HarderBeat.com correspondent Andy Laudano recently caught up with SAVATAGE / TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA / DORO guitarist Chris Caffery. The complete story appears below:

Guitarist Chris Caffery is best known for his work with both legendary metal band Savatage and the huge holiday phenomenon that is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. What fans may not know is that he just finished playing guitar - and singing on his third solo album, Pins and Needles.

Although Savatage always had a loyal following among metal fans, the group never achieved the huge commercial success they deserved. That only came for Caffery and his band mates after the unexpected popularity of their “side project,” Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Unfortunately, TSO’s touring and recording schedules left little to no time for Savatage, which has remained inactive since 2002. Frustrated by that band’s inactivity, Caffery began work on his first solo album, Faces.

In 2004 he joined fellow Savatage alumni founder/vocalist/keyboardist Jon Oliva and drummer Steve “Doc Killdrums” Wacholz to headline Atlanta’s ProgPower V as the Weapons of Mass Destruction, a tribute to Savatage.

“That was a lot of fun,” Chris recalls. “I’d never been to a ProgPower, and I was definitely impressed by the way it was set up. I’d love to play it again someday. It’s a great festival.”

After an injury forced vocalist Zak Stevens to miss the show, Caffery surprised fans by singing lead on the Savatage classic, 'Edge of Thorns'. “That was the first time I ever sang onstage,” he reports.

Faces was released shortly thereafter. Caffery found he had written so many songs, that he included a bonus disc entitled God Damn War. While touring in support of the album, Caffery learned a lot about himself and the people around him.

“A lot of things were very cool, but a lot of things were really frustrating,” Chris reveals. “I learned that I could sing live a lot better than I thought. That was a good thing, but some of my really good friends — who had given me a lot of help in the past — were kind of turning their backs on me because they wanted Savatage. That was something I wasn’t expecting. I think that everybody has a bug up their respective asses about Savatage not playing. They tend to get really pro whatever Jon is doing, but it seemed like a lot of people were going out of their way to make things a bit difficult for me at first, because they thought I had something to do with Savatage not playing. That was the furthest thing from the truth. I have absolutely nothing to do with Savatage not playing. I was doing my solo thing so I could tour — since Savatage wasn’t.”

Caffery’s second solo release W.A.R.P.E.D. was not clearly marketed. It contained the nine songs from God Damn War and six more new songs, but went mostly unnoticed by many who thought it was just a re-release of something they already owned.

Currently, Caffery is touring the U.S. with Germany’s Doro Pesch in support of his latest CD, Pins and Needles. He’s pulling double duty, opening the show and then playing in Doro’s band.

“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Chris explains. “Nick (Douglas), my bass player is in her band. I’ve played on some of her records and did the DVD with her at Wacken. She needed some help with a guitar player, and I was more than happy to do it. We hooked up, did this tour and everything’s been good.”

Pins and Needles is aggressive, heavy and at times experimental. “I could do what people are expecting and make an album that sounds exactly like Savatage, but that’s what Jon’s basically doing with his stuff. I’m not here to compete with Jon, I’m just here to do my own stuff.”

A lot had been said about Savatage doing something to celebrate the band’s upcoming 25th anniversary. There’s been speculation that this could be, as fellow Savatage/TSO guitarist Al Pitrelli put it, “the exclamation point at the end of the sentence.”

Caffery is hoping for something more. “Me, personally I don’t want to put an exclamation point at the end of the sentence,” Chris relates. “I hear all the plans that are supposed to happen, and I’m gonna do whatever the band’s gonna do, but I would rather the band do a record and a tour and keep doing them. When I hear that there’s gonna be an exclamation point and people are going, ‘I’m excited,’ — then I’m sad. I don’t want it to end.”

And neither do we.