Hi…

Well, I am writing this tour thingy again. The day is now Sept 13th. We were supposed to be leaving for Cleveland on the 8th. Things were going very well in NY, rehearsals were sounding fine. My voice improves on an hourly basis. The final rehearsal ended on the 7th and I spent most of the night packing and getting all of my last minute details together. I woke up around 9AM on Thursday the 8th. I was expecting a tour bus at my house in NY at noon. At 10AM things got drastically altered. I had received a call from Chris Kinder of Oliva’s Pain. He told me that there was a mix-up and the bus had not even left Nashville yet! I called the coach company and sure enough, it looked like I would have a lot more time to get things together. Most of my crew was already at my house, the only one who was meeting us in Cleveland was Ira. He was still touring with Metal Church.

I then made some calls to the gear rental company SST out of New Jersey and let them know that I was not sure of what to do about a pick-up or drop off as of yet! We all figured on about a 3 or 4AM arrival on the bus. The driver would be very tired and need to rest for a bit once we left so I decided to arrange a gear drop-off at my house to save extra time. If all went well we should have been able to make it to Cleveland in time for soundcheck. Well, all did not go well…the bus driver called me at 7PM to tell me he was just getting out of Tenessee and still had about a 13 hour drive. This would mean that with no sleep we could possibly make it to Cleveland on the bus by showtime. The bus company was trying to see if another bus was closer to NY. I sat around all night waiting for news which never arrived. In the meantime I had to deal with Ira missing his flight and trying to get him on another plane to Cleveland.

At midnight it turned into my birthday…this was a heck of a start!

Raethoven made some calls and we had 2 rental mini-vans set up for a possible emergency one-way ride to Cleveland in the morning. Jeff would drive his drums there and leave his vehicle with friends. An extremely sleepless night followed and at 7AM we decided it was time to move. We had heard nothing from the bus driver or the bus company. We headed to Enterprise and I paid for the 2 vans. This was a good thing because a few minutes later I heard from the bus driver who went straight to Cleveland…another mix-up.

We headed to my house and began to load the vehicles. With a little hope and prayer we fit everything!!! By 9:40AM we were on our way. I was driving the first few hours or so…traffic was ok out of the city. By noon we stopped for some fuel and McDonald’s. I wanted to get more Disney Happy Meal toys. I did get Mickey for my birthday! Taz took over the wheel of my van and we continued. A few more stops and time was flying by,

Things were appearing to be calming down. I had even put money in the wrong vending machine at a rest area. I hit return and got 6 quarters back from a dollar. Taz noticed we had a tire with very a very low air level. We stopped at the next exit for air and the air pump was 50cents…just what I had extra from the vending machine change!

We pulled into Cleveland at around 5:50PM. Doors for the show were at 6:30 I think! I had enough time to get my gear out of the vans, check the merchandise and head to the Holiday Inn for a shower. Thanks to Rockin Randy for the room for my birthday! When I got back I managed to check my guitar a bit, deal with the fire marshall about the scrims and check what our showtime was. It was now! Yup, the lights went down and it was 7:30. I had no set lists, no soundcheck and no sleep!

We played through the show and the band was pretty good considering. We did not have any rehearsal with Ira at all so we did not add new tunes into the set. Pisses Me Off was the ending song and the crowd sang along as usual! The show was a real blur. I was just happy we made it and the show went on!

Ripper was up next and Beyond Fear kicked some serious ass. I liken singing before or after Tim Owens to having to screw a chick before or after John Holmes…a tough act to follow or go on before! He was amazing as always. I said hi to the fans and got some birthday gifts…thanks to you all!

Jon Oliva was up next and he sounded incredible. The Mt. King was spot on. I was so happy to get to watch him sing. It is a really special thing and I never get to do it being onstage with him all the time. His stuff and the Savatage stuff all sounded really great. His band was very tight and first class. Greg had it sounding perfect. Taz had the lights tuned right in…the show was a success and I felt a lot more relaxed than 24 hours earlier.

Therion was up next and they were very good, I just had to get so much together that I only caught a few songs.

Afterwards I ran to the hotel to grab my things and went next door to the HOBlues to a martini bar for a birthday drink. I forget the name of the bar but the owner was Greek (Of Course) and made some serious birthday desert for us!

Before long we had to roll. I went on Oliva’s bus and we caught up on things and sat with Ira, Igor and John from Beyond Fear. Not many times or places that you sit with an Igor and an Ira. We had so much fun talking and laughing. At the next truck stop I headed to my bunk and crashed. I was hoping the worst was behind us on this run but as our friend SavaKat wrote in an e-mail we all had a feeling it was not!

What a birthday!!!

I woke up in the parking lot of the venue, kinda foggy from the night before. It was really frickin’ hot out when I got off of the bus. Mr. Kelly’s was really kinda uneventful at the time. I wanted to try and find my way to the hotel for a shower. I was not sure how or when this was going to happen. I hit the local Rite Aid for some supplies. I got some Halloween lights for my bunk and some rope lights for my WARPED scrims onstage. This was the first night that I was ever going to use “In-Ear” monitors. TSO has been trying to get me to use them for years. Fact is, my stage monitors were louder at 10 feet than the PA system is to the crowd! Oh well!

I really enjoyed practicing at home singing in my headphones, I had high expectations of this live. If soundcheck was any indication I was not going to be let down. Soundcheck went smoothly, then tried to find ,my way to the hotel. Still no ride and taxi’s seemed to be difficult in this neighborhood. Chicago Heights was not exactly the greatest neighborhood I had ever been in. We eventually loaded about 8 of us in the back of some guy from the club’s pick-up. Ira, Paul, Ripper, Jeff, Raethoven, and a few of Ripper’s guys…the ride was quite amusing. Lots of choruses of Green Acres being sung! The hotel seemed to have a rather interesting clientele…we quickly showered and awaited the return of our chariot to the venue.

I desperately needed a nap! I was going on before Beyond Fear this night, but there was a local opener so I had some time to sleep. I was a bit nervous about the turnout considering the neighborhood, the fact that it was a new club and the fact that the small add in the paper said Ripper Owens and Chris Caffert’y Faces. No mention of Savatage or TSO…no mention of Pisses Me Off..nothing!

I woke up and got ready to go onstage, the crowd was small but spirited. I had a really good night singing. This was the first show ever that we tried, Election Day, WARPED and State of the Head! Another surprise was when Jon Oliva came up and sang “Power of the Night” with us! He kicked ass!!!

Afterwards I sat in the club with some old friends and watched Ripper. People were really buying up my new T-Shirts and CD’s. I signed stuff for a bunch of board members and Savatage fans. I was bought a few birthday shots and everyone was having a great time. Crazy Mike Paine from the old Z-Rock days was in the house! It is always great to run into old friends on the road…I wanted to get to sleep because we had to cross the boarder into Canada…but as time went on in the evening I found out that this was going to be a whole new adventure!

To be cont……..

I was not quite in my bus to get ready for the long ride to Toronto when I was informed of something rather disturbing. There were a few of us in our touring party that could not get into Canada. Why? There were things on their records that were not too pleasing to the Canadian Government. Especially on 9-11. By records I do not mean ones like the Beatles either! I kinda thought we should just try to get in and see who could make it, do the shows any way possible…Paul O’Neill taught me a long time ago that the show must go on, but we promised the promoters we would re-schedule in the New Year so it was the safest bet to stay in the US. I went to sleep with no idea what was lying ahead for the next 4 days. When I woke up we were all frantically trying to contact everyone we knew in the region and find a venue to play somewhere. I thought Detroit would be a good idea of we could get WRIF on board. Taz our lighting designer suggested Pittsburgh. He knew of a venue and had strong radio contacts there. We still had no confirmation of what was going on so we went and checked into a hotel somewhere outside of Detroit. Many people decided to get their own rooms, I decided to hide on the bus. It was the first football Sunday of 2005-6. We had satellite and I had the NY games so I sat and watched the Jets get destroyed.

Later on some of the gang was going for Thai food, the rest wanted to find a sports bar. I still sat on the bus. Eventually I decided to walk to the sports bar. Paul LaPlaca joined me. It was not too far away. Cool place on a lake called the Lake Shore Yacht Club. It had most everything you could want on a football Sunday. Food, booze, games and a Hooters-like waitress staff. Friendly people all around. I ate a little, drank a little and decided to walk back to my hotel. I wanted way more exercise and figured this was the easiest way since the gym had no fitness center.

I walked back once more to the sports bar with Igor this time. Everyone was having a great time. Ripper, Ira, Paul, Ray, Wayne, the BFEAR guys, Igor and Kevin from Pain…we had a blast. Before long it was time to head back to the hotel and sleep. The next day was still filled with unanswered questions. Hopefully some things would be settled before long!

It was yet another 9-11 where we sat crippled due to the events of 2001. A true sign of terrorism, A few rock and roll guys stopped from performing a show. Why? I don’t know. I don’t think any of really know, only that it sucked!

We were off once again! Where? I dunno! Since Ripper lives near Akron we were planning to stop somewhere near his home and get rooms once again. We would only be about 90 minutes from Pittsburgh if that show was going to happen. We would find this out later in the day. I decided to take my own room and disappear from the world for a bit. We were at a hotel in Canton, Ohio. Lots of malls and stores around…just like everywhere in Ohio. I headed out to dinner with Jon Oliva, Chris Kinder, John Zahner and Greg our sound engineer. We hit an Indian restaurant. Nothing too thrilling, but the food was very good. On a scale of 1 to 10 I was asked how hot I wanted my vindaloo. I asked for a 9 1/2!! Afterwards I hit the mall to try and see if Verizon knew what was wrong with my new phone. When I got back to the hotel I learned that the show was on for Wednesday in Pittsburgh. I had to call the radio station for an interview after 10PM. I sat and watched football and awaited my interview. Some of the guys were hitting a few of the bars nearby, I had heard that Ray my tour manager was telling the manager of a strip club that we would do an acoustic show on Wednesday for free drinks. Too funny! I guess the DJ was spinning the WARPED CD too, seems to give a whole new meaning to Fool, Fool! I was so tired from doing nothing and went to sleep after doing some work online…Next stop the Steel City!!! Our task was to try and spread the word about our show in less than 48 hours!

Seems like I have had an awful lot of days off this year during my tours! I always hate days off…you usually get into trouble and spend way too much money on nothing! I woke up and checked my e-mail. I jumped in the shower and got ready to check out of the hotel. Everyone was anxious to get to Pittsburgh. We arrived at our hotel at about 2PM. The objective was to split up into teams and flier the city. Sounded pretty simple. Actually it was, but just how many people we could get to go to the show in 24 hours was still a mystery. I decided to go around the suburbs with Taz. DUDE! He was born and raised here. Remember, in a situation like this always go around the city with the person born there. Odds are you will get a lot more free drinks! I was definitely right in this case! Taz and I were picked up by a friend of his at about 5PM. We had to go pick up a car to use. The car was owned by the DJ’s sister. Right now I forget all of their names. Maybe when Taz reads this he can remind me and I can fix it. We stopped at the first bar to get the car. We did not want to be rude and had a drink, or was it 2? From there we stopped at many places. Staples to make copies…music stores…night clubs, sports bars, biker bars, after hours bars, restaurants. In many cases almost everyone in the place knew Taz. Except for Staples! We did not want to be rude so…ya know! Our meeting place with everyone else was near the Hard Rock Café’ by the river. The time to meet was 10PM, we arrived at 11:30. When we got there almost everyone was finished with their fliering…and started with their night of drinking! The college bar strip in Pittsburgh is really cool. Once again it is exactly what I dreamed college would be like…when I slept in High School!!!! All things wound up at a place called the Crazy Moose Saloon. Lots of metal, lots of liquids, lots of fun…what would the show be like tomorrow? Where did Ira and Taz go? Will Hurricane Ophelia rain out Jaxx? I don’t know. But, this was a heck of a lot better than sitting around in a hotel with nothing to do!!!!

I had decided to sleep on the bus last night. The hotel was really not that great and I have no problem sleeping on the bus at all. I looked at my phone to check the time and saw that Ira and Taz had called at about 4AM. I guess they made it to the after hours bar! The hotel restaurant was Indian! We did not have to leave ‘til 1PM. I decided to hit the fitness room. This was at about 10:30AM. Absolutely nothing in the room worked at all! I still wanted to get some exercise so I went running for about 30 minutes and headed to Jeff and Nick’s room to shower. After that I met Ripper and the JOP guys for the Indian buffet. This was probably the best Indian buffet I had ever eaten in my life! We all left stuffed and headed to the bus for the trip to the Rex. The theater was only 10 minutes away. Once we parked by the theater I still stayed on the bus, stuffed and tired! I had taken another walk around the strip where the theater was, it was the same street as the Moose! The theater was old, but had a cool vibe. I went in to soundcheck and then returned to the bus to get some more rest. Ripper was on first tonite so I had a little extra time to come to life! The showtime had come, the place was not packed by any means, but the crowd was festive. Many board members had made it out! The Nomads were beginning to show their true colors! Ripper had a great set, he is so incredible each night. It is weird going up to sing after him! I hit the stage and we did our thing. A few more people had arrived. The crowd was very responsive and really hip to the PMO Starbucks line! Afterwards I went out to sign things and watch JOP. Oliva was in a great mood, seemed to have a bit of a Jager-inspired performance. He did manage to mess the beginning of Gutter up once more! After his show I met Nick and a guy from Clear Channel across the street at a Japanese place for some Saki and conversation. The night was about over. I sold a lot of merchandise again. I was doing at least $5 a person on average…this is a good thing, people really seem to like my band live! We had our bus call and got ready for the ride to Virginia. Next stop Springfield and the Nomads of Jaxx!!!

Ahh Jaxx…the familiar parking lot. The garbage, the smell, the Afghan Kabab House…yup…Deja-vu all over again. I woke up at noon and knew I had ot leave very soon for a radio interview with Charlie Logan on XM Sattelite radio. The shoe The Boneyard has been playing Pisses Me Off a lot this year. Charlie is an old friend from Florida. He was actually the first DJ ever to play Savatage on the radio as Avatar in the early 1980’s. Oliva, Ripper and myself headed to the studio and I was quite amazed at the whole operation of XM. The network has over 4 million subscribers now! We all did our own separate stuff, Jon and I did some together for Butcher, Savatage and TSO. It was great to see Charlie and to see how well he is doing over at XM!

We got back to the hotel and took showers before heading back to Jaxx for soundcheck. Things seemed to be running smoothly, the monitor board really sucked here, I had some doubts about the in ears for tonite! Elissa came with her family. I took her to eat next door at the Afghan place. If you read my post 9-11 diary you will remember that I are here then too. Great suff! After dinner I went and took a nap, I was on before Ripper tonite after a local opener. There was not much advertisement in the club or local papers, I was not sure what to expect for attendance, seemed to be a theme on this tour!

As expected by myself it was a small but spirited crowd compared to what we usually do here with Savatage. I felt the ticket prices and promotion needed to be a bit different! Oh well, only so much I can do! My fans were in the house. The show was great. The monitors sucked! I know I was well represented because we sold over $10 per person in merchandise! This is a Rolling Stones like percentage. Lots of CD’s, lots of shirts! I said hello to everyone and watched Ripper and Oliva. Oliva was extremely humorous this evening. Another Jager event I suppose! I had a long talk with the club manager and owner after the show about the future and some shows after the TSO tour. I love Jay and the people at Jaxx. The cook rocks!!! The next night was Brooklyn, not sure what to expect there either since I live in NYCity and had not heard about the show once when I was home. SMELL THE GLOVE!!!

I woke up at a truck stop somewhere in New Jersey. I was pretty hungry and my throat was a bit sore so I headed in. I grabbed some throat stuff, a shower and a slice of pizza. Since everything has been a complete mess on this tour I decided to get the shower out of the way before we got to Brooklyn! I remember there were no showers at the old L’Amour and I had no idea how far away the hotel was. We arrived at the venue at 2PM…of course noone arrived until 4PM. When we walked in it was not pretty. The in house production at this place was a fucking joke. People wonder why the club scene has died and why noone wants to go out to see live bands anymore in the clubs. Well…it is because of situations like this. I remember being in this place and seeing Iron Maiden under a pseudo name of Charlotte and The Harlottes on the Piece of Mind Tour. I saw a ton of shows here. My friend Chuck Kaye was the DJ. It used to be packed regardless of who was in town. Savatage had played here on the Gutter tour twice. We shot some extra footage for the Crowds video here. It was not the same place. There was absolutely no monitor desk. This meant we would have to share one mix from the front of house. The front of house was a shitty little 12 channel Carvin mixing board. It was actually funny, but really sad. Jan, our monitor engineer and production manager was not sure if we could even play at all. We tried to get some extra gear brought in. By 7PM we realized this was impossible. Ripper and I wanted to play, Noone had informed Oliva of the disaster as of yet. We finally decided to give it a shot. There were a couple of local openers at the gig. One of them was apparently really upset for having their set cut short. After what we went through this week I was kinda like…grow up and get used to it. There was a decent crowd here. A younger more metal crowd. Ripper had a great set. Greek John was in the house with some friends. Igor was smashed working at the merch booth…figures on the night that he had to get all of the merch together and leave Oliva’s bus. JOP was getting dropped off at the airport in the AM. This Twilight Zone like week was almost over. I was up second. The building was 9,000 degrees. Luckily there was actually like 6 working lights on the stage. Yup 6…and the 2 front lights were actual house lights. A metal light fixture with 75 watt red bulbs. A fucking joke. Not that lights really matter to me. After being onstage with TSO anything short of a few hundred with moving lights and Frickin’ lasers is not impressive! But…people paid a lot of money to see the show, they deserve to see something more than this. I don’t know exactly why things were so screwed up this day or this week for that matter. I am going to blame Oliva, ‘cuz I always do! Wink Ira just made it to the stage as the intro was finished, I could not hear one note I sang or played the whole night. Other than that it was fine. I know it did not sound amazing. How do I know? Well, the frickin’ Sanford and Son PA system will tell you this even before you hear it! Oliva hit the stage and had a great show. The fans were very lively for the Savatage tunes. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Russell Allen from Symphony X. He was there with his lovely wife. Very cool couple! He is such an amazing singer! George from Savatage,com was in the house. Ken Pierce and Pete Pardo from SOTranquility too. Figures people would come to the gig where nothing worked well! Afterwards we had to get ready to say goodbye to JOP. I settled up some business with Mr. Kinder and my band. We said our goodbyes. Igor lost his mind over something, I dunno! I wanted to try and get some sleep. Tomorrow was another show and the first time I was to sing 4 nights in a row. I had to get up early too, the bus was dropping off gear somewhere in New Jersey in the morning. What a beautiful day in Brooklyn…or was it Baghdad? You could probably find somewhere to play with better sound and lights there!!!

I slept pretty erratic last night. I always do this when I know I have to wake up. We were to meet SST gear rentals at a rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike to drop off the Peavey gear we used for the tour. Thanks to Dave Ellefson and all at Peavey for their continued support! Of course the gear truck was 2 hours late so I sat half awake waiting. After the truck arrived Igor and I loaded the stuff out of the trailor. Wayne, our stage tech, flew down to work Prog Power. He actually missed the show last night too. A friend of Nick’s was filling in. At the moment I am spacing on his name. Ira showed up at the rest area in a cab. Someone had kidnapped him in the city last night. He is kinda like the dog that constantly runs away. You never know where he is, but he does eventually show up!!! I will fill it in at a later date…SORRY! We grabbed some Burger King and headed towards South Jersey. I was excited for this gig. Many reasons…it was a small place with no pressure…Elissa was coming in to drive me back to NY afterwards and…it was the last show! I love touring more than anyone, but, this run was really screwy! We loaded our stuff into the Pirate’s Den and awaited a ride to the hotel to shower. There was an arrest across the street, some crack whore was flashing people down the street…nice neighborhood! The hotel search was not much better. Half of the places had bullet proof windows at the desk! After the shower routine I headed back to clean my stuff up on the bus. It was that time again…to move out of my mobile home. I did not gather or bring too much stuff so this would not be too bad. After TSO it sux because you are on the bus for almost 2 months! The people at the club made a mean roast beef sandwich. They would not give me the recipe! I took a nap after dinner because my throat was sore and this was the first time I would be singing a 4th night in a row. I was not expected onstage until after 11PM so this was a good time to rest! I did my best to appear as a pirate for the stage. Hair tied in a pony tail, skull and cross bones shirt, ARRRRGGH! I actually got the crowd to make pirate noises all night! The show was a lot of fun. I could not hear myself too well again, but I knew the band sounded good. I had listened to soundcheck. The house guy was mixing. Greg flew back to Florida with JOP. Taz was gone too…we just went up and had fun. The crowd was very receptive and I once again sold a lot of CD’s. I love it when people take my music home with them. It makes me feel like all of the bull shit is worth it! Ripper hit the stage and was amazing once again. Butch came down to watch the show and drive us back to New York City. The bus was heading west with Beyond Fear and Jeff Plate! Jeff’s vehicle was still in Cleveland from the first gig! We loaded our stuff into Butch’s truck and awaited the end of Ripper’s set to gather the gear. I handled the rest of the band business, merch stuff, salaries, etc. It is so weird being the boss! There was a yellow sign for the club outside with lettering that you could remove. It was for the club marquee. John from Beyond Fear and I changed the sign to read Stripper Owens and Chris Caffery!!! It was a fitting end to a real Spinal Tap like week on the road. I got into Elissa’s car and we headed back north to Astoria. Butch followed, of course he got lost…would you expect any different? Ira flew our of Philly to LA, Nick lives in Philly, we lost Raethoven and that is about it for the Metal Insurgence tour. We do have a weekend in Florida coming up…only the Lord knows what to expect there! Goodnight!