SAVATAGE Guitarist CHRIS CAFFERY Looks Back On DOCTOR BUTCHER's "Inspector Highway" - "The First Full Song JON OLIVA And I Had Finished Together"

September 4, 2020, 4 years ago

news doctor butcher savatage chris caffery jon oliva heavy metal

SAVATAGE Guitarist CHRIS CAFFERY Looks Back On DOCTOR BUTCHER's "Inspector Highway" - "The First Full Song JON OLIVA And I Had Finished Together"

Savatage / Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist Chris Cafery took a look back on his side project with Savatage frontman Jon Oliva, Doctor Butcher. He has posted the following message:

"This song. 'Inspector Highway', was one of the first Doctor Butcher songs Jon Oliva and I had written. The song was an idea I had about a haunted highway near my house at the time I was in Savatage for Gutter Ballet and the two years that followed. Ringwood Manor is famous for being haunted. However, there were also stories of the actual road being haunted as well and I had my own experiences with that! The music was written by me. The lyrics and melodies are ones we wrote together.

This song was never recorded in the official demo sessions or for the first record. Mostly because it was kinda epic and we didn’t have the budget or the time to put something like that. We had the idea for the orchestrated part and it was just a bit more involved than we had the schedule or budget to do during either recording. When I was doing my solo records for Black Lotus records in Athens they asked about a re-release of Butcher. Our contract was expired so we decided to do this re-release. Black Lotus gave us the budget to complete this epic metal song.

The lineup on this song is really awesome:

Jon Oliva - Vocals
Myself on rhythm guitars and the leads until the outro.
Metal Mike Chlasciak played the shredding solo at the end of the song!
Jeff Plate - Drums
David Z - Bass
Paul Morris - Piano and keyboards
Dave Eggar - Cello and the orchestra section

Pretty impressive group !!!!

This song is 28 years old! Written in 1992 it was, I believe, the first full song Jon Oliva and I had finished together. Jon is of course priceless on this recording and it’s a favorite of mine in the Butcher catalog but my musical career as well! It was engineered and mixed by Nik Chinboukas at Spin Studios where I did my first three solo records. I produced the recording, and if you haven’t heard it I hope you enjoy it. If you have heard it...listen again. It is a fun journey down this winding road called 'Inspector Highway'!"


Featured Video

SANDVEISS - "Standing In The Fire"

SANDVEISS - "Standing In The Fire"

Latest Reviews