JF: How you doing man? What’s going on?

JF: The new record is definitely one of the best fucking things we’ve ever done. It’s the first record we did as a real band where everyone wrote and everyone contributed to the music, it wasn’t like one member. It was four separate guys making this record. The response has been fucking ridiculous, man. The people have been like wonderful. There’s a lot of real meaning behind this record and stuff and people have been really wonderful. Really wonderful.

JF: The fucking best man. He’s more than I ever expected. We finally found a singer that….we…he’s all involved. He’s great man, he’s a great guy and a great frontman and anything you could ever want.

JF: I think everything you’ve done before always makes you a better player. I don’t think Metalium really helped me with anything, I mean it wasn’t my style of music, but it was great fun. I think Savatage helped out a lot with my writing and my structuring. It definitely made me move up a scale as a player and as a writer, you know? But it was a great honor being in that band too.

JF: The real traditional metal?

JF: I can be pretty honest with you, dude. The metal scene in Europe….they never stopped believing in heavy metal. But let me tell you man, those guys…. I just, we just toured and the Americans are fucking back into it so, you know what dude, America’s gonna give them a kick in the ass. Look at this place [The L’amour Nightclub in Brooklyn, NY -ed], it’s fucking sold out to the walls, man. Metal’s not dead and that’s for sure. It’s getting better definitely.

JF: (pause) You know what it is? I don’t think nu metal is as new as you think it is. I think a lot of nu metal is a lot of the 80’s elements, a lot of great vocal lines, heavy guitars. Um, I just think that, you know, you’re not gonna hear Judas Priest on the radio these days but you will hear Disturbed. I mean I don’t think Disturbed is that different from what we’re doing musically. Ok. We’re NOT Disturbed, but we’re a similar thing. And Seven Witches will never be an MTV band but it doesn’t mean that we can’t have commercial success on the radio.

JF: We’re working on a bunch of stuff right now. We did these eight shows and then we’re going to California to do five shows headlining with Cage opening up. Then we’re going to Texas for three shows with Omen opening up. So we’re gonna be definitely getting …. Maybe we’ll take this package over to Europe which would be a great thing since we’re the best of friends and it would be a great package for them to see.

JF: We’re working on that too, dude. We’re definitely coming back to America to headline because it’s been great. The fans have been great. I’m really waiting to see how Lamours acts tonight because everybody is gonna play like they fucking must rock so hopefully things will go well tonight.

JF: Unbelievable! They have … They’re behind us with everything. Um, support, marketing. This record is going to go ballistic because they really believe in this stuff.

JF: Thanks!

JF: Ahh.. They’re fucking such dicks to us! (laughs) They’re our best friends. Honestly, in 10 days there has not been one disagreement. It’s just fun. We’re all just one. We’re hanging out with their bass player. It’s just what metal’s all about, a family. Mike Romeo is one of my closest friends in the world and… what can I say. This is the type tour you want to do. We could do this for six months, it’d be the greatest thing in the world.

JF: Fucking terrible man, you know, the bottom line is I went to their show a week before it happened at the Stone Pony and I was there and I saw the pyro and was like….you know, it’s kind of weird, I never really thought about it. But when they came out, I was like “Wow, this is kind of weird man.” It’s such a small place and there were these flames shooting up in the air. I think it’s terrible but you know what, two rights don’t make a wrong and maybe it’s the club, maybe it’s the band. I mean shit happens and it’s gonna happen again and you have all these people like “maybe I shouldn’t go to clubs anymore” and I’m like, you know, it’s an unfortunate thing but you can’t stop living your life. I felt so bad for the families. I mean I was a little bit disappointed with Great White. You heard Jack Russell in an interview and he was kind of like “Oh yeah. We’re gonna get another guitar player and go out on tour again.” I’m like, that really weirded me out. Like wow, dude, your fucking guitar player was killed. Don’t you have any feelings? He was just kind of like “eh.” Kinda weirded me out. Or maybe it was the shock.

JF: I don’t know if you know that my brother passed away of cancer while we were making this record. So a lot of it has to do with my emotions for sure and I think the guys in my band really felt what I went through and I mean of course Joey’s been through it and James’ brother passed away last year so we all went through it and I think it really….The music on this record is very kind of down sometimes but has a very positive message too. It’s like, this was my brother man and I watched him die for eight months and I just wanted god to finally take him because, you know what, he suffered so to me sometimes death is a positive thing. And Passage to the Other Side, he passed to the other side so.. That’s definitely it.

JF: I think that was the coolest Def Leppard record they ever made. My favorite Def Leppard record. I played that song in high school and I played the song for the guys and they were like “Def Leppard? What are you crazy?”

Brian Craig (Seven Witches Drummer): (shouts) He took a vote and we all lost!

JF: (laughter) He’s full of shit. No, I mean we said let’s give it a shot and when we played it people were like “Wow, this is really cool.” It’s a song I really like. Will we play it live? Probably not because it’s a cover and we have so much originals now. We have four records worth of stuff and we have to play originals now.

JF: I use Engl Amps. I use Jacksons and GMPs. I’m working with a company called Blaze now so maybe I’ll use those guitars. EMG pickups, Dean Markley strings, Leavy straps, Morely pedals and TKL cases. Engl amps fucking rule!

JF: A very bad business man. He doesn’t know friends when he sees them. Hands down. He made everyone look like an asshole in that band. That’s my thoughts. I have no comment after that.