Joe Hendry has discussed how his live musical segment came together.
Known for his parody songs that make fun of his opponents, Hendry targeted AJ Francis during their rivalry with multiple numbers that made fun of Francis’ failed NFL career and failed dive on SmackDown among other things. On the May 2nd episode of Impact, Hendry appeared live and was demanded to give an apology to Francis for weeks of ridicule. Appearing live in the ring with an acoustic guitar, Hendry first recapped previous parody songs before using a 90s rock anthem to premiere his latest track.
Using Higher by Creed as inspiration, Hendry sang the words “Can you please get fired?” in the chorus to Francis as the TNA crowd cheered on. While the segment was praised, Hendry has admitted that it nearly did not happen.
Speaking with Adam Wilbourn of WhatCulture Wrestling, the former Digital Media Champion first detailed how the segment came together and how it has been nearly 10 years since he picked up an acoustic guitar:
For the live concert (I did in TNA), that is the most pressure I’ve felt in such a long time because here’s the thing, I hadn’t played acoustic guitar since 2015. So when I was asked to do that, I had to buy an acoustic guitar and learn how to play guitar properly again because I did the guitars in my entrance song. But I only do enough guitars to play the parts, do you know what I mean? So it’s like, I’ll literally learn, ‘What’s this solo again?’ And I’ll practice at my leisure when I’m sitting down in the studio where I can make unlimited mistakes but to actually be good enough to do a live concert? And so, the parody that we did of the Creed song as well, that song is quite a complexed song for one guitar, because you’ve got the lead riff and of course I’m like, how am I gonna play both at the same time? When Creed plays it, there’s like two guitars. So, this is all going through my head. But I knew in my heart that my career would never be the same again if that went well or badly.
Continuing, Hendry admitted that he was sceptical about performing live as The Rock had done something similar in the lead-up to WrestleMania 40. However, when they found out that a copyrighted song appeared to be on the table, Hendry made a substantial investment to make sure that it could be as good as possible:
When I was asked to do the concert, I initially said no, because that was one of the reasons. Because I was like, ‘The Rock just did this,’ and the Toronto segment, the original one — The Rock’s my favorite wrestler of all-time. That segment in Toronto is one of my favorite all-time segments and I just thought, if I had to go out there and sing a couple of songs, what can I do to even put this in the same conversation? And then the conversation developed and it turned out, ‘Well actually, we might be able to use a copyrighted song’ and then the conversation became, ‘Well, if we’re gonna do a copyrighted song, it has to be something that’s synonymous with wrestling. A band that everyone knows.’
So it had to be a Limp Bizkit or Evanescence or something like that and then Creed came up and then it was like, write, and then we got the hook with the, ‘Can you take me higher? Can you please get fired?’ Then we were like, ‘Okay, we might have something.’ But, I cannot tell you the pressure… I thought, what can I control? And I got, in my view, the best guitar money can buy. The best guitar that money can buy. It cost me like two-and-half grand. So beyond that, in my view, it’s just, oh, limited edition this and preference and all that, right? So it’s a Martin Guitar. It’s a solid one-piece Martin Guitar. In my view, I was like, you can’t get better… because you know when you see live music segments, a lot of them don’t sound brilliant. I don’t mean in wrestling, I mean in general.
You’ll be watching a BBC concert or T in the Park or something and then something will just be off or something. So I was like, what can I control? So I’ll get the best guitar that I possibly can, and then so, I take the guitar with me and they wouldn’t let me take it on the plane. So I had to hand it over to them. My bags made it but my guitar didn’t and my guitar didn’t arrive on the day for rehearsals… and what people don’t know is I’ve got this food show, I’ve got matches to do, I’ve got this and the guitar’s not there. So we didn’t get the rehearsal the day before. So when the guitar arrived and this is when you should always invest because the guitar arrived. You think about it, it’d been in the subzero temperatures in the air. It’s been hot in the airport. It’s then in the Vegas heat. Open up the case, it was still in tune.
Will Joe Hendry Be At WWE Clash At The Castle?
Following on from Jordynne Grace making a shock appearance in WWE NXT and set to compete at Battleground on June 9th, fans have started to fantasy book future appearances from TNA stars in WWE and Hendry’s name has been at the top of the list. While an appearance by Scotland’s own Joe Hendry seems to be unlikely in Glasgow as TNA have a pay-per-view in Cicero, Illinois the night before, wrestling has proved that anything can be possible.
H/t to Post Wrestling.
Featured image: TNA
