Paul O' Neill...On Criss Oliva

He was incredibly kind, everyone always speaks well of the dead. But in his case it just happens to be true! He was just one of the nicest people you could ever meet, very humble, especially since he was such a staggeringly great guitar player. I've worked with a ton of great guitar players, Criss was just...He was #1!

Everytime you would see Criss he would just give you a big hug. Criss treats people, the way you would treat people if you knew you were going to die the next day, Criss was just that way his whole life! He was just a class act. The Fred Astair of Rock n'Roll, he never had an unclassy move about him. He never let it go to his head that he was this great guitar player, not in the slightest way! He's been gone now for a few years and he's still in the top ten guitar polls in Europe!!

He and his brother (Jon) was one of the main reasons why I did Savatage. When Atlantic (records) flew me down to take a look at them, and I heard (Jon) Oliva singing, it was like whoa!! Then I heard Criss playing and I was... Wow!! And the rest is all history. Its like the depth of soul in his (Criss') playing is staggering, he could match Jon in bringing the story alive, but without the lyrics. I just loved the guy!

How did Paul find out about losing Criss?

I woke up that morning and there were like 900 messages on my machine, I knew something had happened. It just was everybody trying to call me to tell me about Criss, and nobody could find Jon. So I had tell Jon...

It was heavy!

I just had to get Jon over, I didn't want to do it over the phone. So basicly I told Jon I had cut my arm, and he had to come over. And Jon believing me and all the clumsy things I do, he came right over. We both freaked out!

It was just surrealistic that it just didn't seem real, it took a long time for it to settle in. I know it sounds over the top, but I really believe he's in the studio every time we record. Its a very strong presence. And of course we use his guitar (the Gargoyle) on everything we record.