ADDIO, CRISS

From: Flash, Italy, december 1993
Contributed by: HOUNDS Italian Savatage fanclub.
Translated by: Ard Bakvis
HTML by: Ellen Bakvis

Criss Oliva, one of the best and most respected musicians of the international Heavy Metal scene, lost his life tragically. On his way home,the Savatage guitarist collided with a drunk driver...

The immense circus of Heavy Metal forever loses one of its main characters: Criss Oliva, only thirty years of age, leader and guitarist of Savatyage right from the very beginning.
On his way home from the Livestock festival, where the top of the Floridan metal scene meets yearly, Criss and his wife were driving on an innerstate highway, when an approaching vehicle caused a horrible accident by performing a risky passing manoeuvre.
Criss died on the spot, while his wife at the time that we are writing this, has been admitted to hospital in critical condition.
To be specific, the miserable person that caused the accident was completely drunk !

His brother Jon ( ex-singer but one of the major composers of the latest album "Edge Of Thorns") has decided to discontinue Savatage.
We can not provide you with any more details at this moment, but we are trying to locate bassist Johnny Lee Middleton, who remained friends with the editorial staff of FLASH since Savatage's first performance in Italy.

We are all extremely sad, but without any rhetorics or misplaced hypocrisy we would like to commemorate Criss Oliva with this "face-to-face", recorded a while ago by Paola Ceci and never before published :

- Who would you like to be for one day ?
Jimmy Page, because he had lots of money and played guitars that I would really love to own.

- How would you like to be remembered ?
As a great composer, a capable guitarist and a nice person.

- Best advise that was ever given to you ( and by whom ) ?
My parents once told me: "Don't ever give up ! ". My wife also told me this many times.

- Give a short description of yourself...
A true professional.

- Things you can very well do without ?
Hate and money.

- With whom would you like to record a song ?
Jimmy Page.

- What is your favorite food ?
Pizza... without a doubt ! Especially the one from Italy.

- Favorite sport ?
Baseball.

- Favorite album ?
" Physical Graffiti " by Led Zeppelin.

- What was the first album you ever bought ?
" Alive " by Kiss.

- Your worst habit ?
Smoking.

- Luxury that you spend the most money on ?
I spend almost al my money on my house and my car.

- Do you have specific habits before a concert ?
I do no warming-up exercises. Maybe I just jam a little.

- If you could ask a wise person an intelligent question, what would it be ?
Why are we here.... on earth ?

 

 

 

 

 

The editorial staff.