WATCH: "Juggernaut" - Baptized By Fire, dedicated to Kris Dalene

August 12th, 2003 at around 4AM my best friend Kris Dalene fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car into a tree. He had just finished dropping me off at home a mere 45 minutes earlier. We were bandmates in my first real band, “BLAZED”. We’d only been together two years, but Kris had become my rock. My partner. The person who I knew believed in me and what I was capable of as both a song writer and performer. We were on our way back from a gig in Kentucky, I was flying high as a VJ on MTV2 and was four days away from asking my then girlfriend, Patty to be my wife. Kris and I spent our entire drive together talking about the future. We spoke about living the dream, about making music for the rest of our lives. About our girlfriends and how we wanted to have families with them and how we would keep each other’s feet on the ground and be able to live the rockstar life and still be great husbands and fathers. We spoke about all the things we were gonna do together, I don’t even remember them all. It was a very long but awesome car ride as far as mine and Kris’ relationship went. We started the trip as good friends and band mates, but by the time Kris had dropped me off at my house our relationship had grown many sizes. We had become partners and the best of friends. He even convinced me to try pot brownies! At the time, I was very much a straight edge kid, no drugs or alcohol. But I trusted Kris’ recommendation. I was only asleep for a few minutes before I got the phone call from my guitar player Omar who had been following Kris in his own car back to his house in Eastern Long Island. I don’t remember exactly what he said, but he was freaking out, “Kris! Crashed his car into a tree, I don’t know if he’s okay, there’s a lot of blood. There’s so much blood.” I hung up the phone, woke up my future wife and raced in their direction. But Kris had died on impact. I was half way there when I received the next phone call, Kris was dead. I pulled over to the side of the road and me and Patty cried our eyes out. I’d never felt so powerless in my whole life. That is what “Baptized By Fire” meant. It’s what “the Phoenix” meant. It’s what The Dream meant. Ultimately, BXF was a love letter to Kris. One that said, you may not be here to do this with me anymore, but I’m gonna do it for both of us. Life may have taken my friend, but life would not destroy our dreams. It took a long time before I was able to move on and by that time I was no longer a VJ on MTV and the sadness of it all took root in me along side my fear that I wasn’t really any good. Kris was the one who made me feel like I was actually that good, but he wasn’t with me anymore. I felt really alone and afraid I could no longer do all the things I said I was gonna. But the show must go on and when I finally began to get my head out of my ass I found an amazing drummer to replace Kris, Benjamin Clapp. With a little more effort I found another best friend, Dan Carlisle on bass and finally the incredible shredder Danny Wacker on lead guitar. I dedicated this new band, Baptized By Fire or BXF for short to Kris. We played songs that I originally wrote with Kris like Juggernaut & Rockstar and many songs that I wrote for him, like The Dream (Kris’ Song), The Phoenix and Make It Hurt. The first verse of “Make It Hurt” was actually written with Kris on drums while he was alive. I wrote the second verse after he had died, “Admit it, you did it to see if we’d quit it. Smiles faded, bit jaded. Sacrifice? We’ve made it. So shocking. Show stopping. Don’t give up, keep rocking. Fight the fears. Fight the tears. Whether the storm until it clears." I was ashamed of “The Dream” for the longest time. I didn’t think it did justice to my friend. I didn’t think it did justice to what the world lost when he died. But I promise you there is no song that I have consistently performed more passionately than that one. That’s Kris’ song and I still miss him very much. BXF was always very cool with the tribute and never got jealous of the band's dedication to my lost friend. I’m very thankful for that. Baptized By Fire took on a life of its own as we wrote “The Phoenix”, “Live Fast” and “Helter Skelter Romance” and quickly the band’s style soaked into all our other songs as well. Danny Wacker elevated every guitar part to something super sonic and magical, The Clapp filled every track with the energy of our performances and Carlisle did his beautiful bass thing, supporting those drums just right and singing incredible background vocals. I still smile when I hear Dan’s voice harmonize with mine on recordings. BXF spent the better part of 6 years triumphantly touring the tri-state area and building a name for ourselves as a powerhouse live band, we had our songs used on TV, won a music video shoot in a Long Island Battle of the Bands and recorded more than enough material for a killer album, but we couldn’t find anyone at a major record label who believed in our sound enough to sign us. Most of my father’s contacts were now old and couldn’t recognize something as aggressively new and in your face as BXF. We had tons of offers from Indy Labels, but I was now married and had no real interest at the time in going out on the road supported by an indy label with no money. I’d seen that not work out for my father too many times. Also, touring was hard, because I was making money to fund the band in Manhattan. At this time, I was doing very well financially, I had become a big voice over actor and was making big money, but NOT as a musician. My sadness about Kris and my fear that maybe I just wasn’t any good began to get the better of me. I had decided to quit music all together literally on the same day I got the phone call to be on “Rock the Cradle”. Within hours of saying to myself, “That’s it, I’m done.” They called and asked if they could fly me to LA. It seemed like BXF’s big break at first! But the impression I gave people on stage on TV wasn’t quite the same experience of a BXF show, which was much heavier and wild. When the show was all wrapped up I had tons of opportunity and interest, just not in my punk/metal band. It was a frustrating time. I had proved what I could do, but now I couldn’t get the opportunity to prove what BXF could do. Somewhere along the way, between Rock the Cradle and life, I realized that while I loved "Baptized By Fire” our style was limiting the types of songs I could write for us and I needed an outlet for the rest of my material. At first, I tried to change BXF’s style, but after one rehearsal, it just felt all wrong. I wanted to experiment and try new things, but I didn’t want to drag my band there with me if it wasn’t what they were looking to do. Well maybe it was time to be on my own for a bit. Baptized By Fire was disbanded sadly but amicably and we released our album online post mortem. And guess what? People loved it and I am still very proud of it. “Juggernaut” has since become the honored theme song to the popular podcast, “The Movie Crypt with Adam Green and Joe Lynch”. This year I decided to release EVERYTHING that we had ever recorded as “Jesse Blaze Snider and Baptized By Fire - The Phoenix” - it’s SIXTEEN TRACKS and it’s available everywhere! If you’ve never heard it before, here’s a FREE LINK: bit.ly/BXF16 - give it a listen for my friend Kris and my amazing band who put everything they had into every song! Thank you for reading this whole thing, it felt really good to get it all out. I still have a few more tears to shed I guess, but it’s great fuel for my song writing. Don’t forget to practice the Kris Dalene, Baptized By Fire and JBS mantra everyday: “You can’t slow me down I’m unstoppable. You can’t cover me up I’m untoppable. You can’t figure me out I’m everything I’m not. Stay outta my way, I’m a Juggernaut.” Love and Respect, Jesse Blaze Snider (September 3rd, 2016) Watch our classic video for “JUGGERNAUT” starring Dee Snider, Cody Blue Snider and Mark Doran….