Chris Caffery remembers Criss Oliva.

12/31/97

This is probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I would like to take a little bit of time to thank all of the Sava fans who have asked me to do this very difficult page.

Let me start at the beginning. Over ten years ago now, Paul O'Neill, who was my manager with the group "Heaven" approached me with the idea of playing in this group Savatage. Now, I've heard of a couple Savatage songs, namely "Siren" and "Holocaust" (which had recieved alot of airplay at local metal radio). But I wasn't familiar with the band.

The band's management at the time wanted to "stick" another guitarist in Savatage. The band had just gotten the Dio/Megadeth tour, and they wanted to fatten up the live sound. I was made known of the gig and learned all of the Sava songs from "Sirens" 'till "Mt. King" I had learned everything from "The Whip" to "Holocaust". I was then told Sava had taken a local guitarist to do the gig. I got mad. I called the mgt. and said look!!!!!! " I learned all of this stuff, let me pay for a ticket to Florida, if the band likes me better than this other kid, pay for my ticket and I will stay and rehearse for the tour. If not I will eat the ticket and go home". After playing only two songs "The Whip" and "24 Hour Ago", the band left the room. They came back five minutes later and asked me to do the tour. It was a natural match. I had never played with someone that I had felt that comfortable with.

We rehearsed for a couple of weeks. I did one show with them in Florida. It was a Christmas party for WYNF in Tampa. We only played two songs, "Mt. King" and "Power of the Night". I was pretty amazed when I watched this sleeping crowd come to life for Savatage. I stayed at the time with Steve Wacholz at his mom's house----"Ma Killdrums". I went home for Christmas and the next day Dec. 26th 1987 was my first real concert with Savatage. It was at the Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island. It was my first time on a tour bus. It was pretty wild. The first night I found myself in the bus bathroom with 2 females. "Dorothy I wasn't in Kansas anymore!!!"

It was an honor to meet Ronnie Dio and to support him. Savatage still wasn't sure what they wanted to do with me. I spent most of the tour on the side of the stage. I didn't care, I was having too much fun. On this tour I got to see Jon Oliva at his all time craziest. Him and Dave Mustaine both had a death wish. At the end of the Dio tour the band had decided they didn't need me anymore and I went to Los Angeles and lived with a stripper for a couple of months. -Doesn't everyone???-

I did miss Savatage a lot. Jon Oliva had told me once in South Carolina that I would be in the band the next album and he kept his word. On the Dio tour I hung out with Jon alot, he taught me to drink. Not anything to be proud of, but it's his fault. Criss was kinda in his own world then. I had to room with Wacholz. It was my initiation. We all became great friends very fast. The road is a great test to see if you can get along with people. You are in such a small place for a long time. Every night Criss and I would stay up and watch comedy movies like "Caddyshack" and "Ferris Beuller's Day Off". Eddie Murphy's "Delerious" was very popular too. On that tour Criss used an old Yamaha bass amps and some of my Carvin guitar cabinets with Celestions. His rig consisted of a couple of delays, two super overdrives by Boss. A Boss Chorus, ( Which I still have), and a Rockman. He had a unique way of running the amps clean and distorting them on the floor. The Rockman was responsible for a lot of the Classic "Mt. King" tone. Along with the metal guitar pick and Criss himself. I use the metal pick now also, it is very hard to get use to. I love it. He was using the Gargoyle guitar, at the time it had animal stripes. It's actually an ESP not a Jackson. Gary Smith airbrushed the Jackson on it when he did the Gargoyle before the Gutter tour. We had an endorsement then, so we had to.

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1/18/98 part 1

The last time I wrote to you it was a story from the Mt. King tour. I would like to start now with what turned out to be the wildest and most fun time of my whole life, the Gutter period.

I was in the studio recording with a band called Dirty Looks. We were in N.Y.C. and so was Savatage. One night after I left pre-production with D.L. I went to SIR studios to say hi to Savatage. We were very happy to see each other and I watched some of the rehearsal. They were writing a song called "You'll never know" which was very heavy and I liked it alot. Unfortunately it never made the Gutter album so you'll never know what it sounded like, no pun intended, unless we decide to release it as a bonus track in the future. I also had the pleasure that day of listening to Jon Oliva play "Crowds" for the very first time. I loved that immediately. I remember telling Paul in an elevator on my way to the studio with him one day that I just heard this piano song Jon wrote and that it was incredible. Paul had not yet heard it.

About a month later I was no longer working with Dirty Looks and was at the time in the process of going through Megadeth auditions. It was down to six people: Me, Marty, and four others. Dave and Dave were involved in some personal battles that needed time so I had to wait to do the final auditions. It was then when I got a call from Jon and Criss . I was working with my brother at a job we had in N.J. where we made gold record albums. That was very frustrating at times, but it was very easy work. I worked on a computer doing the engraving mostly.

The call came in and I remember it like it was yesterday. Criss said "Hey Biff we want you to come to the studio tonight, we wanna talk to you." Jon said "We have something we want to ask you, you may like it." I went to the "Record Plant" studios where they were doing Gutter and we went out onto the roof. I remember exactly what Criss said. He came right out with, "Even though we think your a dick, we wanna ask you to join the band." He was being funny of course, and I just smiled and I said "When?" They said now, I said OK. It was that simple.

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1/18/98 part 2

I never realized 'till years later how much it meant to Criss when he decided to add a person to the Sava-. Family. It was a very important thing to him and I eventually let him by leaving two years later, a decision that to this day kills me sometimes. Mostly because of the time that I lost on the 'Streets' tour and 'Edge' tour that unfortunately wound up being the last I could've had with my friend.

The band was leaving the next day to Europe to play the "Dynamo" festival and wanted to get an answer from me to tell the press about the "new guy". They were playing new stuff or I would have played that show. When they got back I got to start listening to the Gutter album as we finished it. Criss had all the guitar pretty much done, but still asked if I wanted to open a rhythm track and play on everything. After hearing it I said "Why, it sounds great, lets just get it done". When I first heard the stuff I think I liked "Rage", "Mentally" and "Hounds" the best.

I remember the day Criss had to fly to N.Y. again to do the solo on "Silk and Steel". The rhythm was done but we weren't sure if we were gonna use it. Criss was in N.Y. for six months and decided to go home. Paul asked him to come back and he wasn't thrilled about it. He walked in the studio and said, " You get one take O' Neill", which if you know Paul, never happens. He is a fabulous producer who likes to have a bunch to choose from. They rolled the tape, he played what you hear on the album and left the studio to go back to Tampa. One take, not warmed up, that was it!!! I was totally blown away.

After the mix was done Jon stayed at my house in New Jersey to do press with me. Which became my job on that tour with Jon, we were pretty funny together. Criss didn't talk much when he did interviews. I remember a time right before Criss first left when we visited WSOU radio in N. Jersey to give 'em a sneak preview of Gutter. The DJ asked us to introduce ourselves. Jon said, "Hi I'm Jon, I'm human garbage and singer", I said "Hi I'm Christopher, I'm new here, I play guitar and keys", Criss said " Hi I'm Criss Oliva, I am a guitar" that was it. "A Guitar". The interview was about an hour and that was about all he said. He was pretty accurate, I would say. It was Jon and my first interview and it went so well they decided Jon and I would do most of the press that year.

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The Gutter Ballet Rehearsal- 2/?/98

There's something about Florida that makes you very lazy. Luckily Savatage was never the kind of band to over rehearse!! I do remember the first time we played rehearsing for some Florida warm-up shows.

We always rehearsed very loud, I loved that!! We usually had a full PA and monitors in some big storage facility somewhere out by Ma Killdrums house. We all turned on, turned up then decided what to play. Criss started 'She's in Love' and we were off. After the song was done the band just stopped an clapped to me. We definitely missed playing together. A few weeks later we did a show at the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo hall. Wacholz had to book the show on the same night as Guavaween in Ybor City where about 500,000 people get dressed up and go parade around drunk in costume. Surprisingly enough we still drew 2000 people to the show. This was my first official show as a full member of the band, it was too much fun.

In the next month we took the photos for the Gutter album and decided to book a couple more shows before Christmas. The records release got pushed back to February so we weren't leaving to tour in December like we had originally thought. I remember Thanksgiving Eve that year very well. Jon and I went to a club with a girl he was seeing at the time. On the way back her car broke down. We were about 5 miles from he or Wacholz's house. So there is Jon and I,pushing her car down this deserted road at 4 in the morning. No cars came by but one. It was a white corvette, suspiciously looking a lot like Steve's. We yelled for it to stop but it didn't. We eventually got a tow truck out there and made it home.

The next day I was treated to the first of my four Oliva family Thanksgivings. Unlimited shrimp cocktail, football, it was a lot of fun. Criss, Jon their Dad were always very funny to watch & Mr. Oliva would immediately treat those two like they were 8 years old. Four years later Jon, Zak and Criss were in New York state at my Moms when they were finishing 'Edge of Thorns' on what turned out to be Criss' last Thanksgiving. This holiday is always very special to me now.

Back to 1989 & the following weekend we resumed our make believe rehearsals. That is when Wacholz came in. Jon and I were telling Criss and Johnny about what happened to us the night before Thanksgiving. We got to the part about the asshole that saw us kept driving. Wacholz turned around from tuning his drums and said "Oh that was you guys!!!" What a nipple head. Two weeks later we played at the Button South in Miami, our drum tech, Fletch had a motorized skateboard. We were all riding it around the parking lot. At showtime Jon, kinda feeling very festive at the time, put a Santa hat on and decides he wants to ride this skateboard out onto the stage. So we mike it. It sounds like a Harley!! The crowd is going wild anticipating Oliva riding out on a bike like Halford and then he comes out with a Santa hat and all, on a motorized skateboard. We were laughing to hard to start the first song. He got across the stage, fell and we began to play. Sometimes my life is just too funny to believe!!!

After a few a few months on a lake in North Jersey, trying to figure out how to water ski, Jon and I left left for Florida to stay with Wacholz at his place on Indian Rocks Beach. An extremely fun time, I must tell you.

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Chris' Ancient Tour Diary...5/19/98

As the U.S. Tour quickly approaches I wanted to spend a little time to go back in time once again for you. The response on my Tour Diary Contest has been great. Many of you have sent me some very nice old stories to read as well, and I thank you. Right now I am in Cortland New York, way Upstate, taking a little time away from the city to clear my head for the Up-coming mayhem that is about to ensue. So far this week (I arrived here on Monday) I have hiked; rode three wheelers and bikes; played lots of frisbee and football; actually swam in one of the coldest finger lakes there is(The temperature is not above 40 in the water yet!!!); overdosed on Austin Powers and Playstation; cruised college bars and played lots of pool and darts(college kids cannot play pool!!!) and got kicked out of many private lakes trying to find other places to swim and do my best John Denver routine. Tomorrow morning I get up before sunrise to go Turkey hunting, yes Turkey hunting. After that I will continue to work on my tan and prepare for an evening out with my friend John West’s cover band. I am sure to go play many of the songs I never knew in the first place, but will soon stumble my way thru. All in all I have had a great week!!! Sometimes I need a vacation from my vacation.

This brings me to why I am writing you in the first place. I decided to give you all an Ancient Tour Diary based on my memories of the cities we are about to play in America. This should be funny, trying to remember that is!!! Conneticuit (Is that spelled right?) We never played in Danbury when I was in the band with Criss. We did play in New Haven two times. Once on the Dio/Megadeth tour at the New Haven Colloseum. And once on the Testament tour at a place called Toads. Nothing too spectacular happened at either of the two shows themselves, however I do remember having this girl come on my bus that removed some of her clothing. On one of her breasts there was writing that said Hello Chris and Jon from a couple members of the Testament band and crew. I was sure to make it a point from then on to send lots of the same types of messages to them throughout the tour. We were on before them so I had many opportunities in the six weeks of that tour!!! Poughkeepsie We played the Chance twice on the Gutter tour. Once on the Mountain King Tour with Megadeth too! On the Gutter tour the headline show we played there with Trouble was the fourth to last show of that Long and Winding Tour. I remember the guys in Trouble having fun with us that night. They had been out with us for 3 months and the next show was the last. We were recording it for a live record so they decided to screw with us that night. In the middle of the encores they came out on-stage with a table, candles and a pizza. They sat there and ate the pizza during Mountain King and proceeded to remove Wacholz’s drums from the stage. Then they brought out whipped cream pies and I ran into the crowd with my guitar to hide as the guys got bombed!!! A very fun night I must say.