SAVATAGE / JON OLIVA'S PAIN frontman/founder Jon Oliva, currently on tour in Europe with JOP, is featured in a new interview with MetalBlast.net. An excerpt is available below:

MB: Why did you decide to do a tour focused on Savatage’s The Hall Of The Mountain King, instead of playing material from Jon Oliva’s Pain?

Jon Oliva: "It was an idea that Chris Kinder (drums) and our tour manager had and then told me about. I thought that it would be fun, because we haven’t done a new JOP record since Matt passed away. We didn’t really know what we wanted to do, but we did know we wanted to come out and play a little bit. I thought that because the old albums are now being re-issued, it would be good to give them a little kick in the butt; plus, I’ve never done this before, so to do something new is exciting, it was different, since I’ve never played a whole album live like this. The fans have been loving it, it’s been going really good and I’m really happy about it."

MB: Is Savatage now really over?

Jon Oliva: "Everyone keeps saying that but I don’t think people realize that Savatage is still together, it’s just a different band (TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA) with more people. If you look at it, it’s Jon Oliva, Paul O’Neill, Al Pitrelli, Chris Caffery, Johnny Middleton, Jeff Plate. I mean, everyone from Savatage is there on all the records and on the road most of us are there.

TSO is doing so well that it doesn’t make sense to stop it to do a Savatage thing. If you wanna hear Savatage come see me, because I’m the original singer so hearing me do my stuff is going to sound more like Savatage than anybody but Savatage. That’s why I come over and do this: I love the Savatage stuff and I love to play it and I don’t really see Savatage thing happening because how popular TSO has become and the time it takes to do this stuff, it’s simply not feasible. If you do an album and a tour then you’re talking about a year. We’re not going to throw something together just for the money, because we don’t need the money. Savatage was never about the money and neither is JOP, it’s about the love of playing and the people. I’m not making any money here, I’m losing my ass. But I don’t care, I’m smiling and I’m having a good fucking time!"

MB: What’s in the future now for JOP?

Jon Oliva: "We’re going to do an album; I’ve got some weird ideas that I wanna try and I’ve got some time to do it. I don’t wanna do just 'another' JOP record, I’ve done four of those already. I wanna do something different. I have some material that I’ve wanted to put out for a while, that I’ll talk with the record company about, maybe putting something out quickly, like in the next four or five months, to give me more time to do this JOP record, because I want that to be special, and I’ve got some friends from other bands that are going to come and play. We’re going to do a regular JOP record and then a bonus disc with guest stars, kind of like the AVANTASIA thing but not a whole story. Tobias Sammet does a magnificent job with it, but I don’t have that much fucking time to write a whole story, so I’ll just have some friends from various bands come in."

Click here for the complete interview.

Jon Oliva's Pain's schedule is as follows:

July

9 - Z7 - Pratteln, Switzerland
10 - Live Club - Milan, Italy
12 - Bang Your Head Festival - Balingen, Germany
13 - 013 - Tilburg, Netherlands
15 - Garage - London, UK

On June 16th, Jon Oliva's Pain performed The Hall Of The Mountain King in it's entirety at the Ritz Theatre in Ybor City (Tampa, Florida). The show was filmed for an upcoming DVD release, but the band has issued the following call for additional material:

"If anyone happen to record any good video footage of the JOP Ritz show Saturday night? Well, if you know how to get it off your device and put it on a CD or DVD (as to put it in the mail to us), we'd be interested in seeing your footage and possibly using it for the official DVD of the show. Basically, we're interested in high quality footage that's not terribly shaky or have a ton of heads in the way. Please email drewblanton@yahoo.com if you'd like to help us! Of course you will be compensated for your time and expense."

Check out some fan-filmed footage from the show below: