Chris Jericho Underscores Pantera’s Influence, Says He Still Doesn’t ‘Get’ Nu-Metal
Chris Jericho, the pro wrestler and lead singer of the rock band Fozzy, said this week that he still doesn't "get" nu-metal, a name from the alt-metal subgenre combining heavy metal with elements of hip-hop and other genres that first emerged in the 1990s.
Rather, Jericho evidently preferred Pantera over other offerings from that time. Coincidentally, Pantera were recently reported to be reuniting.
"It was certainly an interesting period," Jericho mused to Metal Hammer on Friday (July 15) when asked about the rock music of the era.
"In the early part of the '90s, a lot of my wrestling career happened abroad, and the music was changing a lot in the States," he adds. "If it weren't for Pantera, there wouldn’t have been a metal band to hang your hat on."
The entertainer continues, "I could kinda get with grunge. But when it became the nu-metal thing, I just didn't get it. Limp Bizkit? What the hell is that? I still don't get it."
He recalls, "I was in places like Europe and Japan, though, where the bands I loved were still respected. You could still see Helloween and Dio and Maiden in arenas in Japan, for example. So I'm not sure in the early '90s I appreciated just how hard it was for metal bands in the States. It wasn't really until Avenged Sevenfold came along that I really found a newer metal band that I understood."
Fozzy's latest album, Boombox, is part of Louwire's Best Rock & Metal Albums of 2022 (So Far). Limp Bizkit's first album in 10 years, STILL SUCKS, arrived in 2021.