The Fozzy frontman says the 2017 single is the band’s “Enter Sandman“, and that new track “I Know Evil” is the closest they have come since.
Chris Jericho has stopped waiting for another “Judas“. By his reckoning, most bands never get one at all.
Speaking to Tyler D at Delaware station “93.5 The Beach“, the Fozzy frontman was asked whether he knew what the song was when they cut it in 2017. He said he did, though not to the extent it turned out.
“You never know, man. I mean, there’s songs that we’ve done where I thought, ‘This is gonna be a Number One song,’ and it doesn’t even get released as a single,” Jericho said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
“The thing with ‘Judas‘ is when I first heard it, I knew that it had to be the first song on the album, I knew that it would kick off the set, and I knew it had to be the first single,” Jericho continued. “And I think the record company originally wanted ‘Painless‘ maybe as the first single. I was, like, ‘No, it has to be ‘Judas‘.’ Because I know what it’s like for me when my favorite band’s been gone for a while and they put out a new single or a new song, and it hits you the way it does. It’s, like, ‘Oh.’ Like Anthrax just put out [a new single called] ‘It’s For The Kids‘. And when they were playing me the songs for the [upcoming Anthrax] record [Cursum Perficio], I said, ‘That’s the one that has to be the first single, ’cause that’s the one that tears my head off and makes me realize Anthrax is back.’ And then you can get into the more involved and artsy songs, which are all great songs, but I want this face-ripping song for my new Anthrax. Same with when ‘Judas‘ came out. It’s like, we haven’t had a song for a while. We had a little bit of buzz from ‘Lights Go Out‘, which was our first Top 30 song. I was, like, I was like, ‘That’s the one that I wanna hear. That’s the one that, that makes me go, ‘Oh, Fozzy‘s back, man.’ And that’s kind of what we did. And then right away, I remember I was hoping, like, somebody asked, ‘How many views do you hope this video gets?’ And I think ‘Sandpaper‘ had three million, so I was, like, ‘Well, I hope it gets to three million.’ It did three million in the first month. I was thinking three million in, like, forever. It just kept growing and growing and growing and growing. I think now it’s at 90 million or something. It’s gone gold. It’s gonna go platinum in about another year. You can hear it being played at football games, hockey games. It’s in movies. It was in ‘Cobra Kai‘. And that’s the cool thing about [Fozzy‘s latest single] ‘I Know Evil‘; it’s gonna be in a new movie called ‘Dead Of Night‘ that’s coming out.”
“It’s For The Kids” came out on May 15 as the first taste of Cursum Perficio, the band’s twelfth album and their first in a decade, due September 18 through Megaforce in North America and Nuclear Blast elsewhere.
His view of what “Judas” did for Fozzy was blunt.
“When you get your songs into the mainstream, that’s when you know you’ve got something special. And I think ‘I Know Evil‘ is the first song since ‘Judas‘ that made me feel like, ‘Okay, this might be our best song since ‘Judas‘.’ And, of course, if we never have another ‘Judas‘, that’s okay. We’ve got it. We’ve got our ‘Enter Sandman‘. We’ve got our ‘You Shook Me All Night Long‘, and we’ve got our ‘My Hero‘. And it’s, like, whether you get another one or not, it’s okay. Everyone knows — not everyone, but if people know rock and roll, they know ‘Judas‘, and that’s all you need to get your foot in the door. Do you know how many bands would wish for one song like that, that everybody in the business knows, and all the fans of that type of music know? It’s a very rare thing, and we’ve got it. So we’re very proud of that fact.”
The numbers behind it: “Judas” peaked at five on Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock chart and went gold in 2022, still the only Fozzy recording the RIAA has certified. The band collected the plaque on stage at the Gramercy Theatre in New York that April. The video count sits closer to 75 million than the 90 million Jericho quoted, though it has kept climbing for nine years. “Sandpaper“, his benchmark, came from 2012’s Sin And Bones and featured M. Shadows. The song has also served as Jericho‘s wrestling entrance music, played live by the band in front of 80,000 people at All In: London in 2023.
“I Know Evil” arrived in April, following “Fall In Line” in April 2025 on Madison Records and the standalone “Spotlight” in October 2023. All three were produced by Johnny Andrews, who has also worked with Three Days Grace, All That Remains and Halestorm. In September last year, weeks after Ozzy Osbourne‘s death, Fozzy put out a cover of “Crazy Train” with no warning. That came two months after the Lawrence Hinson-directed video for “Fall In Line“, shot at HM Studios in Las Vegas from a concept by Hinson and Mark Willis.
