Fozzy’s Chris Jericho defends his use of backing tracks – cites Santa Cruz as a band that uses them a lot more

In the music world, a topic of the day a while ago was the concert by Finnish rock band Santa Cruz at the Whisky A Go Go club. The concert had attracted criticism on social media, where videos clearly show the pervasive use of backing tapes and the band’s off-time playing.

Legendary radio presenter Eddie Trunk also criticised Santa Cruz’s use of backing vocals, to which the band’s frontman Archie Cruz responded negatively. However, Cruz later apologised for his comments.

Now, Chris Jericho, lead singer of Fozzy, defends his band’s use of backing vocals in an interview with Two Doods Reviews. Earlier this year, Jericho had revealed the band’s use of backing tapes at their concerts, which led to heavy criticism.

“I think there’s a real misconception…You used the word ‘rely’ — that’s also the wrong word to use as well. And Eddie Trunk actually came to our show at Asbury Park and did a whole show about Fozzy in that we’re all playing and singing a thousand percent. What we use tracks for is background noises, keyboards, industrial sounds for [our cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s] ‘Relax’ — ambience, that sort of thing. And that’s what bands use…That’s what we use backing tracks for”, Jericho starts and continues:

“It makes it sound better because you’re hearing things that you can’t do if you don’t have a keyboard player or a string section. ‘Army Of One’ has a whole symphony on it. What are we gonna do? Pack up 15 guys in a tour bus and take them with us down to wherever the hell we are? Obviously, some bands do use them more. Santa Cruz was using ’em — that’s the band. We toured with Santa Cruz.”