Fozzy’s Chris Jericho Addresses Ozzy Osbourne Vocal Comparisons

tazz | May 26, 2022

In the past, people have apparently compared Chris Jericho‘s vocals to the legendary Ozzy Osbourne‘s. But the Fozzy frontman isn’t offended by the remarks — in fact, he considers it a compliment, and acknowledged that the similarities are partly due to his own higher vocal range.

“I’ve always had that in me. It’s not trying to sound like Ozzy, that’s my vocal range,” Jericho argued to PopCulture. “So there’s always been elements of it. As a matter of fact, on the Sin And Bones record, I said, ‘Let’s just fucking record a [Black] Sabbath song. Let me try and sound like Ozzy.’ And we did ‘Fairies Wear Boots.’ And if you listen to it, it’s, like, ‘Okay, now that’s Ozzy.’ So we’ve always had some of those elements.”

Jericho admitted that he even calls the chorus of Fozzy’s song “Nowhere to Run” the “Ozzy part,” because the vocal style is similar to that of Osbourne’s.

“And I think one of the reasons for that is when [guitarist] Rich Ward writes the melody line, or Johnny Andrews, our producer, who co-writes all the songs with us, they know what my wheelhouse is, and they know that there’s that high-end, I guess you’d say ‘Ozzy-esque’ style to it,” the singer continued.

“Some people sound like Steve Perry, some people sound like Bruce Dickinson, some people sound like [Paul] McCartney — I sound like Ozzy. So that’s kind of my wheelhouse… Which is cool — it’s fun to know that if you’re gonna be compared to somebody… Listen, people forget — Ozzy’s one of the greatest rock and roll singers of all time, so I’ll take that comparison any day of the week, man.”

See the interview below.

In regards to live vocals, Jericho has also affirmed his support for bands that use backing tracks while performing, as he believes they help enhance a song.

“It doesn’t mean we’re not singing and not playing. If you’re listening to a record, you go to a Def Leppard gig and you hear ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ that was recorded with 25 tracks of guitars, you can’t just go with two guitars on stage and in your right mind think there wasn’t something building up the background there,” the vocalist asserted.