{"id":540859,"date":"2026-07-14T11:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/540859\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:27:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:27:23","slug":"i-sat-on-that-song-for-two-decades-i-knew-that-i-got-something-special-the-powerful-anthem-by-five-finger-death-punch-and-the-dramatic-video-that-shook-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/540859\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI sat on that song for two decades. I knew that I got something special\u201d: The powerful anthem by Five Finger Death Punch and the dramatic video that shook America"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory is 100% certain that Wrong Side Of Heaven is the band\u2019s most important song.<\/p>\n

He tells MusicRadar: \u201cIt\u2019s our biggest song, our most watched video. It had a huge impact on our career.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Released in 2013 as the title track from the band\u2019s fourth album, Wrong Side Of Heaven has achieved more than half a billion streams on Spotify<\/a>, while the video has the same number of views on YouTube.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

For all its significance, this song was also a long, long time in the making.<\/p>\n

Bathory recalls: \u201cWrong Side Of Heaven started out as this little riff that I had for probably two decades. It was this nugget of gold. I knew that I got something special, but I had to wait until the time was right to record it.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cOther artists can associate and understand what I\u2019m saying. When you have something really good, you tend to sit on that, you tend to not release it, because you don\u2019t want to screw up a brilliant idea. You want to make sure that you\u2019ve got the best possible treatment it can get.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for almost two decades I was sitting on that song and just playing around with it, and until finally it felt right and it became the title song of the fourth record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

Five Finger Death Punch – Wrong Side of Heaven (Official Audio) – YouTube
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The songwriting credits for Wrong Side Of Heaven are shared by Bathory with singer Ivan Moody, guitarist Jason Hook, drummer Jeremy Spencer and producer Kevin Churko.<\/p>\n

Bathory admits he was still unsure that the track was ready for release until he read Moody\u2019s lyrics and heard his lead vocal.<\/p>\n

He explains: \u201cWhen you have a piece that you know can be brilliant, everything matters \u2013 the right melodies, the right vocals, the right mix. If you nail it all, this is a legacy piece. This is something that might change your entire career.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the music, and once we were in the studio we played around with arrangement a little bit. But when it came to the recording, I said to the producer Kevin Churko, \u2018This piece is very special to me, so let\u2019s just see where it goes. And if it\u2019s not what I think it should be, then I\u2019m going to pull it, because it\u2019s too important to me to just squander it. It\u2019s a very important piece, and it needs to be what I think it can be.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you have this protective feeling over the track, and I wasn\u2019t really relaxed about it until Ivan came back with the lyrics and those vocal melodies. Once I heard the vocals, I was like, \u2018Ah, okay.\u2019 I mean, it was incredible. So Ivan did justice to the song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in the late \u201980s, Guns N\u2019 Roses singer Axl Rose famously said that if his ballad November Rain was not recorded to his satisfaction he would quit the music business.<\/p>\n

Zoltan Bathory knows where Axl was coming from.<\/p>\n

\u201cI one hundred per cent understand that feeling,\u201d he says. \u201cThe pressure is self-inflicted, but it\u2019s my own expectations that I put on myself, so it doesn’t necessarily affect me in a bad way. I\u2019m not freaking out. I\u2019m just very protective over the song.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I told that to the other guys. I said, \u2018If it\u2019s not perfect, we\u2019ll hold it. If it\u2019s not what it can be, we\u2019ll hold it and work on it for another ten years or whatever. But this has to be right.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, I understand Axl Rose one hundred per cent. I understand that feeling. And once Ivan\u2019s vocals were on it and Kevin start mixing it, we all knew, like, \u2018Holy shit \u2013 this really is something!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The video for Wrong Side Of Heaven gave a new level of meaning to the song. It was directed by Nick Peterson and based on Bathory\u2019s original concept.<\/p>\n

Five Finger Death Punch – Wrong Side Of Heaven – YouTube
\n\"Five<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother interesting thing about that song is that it wasn\u2019t planned to be a single,\u201d Bathory says. \u201cBut I went to the label and I said, \u2018I have an idea. This song is very important to me, and also the lyrics. I think we can use it to support a serious cause.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the video is about veterans, and how many homeless veterans there are. The idea was, \u2018Let\u2019s expose the facts, let\u2019s put all the data on the screen of how many homeless people there are \u2013 especially veterans.\u2019<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cThe words \u2018veterans\u2019 and \u2018homeless\u2019 should never be in the same sentence. These guys sacrifice too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo in the end this becomes the most watched video we\u2019ve ever done, and it had such an impact that serious politicians had to address this issue, serious newspapers had to address it, because we exposed data about homelessness and PTSD [Post-traumatic stress disorder]. And we also put our money where our mouth is, because we raised a quarter of a million dollars for these causes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says in conclusion: \u201cI\u2019m proud that we gave this kind of support to veterans, and I\u2019m proud that this song had such a huge impact on our career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five Finger Death Punch guitarist Zoltan Bathory is 100% certain that Wrong Side Of Heaven is the band\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-540859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}