Feedback -- Stuck Mojo -- August 1999

"I JUST PAID TO HAVE THAT FIXED, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" It was 1993 and my friends and I were sitting outside a Sandy Springs nightclub waiting to take in a Stuck Mojo show. Mojo riffmeister Rich Ward had just pulled into the parking lot in a hatchback and a cowboy hat when a huge pickup backed straight into his car, demolishing the rear end. The redheaded guitarist jumped out of his car, quickly surveyed the damage, and was now glaring at the guy through the open driver's side window. POW! -- Ward's fist returned the favor by demolishing the truck driver's cheek. What was he doing leaving before Stuck Mojo took the stage, anyways?

Fast forward six years. Ward and members of Stuck Mojo are performing with World Championship Wrestling rassler Chris Jericho in a `80's metal parody band called Fozzy Ozbourne at The Hanger in Marietta. I'm there to interview them. Though I had followed Stuck Mojo for years, I had never talked to any of them. I wondered, what will Rich Ward be like? After watching him belt a guy in a parking lot and seeing how he gritted his teeth while banging out angst-filled riffs, I was expecting a prickly, combative personality. As it turns out he's one of the nicest guys you could meet, shaking my hand with a big smile and talking effusively about his music and the music of those who inspired him.

As a band, Stuck Mojo have been fighters by necessity. Ward and rapper Bonz first joined forces in 1991 after they met while working at a Pizza Hut. Despite their immediate local popularity, those inside the record biz said the band's rap/metal style was part of a fad that died with The Hard Corps. Later in the mid-90's they were written off as Rage Against the Machine ripoffs, even though SM was doing rap/metal before Rage even read Karl Marx. Fortunately metal fans listen to music, not critics, and Stuck Mojo left the city limits of Atlanta to amass an international following. Now, after selling 200,000 copies of their four CDs for Century Media (Snappin' Necks, Pigwalk, Violated EP, and Rising) and years of crossing the U.S. and Europe with acts like Pantera and Type O Negative it looks like Mojo is headed for a career knockout.

"A lot of our fans are frustrated because they think the band should be at a higher level than we are now," Bonz says at a fan meet n' greet in The Hanger lobby. "They recognize how hard we've been workin' the trenches. But once you outgrow a certain level (an independent label) doesn't have the resources to get you to that higher level. But Century Media was great for what they did for us in the beginning; I cannot player hate them for that." Stuck Mojo's next-to-last effort for the label, a live album called HVY 1, will be out September 21st. The disc is culled from two shows, one at The Masquerade in Atlanta, the other from a date in Barcelona, Spain with Pantera. Next year a final studio album for Century, tentatively titled The Headhunters, will be released.

The band's contract with Century Media seems to be ending at an opportune time. "Check this out -- Korn offered to put us down on their label (Elementree Records), or to help us out," Bonz reports. Despite being declared dead at least twice, rap-metal is now at the top of the charts, with Bakersfield, California's Korn leading the charge for the genre with their Florida protegés, Limp Bizkit, and Detroit's Kid Rock fleshing out the attack. "Now I know that some of our fans don't like Korn, they compare us to Korn, they player hate Korn, and think we should be bigger than Korn," Bonz continues, "but I have to commend Mr. Head (Korn's guitarist), because I haven't had more than two sentences of conversation with the man, and for him to offer to help us out, for him to acknowledge Stuck Mojo being from Atlanta-bunkass-Georgia, a band in L.A. that we didn't think even gave a shit about us...I am flattered for Korn to recognize this band." Korn first contacted SM through their Internet bulletin board (www.stuckmojo.com), and according to Mojo manager, Mark Willis, "We're just exchanging e-mails at this point."

Where do they take Korn's interest from here? "We'll see, man," Bonz says. "We've got new material we're working on and if they dig it, we might run with that. If not, we'll take it to the highest bidder." But Bonz is leary of being branded a sell-out. "The lyrics will always be real and the music will always be hard. I'm not out here to kiss your ass and brown nose and get my knees dirty. I ain't gonna bow down to shit. I'm lovin' what I do, and you love what I do, so I know I have a future."

Tonight Rich Ward, bassist Dan Dryden and drummer Bud Fontseré performed with WCW wrestler Chris Jericho as Fozzy Ozbourne. The set list reflected Ward's influences: Van Halen, The Scorpions, Iron Maiden. I ask Ward what he thinks `80's metal had that today's music lacks. "80's metal was fun and it had attitude. The songs had melodies that people could hum along to. Bands today seem to have forgotten the melodies and only think of how they look or how heavy the riffs are. Look at Fair Warning by Van Halen. What a great album! There were hummable melodies, and riffs that almost inspired fear!" With Eddie Van Halen in mind, Ward moves to the subject of modern rock's guitarists. "A lot of bands today have guitar players who wouldn't have even been considered for a band in the `80's. You had to know 'Eruption' or 'Mr. Scary' by (Dokken's) George Lynch to even be considered for a band."

"Nowadays they say, 'We don't want to show off,'" I comment.

"It's not about showing off, it's about having tools at your disposal. If you're a writer there's nothing 'show off' about having a large vocabulary and writing beautifully."

No one in Stuck Mojo has ever mentioned Cyndi Lauper as an influence, but she's the only other recording artist who comes to mind who has also worked with professional wrestlers. Mojo teamed up with the fighters of the WCW to do a video for their song "Rising" and debuted it on TNT's Monday Nitro, one of cable's highest-rated shows. How did Stuck Mojo get hooked up with the WCW? "I work out at Lex Luger's gym (Main Event Fitness Center)," musclebound Rich says,"and I got to know some of the WCW wrestlers from there, so I thought, Why not do a cross-promotion?" The Fozzy Ozbourne gigs have paid off, apparently, because according to Chris Jericho's Web page (www.chrisjericho.com) the not-serious band has received serious offers from two major labels and promoters in Cleveland, Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Orlando.

With that manager Willis gestures for the interview to wrap up as Stuck Mojo has to get up early the next morning to drive to a show in Macon. Contenders have to get their rest.

Stuck Mojo plays The Masquerade Saturday, August 13, 1999 as part of the Atlantis Music Conference.