JON OLIVA - "We’re Going To Do A Regular JOP Record And Then A Bonus Disc With Guest Stars, Kind Of Like The AVANTASIA Thing" SAVATAGE / JON OLIVA'S PAIN frontman/founder
Jon Oliva, currently on
tour in Europe with JOP, is featured in a new interview with
MetalBlast.net. An excerpt is available below:
MB: Why did you decide to do a tour focused on Savatage’s The Hall
Of The Mountain King, instead of playing material from Jon Oliva’s Pain?
Jon Oliva: "It was an idea that Chris Kinder (drums) and our tour
manager had and then told me about. I thought that it would be fun,
because we haven’t done a new JOP record since Matt passed away. We
didn’t really know what we wanted to do, but we did know we wanted to
come out and play a little bit. I thought that because the old albums
are now being re-issued, it would be good to give them a little kick in
the butt; plus, I’ve never done this before, so to do something new is
exciting, it was different, since I’ve never played a whole album live
like this. The fans have been loving it, it’s been going really good and
I’m really happy about it."
MB: Is Savatage now really over?
Jon Oliva: "Everyone keeps saying that but I don’t think people
realize that Savatage is still together, it’s just a different band
(TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA) with more people. If you look at it, it’s Jon
Oliva, Paul O’Neill, Al Pitrelli, Chris Caffery, Johnny Middleton, Jeff
Plate. I mean, everyone from Savatage is there on all the records and
on the road most of us are there.
TSO is doing so well that it doesn’t make sense to stop it to do a
Savatage thing. If you wanna hear Savatage come see me, because I’m the
original singer so hearing me do my stuff is going to sound more like
Savatage than anybody but Savatage. That’s why I come over and do this: I
love the Savatage stuff and I love to play it and I don’t really see
Savatage thing happening because how popular TSO has become and the time
it takes to do this stuff, it’s simply not feasible. If you do an album
and a tour then you’re talking about a year. We’re not going to throw
something together just for the money, because we don’t need the money.
Savatage was never about the money and neither is JOP, it’s about the
love of playing and the people. I’m not making any money here, I’m
losing my ass. But I don’t care, I’m smiling and I’m having a good
fucking time!"
MB: What’s in the future now for JOP?
Jon Oliva: "We’re going to do an album; I’ve got some weird ideas
that I wanna try and I’ve got some time to do it. I don’t wanna do just
'another' JOP record, I’ve done four of those already. I wanna do
something different. I have some material that I’ve wanted to put out
for a while, that I’ll talk with the record company about, maybe putting
something out quickly, like in the next four or five months, to give me
more time to do this JOP record, because I want that to be special, and
I’ve got some friends from other bands that are going to come and play.
We’re going to do a regular JOP record and then a bonus disc with guest
stars, kind of like the AVANTASIA thing but not a whole story. Tobias
Sammet does a magnificent job with it, but I don’t have that much
fucking time to write a whole story, so I’ll just have some friends from
various bands come in."
Click here for the complete interview.