FOZZY / STUCK MOJO guitarist Rich Ward is featured in a new interview with EspyRock.com, conducted recently at Sonisphere UK. An excerpt is available below:

Q: When it comes down to the finer points after the material is recorded such as producing, that is always something that is done within the band whether it is yourself or Chris taking on the role as producer or combining so do you prefer that control and keep other people away from tweaking it and making a mess?

Ward: "I prefer to have complete control over the creative part of it and then when it comes to the mix I like to surround myself with some friends like Andy Sneap who is the best mixer and producer in the world in my opinion and I’ve worked with him on a million things but he stays so busy."

Q: As a unit now, is the band a lot more comfortable writing original material as of course Fozzy was a covers album and then Happenstance was a mix and it wasn’t until All That Remains that you tried to solidify yourself as an original band.

Ward: "Absolutely. I’ve always been comfortable in my own skin of who I am as an artist but when you write as a band you have to find who we all are when we come together because we know who Chris Jericho is and we know who Rich Ward is but what do they sound like when they are together. That’s when you make magic albums, when you capture the personalities of everyone and not make it just a John Lennon or a Paul McCartney record but a Beatles album when you have everyone come together to make that amazing record."

Q: When you look back at the first self-titled album, being that it was a covers album, could you see Fozzy ever getting to this stage with the fifth studio album in the works and it being the third full original album?

Ward: "I don’t think we ever looked past every gig [laughs]. Fozzy only started off as a collection of good friends making amazing music, playing our favourite covers and I don’t think we ever thought two minutes down the road and I think that’s why this band has been really great. It’s not contrived, there are no board meetings were we have like this idea; it just happens. The process is very organic and I think the best rock music is made when it’s just a stream of consciousness and it’s not this business model or business plan. ‘We should do this because this band is popular’, we’ve never said that, we just said ‘what do you want to do’ and we just let it happen and to me it has worked out great."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

As previously reported. Fozzy released the Remains Alive & Chasing The Grail two-CD set on July 1st via Edel Records. The tracklisting is as follows:

Disc 1

'Under Blackened Skies'

'Martyr No More'

'Grail'

'Broken Soul'

'Let The Madness Begin'

'Pray For Blood'

'New Day's Dawn'

'God Pounds His Nails'

'Watch Me Shine'

'Paraskavedekatriaphobia (Friday The 13th)'

'Revival'

'Wormwood'

Disc 2

'Nameless Faceless'

'Don't You Wish You Were Me'

'Daze Of The Week'

'Wanderlus'

'Crucify Yourself'

'End Of Days'

'Freewheel Burning'

'Eat The Rich'

'Ignition'

'Feel The Burn'

'With The Fire'

'To Kill A Stranger'

Rich Ward caught up with BraveWords.com recently and talked about the band's future: "We’re off to Europe in three weeks and the tour is selling great. It’s been one of those things for us, for a number of years, as we’ve talked about before. Fozzy has been at the mercy of Chris’ wrestling schedule, and I’ve always worked my projects, other projects, outside projects, around Fozzy, because I recognize that with so much limited time to allocate to the band, you know, working with Chris being my kind of creative partner in the band, I’ve always prioritized it, realizing that if I don’t prioritize it when he’s available, it just won’t happen. And so he’s now been off wrestling for several months now, but I think he’ll go back.”

Read the entire interview here.