same page. So I was like, you know, what man? I've been hanging on that record forever. I'm putting it out already and I'm glad I did. A lot of people seem to dig it. So. And did you play and record all the, oh, I played everything on
that one? Like a prince type of. Yeah. I guess that's, that's, that's really cool. So, so tell me some of the instruments that obviously got guitar based in drums. But what was, was it a flute that I heard in that one? No, it was actually a keyboard, but it kind of a wind instrument. So you play all of those instruments. Yeah. You're like a, like a virtuoso. Yeah. When I'm writing songs, I kind of hear everything happening in my head with the rest of the band, vocally drums, bass, everything's
kind of the end product is in my head. So, um, and, you know, I just go in and record it. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it that way on the next scars record, though I've got a really good band with great music. It's hard to find a band to play those songs after you've recorded them. I got really good musicians playing in the band and I have a, I have a way of explaining the feel. It's, it's not necessarily the notes or the technical stuff. It's, it's the feel that is the toughest
to capture. So I try to try to kind of, luckily I could play the drum so I go behind the kit and kind of show the feel of how I want the songs to move and stuff like that. So how was it being the lead singer live for the first time? Well, I was a lead singer before in system. I was a, before bands that I played in before I was always the lead singer. So in the system, it's kind of a co vocal. Yeah, you do a lot of singing on stage with the band. Yeah. And so it wasn't, it's not
that different. It's not foreign to me. It's actually singing and guitar to me or it's kind of like a package deal for me. I write songs while I'm playing the guitar and the vocals come out. Whether someone else sings or marising them, I write vocals while I'm playing guitar. So it kind of is it happens together? Like honest together. Yeah. When you, is it strange to, we mentioned how the record business has changed to where if you're talking about like toxicity or something like that,
sure, I don't know, would you say three million records? You sell a two million records? I don't know. Whatever it was. I used to tell them do not tell me. Oh, why is that? Yeah, I just thought it would get in the way of what was important to me, which was the material, the music, the writing. I just, I didn't want anything in my head. You're not the guy that's going to be put in the gold records on the wall or I put them up there. Actually, we want a Grammy and I never took that Grammy
out of the box like three years later. I was like, you know, what I should probably put that somewhere in the house, you know, it's so funny, right? Like, yeah, I would Grammy whatever. As you should, you should show the Grammy. Yeah. You know, some people, I just, I'm not one of those people that, you know, wanted to. I did a thing with Devon Towns and he did a record called Zoltan.
It's a concept record. I don't know if you know Devon at all. And I did one of the voices and one of the parts and the concept record and about six months later, he wanted Juno, which is a Canadian Grammy. I get this giant package at my house and you open up as a big, huge pyramid made of glass. It's a Juno that he had said to Chris chair. That's cool. Very cool. I put that up on the mantle. And my wife said, that's ugly. She took it down. It's like it's a Juno. You're from Canada. You
would think this is your from Canada, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is hilarious because I heard that you're a big oilors fan. I am. How do you, our meeting kid from LA become obsessed with the oil? When I was a kid, they were the great team. Yeah. And I would read about them in sports illustrated and 84 to 88. Yeah. I was like nine years old at that time. And so I was just like, that was the team to get behind that. Yeah. At that time. And just kind of stomachings fan too,
the from I got season seats for the King. So I got a lot of hockey games. Were you excited when Gretsky got traded to the Kings? No, I probably was the only disappointed person in Los Angeles at that time. But I always tell Kings fans though that they should have gotten Messier instead. And they would probably would have won a cup sooner. You just watched. Have you ever seen the 30 for 30 about that on ESPN? No. So you know the show 30 for 30. If you go on on demand, you'll see,
you got to see it's called Kings Road. It's the whole story about how Gretsky was traded. Yeah. Whole because Edmonton were like, well, never going to trade them. Never going to trade them. And then the owner started thinking about what he's going to get for it and say they're who was the coach was like, can't trade them or the GM. And it's like, you could trade a whole franchise for Gretsky. And it wouldn't be worth it. Yeah. And then it up selling them for $15 million.
I mean, it was good for hockey. Huge for hockey. That's my point. When you got teams in Arizona and San Jose, yeah, because of that. The duck. But coming to LA, which was a basically a hockey wasteland in a lot of ways, you made hockey really cool. Yeah. You know, so you collect Oilers memorabilia? I used to. But my living room has like all the coffee and curry and you know, all the greets I have these autographed jerseys. So and someone from the Oilers kind of came to my house
once and did like a thing. It's on YouTube, you know, about my living room because it was really decked out back in the day. I have all grant viewers masks. Oh wow. On my wall. I mean, not his original like replica of them, but um, yeah. Yeah. I just grew up loving sports, loving hockey. I mean, I've watched a lot of your matches. Yeah. A huge wrestling fan. How did you get into wrestling? Wrestling's been a part of something I've loved since I was a kid.
Like it's just always been there from the 80s, you know, early 80s era to now. I still, I still watch it. I still follow it. I really enjoyed your matches in Japan with Naito and evil. I like, I like those matches. Those are so you really watch a lot of wrestling. I do. Yeah. I do. Do you watch it on Access TV now or do you get that? That's where you see the new Japan stuff. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing because most people will say like wrestling in the movie Tom will run Smackdown,
but to go kind of deeper than that. No, I really appreciate what you guys do. I think, and it's like this crazy fantasy world that mixes with reality and it's it's I love sports and wrestling is like the only sport that kind of mixes art and sport with the acting and the characters and the creativity of that mixed with, you know, the actual things you guys doing the ring that when I was a kid, the track to me to wrestling was like my dad played actually dad actually played for the Kings,
the first. Oh really? First team 67 to 70 played. Oh wow. They played for the Rangers and the Blues and we used to watch hockey and then right after hockey, a W a wrestling came on, which is Nick Brockwinkel and early Helko. And I remember thinking like hockey's great, but everyone's the same. Like they'll wear the same jerseys and if they have Helmet, you can visit the faces, but those guys are like rock stars. Like I know each character like superheroes,
superheroes. I mean, I like the concept of a team sport, but I like that better. And so I was always attracted more to the show business element of wrestling and the characters of it rather than a group team. Yeah. Well, you're you're great at it. No, thanks. Have you ever gone to any of the matches here in town or I've caught a few raw. I went to a few raw. Did any of the guys ever come to see a system show or one of your shows?
I don't miss used to go to Os Festlals. I've never I've never met two men. I haven't met too many wrestlers. If any, you might be the first. Oh wow. Really? I don't I have never really met. So I think Stone Cole was at one of our shows once, but I never got to meet him. Someone told me he's a fan of the man. But the thing is like, like, I don't know. I'm sure you realize, but the system was huge in 98, 99. I remember this crazy as this sounds after 9, 11, we were stuck in Houston. We finally
were able to get out of there driving through the night listening to toxicity that week. I think we were like the number one record. Right. Yeah. That's the that's when toxicity came out right around that time. And it wasn't just shops who it was toxicity and it was aerials and all those two fans thought we were singing about aerials in the sky. Self-righteous suicide. Just different things, different things that were in the lyrics that fans were like,
oh, they're their profits. That's when I was like, down these people taking this band away. Seriously. It's interesting because that same week Slayer, God hates us all came out. That was very controversial. It was that week at all. And Dream Theater had a live in New York City where their logo was a heart surrounded in flames and superimposed over New York City. So the flames were burning the Twin Towers. They did take the Alamoff the shelves like total coincidence.
Yeah. Like you said, just at the exact time for that. Yeah. You know. An interesting time, man. Yeah. No kidding. Tell me about some of the other countries that you guys are really big in. Obviously, the combo system everywhere we go, man. We got we got fans everywhere. Brazil is like a really big one for us. Really? I mean, we had lined Rock and Rio. You had lined it. Yeah. That's like, I don't even know how many. 150,000. Yeah. There's like over 100 something thousand.
It's just a sea of people. And then when we get off the airplane, there's like crazy amount of fans waiting for us and not just Brazil and Chile. Like South America, man. The fans are like on a different level over there. When people ask me where the best crowds are, I have to give it to South America. They're just on another level. You always hear that. If you used to watch the home videos of like Iron Maiden, they have to put on disguises to walk the street.
Yeah. I mean, we need to go out the back way of the airport. They have us go out a whole different way because there's just so many fans waiting outside and it's kind of crazy. I'm at home. Nobody gives a shit who the hell I am. And then I get off an airplane and it's like the Beatles. That's because you live in LA. Yeah. That's the reason why, right? I like it this way. I don't really want that many fans outside.
Was that something that affected you when you guys started getting popular? Because you seem like a pretty cool, just kind of down-earth guy. I kind of became more to myself because of that. People always have this imagination of like, well, when I make it, I'm going to be like this, I'm going to have parties. I'm going to do it. And I had that imagination of what my life was going to be. And it totally, like I totally became the opposite of that. I became really zoned into my work.
You know, what the next record is going to be. And I just felt like I had to make the band evolve. And I just got focused on that more than, you know, I mean, I partied a bit, you know, when we were on tour. But when I was at home, I was just at home all the time, like a hermit. And yeah, and just kind of focused on working and trying to, you know. When I first started getting some notoriety here, when I started with WCW,
you actually even ECW. But then if anyone recognized you to be so happy, just that you were someone recognized with WCW, it was national TV. I always felt embarrassed in an airport, for example, if someone came to get a picture on an autograph or whatever, I felt embarrassed for the people who didn't, like I felt embarrassed at the people who didn't know who I was thinking, like, who the hell is this guy? Like feeling embarrassed. You know what I mean? Like, he was like, is this like, well,
when people come up to me, I'm probably more nervous than they are. You know, you got to understand, they come up to us because they've seen us in, they feel like they feel like they know us. Of course. Yeah. To me, they're just these complete strangers that are coming off the street and just kind of taking pictures with me. And I'm just, I kind of get like a little bit nervous.
And I always want to leave a good impression. You know, because, you know, you don't want to be the guy that's like, well, you know, I met Darren Locke in the other day and he was a clear asshole. Yeah. And that kind of gets around, you know. I'm like, I'm out with social media the advent of that, right? Yeah. So I, I just want them to kind of, you know, I'm trying to stay cool and kind of down to earth. And I mean, it really tries just
what I am. But you told me once you said, always give people their moment. He said, you'll never remember it, but they'll never forget it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's like the wisdom of Ronnie James, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true, man. They, they, and you know what? We're lucky to have them. You know, exactly, exactly. Yeah. Um, I was going to say when you were talking about when you, when you had these rock and roll dreams when you were a kid, who was like your heroes as a guitar
player? I always want to be a drummer. Oh, really wants to be a guitar player. That'll just happen by accident because my parents wouldn't buy me the drums because you can't turn them off. What a mum thing to say. Yeah. Um, but it was, you know, a lot of a lot of the heavy metal stuff that was going on in the 80s. We're in a heavier band. So we're in to more like the all of it. Her metal bands, all of it. I mean, um, in the early eight, I mean, I started collecting
records. And I was like four years old. So that was like 79 80. I started realizing that there's this thing. And then I'm really into it. And, um, you know, so at that time, it was like Maltese crew and deaf leopard. And then, but then when heavier bands came, I kind of gravitated to that like slayer and Metallica and all that stuff. But, um, but I mean, I liked all kinds of music too. Though I really loved Depeche mode and things like that as well. You know, it's crazy.
I like, you know, when I was in high school, I was the metal guy and my friend was the techno guy we called it. And he was Depeche mode and I was Metallica. But Depeche mode is so good, man. Yeah. It's like, grand-to-ran. Like, I used to hate them when I was in kid because I was like them. But now I just, the great. Yeah. The first two, the first grand-to-ran album was really great. Girls on film and planning all that stuff. It's really good. Yeah. I just,
if I liked something, I don't know. I was never ashamed. But, but I was, you know, the kid wearing the heavy metal t-shirts and stuff. Yeah. That was more of my identity. More the rock thing. Yeah. Because what we, if you're, if you're, if you're in the 80s, you weren't, you were your teenager in the 80s? No. In the 80s, I was still okay. So it's not like you're going down to the sunset strip in general, but I grew up in Hollywood. I knew it was going on. Okay. But I grew
up right off Hollywood around Santa Monica and Vine. So that's right in the area. Yeah. And we would drive by there. And as I grew up, I was always like looking at the sunset strip like one day, one day. You know, by the time you guys got going, the sunset strip was all gone. And we, I remember all the bands used to talk about like, man, we can cut this at the wrong time. We should have been doing this like just seven years ago. Maybe. Yeah. There's always a couple
bands like that that I was big into that scene. And I think it was like maybe 91 or 92. There was like a firehouse or a Cinderella or a trickster. It's like, if you guys were like five years earlier, you would have been huge, but just telling you. The thing is, those bands, that whole thing only lasts. It felt like forever at that time. But if you think about it, they were only big for
like four years. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It didn't really last that long. If you think about all music, though, if you look at grunge, for example, if you want whatever grunge is, and see, you know, bands like Alison Chains still can Pearl Jam, they still get out and play. I'm not sure that you can say that for too many of those bands, those bands from other. I think it's the same thing happens.
The top of the top cream of the crop, yes. You're Motley crew, Bon Jovi, sure. Grunge, Univana or Pearl Jam, but you have like all the mud honeys and you know, those type of bands, screaming trees. It kind of came and went within like two or three years. Same with what would you call whatever corn was? New metal. See, they always lumped us with that, but I never felt like we were a part of it. Right. But we did come out of that scene. So yeah, there's always a few bands,
I guess, that come out of the scene that maybe last. Like, you know, you could say you too, back in the day, came out when new wave. Do I sure? type of thing was going on. Their first couple albums had that sound to it. Yeah. When G&R had that kind of the more dirty or parametal sound, I think it's the bands. You know, I always wanted to evolve and expand the sound and take risks even, even though I didn't think I
was taking risks. I was just playing what I liked, but you know, I think the bands that kind of stuck with that same sound get clumped into that scene. Just like you two, you two kind of evolved away from all that stuff and did different records and stuff. And I think those are the bands that kind of survive it. Maybe. Well, you said it's the diversity. Yeah. I think a lot of it is a time frame too. Like because you came out in 98, for example, when new metal was the thing,
well, you're lumped in there by proxy. Like sound garden is not a grunge band. Yeah. They're basically black Sabbath circa, you know, 1994 because they came out of that time frame and from where they came from to Seattle. Cause it isn't corn from LA. Baker's field. So there you go. This is kind of the little you guys were from California. It's 1990. Yeah. Your new metal. Yeah. That was the scene that was happening at that time. A lot of the bands that came out of LA. They remember Cole Chamber.
They were around. They came with it. They were. Yeah. They were a band that we played with those times in LA. Incubis came out of that. We came out of that. Deftones came out of that. Right. So yeah, you know, we would look at band like Lincoln Park. Would you put them in that category? They came out of that as well. They were a little they came a little after like just slightly after us. They were like one of the I think they recall that they opened up for us.
Once at the whisk. I don't remember the show, but I remember Mike talking about that. That's a typical whiskey. There's like 18 bands opening up those days. Yeah. Free nights. On free nights. I remember there were at the rocks. Yeah. I think it was Tuesdays that were like free nights. And we'd always want to get on those shows because so many people show up because it was free. You get free. Yeah. Oh, I see. What about I saw when when Chester had his had the tribute show you played on that.
Yeah. Pretty tight with those guys. Yeah. You know, they're they're good friends. We did a song together. There's a song off their record. I can't remember the title of the record, but the song is called rebellion. So it was maybe like two or three years before Chester passed away. We went into the studio and so they wanted me to play on one of their songs that they had. And I was kind of like, well, I have I have this song you guys want. So that we ended up
playing a song that I wrote. And it's a cool experience, man. I you know, that whole thing with Chester was very surprising to me because he was anytime I saw him, he was just always a really up tempo guy. He actually made me feel better once when I was sitting in the dressing room, probably pissed off for whatever reason. And I remember the first time I met him, he walked into the dressing room and he really lifted my spirits. And so it was just kind of. Yeah,
it's kind of sad just to see things kind of go that way for him. People are really so hard. It can be to be on tour and on the road and it's really public. I mean, I'm not a fan of touring at all. I'm not a big party guy. I enjoy being on stage, but the rest of it I hate. I hate the traveling. I hate, you know, always changing where I'm at. I'm very home body guy. So yeah, I don't enjoy the touring part of it. And not just the touring, you know,
popularity, celebrity, you know, like I said, everyone takes it a different way. Everyone thinks it's going to be something and then when it ends up happening to them, you know, they they everyone reacts to it a different way. You know, that's why bands end up kind of, you know, going their own way and splitting apart because you got four guys in the band, all of a sudden the band gets huge. Now you got four famous guys and each one of those dude
takes the the fame and it hits them in a totally different it's their ego. It hits everything in a whole totally different way and makes them a totally different person from when you started the band and nobody gave a shit, you know, that's a great point, man. Like you said, you have four people being pulled in different directions depending on how they're going to react to it.
Yeah, the fame, the fame is the craziest part of it. Yeah, the popularity, the fame, the the fans, one person getting more attention than the other person, these kinds of things and and then, you know, just, you know, it just causes friction between band members and then
I think it happens in every case to just some bands tend to stay together and some bands don't, you know, it's also like to like if you if you talk with somebody that got married when they're 18 and they're still married at 50 or they got divorced at 40, it's like your kids like you guys were hot, you know, 98, what are you 25 years old, 24 years old and whatever it may be,
you're still a kid, right? And as you get older, everyone grows in different ways. And that's once again, we're talking about even a band like you too that can have all four original members for 40 odd years. That's nothing to take lightly. That's incredible. They could do that. Yeah, they keep it together one way or another. Right. I mean, I don't know how, but yeah, yeah, different buses. Yeah, give me that secret. Yeah. I went to ZZ Top a couple of years
go Billy Gibbons as a big resting fan. Yeah. There's only three of those guys. All Rizzo, but do they take their own buses? They got their own dress rooms. They are hanging out as minimally as possible. Yeah. You know, and I can see that after all these years of doing it, right?
Yeah. And, you know, it's I think it starts when your early days, you know, you go on tour and you're on this tour bus and you're together all the time for years, you know, and I think, you know, you start getting a little bit of that cabin fever and, you know, that's when you kind of, when you have your chance, you kind of go your own way, you know, right? I think it's something when you're first start, it's cool. And maybe in your later years, it's cool, but in those middle years,
you're like, I can't stand being around this guy anymore. Yeah. Watching him eat a cheeseburger drives me crazy. See, I don't hate anybody in my band. Yeah. Yeah. It's not like that. You know, what? In our case, it's deaf. You know, a lot of people are like, well, creative differences. In our case, that's the truth. It really is a creative difference type of thing of where a few of us want to take the band and where someone wants to take the band in another way. You
know, and it's a creative difference thing. When it comes to happy holidays, Easter's, birthdays, you know, we're all, we're all still cool. We all consider each other like a family, you know, system of a down is a special thing. And it's us for. And, um, you know, yeah, like I said, in our case, there is none of that, like, I can't stand seeing the guy to hamburger. Are you talking about from a musical direction, a musical standpoint then?
Like you're saying that the one person wants to take the music in one way and one takes the music already talking about the concept of what the band is or how much the band works or, um, it's like system had a certain way of putting together the albums and the music. And I guess that was me writing and all that and producing the records along with Rick and, uh, you know, Serge wants to do things different ways. So we, and it's not just me that it's kind of three of us
that don't necessarily see eye to eye with where he would want to take the band. So that's kind of, yeah, that's kind of where a lot of people think it's just between me and him. And that's not really the case. The last two kiss records Paul Stanley said, I'm producing it. There's no outside writers. If you don't like it, we're not doing it. Obviously Paul's not going to tell Gene what to do, but if Gene didn't agree with it, they wouldn't have done new records. You know, I'm not sure if
they're happy about it or not, but for example, this guy's taking control. This is what we're doing either you agree or you don't agree. So like you said, it's all part of the chemistry of being in a band and the longevity. I wanted to ask you a couple of things before we wind down here. The song ATWA, time what Charles Manson. Very controversial figure just passed away this year. You feel that he was treated unfairly. It's just an interesting story to me.
Not necessarily. He was treated unfairly. It's just there's a certain side to him that I've never was ever interested in murders or anything like that with that thing. I just used to watch his parole hearings and things like that. And I found what he had to say. He just articulated his words and his message in a certain way that I thought was unique and interesting and made him original. And he was not a stupid guy at the end of the day.
Hell no, he's very mesmerizing. So that's the part of it that I found intriguing. I guess. I always found it interesting that he didn't. And once again, this is not standing up for Manson. It was sure for him that he never actually killed anybody. It was more on his mind games and my mental control over his minions. If that was the case, I'm not even sure that's the case. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was proven that he did kill someone. I'm sure I'll hear about it.
I don't know. I don't think he did. I think it was more of like, I think they caught him at the scene of one of the crimes. But for maybe because he was so crazy during his parole hearings, but for 60 years or whatever it was, it just seemed very much, I think it was reputation preceded him. Yeah, I think he just went along with it as time went on. I think he liked it. Yeah. I don't think he liked, I think he likes the attention as well. Right. It's interesting.
Yeah, but like I said, at the end of the day, I think people think I'm standing up for the murderer. No, no, no, no. Charles, you, you know, OJ Simpson did something really horrible. Right. But you can't take away that he was a badass, running back. So Manson to me, when it comes to his views on society and things like this, I, in a lot of ways agree with. And like I said, find interesting. But the murder side of it,
I, I, I, where do you draw the line? Cause I'm in the middle of it all the time with in Tomo Chris Benoit. You know, I did a whole show about him just to talk about his putting the murders aside. And this, these are people that I knew, including Chris, his work, forget about the last weekend of his life. I wanted to talk just about his brilliance in the ring, not taint to me that's separate. That's what I mean, you have to, to, to, to, to separate the two.
Yeah. People can't, and I understand the reason why, but I wanted to go on a limb and, and talk about his career, which I was involved in so many great matches with this guy, but was never able to really talk about it or, or think about it even. I think you can still respect him as a, as a wrestler and, and, and, or the contribution to wrestling and, and obviously, you'll never be able to, to, you know,
there's never be a hall of fame for Chris Benoit or anything like that. But, like you mentioned with OJ, like you can still go and say this run here with his touchdown from the, you know, 10 yard line in. Let's just take all of this other negativity aside and all the horrible things he did, and just focus on that as a really talented, you know, human being. It's just, to me, it's totally separate. Yeah. You know, it's one, it's totally different worlds. One is his,
work and his contribution to his craft. And the other is things he did outside of that. And, yeah, I guess it's, it's, it's, it's a real interesting topic to, to discuss. But last couple of things you mentioned, I know all the work that you did, all your records were made with Rick Rubin. Yeah. Another huge wrestling family. Yeah, he is. Yeah. What was it? We were at, we were sitting separately, but we were at the raw,
things always the front row. Yeah. It's funny. In 94, I worked for Smokey Mountain Wrestling, which was Jim Quartz. Yeah. And Rubin was the silent investor. Oh, really? I didn't know that. And I didn't know it either till about two or three years later, because Gikornet was always talking about the silent investor, the silent investor. Oh, I didn't know that. Who was Rubin? Yeah. One of the geniuses of producing, a lot of people have different thoughts about him. What did
you learn from him as a producer from working with him side by side? What was his style of producing? I guess it's what I'm, well, with us, he was really, I think Rick made me into a better songwriter. And his focus was always on the song and not necessarily technical musicianship. He taught me how to smooth out the drums. Like, you know, keep, drummers always want to play busy and put in the fills like how to keep it, how to keep something, you know, the groove and keep the beat, you know,
stay so he worked on that a lot. You know, he's not, he doesn't come in on the technical side of things. He's like a guy who you respect his opinion that kind of gives you an opinion on your song and you go back and try the changes that he, and sometimes he doesn't even give an opinion like, I'll come in and he'll be like fix it, which just means it's not done or something. So I would have
to go in and like, you know, figure out how to fix it. He was just going on a feel. Yeah. You know, and he's like I said, he's not really the knob twister and some people kind of have worked with him and came to me and we're like, what does he do? Because he'll kind of come in and he'll just like lay on the couch and he'll be on his phone and then he'll just like throw out like, play it again or some kind of something. And some people want someone more hands on. And for
me, he was just as hands on as I would have liked. Right. Because I had my own ideas of how I wanted things to sound as well. So he would just kind of, I felt like he would just kind of come in and his opinions would already make the, he wouldn't change the direction that I was going into, but he would make it better by just like a really tiny opinion, just a small little thing. For example, in BIOB, you know, the intro would start and we kind of saying, well, why do we always
send the poor? And then we go into the song. Well, that was his idea to say that before we went into the verse. And it was just like a tiny little thing like that that really changes, you know, when you give an opinion that's small like that in a two minute song, that makes a big, big impact to the song. And I used to get that with with Vince McMahon if I had an idea. And it would be like, I'd explain this idea and it would be all
set in stone and really good. And he would go, what if you just the equivalent of taking this Kleenex bottle? What if you take this Kleenex box and just moved it there? And you'd be like, my gosh, that just made it perfect. Yeah, like just one little thing. But you had the direction, but yeah, it's kind of, it's kind of the same, right? Same deal. Yeah. And I'm sorry, you one of those, I don't know, like everyone has Vince McMahon horror,
sorry, you one of those Vince haters or not. I mean, it's like you said, he's a boss, right? And you have to do what he basically wants you to do. But if you earn the trust, you get a lot of input and a lot of creative free. Now, sometimes you want to kill the guy, but yeah, that's just your boss, right? Yeah. Yeah, nothing to say bad about about Vincent Man at all.
Definitely helped me become a better performer. Yeah. You know, for things that he taught me and things that are the things that I shouldn't do because of things that I've learned from him as well. You know, I miss his commentating. He's still the best comment. He was one of the best. I mean, he's still one of the best comment, especially when you go back and listen, watch some of those old, siren in advance or something like that. Him and Jesse Ventura. Yeah.
Still the best, uh, uh, commentating team. Yeah. Ever. Yeah. Yeah. I liked Ventura's commentating. Yeah. Yeah. And those days. Yeah. Last few questions. Who's your favorite wrestler of all time? Uh, George the animal steel. No, no offense. George, yeah. You're up there. Oh, full thing. You're up there. What George is the fact that he turned buckles. He had a green Tom. Just great character. Mm hmm. Just fit. And uh, just when he came into the ring, it was just chaos. You'd just come
in with that. You believed. Yeah. Savage. Yeah. You, you, you bought it. When I, uh, when I drink too much, sometimes I'll smoke some cigarettes every morning, wake up with the green tongue. I always see the George animal. Yeah. I was smoking last night. Yeah. Yeah. But you believed in him. He had the commitment. Yeah. He, he, he was one of a kind. No one, no one kind of can, no one
can bite that like it's his, it's his thing. That was right. And at the time, you know, too, he was doing it at a, at a time that it was like, he stood out from the other wrestlers because of, of that. Like I said, you still brought a lot of chaos. Once he came into the, or everyone would clear out because he'd just eat the turmbuckle. Yeah. But you know, Legion of Doom, those guys were great in the, not as much in the WWF era, but like in the earlier.
Right. When they used to come out with Iron Man playing, I used to love that. That was the classic thing when, when you go to the WWE Vince has to turn you into his creation. Yeah. And all those guys when they came in, we're already made. They didn't need any adjustments, but that's not how it works when you go to that level, you know. Yeah. I see, I see the WWE has become more of a soap opera. But say when I watch New Japan, you kind of watch,
you watch the matches. The wrestling is just really on a, I feel like. It's very simple. The soap opera is that this guy's the champion. And this guy's the challenger. That's it. They don't need much more of a story than that, which creates more of a competition vibe rather than the soap opera vibe. Yeah. I mean, I like them both, but I watch them, I watch them both for different reasons. Right. Different reasons. Yeah. That makes sense. What's your favorite song to play
live with system? I don't know. That's a tough one. Who's it? Yeah. Yeah. There's, I mean, it's kind of like saying which one of your kids is like your favorite kid. Yeah. It's hard to say. What about from from scars on bruh? Same. Same. Same. There's not one that stands up for you, even on the record. No, not really. I can never, I can never, because they're, they're all kind of different from each other. And they just have different place in my life about different parts of
my life. I just can't really do scars. Gags. Do you play all scars songs? Yes. Except we did an acoustic show. And I threw in a couple of system songs like Lost in Hollywood and Lonely Day. But on the most part, when we do scars, we keep it to scars and system stay system. That's smart. Yeah. I mean, they're both totally different bands, different players. John was on the first scars on Broadway album as the drummer, but we still didn't play any system songs. I think it's
cool. I mean, I think if the day comes that I know system is just done, maybe I'll feel more comfortable playing, but since system still plays live and you know, it's still something that happens in a live way, then I, you know, just kind of keep them separate. Makes perfect sense. When Slash was doing the conspirators before Guns and Roses got together, he had six G&R songs in the set. Now when he does the conspirators, it's all conspirator stuff because if he wants to do
G&R, he'll do that with G&R. Yeah. Now he has the option to do that. Yeah. That's right. Last question for you. Who's your favorite Edmonton Euler of all time? It's not taken in. Wow. That I haven't answered. Dude, I grew up in Winnipeg, right? So the jets and the orders were like hated rivals. That's why I hated Gretzky when I was a teenager because he has the most points against the jets over any other team. He killed us a year after year, but Tickin and that son of a bitch was so
nasty. Yeah, he was a person. Such a little shit. You just wanted to reach out. But nobody can, nobody, they call him the shadow. They, he shadowed Gretzky. And Gretzky played against Tickin and he had horrible nights. Right. Yeah. And because Tickin would get under your, under your skin. Yeah. And but they had him assigned to just follow Gretzky wherever he went. He's the type of guy that you hate. Every team hates him unless he's on your team. And then you love him. He's got like
five rings, six rings. He's got a lot of us all the rings because he was there in 90. Like a messie, messy, teaking in. But he, I think he went after too as well. Maybe with another team. Cause he was got five. Yeah. I know Euler's got five. But after I feel like he's got more. We'll have to look to anybody that's listening. Talk to Jericho. Let us know and we'll fill in. Dude, it's great talking to you. Thanks. Thanks for having me. It's actually nice meeting you.
Yeah. Nice meeting you. I can't believe our past never crossed. And like I said, you're the first wrestler. I think I, well, I, I know Ronda Rousey, but I met her before she was a wrestler. Okay. When she was. Yeah. So there you go. Next time we have a show in L.A. With AW, you have to come check it out. Yeah. For sure. Let me know. It's a deal. You can play me to the ring. Hey, can I be like the manager, like the evil manager guy
that interferes in the matches? No, what you play. Kill the show on our TV. All right. Thanks to Darren Malakian doing double duty at the Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio next weekend. He plays Friday night with system of a down and Sunday night with scars on Broadway. Get your tickets at scars on Broadway.com and pick up the new scars. How dictate it, rocks. It's very system of a down. You can tell the majority of the music for that band. If you
like system, you like scars, you get a promise. You know what else you're going to dig? Chris Jericho's rock and wrestling rager at C part 2. Come and join us for the best vacation of your life when we set sail January 20th, 2020. I'm telling you right now we're 84% sold out and that's not bummed steer. That's the truth. So if you want to get your cabin, you better book soon. We're still eight months away. Only 16% availability left. Come hang with us.
Come hang with Rick Flair, the NWWWLF PAC, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, X-Pock, Jake the Snake Roberts, Booker T, Queen Sharmael MVP, Brad Williams is the host, Vicki Guerrero, Special Crews Director, Vicki and Eddie's daughter, Shaw is bringing her rock and roll burlesque
show, the Vodets, the whole crew is going to be there, the whole troop, Jack Slade, Special Crews, mascot and keeper of the ice, Solo Cup Jeff, Red Cup Jeff is going to be the bartender, Ted Irving is going to be there from the New York Rangers, Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson
doing 83 weeks live on the ship, Foszy playing three shows, Farewell Defeer playing Rubik's Cube, the 80s cover band, the best 80s cover band, the experience, Killer Queen, the greatest female queen cover band, the Dave Spivak project, Jared James Nichols, Kick Axe will be there,
DDP returning to host more live DDP yoga on the ship, beyond the darkness, host the more creepy paranormal events, Saratiana making you laugh, Bruce Jingles making you laugh, we get everything comedy, live podcasts, rock and roll, wrestling, everything you need, come join us,
christiericalcrews.com, it's the vacation of a lifetime, and if you want to see Foszy and the Crews you can, or if you want to see Foszy next weekend, next week, Greenville, South Carolina, the permanent on May 15th, May 16th, Greensboro, North Carolina at Cone Denham, both of those
that need a strolls joining us, May 17th, Virginia Beach at the Lunatic Blue Al, May 18th at the MMRBQ in Camden, New Jersey at the BB and T Pavilion, July 12th, Mansfield in Carceration, and don't forget about Enleashed in the West Foszy's West Coast run of September,
built around the Iron Maiden gig on the 14th, starting September 5th in Denver, Colorado, go check out all the gigs at FoszyRock.com, buy your tickets, buy your VIP packages, we play an exclusive private set just for you, hang out with you, we meet you, we greet you, go to FoszyRock.com and join us for the rock and roll show of your life, I'm going to say that,
and you know I mean it. All right, thank you so much next week here on the show, on Wednesday, Joe Bob Briggs, the greatest B-movie critic of our time, he's talking about the last drive in that's on Shutter, he's talking about the Joe Bob Briggs review system, I love Joe Bob Briggs,
I love B-movie's, if you love Baster Case, the Sleepway Camp and the Howling at all those movies, you're going to love Joe Bob Briggs and the last drive in, that's going to be the next Wednesday, right here on Talkers Jericho, in the meantime in the meantime have a great weekend, be safe, stay hard, stay hang great, stay wet and a big uh yeah boy, we'll be there. You're talking to television and television? You're talking to? Yeah.