'Those Are the Moments That Hit You Hard' — Interview With Five Finger Death Punch's Zoltan Bathory

On Monday (June 22), Zoltan Bathory joined Loudwire Nights to share some details on Five Finger Death Punch's upcoming, yet-to-be-announced 10th studio album as well as what fans can expect from their 20th anniversary world tour this year.

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

"We figured this is kind of in the middle and a pretty good indicator of what's going to come," Bathory explained to Loudwire Nights' Chuck Armstrong about Five Finger Death Punch's first single from the new album, "Eye of the Storm."

"If we gave you the heavier one first, then that's not really the real picture. If we gave you the lighter one, it wouldn't be the real picture. This is kind of the best, this is the way you can gauge it the best. I would say that this is kind of the middle of the album."

As Bathory mentioned that, he said that he's been surprised to read comments online saying things like, "Five Finger is back."

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"It's funny, well, we didn't go anywhere," he noted.

"This is the longest period that we didn't put out a record ... We had a little bit of time, not that we had time off, we never have time off, but we didn't put out a record for three years. So basically, that's what it is."

Bathory has always been open about how frustrating comments on social media can be, but he continues to maintain a positive attitude about any and all engagement from fans and others when it comes to Five Finger Death Punch.

"I just have to say something crazy, right, and you're in the news," he said with a laugh.

"Here's the thing, the people who love your band, they don't really go online and comment about it. It's usually people who don't, those are the ones who are commenting. So they're actually driving the algorithm. If you say something crazy and they start losing their freaking minds and they start arguing, what happens? The fans who are otherwise busy, maybe they have a job or things to do, they're like, 'Oh, Five Finger's in the news, what's going on? Oh, they have a new record?" Well, thank you for pushing that out there. I can argue all day, I'm good with it."

He said he's heard every comment or joke made at the expense of the band, but those aren't the things that really drive him to keep creating music and touring the world. He holds onto the impact Five Finger have made on the lives of their fans.

"We have an old lady, we call her 'Heavy Metal Grandma,'" he explained.

"When we're in Norway or Sweden, she comes to the shows. She's on the first row. She's refused to be anywhere else but the first row, but we always get her out of the crowd, put her on stage and she's singing a song with us. She's 80 something. All the uphill battles, everything that we've done, that right there justifies our existence, right?"

Another story that he'll always hold onto hits a little deeper than the Heavy Metal Grandma.

"There's a kid and he goes, 'Hey, when I was a kid' — it's 15 years later, so he's an adult now — 'I was a kid and I wrote my suicide note with a pen and I gave you guys the pen. That day, somebody sent me your music video and it was actually about suicide prevention. Somebody sent me this video, somebody knew that I was really down in life so they sent me this song. I watched the video and it actually changed my mind. I didn't go through with it.' I'm like, 'Thank God.'"

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That fan had given the band the pen he used to write his note with and 15 years later, didn't think the band would remember him or the story.

"Ivan [Moody] goes, 'Hold on,' he runs out of the meet and greet and comes back. He still had the pen. It's been in his road case for 15 years and the kid started crying ... Those are the moments you know when you're like, you can hate us all day long. I don't give a fuck, dude. This alone is worth it. We have so many of these. This is just one of many. Those are the moments that hit you hard."

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

• What fans can expect from the band's 20th anniversary world tour: "This is what I'm going to give away. I started to look at '80s rock shows, because there was a vibe about them. Everyone is using the same things. So I started to look at those '80s rock shows and there are certain elements of those that I haven't seen for awhile. And it's a little bit of nostalgia, I kind of grew up in that. Those were the bands that I grew up on. And there was something about those shows. For example, there's a light system called the Moles. They were these circles of lights. KISS used a lot of those back in the days. When they come on, they don't come on instantly. There's a delay. It's such weird thing, especially today when everything is on and off, how it comes on and then you turn them down, it takes a minute to, you know, it's a little time to fade. It has such a vibe. I haven't seen that for a long time."
• How he "kidnapped" Ivan Moody when he auditioned for Five Finger Death Punch: "We flew him to L.A. in 2006. He lived in Denver at the time, I flew him into town and came to the audition. He had a couple of songs that he wrote the lyrics for already. At this time, I already had the band, so I recruited all the band members. I was certain that he was the voice, because I saw him before, I saw him perform with his old band. I was 100-percent, this is the guy that has the right attitude, can sing, can scream, amazing performer, has the crowd. There's so many elements for someone to be a great performer. So I definitely was focused on him like, this is the guy ... He came to L.A., we canceled his plane to get out. First day, we were just looking at this, like, holy shit, he's the guy. Now everybody understood what I was talking about. And then I was like, 'Hey, you sound great, let's go to the studio and grab this song just so we can hear how it sounds recorded.' So we went in the studio, recorded the vocals. 'Now let's record a lighter song, like 'The Bleeding.' We recorded that. 'Okay, let's get a heavy song,' we get a heavy song. Now we have three songs, right? 'You know what? I have this mid-tempo thing. Let's do that.' Eventually he goes, 'Bro, we are like seven songs in now.' I'm like, 'What? Three more and we have a record.' He's like, 'Dude, I have one suitcase, I've got to go home.' He was in nearly a month now."
• What runs through his head when he thinks about the band celebrating its 20th anniversary: "Oh my God. We survived this. I mean, 'Eye of the Storm,' what do you think that song is about? That's our lives. That's where we live. This band was always the eye of the storm. Not many bands make it that long. And not many bands get to do 10 records. Think about it. Ivan and I have spent half of our lives together...we went through the whole gamut of that. Looking back, it's more like, holy shit, we are here. We did it. We are making our 10th album. Every time, every album we put out, people are like, 'Oh, this is it for them. They're not going to survive.' That was the story to begin with."

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Zoltan Bathory joined Loudwire Nights on Monday, June 22; 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.