Ron: Hey Jon, how are you doin this morning?

J: A little tired from the weekend, been in the studio putting in some mega hours, but I'll be all right, got the day off so...

R: You guys are right in the middle of the new album right?

J: Yeah, we're about 2-3 weeks into it, it's coming out great, really happy.  Psyched up.

R: The album is called Poets and Madmen?

J: Correct

R: Is it a concept album?

J: I don't know, I don't think so, that's just a working title right now, what we do is we usually write a lot of the lyrics when we're actually in the studio recording, until then we really don't have any set lyrics.  Paul and I have been throwing around ideas, but we really aren't solid on anything, we usually finish up the lyrics the last three or four weeks of the record, that's when we really focus in on that.  It's really too early to tell, because you never know with paul, i mean he'll dawn something on me and it'll be a concept and i'll be like 'but i told people it wasn't!' and then it will be if i say it won't be or vice versa.  So, I don't really know, all i know is that the music, the material is really really good, its very strong and we're psyched.

R: what would you say the tone of the album is?

J: The tone is kind of indescribable, its got a very very heavy edge to it, I'd say certain tracks are reminiscent of the Mountain King period, I'd say Power of the Night/Mountain King period, there are a couple songs reminiscent of the Streets period, and then there's new kinds of stuff that we've come up with.  We have a 10 minute song that's really intense, kind of our new "Chance" for this record, and it's hard to say, the stuff is a lot heavier than the last record that's for sure, and there's 13 songs so its a lot of material, and you'll just have to see for yourself, but I think you'll like it.

R: You formed your own label, Wild Child, with Nuclear Blast, what will this do for you?

J: Well, that's something that has very little to do with me right now, the label thing is something being done out of our office, and to be honest with you I've been so wrapped up in this record I really don't know what its gonna do for me, I mean its gonna give me the option obviously of bringing some bands and stuff in in to, maybe that I like, that I wanna do some work with, cause I do produce, it'll give me a road that I can do something like that with, or do a solo record through or something like that.  I've been thinking about doing that for a few years, and I dunno, we'll see.  Its a whole new thing going on, but Poets and Madmen will be the first thing out, and we'll see what happens with that and how things develop from there.

R: What's it like doing TSO and working with the orchestration and all that?

J: I'll tell you what it does, its making our Savatage song writing a lot more adventurous and a lot more fun to do, working with all those people, its very challenging to your musicianship to try to get it all to work, so you're really focused in on stuff, so now when we come back to Savatage we have a whole fresh approach to things, and its done us a lot of good.  Its very challenging to work with TSO because its all gotta be spot perfect, its not as much free flow, as free form as Savatage.  With Savatage we can really do whatever we want, but TSO you're writing to a story line.  The story is first, and that's what the whole thing is about, and you kind of construct everything around the story, as the story gets heavy the you get a little heavier, when the story lightens up you lighten the music up, you know, its a whole different concept than writing a rock album like a Savatage record where you just go into a room and jam for a couple weeks and just start taping stuff and then you put the lyrics around that.  So its cool.

R: There are rumors that Beethoven's Last Night might become a broadway show, if it did, would you be interested in being a part of it?

J: I don't know, I don't know if I could handle doing the broadway type thing where you're in the same place every night, cause I like to travel too much,  and I like to tour.  I don't think I would ever lock myself into a single thing until I decided I didn't want to do Savatage anymore, and I don't really see that happening for a while.  Savatage has got like a rebirth going on, and we're doing really good in other parts of the world, where Savatage is a top ten band, in places other than the US, so I'm gonna explore that a little more.  You know, I just got too much spunk in my ass to quit, I'm ready to keep rocking for a while!

R: Speaking of broadway, about the "Romanov" musical you were involved with...

J: Well that's gonna become a TSO project now, we're gonna record that after... we're gonna do another christmas thing, and then Romanov.  As far as what's going on with that, that's Paul's baby, I just wrote music for it, but it is on the table as a TSO project.

R: You mentioned that in Europe, Savatage, and the type of music you guys play is a lot bigger than it is in the US right now, does that make it more fun to tour in europe?

J: Well, its fun to play anywhere, but, I can put on a show there that I think is worth the price of admission for people to come and see, because the bands getting paid what the band is worth.  Here in america, its like, I can't give the fans an A show getting paid the type of money that they offer, what some of these places are paying, a lot of these are club situations where you can't really do anything, over there we're playing arenas and outdoor things and on playing on big stages where you can put on a show and have a huge light show and all that... I can't do that at, like, where are you from?

R: We're in Rochester

J:  Well see, I can't put a show on at the Penny Arcade like I can in Oberhousen Germany, you know what I mean? And it bothers me, its not that I don't want to do it, it'd be great if Savatage was playing bigger places in America, but I think that's gonna come about after this album comes out, I think you'll find that we'll be doing bigger rooms, and we're gonna try and do some kind of a package tour here, in America, with a couple other bands, maybe right after the holidays.  We're gonna do some US dates in August and early September, and then we're going to europe, and then we're gonna do TSO stuff for Christmas this year, and then after Christmas Savatage is gonna go back out, and so I think we may be doing some kind of a package thing here in America, with like 2 or 3  bands where we can get into some rooms at least big enough where you can put on some kind of a performance.

R: It seems to me that there may be a greater interest in this type of music, Iron Maiden for instance, on their next tour are playing Madison Square Garden, and all the places they used to play, whereas they were playing in clubs before too.

J: Yeah, exactly, I mean, you never know, I think a lot of it has to do with this new album, I'll tell you right now, for me this is the best material I've written since Mountain King/Gutter Ballet period of time, so I'm really really excited about it, I'm stoked.  It came out really good, its really heavy, but its a different kind of heavy.  There's new stuff, its a weird kind of heavy, but its definitely heavy.  I'm doing a lot of weird stuff on this record, using a lot of synth and weird things going on, but its all in a very heavy base.  There's only one ballad on the record and that's only a ballad for half the song and even the second half of the song is heavy, on the way out.  People are gonna be surprised if they're expecting anything like the last two records, which were concept records which again, you write stuff around a story line and you pretty much write locked into the story, but this record is different.  We had no story line at all, we just wrote music for 6-7 months and wrote like 40 songs and picked the 14 best ones, and I'll tell you what, that was the hardest job I had to do was pick through what songs we were gonna put on this new Savatage record.

R: I'd have to say that things from the Hall of the Mountain King album are what we get the most requests for on our show.

J: Well they're gonna love this record, they're gonna love it.

R: What do you think of the current state of the hard music you guys play?

J: Well i'm optimistic about the future, Ronnie came through here last week-

R: Oh yeah, I saw Dio

J: Where did you see him?

R: Irving Plaza

J: Oh, you were at the show!  Oh, okay, there you go.  Ronnie was there, he sold out there, and that's a good sign, because I know a year or so ago he did the birch hill and like, 600 people, and now he came back through on the strength of this new album I guess, I'll be honest with you I haven't heard the new album, but Chris was at the show, I was in the studio, but, that's a strong sign, I've heard there are some other bands, guys that are out doing shows, where the people are starting to come out to see shows again, which is a good thing so hopefully, when the record comes out and people like it and buy it, well, cause we are gonna be out there playing, so they're are gonna be able to get to us.

R: What do you think of the current mp3 controversy?

J:  Well, it scares me.  I really don't know, its scary because it could really affect a lot of the guys who count on what we do to make a living and support families and shit, but I can't really dwell on it or worry about it, because I haven't had a problem with anything yet, things have been going good for us and we haven't had a problem so we'll just see what happens, but it does concern me though, big time.

R: Well, with the internet, you guys have a nice web site, 

J:  Yeah, our web site is cool

R  I was surprised, it looks like Chris is just updating every day...

J:  Well that's what we do, Johnny did it for a while, now he's passed it over to Chris, and Chris is gonna do it for a while, we're personally involved with our web site on a daily basis, and we try to keep things going and keep it interesting and keep everybody updated as best we can.  Its gonna get tough here now cause these hours we're doing here in the studio are really heavy and we're not getting done till 5-6 in the morning, but we try to keep everybody posted.

R: Are there any bands right now that you'd like to work with?

J: Yeah, Metallica! [laughs] James could come do the record for 100,000!  There's a lot of great bands, there's one band I wanted to work with was The Gathering, that girl's voice, I just love her voice so much, she's brilliant.  I really haven't heard much over the last year, I've been pretty wrapped up between TSO and Savatage I've been like living in a bubble, so I couldn't really say, but I am getting into that aspect of the business more so and I'm gonna be keeping my ears open for bands that are looking for producers because I'm definitely interested in doing something like that down the road, got some free time coming up.

R: What are some of your favorite songs to play?

J: I like doing Tonight He Grins Again a lot, and I like doing Hall of the Mountain King, that's always fun, a great song to do live cause you can have a good time with that, we mess around with that now, we do a break down in the middle that's pretty cool and we can jam off a little bit and have some fun, Gutter Ballet I love playing that song live too except I keep screwing up the intro! For some reason I have this mental block and I keep stumbling on a note, and we actually have bets before the show if I'm gonna screw it up that night, some of the roadies have made some cash on me believe me!  But yeah, those three would be my favorite ones.

R: I don't know if you've seen this site, www.metal-sludge.com, but they're all about this mud-slinging that goes on between bands, and I've never seen anyone from Savatage mentioned there, do you guys try to avoid that or do you just have friendly relationships with everyone?

J: I dunno, I mean, we're pretty easy to get along with, you really have to be an asshole for us not to like you.  I don't think its anybody's business, I mean, I've always believed in this, I respect musicians for being musicians, it doesn't matter to me if they play bluegrass or death metal, the fact that they're out there making a living with their instruments is enough for me, and I just ask for the same respect that I show them.  I don't say anything bad about what they do, I mean, I don't call death metal garbage and I don't think anyone should call what I do garbage, because what I do is what I do, I'm not trying to impress anybody, I just do what comes from the heart, and I don't say anything about anybody because its not my place.  You know, everyone's got their own agenda and their own things they have to do, but getting involved in mud-slinging and shit like that, its just a distraction from your work and your writing, and we don't want any distractions from what's important, which is making great records for our fans

R: Now that Al has joined Megadeth, Chris is doing all the guitars on the album?

J: Yes

R: Since you're in the studio, I guess you're not actively looking for a replacement?

J: Well, we're gonna get somebody, but I mean, if I walk out of the apartment today, and the new guitar player happens to trip over me... I mean, I dunno.  Chris is doing the record right now, and we don't want to rush into things, we don't want to get somebody who's gonna be gone in another year or two, we want someone who's gonna be there for a while, so, you know, I'm gonna take my time and look for one.  Savatage is a two guitar band, there's so much material to cover and there's so much going on, I don't think one guitar player could ever cover it.  We're gonna find somebody, but we're gonna take our time, and we have a few months before we go on tour, and we're gonna find someone and take them out on tour with us, and see how things go from there.

R: Well, that's about it for questions, good talking to you!

J: Good talking to you, look forward to the record, you're gonna like it bro.