Greece's Rockpages.gr spoke to ARJEN LUCASSEN recently about a number of topics. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Rockpages.gr: You specialize in rock/metal operas, but your life is inside the studio. You don’t like to tour, you don’t like the rock-star life?

Lucassen: "No, not at all… I did it for 15 years, since I was 18, with BODINE, playing and playing. It was a great experience… we were joking with eachother. I prefer to create, to make music. When you are on tour, you have to play the same songs every night."

Rockpages.gr: Have you ever thought about presenting one of your rock operas in a theater? Book the place, get the actors and the actresses and the singers and start rehearsing.

Lucassen: "Yeah! It’s very good that you ask that, because most people say 'You’ve got to do it live!' And, of course, that is so difficult. What you said is an option. To make it a theater play, you must use actors that are free, cuz you need to rehearse for a month and play for a couple of months. You can not get famous musicians to do that, they don’t have the time for that. The problem is that I’m very much of a perfectionist. The people who will come to an Ayreon show, they would like to see 'something Ayreon' or, at least, me. But that is an option… if you take this story, CD one is about life on a different planet, a water planet. How are you gonna put that on stage? Maybe use a huge aquarium (laughs)… maybe I can transfer that as a simple story. A man, who’s in a coma, trying to live his emotions."

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