Guitarist CHRIS CAFFERY (TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, SAVATAGE), who has also become a force to be reckoned with the in the hot sauce industry, has checked in with the following update:

"It was an awesome weekend at the second annual new New York City Hot Sauce Expo sponsored by High River Sauces! Thousands of chile heads came through the doors and a good time was had by all! It was rather amusing watching some of the pepper eating contests. This new Carolina Reaper pepper is crazy hot and some people are probably waking up a little sore this morning! Ouch!

I met so many awesome people at the high High River Sauces booth! Mr. Steve Seabury has a lot to be proud of. He busted his butt getting this all together and I'm proud to be a part of the High River family. Here's a photo of the Golden Chili award we received for my Tears of the Sun Hot Sauce! High River took 4 of these world championship awards this year including awards for Steve's amazing Rogue and Hellacious hot sauces. All of these sauces are available online through High River and I suggest you buy a few because it's grilling season soon my friends!

Back to writing today and baseball season starts in NY!

Getting together my travel arrangements for the end if April I will be flying to Germany and performing as a special guest for DORO's 30th anniversary concerts in Dusseldorf on May 2nd and 3rd!

Bye bye winter! Peace!"

Caffery recently spoke with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai about the hot sauce business:

“It’s fun, and it’s not that different from music in that the critics rip you apart, probably even worse than they do in music (laughs). I think it’s the same kind of thing. Anybody can listen to music the same way anybody can eat. Some of these opinions on taste are the same as sound. Some people may know something about food, some people may know nothing, and in the end it comes down to the individual’s taste. The response has been really good and people really seem to like High River Sauces. There are a few more sauces that I want to get out and my partner Steve (Seabury) has a plan, so I’m being patient with him because he’s doing a great job. I’m not trying to force the issue and he’s working at it all the time, so I’m letting him go with his gut on it. I think I’ll have another hot sauce out by Halloween.”
“I made hot sauce royalties within the first couple of years,” he adds, possibly sounding a little bewildered by his own success. “It took me a hell of a lot longer to make music royalties. It’s developing, it’s fun, it’s artistic, I grow the peppers, I get to be a part of these hot sauce conventions… it’s a cool thing. Plus I really like working with Steve. He’s a great guy and we’re making a lot of the other hot sauce companies nervous because we’re getting a lot of attention really fast. That’s because of one thing: the sauces are good. If they weren’t good we wouldn’t be able to get the attention we’ve been getting. We have great marketing ideas and we’re both hungry.”

Go to this location for the complete story, including discussion on Caffery's forthcoming solo album.

For information on High River Sauces click here.