TESTAMENT's ALEX SKOLNICK Reflects On SAVATAGE's CRISS OLIVA Tribute: 'I Chose Not To Think About The Gravity Of The Moment'

By Clay Marshall

In early 1994, Alex Skolnick — who had parted ways with San Francisco Bay Area thrashers TESTAMENT several months prior — received an unexpected phone call. Jon Oliva, the original vocalist of SAVATAGE and the brother of the band's late guitarist Criss Oliva, asked if Skolnick would join him at Tampa's legendary Morrisound Recording to play on "Handful Of Rain", the group's first album after Criss's 1993 death at the hands of a drunk driver. Initially, Skolnick — just 25 at the time — politely declined the invitation, but after Jon made it clear that no long-term commitment was required, the guitarist — who'd gotten to know the Oliva brothers four years earlier when TESTAMENT and SAVATAGE toured together — changed his mind.

Soon after completing his guitar parts in the studio, Skolnick joined SAVATAGE for a brief U.S. tour and four shows in Japan, the last of which yielded the live album "Japan Live '94", which was recently released on vinyl for the first time in conjunction with its 30th anniversary. While "Japan Live '94" officially marked the end of Skolnick's time with SAVATAGE, their paths would cross again six years later when the band's late producer and lyricist, Paul O'Neill, asked Skolnick to join TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, whose winter tours gave the guitarist the chance to play some of America's most storied arenas. Below, Skolnick — who rejoined TESTAMENT in 2005 — reflects on his brief but impactful stint with SAVATAGE and, after three decades of hindsight, reveals what he'd change about how he approached the group's music on stage.

Blabbermouth: It's hard to believe that you were only 23 when you left TESTAMENT.

Alex: "It never made sense to play up the youth thing. Even back then, I got the sense that there were musicians who really played up being great for their age, but I realized how limiting that was. I didn't want to be 'good for my age' — I wanted that not to matter."

Blabbermouth: You've surely answered this question 1,000 times by now, but for the uninitiated, why'd you leave?

Alex: "They say the more years go by, the faster they seem to go — and the reverse is true. If you don't have that many years on you, time seems to go a lot slower. I look at it now — the time I was 16 to 23 — and it doesn't seem like that much time. These last seven years seem to have gone by very fast. But being that age, it's almost half your life, so it seemed like a long time. At that time, I was growing — I was at this very impressioned age and needed to step out, experience life outside the band, experience music outside this very specific genre."

Blabbermouth: Your first career move post-TESTAMENT was forming a band called EXHIBIT A.

Alex: "I had no experience leading a band. I don't think I was ready at the time. I was sort of able to bring song ideas to TESTAMENT and work with them, but it was still a band that already existed before I was there. I think in retrospect, I would have been better off playing in more bands that were started by somebody else, but I didn't want that at the time because the TESTAMENT experience was very overwhelming."

Blabbermouth: In 1994, Jon Oliva contacted your manager to ask if you'd guest on SAVATAGE's first album after the death of his brother. You toured with Jon and Criss in 1990. What was your impression of them?

Alex: "They were very funny — just ridiculous, over-the-top senses of humor. I remember a lot of inside jokes and being very pleasantly surprised that Criss seemed to approve of my guitar playing, because I had been a fan. SAVATAGE was one of these tales in the music industry of what could have been — should have been. Bad record deals, bad management, poor distribution, but really good music and a great live show. I had heard about them when I was in high school — before I joined TESTAMENT, even. I had friends that were big record collectors and bought all the metal imports and stuff, and word got out about SAVATAGE and how great they were — especially their earliest material, but you couldn't find it anywhere. Everybody I knew who had a SAVATAGE album had a second- or third-generation tape."

Blabbermouth: Initially, you turned them down.

Alex: "Yes. It had nothing to do with the band. I was a fan — I liked the music. It's a little bit like you've just gone through the worst divorce situation, and you're traumatized. That was what it was — it was just, 'I'm not ready for another relationship.'"

Blabbermouth: Soon after, however, Jon called you directly, and your answer changed.

Alex: "Jon reached out and expressed that it really would mean a lot. And he understood where I was coming from, because I said, 'Look, I'm in this bizarre place in my musical existence right now. I'm exploring, and I don't even know if I want to be in a heavy guitar band right now.' I was studying with pro jazz musicians and thinking about studying music at the university level and staying away from the music business. The music business was not looking too kindly upon bands from the '80s, let's be honest. This was not only the era of Seattle and grunge, but the whole talk of, 'Guitar solos are dead. No one wants to hear guitar solos.' I was fed up with the music industry; I was fed up with the scene; I was fed up with people who sort of went along with that, and that mindset. That's where I was at the time. I didn't think it made sense for me to join another band, but I did my best to convey to him where I was coming from on all these fronts, and he understood. He made it clear — 'It's okay. If we could just have you for this album cycle, no hard feelings.'"

Blabbermouth: To clarify, it was clear going in that you were only going to join the band temporarily?

Alex: "I think Jon hoped that it would work out long-term. The invitation was there, and I felt so guilty, because many people would have jumped at that. At one time, I would have jumped at that too, but I'm a little bit of an oddball. [Laughs] The same reason people seem to like my playing makes me an odd choice for certain musical situations. I'm very independent — the same independence and emotion and who I am as a person, all of that goes into my playing, but because of that, I'm not predictable. I loved the music; I just [couldn't] be in one of these situations at the time. I think had it been a different time period and had I been in a different frame of mind, maybe I would have wanted to stick around longer. But regardless, talking to Jon and talking to Paul O'Neill — someone who would have a huge impact on my life — it felt great to be there. And I was open to the idea that it may be long-term, but I didn't know. Ultimately, it didn't end up being a long-term situation, although I did find my way to TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, so in a weird way, it was kind of long-term."

Blabbermouth: When you arrived at Morrisound to record "Handful Of Rain", did you feel any pressure to mimic Criss's playing style?

Alex: "The Internet hadn't really happened yet, and it wasn't this presence like it is now. There was no Blabbermouth or other sites where fans could just vent, so I wasn't as exposed to that. But it wasn't that many years later that stuff like that started to emerge, and I did get a sense that some fans were very purist about Criss. You just can't avoid that. It's a radically different comparison, but John Mayer playing Jerry Garcia's parts, and these comments from Jerry Garcia fans… To me, he sounds fantastic, but some of these Jerry Garcia fans, they're not happy to this day. It doesn't matter what he does — they're going to say, 'No, the way Jerry bent into the note,' or whatever it is. You've got fans like that where no matter what you do, you're not going to please them. And I wasn't somebody that was good at just jumping in and playing like somebody else. That was another concern of mine, and why I had initially turned down [the offer to join SAVATAGE] — I didn't want to have to jump in and try to play every note exactly like Criss played it."

Blabbermouth: How much new music had you heard before entering the studio?

Alex: "Before I committed, I'd heard some of the stuff that they were working on, and that made me more excited to take part in it. When I talked to Jon and Paul, they had talked to me about various projects they were working on. I think some of the music that would end up becoming TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA was being worked on at that time, and there was also basically a whole musical that they were going to do — the 'Romanov' project, which ended up being the 'Chinese Democracy' of rock Broadway shows. I knew they had this theatrical side. Some of the music that was being presented for what would become 'Handful Of Rain', I was hearing a lot of diversity. The very fact that there was so much piano was exciting to me. I thought, 'This feels different enough.' I really wanted to shift gears, and no way was I at that time going to join another band of a similar genre as TESTAMENT."

Blabbermouth: What was your first impression of Paul O'Neill?

Alex: "A bundle of energy. A whirlwind, but a really great guy to talk to. So many stories. Boy, you could just get him going — working with AEROSMITH, legendary music business stories, cautionary tales. It was just fascinating. I really enjoyed meeting him. He was very encouraging. He had this manic creativity. I had never met anybody like that at the time."

Blabbermouth: Even though you were recruited just to play solos, you also ended up contributing a number of guitar fills that would become key features of several songs.

Alex: "They were very supportive of that. One of the ways that came about was, I would just play just to warm up, for example – say, the solo's coming, but sometimes, especially when I'm just starting out, I'll let the whole song play just to get in the mood and really feel the context. Paul likes to hit record at all times. A lot of that stuff, I [figured], 'It can't hurt — just play along,' and as it turned out, some of those parts as I was either warming up or just preparing for the solos, exploring ideas before the main solo came in — those just seemed to work as a fill, and Paul or Jon or both would say, 'That stays. That's going in there.' Or sometimes, 'You did this thing right there – could you do that lick over here [instead]?' It was sometimes accidental, but they were very involved with that as well."

Blabbermouth: What did you think of "Chance", which Jon has called "the first TSO song"? In 1994, it must have seemed profoundly unfashionable.

Alex: "I liked it. It felt very prog-influenced, and I'd been really doing my homework for the past few years. I'd been brushing up on YES and KING CRIMSON and early GENESIS, Bill Bruford — classic prog. I felt this fit right in. It was also hard rock — it had that SAVATAGE quality, but mixed in with the instrumental factor [were] elements that seemed inspired by the era of YES and GENTLE GIANT and groups like that. In a way, it was almost punk rock to be doing that in the mid-'90s."

Blabbermouth: When you heard the demo without lead guitar or vocals, was it a challenge to figure out where — or where not — to play?

Alex: "Jon and Paul were very good guides. They would just say, 'There's going to be vocals here.' They'd kind of hum along — 'Here's where he's going to be singing.' I definitely had some guide vocals there — it was either Paul doing his guide vocal, which could be comedic. It's so heartfelt, and its lack of self-consciousness is beautiful. He would just close his eyes and sing the part. I remember him doing that with some of the TSO stuff too. 'Old City Bar', he was trying to give direction on how the singers should emote, and he would just act out the part and sing it. Of course, when Jon would do a guide vocal, he was the original voice of SAVATAGE, so then it sounded like it was supposed to sound. That was a help for shaping those guitar parts."

Blabbermouth: You've previously cited the bluesy semi-ballad "Stare Into The Sun" as your favorite track from the album. Were you concerned about how fans of your playing in TESTAMENT might receive the song?

Alex: "I really wasn't. I gave up trying to win approval. I felt like TESTAMENT had gotten a little concerned with what fans said. This was even before everything was online. We'd get, like, 90 percent positive reviews for a record, and they would hear the 10 percent that thought, 'This should be more like the last record,' and the next record, there would be this battle — like, 'Why are you listening to those people?' I didn't think about it, and I knew, 'Okay, some of them aren't going to get it.' It's a different genre. TESTAMENT fans, I like it when they like what I do, but I've long accepted that some will get it and some won't. We're at the point now where it's become much more acceptable for musicians to do more than one band, but at the time, it was kind of radical — and then when I got into more instrumental stuff and working with artists completely outside of the metal world, which I continue to do, that was considered offensive to some, but I didn't care. Now, there's plenty that really appreciate that and are turned onto [other] musicians. Some of my fans might not know who Percy Jones is, or Stu Hamm — and then they hear me with them, and it's, 'Oh, that's exciting too.' It's just a different experience."

Blabbermouth: The closing track on the album, "Alone You Breathe", is a tribute to Criss. Did you feel any extra motivation to nail that particular solo?

Alex: "I deliberately chose not to think about it — not to think about the gravity of the moment or anything like that. I wanted the music to dictate it. It certainly came through anyway, just because of the music. The music really lent itself toward expressing a lot of the emotion in the solo, and I think for me, at least at that time, it was better to just focus on the sound and the feelings of the music, and not think too much."

Blabbermouth: Soon after you finished recording the album, you agreed to join the band on the road. Going back to what you said earlier, it must have been something of a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation in regard to how you tackled Criss's solos live. Would you approach them any differently today?

Alex: "I suppose now, I would probably do a little bit less stretching out and try to make the solos more true to the recording, just knowing that some people really care about that. I would probably stretch out more on my solos on the 'Handful Of Rain' stuff, and try to keep the other stuff closer to as it was."

Blabbermouth: Which Criss Oliva songs were your favorites to play?

Alex: "'Hall Of The Mountain King' and 'Jesus Saves'. His playing on those was so excellent, and it just itself to really playing expressively on the guitar. I really liked what he did on those songs. 'Edge Of Thorns' as well. Somehow, I hadn't been as familiar with that [album], so 'Edge Of Thorns' and the songs from that record, I remember [being] like a new discovery for me. I really liked his playing on that record, particularly the title track."

Blabbermouth: What do you remember about the night that "Japan Live '94" was recorded?

Alex: "The crowd seemed to be very animated. I felt like things were changing from the first time I'd been there with TESTAMENT. The first time I'd been there, it definitely felt like things were a lot calmer than at a show in the United States or Europe. If I'm not mistaken, it was seated, and they would applaud after the songs. It wasn't like it is now. Now, it's like a Western show — standing room only, and they can be front row, and I think they can even stage dive. I remember it was the most active crowd I'd seen in Japan. It just seemed like they were much looser and more free than when I'd been there before. It was a great experience to play the show. Japan is always fantastic – always the most fun place to go to."

Blabbermouth: That show proved to be your last with SAVATAGE. Did you know it at the time?

Alex: "I was keeping my options open, and I was definitely open to see where things went. During that time, I remember Jon and I, we were bonding over these classic albums [by] DEEP PURPLE — 'Who Do We Think We Are?' and another album from that era. And I wasn't familiar with that — I knew the hits, 'Machine Head', 'Highway Star' and all that stuff, but there was this period of DEEP PURPLE that Jon was really into, and he really turned me onto. We were talking about it, and I got the sense that maybe we could use some of that direction [on a future SAVATAGE album]. The way it went down totally makes sense at this point, so I have no hard feelings. I didn't have any hard feelings then. It was nothing to do with personalities or Jon or anything."

Blabbermouth: Six years after you parted ways with SAVATAGE, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA launched a second touring troupe, and you were asked to join "TSO East." You'd go on to play several hundred shows with TSO over the next decade. Did it make you a better live performer?

Alex: "Oh, absolutely. With TESTAMENT, we were on our own and kind of figuring it out as we went. Paul, he would call you into a room after or before [a show] — 'I really liked what you did here.' 'When you go out to the edge of the stage, you've got to connect with these fans over there. Try moving like [this].' Sometimes, it was funny — he would do the moves, the headbanging, air-guitaring, holding the guitar a certain way. Playing in situations where I have that type of production and I'm playing in front of an arena crowd, I think when I came back to TESTAMENT, I was a better player, a better performer. It was a whole other thing."