Rich Ward: Let me tell you this, when other guys were growing up, playing in metal cover bands, I was playing in dance bands. I always swear that is what made me a cool groove guitar player is I grew up playing dance music. My right hand swings differently from a metal guitar player and I think that little thing has made me a little more unique. I’m not proud to say I played Howard Jones tracks, as in retrospect it’s not very metal, but it shaped who I am.

SB: Well, you do have a wider audience then other bands as you’re not, for example, straight thrash.

RW: That’s exactly right. It’s good that we’ve toured with bands like Testament who’ve got a straight thrash audience, because it’s interesting to see how they take to us.

SB: I mentioned Volbeat a moment ago. How do you think you’re going to combine, as some of their approach is almost old style rock and roll with a bit of punk and metal thrown in. How do you think you’ll go over with their crowds?

RW: We supported, Machine Head, Type O Negative, Life of Agony, Testament, Pantera, and every night we always won over because are willing to do whatever it took to win the crowd over. I think for that reason alone, I think Volbeat fans will dig us. I mean, I looked over into a Type O Negative crowd and saw two thousand Goth kids, and by the end of the set the fact that sixty percent of them were jumping up and down in a very non gothy way gave me hope that there is something to us, something that touches people.

SB: I’m a big fan, and I’ve followed your stuff for years

RW: That’s awesome, thanks for taking the time with me, it’s appreciated

SB: Strange question. I was at one of your shows a couple of years ago at Highbury Garage. You had Panic Cell, Fourway Kill, and Forever Never in support. You didn’t seem to be having a very good relationship with the press, and there didn’t seem to be any press there. You got up on stage and were talking about having some bad times with them. How are you being received now with the new album and line up?

RW: I actually regret that night. My motto has always been whatever your opinion is, is your opinion. What starts to bother me is when people start calling me a racist or a bigot. It starts to bother me because if you’re a journalist, and you can write things about me and my character that are completely false, once it’s in the written form, most people take it as the truth. In an interview, if a journalist says “Rich Ward is a redneck racist bastard”

SB: Which is obviously bullshit

RW: Yeah. I mean, anyone who knows me couldn’t disagree more.

SB: Take one look at a band shot on the album cover and it’s blatantly obvious.

RW: I know. It’s just I lost it that day when somebody showed me a review that had been done. The press like Kerrang had been good to us over the years. Why would I get mad about it. It was just me being a bit infantile about it. I’ll be honest with you. Sometimes, when you’re on tour and your career rests in the balance with how your record company works with you, how the press receives you. They control access to the band. Now everyone has a keyboard they can write stuff on their own websites. True mass coverage comes from a few magazines, a few radios shows, a few fanzines, a few of the bigger website zines, but it starts to get frustrating when somebody doesn’t like you for A, B, C or D reasons, they can go and insult you and assault you in the press. Like I said, I don’t agree with everyone’s politics. I don’t agree with everyone’s taste in music. I’m not so arrogant or disrespectful as to say “you’re wrong for liking that.” If you like punk rock, why should I tell you you’re wrong? If that’s the kind of music that you listen to and it makes you feel a special way, why would I be so arrogant to tell your music is shit? I mean, people go, “hey Pussycat Dolls are crap.” Well, they’re not crap to millions of people so who am I to say? I just try to do the best I can with my band and my music. That’s all I can do, and I find it a bit embarrassing when I had that day when I was pretty pissed off. Like I say, I probably should have taken my own advice and been a bit less judgemental. If that guy wants to call me names, then fine, it just makes him look little.

SB: Well considering from what was said about you, as somebody who’s followed the band it sounded like the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard and was said from a point of no information.

RW: I know, it’s almost as if he’d just heard about it from someone else and didn’t take any time to investigate it. I mean, word of mouth. It’s like someone said “I saw the band and the dude’s a redneck” and that’s the source for his reviews. I’m a proud redneck, but not for those reasons.

SB: There’s nothing wrong with being proud of where you’re from. Southern Pride is an excellent song.

RW: Yeah man. Everyone should have pride in where they come from, even if it’s a shit little dirt town. Come on, this is where you’re from, where your family raised you. Have a little integrity, a little dignity. It’s my town. If you move away because you have to, don’t be ashamed, we all come from some place.

SB: You’ve been through quite a few line up changes and a very major one is having a new front man. Last tour, here at the Underworld you knocked the headliners off the stage. Loads of people left and stopped watching them to go to the bar because you were there. How’s it going with the new album coming out? Have you got that same energy now that you had with the first album with the new line up?

RW: Oh yeah, it’s even better now. At the time, we hadn’t really sorted out a stable drumming position. We had a hired drummer who did an excellent job. When we came through, we had Steve, but he didn’t do the record. Southern Born Killers was done with a hired drummer. During the record it was a little different from the tour. Once we got Steve in the line up on tour, we said this is the band, let’s go crush the world. I don’t want it to be the Rich Ward project, it was never my intention, I’m just a hard worker. I’m constantly writing. I’ve got a protools setup in my bunk. I’m constantly working on stuff. If other guys aren’t working then their stuff is not on the record. I’m just excited about writing. I love that process of writing, producing and engineering. I love all aspects of being a musician. Sometimes, the other aspects of being a musician, the partying and the drinking and drugs and girls gets in the way of being a musician. So, by proxy, there has always been a bit of a disconnect in the past. There’s been those who work towards making the band work, and those that lived off the band’s success. Now we’ve got five guys who are like minded. We’re not a bunch of tea totallers who tell people to sit around and sip diet sprites you know. We live like anyone else. We’re a blue collar working man’s rock band. We go out and have a good time. We work hard on stage. We value the fan’s commitment. The go out and spend ten pounds or twelve pounds to get into a show, and we want them to leave knowing we respect that investment in us. We appreciate and love them.

SB: Is the writing being shared more on the new album?

RW: It is a little more. I still write the lion’s share just because I guess I’m fanatical and I’ll write nineteen songs in two weeks. I just have this wealth of material. Where it’s different now is that, whilst on ‘Declaration’ and ‘Southern Born Killers’ I wrote pretty much everything with some small contributions, now I wrote must everything, but there’s some more heavy handed contributions. There’s keyboards, additional guitars. Instead of the old days where bass follows guitar line there’s far more actual bass parts. Me and Lord Nelson, we actually wrote songs the opposite way. Lord Nelson wrote some vocals, I recorded them to a click, and then recorded entire songs to his vocals, the exact opposite to the usual way of write songs and then add vocals. Those are like very different sounding songs as we have a vocalist who comes from a very different style and vibe, and I wrote music to his written parts. It feels like a band.

SB: You mentioned more guitar parts. You’ve got a second guitarist now, does that let you concentrate more on your solos as works like ‘Open Season’ is a very complicated piece. I didn’t see how you could play it live with just one guitar.

RW: You can’t, you can’t. There’s actually four guitar parts in ‘Open Season,’ and you do the best you can with two guys, the best parts. I only play one guitar solo on the new album, and I let Mike (Martin) have two or three of the other ones. The other parts are more musical sections. There are solos, but not the shred. I do a lot of guitar melody lines, like I do on other albums like ‘Declaration’. I try not to say, there should be a guitar solo here. If it feels like there’s supposed to be one there, I put one there. I let a song develop naturally. I may think a solo would be good there, but if a vocal bridge is better then a guitar solo, I go with the vocal bridge. There are a lot of time when I could be an egotist and go “I must have a guitar solo because I can shred over anything”, but I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff on the new album. I spent many months putting together the new album, and not much of it was on guitars. It was on the textures and landscapes I was trying to create. Different loops and orchestral sounds, so it’s the album I’m most proud of from an artistic standpoint, but it’s not necessarily my finest guitar moment. That doesn’t mean that my guitar playing isn’t great on it, it’s just not a self indulgent guitar record. It’s a band record.

SB: You’re obviously a prolific writer, and you mentioned producing so many songs in a week. Does that mean we’re going to see more solo work like ‘My Kung Fu is Good’ coming out?

RW: You’re going to get a lot more of that style of that music peppered into the new Mojo stuff. The new Mojo album is more of a blend of all of the things that I have represented in other bands. Instead of trying to do a solo record, and a Mojo record, and Six Speed record, I took all of the things I love and put then in a giant melting pot. Instead of us punching you in the face for forty five minutes like you did with ‘Declaration of a Headhunter’ was, you saw with ‘Southern Born Killers’ there’s a lot more windy roads with that record. The new album, ‘The Great Revival’ there’s even more windy roads, more mountain peaks and valleys and curving excursions, and it’s got more diversions. It’s actually got the heaviest song I’ve ever written.

SB: Heavier then ‘Metal is Dead’?

RW: Yes, and the most mellow song I’ve written in my life is on this album. It is a true journey of sorts, and all my favourite bands were that way. Listen to a Queen album and it’s just brilliance from the whole emotional spectrum, from darkness, to aggressiveness, to hope, to sadness, it has it all. I think all great albums should be that way. It doesn’t mean that I think Slayer should write mellow songs. It’s just in my world, the prism that I see the world through has a lot of different colours and a lot of different emotions. I think, an artist, I shouldn’t use the word artist, I’m a musician, I’m not exactly Peter Gabriel you know. I’m a guitar play who has written a few records. For me, I want to emulate a few of my heroes. My heroes are Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour in Floyd and Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Bruce Dickenson and Devon Townsend, guys who do a massive spectrum of things. They are complex humans who don’t just have one emotion. Everyone thinks that metal dudes are just supposed to be tough dudes. It’s like my wife. It was her birthday yesterday, and I wasn’t with her and it would have been great to see her, but she’s not one of these crazy controlling types of wife. It’s not that she didn’t care, it would have been nice, you know. Then she told me that one of the dogs we have has got cancer, and I was so broke up about it, and this was an eight pound little dog that is my wife’s favourite and I was like broke up about it. I was thinking, if I’m a human, with a multiple range of emotions, so shouldn’t the art that I create encompass all of those things, or should I just pretend to be macho all the time. You know what I mean? I’m sure Tom Araya’s not pissed off and angry all the time. I’m sure he’s an affable guy and has a good time.

SB: Well he does come on stage with a big grin most of the time.

RW: I’m sure there’s moments when he’s really happy, and there’s moments when he’s really sad. For me I think the supporters of Mojo would be more open to that, whereas I don’t think Slayer fans would take so kindly to them doing acoustic songs. Maybe they would? It would be nice to think metal fans would allow artists to try new things. That’s what I love about Devin Townsend, he’s willing to try new things, he doesn’t care.

SB: I believe he’s just doing the producing side now isn’t he?

RW: He is, but even from The Ocean Machine, to Strapping, to the Townsend Band, to Ziltoid he’s a mad scientist and I have a lot of respect for that.

SB: You seem incredibly enthusiastic for the new line up and new album. Does that mean you’ll be concentrating purely on Mojo? Won’t there be a new Fozzy tour coming up?

RW: There might be some more Fozzy stuff coming up, but that’s because it’s a real fun thing to do. I think we know that because of Chris’s commitments to wrestling (WWE Champion and Fozzy singer Chris Jericho), and our commitment to Mojo, there’s times like you’re with your family all the time, but there’s a couple of times a year you get together with friends and go fishing. That’s what Fozzy is. I would never do a Fozzy record anything less then one hundred percent, so if we do another Fozzy record it will be bad ass, just like our performances, it will be one hundred percent over the top. But as far as the Fozzy thing, I think we have to just let it naturally unfold. When Chris has some time, and we have some time, we’ll do if for sure, but I don’t think The Duke will do another record. I think when you hear the new record, I may do a new Duke record, who knows, but for now, I’d like to focus on Mojo. Mojo’s my big dog, and my little dog that is raring to go is Fozzy. I think two big dogs at the fight is enough. It seems like it. Having more projects may dilute them. You can be prolific all day long, but I wasn’t touring in 2005, which is how I was able to put out a Duke record and a Fozzy record because I could stay home. But when you’re touring and trying to do two records a year, that’s a lot.

SB: Is it diluting, or does it give you a new energy when you come back to your main love, when you come back to Mojo?

RW: That’s the beauty of it. If you’re 100% honest and true to who you are in Mojo, the part of me that’s The Duke, the part of me that’s the music that I love, if I’m able to pepper Mojo with a bit of that seasoning, then I get the best of both worlds in one project.

SB: You’re certainly doing a good job from where I’m standing.

RW: Thank you man.

SB: People are always saying you are someone who comes across one hundred percent all the time. I’ve seen that on stage. Is that how you are all the time, as you’re straight forward and one hundred percent, even for me who’s just interviewing you?

RW: Yeah I find that being a miserable person is just not fun, it’s nothing that I want to do. Also, people say that joy is contagious. My mother always told me, if you want to be miserable, fine, but don’t bring the rest of us down. Nobody wants to be around a miserable sod. They want to be around people who exude energy, and I find I look at life as the half full, and the chance to do things and be a good husband and band mate. Whatever I’m doing at that moment, be it interviewee, give it one hundred percent for the people around you as you owe it to yourself.

SB: So you won’t be going Emo for the next record then?

RW: Well, the funny thing is I don’t know what Emo is. People talk about it. Is it just a hair cut? I don’t listen to a lot of new music so if I heard an Emo song I wouldn’t be able to tell you it’s Emo. That’s what happens when you listen to nothing but records from the 70’s and 80’s.

SB: You wouldn’t listen to any new stuff at all?

RW: Not really

SB: Forever Never’s got a new album coming out soon.

RW: That’s different, they’re my friends and I’ve got the new record. Renny already gave me a record. I listen to my friends bands as I want to support them. Occasionally someone plays a new band and I go, wow, that’s killer. But I’m not in the music store going through the bins looking for new music. If I happen to come across something new, that’s great. If not, I’m okay listening to my ten favourite albums. Every so often you come across new stuff. The first time I heard In Flames, I was like “yes”; the first time I heard Symphony X, “yes.” There’s a few bands that have crept in that I love. Alter Bridge, I love them. But there are so many bands putting out albums now. When I was a kid, you came across a record about once a month. Now you can’t keep up. There are so many coming out, like 15 million records. It used to be you used to have to have a lot of money and a really good recording studio to put out a record. Now you can make a record in your bedroom on a lap top. There’s so much out there that it’s almost overwhelming and you go back to ‘Back in Black’ by ACDC.

SB: I take it you’re looking forward to the new ACDC album then.

RW: I am a huge ACDC fan. They can do little wrong in my eyes. They know who they are, they don’t try to change, they’re brilliant at they do, and they’re self realised. That’s when you become effective, when you know who you are, and you know what you need to do.

SB Would that be the sort of band you’d love to guest for?

RW: Oh god yeah. Who wouldn’t? I’d love to support Metallica, they’re Metallica. Most of the bands I’d love to support would not be a good match. I’d love to go out with Queen and Paul Rogers, but it would be selfish. I’d love to go out with ZZ Top, but the fans wouldn’t dig what we do. From a selfish standpoint, I’d love to tour with Queen.

SB: You say that, but with Queen, they will be guitar fans.

RW: That’s true, who knows. There may be something that a Queen fan would latch onto and love. I’d love to open for Ozzy Osbourne, Priest or Maiden.

SB: You didn’t try for the ‘Priest Feast’ tour then?

RW: Most of those tours are “buy-ons”, and we’re not dealing in those types of dollars.

SB: Will you be looking to play some of the festivals this coming summer?

RW: We will, for sure.

(KNOCK ON BUS DOOR).

SB: I think that’s my cue to go.

RW: Man, they’re killing us. Thank you so much. I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to speak to me. You’ll be there at the gig, so I’ll be waving at you and see you inside.

Special thanks go out to Andy Turner at Napalm Records for arranging the interview.

For more on the band check out http://www.stuckmojo.us

Interviewed by Spenny Bullen

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