Maria Voutiriadou at Metal-Temple.com recently spoke caught up with JON OLIVA'S PAIN / ex-SAVATAGE frontman Jon Oliva to discuss the new JOP album, Festival. An excerpt is available below.

Q: What about 'Festival'? What about the lyrics?

Oliva: "It’s all based on a nightmare, a dream I had, it was really the whole thing I had when I lived in a hotel in Central Europe. Actually I spent a lot of time in hotels, there I was here in Belgium - if I remember correctly -, or in maybe in Holland. Nevertheless, I went to bed with the windows open and I woke up in the middle of the night freezing having forgotten that it gets cold in Europe. So, I closed the window and went back to bed into a weird dream. It was something like this place, a festival site, with big gates and there was a guy craving people in, but when you walked around, you could see people with no heads, jars with arms in them, people walked around with no eyes and there was a big exit on the back and I wanted to get to it, checking out from my dream. When I was trying to walk to get to it, I only could see twisted, freaking shit around with hatchets and no foreheads and then I woke up sweating to death because in some point in the night I must turned the heat on and closed the windows and I woke up. It was like having a shower. And I sat in my room’s desk and wrote all these down and I was like ‘Welcome to the Festival…’ (sings). That’s exactly what happened. I wrote the whole song in twenty minutes."

Click here for the complete interview.

Jon Oliva's Pain recently checked in with the following update:

"Alrighty people...time for final preparations for the upcoming JOP show at the State Theatre in St. Pete, Florida on Friday, September 17th. Go to this location for ticket info. This is an all-ages show!

In other news, due to personal obligations here at home, bassist Kevin Rothney and guitarist Tom McDyne will be unable to join us for this show and the upcoming tour. Everything possible was done to insure that they would be able to attend, and we will miss not having them with JOP for this tour.

So, please welcome back Jerry Outlaw on guitar. Many will remember Jerry from JOP's past tours in support of our first release, 'Tage Mahal. Jerry is one of the most brilliant guitar players anywhere. His stellar tribute band to Frank Zappa (BOGUS POMP), is one of the most recognized Zappa bands in the world. Check him out for yourselves on the net.

Taking over bass duties for the tour is Tampa's phenom-bass player, Jason Gaines. With credits such as BASIC ROCK OUTFIT and GROOVE ALTAR, he is one of the most sought after and busiest bass players around. We are grateful to find such a talent to round out the line-up for these shows.

Rehearsals are going great and we will be ready to bring the JOP/SAVATAGE catalog to life in just a few days. See you at the State Theatre and on tour in Europe beginning September 28th in Berlin, Germany. Don't forget the live DVD filming at The 013 in Tilburg, Holland on October 15th!"

The band's tour schedule is now as follows:

September

17 - St. Petersburg, Florida - The State Theatre
28 - Berlin, Germany - Halford
29 - Prague, Czech Republic - Exit Club

October

1 - Gunzendorf, Germany - Prog Metal Night
2 - Essen, Germany - Turock
5 - Hamburg, Germany -New Ballroom
6 - Aschaffenburg, Germany -Colos-Saal
8 - Köln, Germany - Werkstatt
9 - Memmingen, Germany - Kaminwerk
10 - Ludwigsburg, Germany - Rockfabrik
12 - Colmar, France - Grillen
13 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7
15 - Tilburg, Holland - 013 (DVD concert - no support act)
16 - Vosselar, Belgium - Biebob