By James Wright

For years there has been a band handing out the best in hard hitting guitar riffs and old school raps without the use of downtuned guitars or screaming vocals. Providing some of the most original material in hard music today, it's no wonder why Atlanta, Georgia's very own Stuck Mojo has been dubbed the undisputed kings of rap/metal. For years instead of following trends Stuck Mojo has stood alone without regard for what is happening around them. Now as the band prepares for the release of it's newest creation, album number four in the history of the band, "Declaration Of A Headhunter" the band hopes to eliminate all those imitators and trend followers and grab control over the hard music scene. Premiere song writer and guitar genius Rich Ward called from his home base of Atlanta to set the record straight on hard work, musical integrity, why wrestling and heavy music work so well together and why Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello is an idiot.

Shoutweb: First off I'd like to publicly thank you for getting me introduced to old Iron Maiden. It's because of you stating your love for Maiden I decided to check them out and now I love 'em.... Now I can totally see where Stuck Mojo came from musically.

Rich: Well good, I'm glad I brought that to your attention, they do rule. There is about three or four records worth of material that totally inspired me when I was younger. I can't say enough about 'em because the great thing about Iron Maiden was not only live, which I guess the first time I saw them was in 8'4 and then I saw 'em again in '85 and '86, they were just such a great live band but they always had a sense of musical integrity. All the members of the band were great players, the vocalist was great and they wrote great songs. Of all the 80's metal bands I felt they were the most consistent of all the bands of that genre. Most of the bands of that era would put out a good record then the next one would be just ok. I was a big Judas Priest fan too but they were not nearly as consistently on the money as Iron Maiden was, and Priest wasn't nearly the live machine that Iron Maiden was either. They didn't have the stage energy and all the visual effects and stuff 'cause Maiden, when they toured, always had a theme to their stage shows. One year they'd have this big Egyptian tomb stage set and the next year they'd have this crazy ice palace look. I mean it was always cool, they put a lot of money into the set so you always felt like you got your monies worth when you went to the show.

Shoutweb: Exactly. I'm a little bit younger so I just kinda got into the 90's stuff but it's cool cause I'm going back and finding all the records that influenced the bands that I enjoy. Especially Iron Maiden cause the music has merit even today.

Rich: Well cool man, thanks.

Shoutweb: There is the kind of amalgamation of classic metal riffs and old school raps that works so well within your music that makes you the undisputed kings of Rap/Metal.

Rich: Well thank-you, I appreciate that because as far as the rap is concerned I'm totally old school too. There is very little new stuff I listen too. I'm totally a big fan of the old N.W.A and early Ice-T records ya know? "America's Most Wanted" the first Ice Cube record. To me those were definitive rap albums right there in the early 90's cause in the late 80's early 90's metal for me got a little shaky and it went kinda glammy and kinda got a little pop. So I went and tried to look for something else that had more street credibility and was hard and I found that rap music was what I was looking for. It was honest, it was brutal and it had attitude, so I started listening to rap music. Then when rap music started losing it's purity and became kinda polluted with all the crap coming out, then there was a lot of new metal bands like Pantera, White Zombie and Prong who really started to shape the face of metal again and I became interested in what was going on in the heavy scene again.

Shoutweb: It's interesting to see you mention Prong cause they are a great band but totally underrated!

Rich: Absolutely!

Shoutweb: Going back to "Rising" for a minute, at one point in time there were rumors circulating that Mercury was gonna pick you guys up when "Rising" was doing so well... Whatever happened with that?

Rich: It went so far as that the president of the label flew to L.A. to make an offer on us to the president of Century Media. The Vice President of the label was on our bus sitting in New York City telling us how we were gonna be on tour with Kiss and how we were gonna be on tour with Korn, just blowing a lot of smoke, but at the end of the day Mercury and Century Media couldn't come to terms. A band is just like an athlete in that we are contractually bound to Century Media just like a baseball player is contractually bound to whatever team they play for. So if someone wants to buy them they have to buy their contract out and the money Mercury was willing to buy us out for was just not where Century Media felt they could buy the contract out. A band like Stuck Mojo if you've looked at the Century Media roster, we are the undisputed best seller that label has ever had as far as record sales are concerned. We have helped to finance a large portion of that label's stateside office, so they were asking for a quite a bit of money to buy our contract. In my opinion they were maybe asking for more money then we were worth and I felt like Mercury said "Hey this is a little bit too much money to invest in this band. This is only to get the band out of their contract! Not only do we have to do that but we have to spend money to promote the band and record a record!" So it was just not financially feasible for them and they weren't the only one's, we had three of four majors that wanted the band and there were a couple of major independents so we just couldn't make any of it happen. We got to the point where we actually discussed breaking up and it was really discouraging. Through that whole process we lost our bass player Corey 'cause he was just disgusted with the whole business arrangements that were happening with Century Media and with the way things were going for us. So he left and we were like "Wow what are we gonna do? The band is gonna break up! There is no way we can continue!" Just because he was such an important part of the band, and we were lucky enough to find Dan who was just an awesome replacement for Corey, as a matter of fact he allowed the band to grow and allowed us to become a better band. Dan brought with him fresh ideas and he is also a tremendous vocal talent. He is a great singer and it really helped me in my song writing to be able to write a lot of different styles of melody and melodic vocals, 'cause Dan was able to sing a lot of different ways.

Shoutweb: Exactly! I remember going to your web page and I was distraught over the fact that you guys were considering breaking up just because you guys are such an incredible band!

Rich: Well thank you.

Shoutweb: Now with your new release, "Declaration Of A Headhunter", this is your last album for Century Media Records... Where does Stuck Mojo go after this? You are their number one band, I'm sure they're not exactly happy to see you leave...

Rich: Well we would never re-sign with Century Media. That would be like going back to your ex-wife ya know? They're great people but they just don't have the money that it takes to break a band. You look into the music industry and look at the bands that are out there, let's just take Coal Chamber for example. Coal Chamber's first record was a kinda half ass knock off of Korn and some kind of goofy imagery with the heavy make-up and all that, and their record company spent a tremendous amount of money marketing the band which subsequently led to them selling a few records. There are a lot of bands out there that are as good as Stuck Mojo and deserve success but their record company's aren't willing to spend two million dollars promoting them where as with Century Media our yearly physical budget is under one hundred thousand dollars a year. So we are not even able to play big league ball if you know what I mean!?

Shoutweb: Well with Rising there was a huge magazine push that I noticed and led to me buying the album, but look at it this way, how many people out there buy records based on magazine articles as compared to people who buy records cause they seen a big budget video!?

Rich: Absolutely! Or a big single on the radio! Which costs a tremendous amount of money just to put a single on the radio. And that's the thing 'cause you and I are true fans. True fans will find new bands through fanzines and magazines and stuff like that, but getting press in magazines is the least expensive way to promote a band. Although it is an important part of promotion you also have to attack the video angle and you also have to attack the radio angle and you have to be willing to spend the money that it takes to get your band on festival packages like Ozzfest! That's a fifty thousand dollar buy on right there.

Shoutweb: It sucks now that it's about money though...

Rich: Absolutely! It's about money and politics!

Shoutweb: Just look at your new album it has some amazing songs on it and that's all that should matter!

Rich: You're right, and since you and I are obviously well informed of how the way things work, all we can do as Stuck Mojo is write the best albums that I can write and then when it comes to touring I give one hundred and ten percent and give the fans everything I have. That's all I can do, everything else I just have to cross my fingers and hope that the record company does their job.

Shoutweb: The thing that surprised me most when I got a copy of "Declaration Of A Headhunter" was Dan's singing on the album. I thought he had some huge shoes to fill when Corey left and he did that on "HVY1" but he really stepped up to the plate on this record and his signing is amazingly melodic and at the same time adds a whole new dimension to the band.

Rich: That's the thing of I was saying earlier. I am a big fan of melodic music as well as of the really heavy aggressive growl stuff and the rap. So when I formed a band I wanted to always incorporate all three styles in Stuck Mojo. Corey's voice was really really good it's just he had a specific style and he had a very specific range where as Dan is able to sing in a lot more dynamic range. A lot of the melodic vocals that you're hearing on the record is me too. I sang all the stuff on "Raise The Deadman" and "Feel It Coming Down" so a lot of it is me too. I've been taking vocal lessons and been practicing and learning to become a better singer myself so we can share duties, so you're getting vocally assaulted from all sides of the stage.

Shoutweb: Exactly! there is a range from Bonz's rap to the death metal thing to yours and Dan's melodic side to make the music that much more dynamic and exciting.... Now there are some new things added to Stuck Mojo's sound with this release such as the ambient sounds and samples. What made you decide to experiment with that? I mean you did it a little with "Reborn" and "My Will" on "HVY1" but you seem to have taken it up another level on this release.

Rich: I was just trying to find something new to help me become a better songwriter and I was looking for some tools. I gotta admit when I was younger I really liked Queen a lot and I really liked Pink Floyd towards the more mellower side of me that I listened to when I wanted to relax and chill out. I loved their ambient textures and the way they used string sounds and orchestral sounds and I was just so into it. It's just like a boxer ya know? A boxer can't just throw big punches all the time. It takes the little jabs and the little hooks and body shots, that combination of things that makes a well rounded fighter. It keeps people off their toes so that when you do hit 'em with the big bang they're not looking for it and that's what those it ambient tones are there for. It's not necessarily there for anything other than great dynamics. It's like when you go down into a little breakdown section that has these really cool strings and these really melodic passages and stuff like that and when you hit 'em with the huge riff and the death metal vocal it just kicks 'em square in the nuts ya know? It's awesome because when you listen to a band like Slipknot, who are a great band, but their kicking you in the nuts the entire album and after awhile it doesn't hurt.

Shoutweb: Exactly! I got the album and at first it's awesome but after awhile of being constantly barraged by aggression it becomes boring. There are no hooks or dynamics to make you keep coming back and listening again and again.

Rich: Precisely man! You can have ten thousand analogies but it's just like making love to a woman man! You can be in there working but you gotta change speeds man! (Laughs) You have to, it's music, it's an extension of our personalities and it's an extension of our emotions. If you're only one dimensional it says a lot about a person ya know? I don't live my life walking around in rage all the time. I do have that part of my personality, but it only represents a part of me. I want my songs to take people to places, and at the end of the day I also want there to be a lot of ear candy like if people start listening with headphones they can start hearing different sounds they've never heard before.

Shoutweb: I know exactly what you mean! I was listening to "Declaration Of A Headhunter" for a while and then I listened to it on headphones and was like... "Wow I never heard that before!"

Rich: Well cool man! I'm glad all my techniques have been working effectively.

Shoutweb: Now on the previously released Stuck Mojo home video "Only The Strong Survive" you stated that Stuck Mojo's sound was based around your riffs and Bonz's raps... Is that still the case 'cause this sounds like a much more cohesive effort, as was "Rising"...

Rich: Ya it is, it really is. I think that because we had a few line-up changes throughout the history of the band. Bonz and I were left to guide the band and be the leaders while everyone else was just kinda part of the group. Now with Bud being in the bands for five years and Dan's been in the group for almost a year and a half and now, I'm starting to feel really comfortable with these guys. Let me tell ya right off the bat I had a tremendous amount of respect for Dan. He came in, and his bass tone was just amazing! His playing was amazing! Right away I just gave him the respect and I gave him a lot of latitude 'cause I've always been the primary songwriter within Stuck Mojo, and actually on this record everything you hear I wrote. I wrote all the lyrics, I wrote all the raps, I wrote all the melody and all the music and drum parts. After I had demo'd it all out myself, I gave it to the band and said "This is a rough outline or your guide, but I'm totally open to some changes that you guys have. Take it home for a couple weeks, work on it, make it yours and let's see what you guys come up with." Everybody kinda came back having learned all the parts that I wrote and said there were some slight changes and everything but I think the band came to the point where they really liked the material and that they felt it was great the way it was. They didn't wanna make a lot of changes and that there was the respect level. I gave them the respect not to say "Hey this is the album, learn it!" I said "Here are my ideas, these are the songs. I like they way they are but if you can make them better don't hesitate to make some changes, bring 'em to me and we'll work on'em." That's the thing, we're a band and we have an open form where even though I may be the primary songwriter of the band it's not a dictatorship.

Shoutweb: Honestly this is your best material to date.

Rich: Well thank you and I firmly believe that too. It feels good to hear other people say it too 'cause it helps validate my feelings on it.

Shoutweb: There is some strong lyrical content within "Declaration..." especially with the intro, which I think it's hilarious. Same with the open Letter to Jesse Jackson... Are you hoping to raise awareness about some of the things you feel are wrong with American people/society?

Rich: Ya but I feel like in any society there is just a portion of it that's gonna be productive and there's a portion that's gonna live off of the productive people. I just felt like there is enough people out there that are representing the real left side of politics and the real liberal agenda and I just figured it's about time that somebody had the balls to step up to the plate and represent a conservative viewpoint in heavy music because nobody's doing it! It's so funny I heard Tom Morello quoted as saying something at a janitor's rally in Los Angeles, 'cause the janitor's were on strike, he stepped up to the plate and said he didn't understand why the people who mess up the office get paid more than the people who clean it up. So I was thinking to myself "Is this guy a total idiot!?" Does he not realize that it's because there are people there messing up the office that they are the ones generating the income for the business! They are the ones making the deals, these are the people that are working! The people cleaning up the offices should be thankful that those are people are providing jobs for them to work at! It's like if there wasn't those people that sit behind the desk and wear the suit and tie and take care of running the corporation there would be no job for janitors! There would be no building to clean up! People would have to be worried about where they're gonna find a job! These guys like Tom Morello, he seriously lives in a fantasy land! You hear him say things like he's not going to vote for a presidential candidate until they promise free homes and health care for every citizen! I was sitting there saying "Who's going to pay for that!" It's like the government doesn't have their own money! It's raised through taxes! What are you gonna do, are you gonna raise taxes again!? He doesn't realize the effects of every time you raise taxes in order to help somebody else. It doesn't lead to any initiative for you and I to work hard 'cause we both know if we don't want to we don't have to work. We can just let somebody else just take care of us and that's where pride and integrity come in ya know? I make a real modest living. I sell some records and I tour and have a little used pick-up truck that I didn't pay a lot of money for. I don't have a house, I live in an apartment and I don't live the rock star dream of driving fancy cars and a mansion with hot tubs, but I feel real fortunate to have what I do have and I worked really hard to get it. The last thing I want is having someone telling me I gotta give more of my money to people who are less fortunate! I was like ya wanna know what!? The difference between people who are fortunate and less fortunate are how hard they work. I firmly believe that! Now I'm not talking about handicapped people or mentally ill people, I'm just talking about people in general 'cause Lord knows I feel we have a duty and a responsibility to take care of elderly people and take care of people who can't take care of themselves. That should be our responsibility as a community, but I'm just talking about Joe Schmoe or the 16 year old girl who gets pregnant and is now trying to raise three kids on her own. It's like even though I feel bad for her and feel truly honestly bad that she is in that position, at the same time I didn't put her there! She made poor decisions that put her there and it shouldn't be yours and my responsibility to take care of her. She needs to find a way to get herself outta that hole so she can provide for her children and it shouldn't be the states 'cause when it becomes the states responsibility it just means, i.e. me and my tax revenue!

Shoutweb: With a lot of people here I hear the old excuse "What's the point in voting! You never get anyone worth a damn anyway!" But if you don't exercise your right to vote you're never going to get the changes you want made happen!

Rich: You're right. Along with that comes informing yourself of what these candidates truly represent, because the thing is you need to be involved, you need to be watching the issues, you need to see what bills are being passed and what laws are being exercised. It's so funny 'cause people don't watch congress and they don't watch parliament and they don't realize that these issues directly affect their life. People sit there with their television on and they watch sports and there's nothing wrong with that but people don't realize that they're gonna wake up one day and things are gonna be not the way they want them to, and it happened because they spent time not being involved!

Shoutweb: Getting back to the album for a moment... There are so many good songs on this album but "Give War A Chance" has to be one of the high points... That song is amazing.

Rich: It's basically like if you were to look back in history you'd see that almost every period in history is defined by whatever war took place during that time. You look back at the Spanish/American war, the Revolutionary war and all these wars, especially in American history and our history is defined but what wars occurred during that time and what conflicts took place. You'll always say "Well what time did you grow up?" and you'll get the reply of "I grew up during the Korean war era" and it's like with the lyrics to that particular song, our wars define our place in time. It's like war and conflict have been so much apart of the human race and you hear people talk about how war is such an awful thing, and I truly believe that it is but sometimes war is a necessary action. It's like if we didn't go into Europe when we did to fight the Nazi's then there is no way of knowing what would have happened. Sometimes war has to happen. It's just been a part of human nature for so long and it's not that I'm trying to encourage it 'cause all I wanted to do was say that sometimes war is a healthy part of resolving issues. It's like if you're at a bar and some guy is running his lip off at you and your girlfriend, it's that moment where you either stand up and protect the honor of your girl or let this guy push you around. Sometimes conflict has to come to war and one on one confrontations and that's just the way that it is. I hate fights and I'll always be the last guy to get in but if I have to then I will, but it's always the last resort.

Shoutweb: "Feel It Coming Down" has this weird middle eastern feel to it...

Rich: I had actually written all the guitar parts to the song and felt like I wanted to have a musical section to the chorus so it's like the pre-chorus is (Sings) "I feel it coming down! Let the heads roll!" That's kinda like the pre-chorus section and then you got this big musical chorus with this big rolling orchestra part. When I write these songs it's not like chance where I say "let me experiment with this..." A lot of times I've written the song mentally and have a real vision on how I want it to sound. I actually went to collage for a couple years, majoring in music, and learned a little about orchestrating and composing. I wouldn't say that I'm great at it but I'm working on it and it's a passion of mine I'm trying to expand upon. So I just wrote several different parts for viola, violin and wrote a cello part and 2 double bass parts and just used them all together with a really cool guitar harmony melody underneath it. There is so much music going on there and it all works so great together. I really really like that song a lot! Then as soon as that section is over you have this drum loop that gives this hip-hop feel to it. After that then it's back into this cool heavy riff and melodic vocals with this weird rap and a Kerry King/Slayer-esque melody below it. The song peaks in valley's and it's almost like an adventure.

Shoutweb: "The Ward Is My Shepard" is another one of my favorites... The guitar work is incredible... It is definitely an album standout.

Rich: Well thank you. I wanted to write something that was really cool and musical that didn't have any vocals on it at all. I started working with these riffs that I thought were pretty cool and I just kinda wrote it on the spot. It was one of the only songs on the album that I didn't have a clear concept on other than I wanted to write a song that was an instrumental. I just started working on it for about two weeks. Not straight, but I would start working on it, then put it away for a day then listen and work on it, put it away for a couple days and then work on it again. I just kinda built it over a period of time instead of sitting down and seeing how fast I could play like I have in the past with songs like "Here Comes The Monster" on Pigwalk, trying to play really fast licks and stuff. I thought I'd try a different approach and try something really melodic and moving with a lot of guitar harmony parts that really spoke like the guitar was actually signing harmonies of it's own.

Shoutweb: Looking back over your long career do you ever feel as though you guys have paid your dues and should be where some other bands are today?

Rich: Well absolutely! I could sit back and say that, but for every Stuck Mojo album that has moderate success there is always gonna be a band that has better success and maybe didn't deserve it, and there will always be bands that deserve it more than we do and never even got to where we are! There's nothing you can do, it's just life! I'll always turn back to a quote I read in a book one time and it's like "Life isn't what you get out of it, it's what you put into it!" and it always brings me comfort. I don't have any platinum albums on my wall but what I do have is a sense of integrity and a sense of pride knowing that when trends started going towards seven strings and going to Ross Robinson we took a one eighty degree turn in the opposite direction and said we're gonna stand on our own two feet and we're going pave our own road. We're gonna do it with integrity and do it for our fans so we can be a band that people can be proud to be a fan of. There are a lot of bands out there that sell a lot of records but their fans are fair-weather. They buy the album, they like a couple songs, but Stuck Mojo fans are true fans of this band. If I had a dollar for every Stuck Mojo tattoo I seen on people... And the people that are willing to drive eight hours to come see the band or in Europe the fans drive from country to country! That there is the payoff that makes me feel really happy. We've always said "we don't have fans, we have family," and that's the thing that makes us really happy. I don't sit around going I wish we did this or that cause we're just really happy to be where we are today.

Shoutweb: Stuck Mojo and wrestling go hand in hand and the connection fits like a glove just look at the video for "Rising"... I read at one point there were talks of you guys being involved in either an ECW or WCW event is that still an option?

Rich: Well we were going to do an ECW pay per view but Paul E. is a great guy and loves us but he kinda got cold feet cause we did the video with Diamond Dallas Page and have done some work with WCW. As you know there is a lot of bad blood between ECW and WCW so that didn't happen. Now with WCW they have a policy that they don't work with bands that are not under the family tree of Warner Bros unless it's really big platinum acts. Another reason is that WCW is owned by Time Warner so they figure if they're gonna help acts out they wanna do it with bands that are under their sister company.

Shoutweb: It would be awesome to see you guys at an event and at the same time give you guys some great exposure.

Rich: Absolutely! It's so funny how that wrestling thing has evolved for me 'cause I was fan of wrestling for years and was friends with a lot of the guys for years. The only guy in WWF I know is Chris Jericho but I know a lot of ECW and WCW guys and did the video with Diamond Dallas Page and Raven which was cool. Also just recently I met this girl from WCW and got engaged to her! So it was kinda odd how the whole thing has worked for me over the years.

Shoutweb: I heard about your engagement. Congratulations!

Rich: Why thank you very much!

Shoutweb: This brings me to the next question... What is happening with your side project "Fozzy" with WWF wrestler Chris Jericho?

Rich: Well we are going to keep the name "Fozzy" which was originally "Fozzy Osbourne" but we thought we might run into some legal issues with the Osbourne camp so we dropped the Osbourne and cleared the name "Fozzy". We signed the deal with Megaforce about three weeks ago and started recording the record on the 26th of June, and do that for three weeks, then go to Orlando to the Hard Rock cafe where Creed did their video for "Higher" to film the video for our single. Along with that we are going to be doing a 30 minunte mockumentary where we do a spoof similar to something like Spinal Tap. We just started writing the script and it's just gonna be awesome! It's gonna be a promotional piece where we buy air time like an infomercial late at night as something to promote the record. It should be cool.

Shoutweb: Looking forward to seeing it... I recently got a copy of your other side project, Sick Speed and while it leans to a more commercial writing style it still stands out as an amazing piece of work.

Rich: Well thank you. Sick Speed right now is one of my priorities because we are in a time with Stuck Mojo that the album is being released, there are no tours lined up and I have a lot of time that I can spend on other things so I'm working really hard with Sick Speed. We just did a big tour of the mid-west and we played a big festival last night. Things have been good as I love the music and love the band, but we're relatively new. We've played seven shows and we have a lot of work to do. It's just basically Stuck Mojo but with a different singer than Bonz. This guy, he just has the perfect melodic rock voice. I'm just gonna work really hard to get it a deal and just see where things go with it.

Shoutweb: Well it's an amazing piece of work and I can sit there and honestly say that there are a few songs I immediately said to myself those are radio singles! Those deserve to be a radio hit!

Rich: Well thank you, I feel the same way.

Shoutweb: Wrapping things up, where does the Mojo family go from here? What can fans expect?

Rich: We don't really know as far as tours are concerned as we got turned down to do the Ozzfest and Tattoo The Earth festival, but we're keeping our options open. We're good buddies with Pantera and there is a possibility in the fall we can do a tour with those guys, but right now it's all up in the air. As of now what we have on the roster is some album release dates and some release shows around the south-east with some instore appearances and some signings.

Shoutweb: Finally anything you'd like to say to the fans out there reading this?

Rich: Well just to the ones who bought the record all I can say is I have nothing but respect for you people making my dream come true. Without the fans I'm fricking pushing a lawn mower for a living! (Laughs)