Zoltan Bathory Reflects on Early Days of Five Finger Death Punch

On Thursday (June 5), Five Finger Death Punch‘s Zoltan Bathory joined Loudwire Nights and reflected on his band’s massive 20-year career.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“In the beginning, people were telling us we’re not going to last six months,” Bathory shared with host Chuck Armstrong.

“Every band starts like, ‘Oh, we’re going to make it, it’s going to happen.’ And obviously, if you didn’t have that vision then you wouldn’t even start. Of course, we had that.”

Bathory recalled the very beginning of the journey, before anyone else was officially in the band.

“I remember, it was a very special moment,” he said. “I started the band and I started to record and the first person I was working with was Nadja [Peulen] from Coal Chamber. She and I were working on some stuff, but she wanted more like a gothic kind of thing and I’m more of a metal guy, so that didn’t really work. But that’s where we kind of started.”

Ivan Moody joined Bathory in 2006 and that’s when it became clear that they were onto something special.

“I remember a little Beavis and Butthead moment and listening back to [one of the first] songs and thrashing around the house and being like, ‘Man, this is so good,'” Bathory said.

“We knew. We had ‘The Bleeding,’ one of our first songs, we knew that this is actually going to happen. Again, I know every band thinks that way, but there was something, this is going to happen. This is going to be big. And here we are.”

Why Five Finger Death Punch Decided to Re-Record Some of Their Biggest Hits

Bathory also shared a little bit about what the experience has been re-recording some of Five Finger Death Punch’s biggest hits for their new compilation, 20 Years of Five Finger Death Punch — Best of Volume 1, out on July 18.

“I never had a weird relationship with my previous label,” he said, reflecting on the recent news of Five Finger Death Punch’s catalog being sold without the band’s knowledge.

“But when it came to the business and we disagreed or we got into a lawsuit, well, it is what it is. We got to do what we got to do. So this time, they sold the masters. It happens, it happens to so many artists, one of them was Taylor Swift and Taylor Swift has a massive, loyal fanbase. So what did they do? They re-recorded the album, put it online and the fanbase just switched. They understood, they supported the artist.”

As Bathory talked about this, he said Five Finger Death Punch just so happens to have a similarly loyal fanbase.

“We were like, ‘Okay, if that’s the game you want to play, we can play this game.’ We’re going to re-record the whole ting. And that’s what it is, that’s kind of why it happened.”

Zoltan Bathory Honors Black Sabbath

Ahead of Back to the Beginning on July 5, the final show for Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, Bathory also took some time to share his love for the metal legends.

“The genre heavy metal wouldn’t be without them,” he said.

“Black Sabbath, Ozzy and then very close to that, Judas Priest. These guys founded the genre we are in. They are the foundation. They are elders. They are the elders in our genre. You absolutely have to understand that and respect that. Without them, this genre wouldn’t have become, it wouldn’t exist.”

For Bathory, it’s more than just a recognition of the role they played in creating heavy metal; he’s been a rock and metal fan since he was a kid.

READ MORE: Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen Says New Album ‘Felt Like Starting All Over Again’

“I grew up in a communist country, I didn’t speak English,” he shared.

“I came to America with a bag of clothes, a thousand bucks, didn’t speak English and a Gibson Explorer. Let’s go. I was fresh off the boat. To think all those posters on my wall and all those impossible dreams became a reality — Dave Mustaine, I was a huge Megadeth fan. We did like four or five tours together. All these guys were my heroes and now they are peers … It’s insane. It’s insane.”

What Else Did Five Finger Death Punch’s Zoltan Bathory Discuss on Loudwire Nights

• How they ended up working with Maria Brink on the re-recorded version of “I Refuse”: “A lot of people don’t know this, but Maria and us, we all lived in Los Angeles and our careers started at the same time, so we were kind of in the same circle. There was a band called Deadset, which was a local Los Angeles band, they did pretty good … For whatever reason, they decided to call it quits…Chris [Howorth], the guitarist from In This Moment was the guitar player in Deadset and the bass guitarist, Matt [Snell], came to Death Punch. So when Deadset fell apart, some of the guys came to Death Punch, some of the guys became In This Moment.”
• How his dream of performing on Mars is shaping up: “There are some companies working on space hotels, that’s actually going to happen … They’re getting there. It’s going to be an expensive guitar solo. I want to record it in orbit, that would be a pretty good sustain.”
• Why he never gets over “pinch me” moments in his career: “It sounds like a tree hugger thing, but it’s really [about] appreciating that you woke up this morning. If I open my eyes, I’m already winning. You have to have that attitude. You have to keep that attitude your whole life. Every accomplishment, everything that happened — especially the ones that seemingly were impossible — just keep remembering that and it becomes a habit.”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Zoltan Bathory joined Loudwire Nights on Thursday, June 5; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.