Chris Jericho Talks About His New Book, Clashing With Vince, Being A Heel & More
Chris Jericho recently did an interview with Salon.com where he discussed how to get a wrestling audience to hate you, touring with his band Fozzy, the use of "ass clown" in Iron Man 2, and the literary blog controversy that recently erupted around, of all things, his now years old memoir, A Lion's Tale. Here are some excerpts:
On "ass clown" being used in Iron Man 2: I was laughing because I thought I should get a royalty for that or something. I came up with that on the spot. We were in Bakersfield, California, just doing dueling insults with Kurt Angle. He was like, "you're this," and I'm that. And I'm like, "You're just an ass? clown." People kind of laughed at it so I said it on TV a week later, and then the next week after that there were signs in the crowd that said "ass clown." That's how you can always see if people like something. If you say something on TV and the next week there's signs in the crowd with that phrase on it. Right off the bat, I knew that I had stumbled onto something. Note from Raj Giri: Jericho should actually be the one paying the royalties, as that line was used in the movie Office Space, when a character by the name of Michael Bolton calls the musician Michael Bolton a "no-talent ass clown".
On getting the audience to hate you: It's not the line that you say, it's how you deliver it, and nobody likes being talked down to. Nobody likes it either if you're telling them something that's the truth. If you were walking across the street and you were about to get hit by a bus and I saved you, but every single day I went, "Hey, remember when I saved you from getting hit by a bus. You should've looked both ways." At first, you'd be like, "Well, yeah, you're right." After awhile you'd say, "Shut up. I understand. Enough already. I wish you'd let me get f–king hit by the bus." And that's kind of how it works with what I'm doing in the WWE with calling people hypocrites. It all stems from something that really happened, and people don't like being told the same thing over and over and over again. It becomes quite sickening. That's the reason the character has drawn such ire for such a long time, it's that I'm a know-it-all who's basically telling the truth with what's going on in society, but people don't like being told that.
Comparing the publishing industry to the wrestling industry: There's not a lot of similarities I don't think except that they're both entertainment involved businesses. I think writing any kind of a book whether you're a wrestler, a musician, or an actor; it's such an art form. It's such an arduous process. It takes such a long time. I've never been the guy that would pawn off my story to somebody else to write. I've written every world of both of my books including the one that I'm just going to ship right now. I work with a collaborator to give me some thoughts and advice as I write it myself. I think that that's one of the reasons why "A Lion's Tale" was so successful because I was very hands on with it ? the same way I've been with my wrestling career from the moment I started.
His new book: It's as much of a rock and roll book as it is a wrestling book. It's kind of half and half. Actually, my experiences in LA acting as well ? it's kind of an all encapsulating show business memoir.
I've had a big career and have done everything anyone can ever do. Obviously there are some stories where there are disagreements or conflict and that's what makes the stories interesting. At the end of the day, everyone I write about I have the utmost respect for. You have watch what you say in certain points but I watched what I said in the first book too because I wasn't coming up to settle any scores or be bitter. There's a couple of villains in the first book and there's a couple of villains in the second book. There's some great stories about some of my clashes with Vince (McMahon), but that's bound to happen when you've worked with somebody for almost ten years.
For Jericho's full interview with Salon.com, click here.