It was at this point that Rich and I decided that there were a million cover bands and tribute bands in the world and it didn't need another one...unless there was a twist. That's when we decided to implement a Blues Brothers/Spinal Tap/Traveling Wilbur's story line, where we would all adopt characters and play it as if the songs that the band were covering were really our songs that were stolen from us while we were stuck in Japan due to a bad record deal. We also decided to drop the Osbourne and remain just Fozzy...although we entertained the idea of naming ourselves The Big City Knights for a short time. Glad we didn't use that one!! Anyway, the label dug the whole concept and they even tapped us to do a 30 minute "mockumentary" based on the history of the band.
The movie was made, along with the help of Dee Snider, Zakk Wylde, Mike Portnoy and Sebastian Bach, all who were happy to play along with the legend of how Fozzy had created and influenced all things metal. The movie played to rave reviews on MTV and Much Music and the first record, FOZZY, was released in Oct of 2000. The single and video, EAT THE RICH was also well received and enjoyed solid airplay. We played a handful of shows, including WWE Sunday Night Heat and that was it for almost 7 months.
