Don't Tango with Chris Jericho

You want some YouTube hits? How about I just go freak out, throw stuff around. Take this this rare bamboo plant over here and just break it in two. It costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't care. I'm wacky. I just got kicked off a Dancing with the Stars last night.

RJ here, hanging out at the Young Hollywood Studio with wrestling superstar Chris Jericho. A lot of you probably know from Dancing with the Stars.

Yes, RJ and CJ. I like that. Right here on the palatial couch overlooking the LA skyline. Very VIP. No one really knows where I'm going. I'm going behind the scenes, man. I'm getting all the secrets out there. You pull up at the at the hotel, which is one of the fanciest hotels in Beverly Hills. You go up through uh five levels of security. Then you get frisked at the door, go through the metal detector. And then uh you get to come in here and sit down on the couch. And I'm not allowed to actually look RJ in the eyes or speak to him when we're off camera. So, it's actually kind of cool to be, you know, able to actually see you and talk to you know. That's kinda cool how close you're actually the security is allowing you to get.

You know, this is just not a typical interview. This is not on my contract. But the fact that the viewership is was it two billion now, two and a half billion. It's worth it. You're the man Chris Jericho. I got I got Okay. It's okay. Your bodyguards are gonna jump on me. That's why I'm saying he touched me first. It's our Barbara Walters moment. That's what this interview is all about. Is Chris, you lost. How are you gonna handle that?

I think it'll be fine. I think it'll be okay. And uh the fact that you brought the red pillows that I requested, which is good. If you would have had the green ones in here, I'd be bawling like a baby. It was it was actually a really good time. I was on for six weeks of a show that's 10 weeks, so it's not too bad. Over halfway. It's okay. I mean, they're they're doing well. And yeah, And if there was uh like a greatest hits of season 12, I think a couple of my dances would make that. And the quickstep was the one you liked, which is not what you would expect. Quickstep was really good, the paso doble was really good, and then last week the Viennese Waltz was probably my favorite. That's the real kinda light one.

Right. Was it harder when you had to prepare for that or when you were preparing for some of the other stuff you were doing earlier on?

You know, I've been wrestling for 20 years and but dancing, I'd never done it before in my life. So, let's do something for the very first time in front of 24 million people. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, big deal. Yeah, exactly. So, it was pretty hard at first, a little bit nerve-wracking, and the training was intense. Like, I don't think people realize just how much training, how much practice, how much rehearsal you have to do. It's seven hours a day and you need every minute of it. This is literally the first day in nine weeks that I haven't had dancing rehearsal.

Wow.

Yeah, it's weird, like I don't, like, know what to do. I feel my feet are moving like are we supposed to practice now or

Right. Because you know, there's so much press and so much publicity and everyone wants to talk to you and, you know, it's such a juggernaut that now when you're off the show, it's like you're done. Boom. Kicked out. You're like a prostitute. You're finished. Get out the door. Fire. Get out. Sending you back to Florida. You're over with.

I gotta take a cab. LA doesn't want you anymore.

Yeah, I gotta take a cab back to Florida now. Was there any one moment you wish you could just take back? Anything that happened this season, you're like, oh, if I could have changed it or done something different, I would have.

They put a lot of emphasis on dress rehearsal, the actual dress rehearsal. I'm not a dress rehearsal guy. I I do my best, but it's never as good as when the crowd is there, when the audience is there. Knowing not just the audience, but knowing that this is the one. So, I would have maybe liked to have reconfigured my attitude a bit to know that you have to think that way for the dress rehearsal as well. Because I think I got underscored almost every week because my dress rehearsal was never as good as the live performance.

Speaking of dress rehearsals, though, you had some interesting outfits. And you had some interesting outfits back in the wrestling days. Which was a little more embarrassing at times.

None of these outfits were were half as bad as some of the stuff that I that I wore in wrestling. I remember one time I wore I thought it would be a good idea of like a head-to-toe checkerboard suit. So, it's like like white and black checkered pants, shirt and jacket. I don't know where I found these things or who would ever buy it or wear it, but guilty. The costumes on this show are actually a little bit tame in comparison to the stuff that I was used to wearing uh in in wrestling.

We've talked about Chris the wrestler, Chris the dancer. Now, Chris the rock star.

It's like I became an ambassador for for for the WWE and for heavy metal. And people got behind that. You know, I I did we were talking earlier, I hosted the Golden Gods Awards which is

Tell people about Golden Gods. They might not be familiar with what exactly that is.

Well, it's what it basically is is there's finally a Grammys for heavy metal. And it was really cool because Alice Cooper won the Lifetime Achievement Award and when he uh when he accepted it, part of his speech was I make sure you vote for Chris Jericho in Dancing with the Stars. He's keeping metal alive. But the best of all was Geezer Butler, who's the bass player from Black Sabbath. The the greatest heavy metal band of all time, and Geezer is one of the greatest song writers of all time. I'd never met him before and uh I saw him there and introduced myself and he's like, nice to meet you. I've been watching you on Dancing with the Stars. I even voted for you last week too. And I was like, yes. Geezer Butler voted for me. Yeah, we we've been doing Fozzy uh is my band since 1999 and we've always had a good fan base over overseas for whatever reason. We've got a good fan base in in the States and Canada too, but this summer we're going over to play uh there's all the European festivals, which are like 50, 60 like Coachella or like the big four that just happened here last week. So, we're doing the big four in Nebworth in England with Metallica and and playing a bunch of gigs with Anthrax and doing a bunch of shows with Papa Roach and Black Crows and it's just a it's gonna be a good summer for us.

You know, on the show you were sort of portrayed like very serious, hardcore guy. Now as I'm getting to know you, you're a nice guy. You're not not what you think.

I kinda had to let people know that in the WWE world, yeah, I'm a son of a bitch. You want some YouTube hits? Yeah. Pull Guns and Roses on MTV and 1988 Headbangers Ball and trash your set. Do you want to get some younghollywood. com hits? How about I just go freak out? Throw stuff around. Take this this rare bamboo plant over here and just break it in two. It costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't care. I'm wacky. I just got kicked off a Dancing with the Stars last night. But it's just an act. I'm actually a very nice guy. As you can tell.

Good luck with all you're gonna stuff.

to present to you this uh this fine bowl of nuts from from Nepal that I've brought just for you. I picked them myself. That's just for you.

He even brings parting gifts. Now that is a nice guy. That's funny.

Thank you, man.