How a famed metal band came to cover 70s soft rock classic Bad Company...

“Would the Buddha use television to spread his teachings?” This is a typical question raised by Zoltan Bathory, the colourful, controversial and always deeply passionate and thoughtful founder of one of today’s biggest hard rock bands, Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP). It’s hard to think of anyone else who would slip in references to Sun Tzu’s Art of War or the teachings of Buddha to a simple question about how much attention he pays to the (high!) number of social media followers 5FDP have! But, even with their appearance playing before Metallica at the Prague Rocks Festival just minutes away, the extraordinary Zoltan Bathory (multiple martial arts black belt, qualified pilot, military trainer, philanthropist … and monster truck driver!) can’t help but smash the stereotype of the lumpen metalhead! We discuss the band’s enormously successful Bad Company cover; the nature of 5FDP itself; his experience of working with rock gods like Judas Priest, Megadeth and Queen’s Brian May; his hectic life outside of music; whether it frustrates him that the 3 most googled terms for the band are ‘conservative’, ‘Christian’ and ‘politics’ … and that simple question on social media!