Ex-SAVATAGE Drummer STEVE 'DOC' WACHOLZ Is Open To Performing With The Band At 2025 Reunion Shows

In a new interview with the That Metal Interview podcast, former SAVATAGE drummer Steve "Doc" Wacholz was asked if he foresaw the success of the band's fourth album, 1987's "Hall Of The Mountain King", prior to the LP being released. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, you don't see anything like that coming. You just go in the studio, you do the best job you can do, you bust your ass and you throw it against the wall and you hope it sticks. So, there's no real, when you get down to brass tacks, security in this business that you know you just wrote a hit record or something. You hope you can, but it's just kind of like the soup of the day.'

He continued: "When metal started getting to a certain point, all of a sudden, grunge came in and took over. There goes the hair metal, there goes metal down the drain — everybody was jumping on the grunge bandwagon with NIRVANA and all those Seattle stupid bands. And then what happens to all the hair bands, they all kind of go back underground again and kind of regroup. It's amazing today to me that you still have the RATTs, the POISONs, all these bands coming back around, and people are rediscovering them and then people my age are going back and just, like, 'Wow, I'm reliving my childhood watching DEF LEPPARD.' So you just don't know. I mean, look at SAVATAGE or TSO [TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA] now. They're [SAVATAGE] getting ready to do some European dates or dates down in South America. You think about it. I mean, I was playing with the Olivas [Jon and Criss Oliva] in 1977. What year is it? 2024, you know? It's crazy."

When the interviewer opined that SAVATAGE should have asked Steve to sit behind the drum kit for the two shows the band will play in South America in April 2025 — at Brazil's Monsters Of Rock festival and at Chile's Masters Of Rock festival — with a lineup that will consist of Johnny Lee Middleton on bass, Chris Caffery on guitar, Al Pitrelli on guitar, Jeff Plate on drums and Zak Stevens on lead vocals, Steve said: "I told Johnny. You can keep this between us, or I don't care if [it's made public]. I said, 'Look, if old Jeff has a meltdown because old Trumpy [president-elect Donald Trump] got in, you just let me know, man. I'm your backup dude.' And I can play every damn song, because I still play. I mean, I play two, three times a week… At least the band would have a founding member [in the lineup for those shows]. But that's okay. I do what I do and I love doing what I do."

Back in 2019, Wacholz's store Cherokee Guns, which is located in Murphy, North Carolina, came under fire for its billboard mocking the minority female congresswomen known as "The Squad" — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.),Ilhan Oman (D-MN),Rashida Tlaib (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). The progressive quartet, elected in November of 2018 as part of a so-called "blue wave," were frequent critics of then-U.S. president Donald J. Trump.

Wacholz left SAVATAGE in 1993, soon after the completion of the group's seventh full-length, "Edge Of Thorns". (Although he is pictured and credited on the following year's "Handful Of Rain", he did not actually perform on the album.) Since then, Wacholz — whose nickname "Doc" is an abbreviation of "Doctor Killdrums", a moniker he earned for his hard-hitting style — has recorded with the likes of CRIMSON GLORY, REVERENCE and JON OLIVA'S PAIN.

His primary focus for the past 15 years, however, has been Cherokee Guns, which he described on the store's web site as a "humble lil' gun shop... built by our back pockets, the sweat of our brow and great customer service. No one helped us with ANY type of loans (especially FEDERAL government Obama loans)."

The "4 Horsemen" billboard wasn't Cherokee's first advertisement that had raised eyebrows. In 2017, the store leased a sign that was headlined with the words "Infidel Armament" in block letters above Arabic script and an automatic rifle. Two years prior, another Cherokee billboard read, "Give me your tired, your poor... Keep your Syrian refugees."

Zak joined SAVATAGE in 1992 as the replacement for the band's founding vocalist Jon Oliva. Zak sang on four albums with the band — "Edge Of Thorns" (1993),"Handful Of Rain" (1994),"Dead Winter Dead" (1995) and "The Wake Of Magellan" (1997) — before departing in 2000, allowing Jon to return. Both Jon and Zak took part in SAVATAGE's 2015 performance at Wacken Open Air, which marked the band's first, and only so far, appearance on stage since they went on hiatus back in 2002.

SAVATAGE's last album release, "Poets And Madmen", in 2001 was highlighted by Jon's return as lead vocalist, replacing Zak, who left the band citing family reasons, and the departure of guitarist Al Pitrelli, who accepted an offer to join MEGADETH in 2000. Pitrelli did record solos for some songs prior to his departure. Another very limited U.S. tour followed, supported by FATES WARNING in the early shows, and then NEVERMORE for the remainder. Around this time, Jon chose Zak's replacement in the form of Damond Jiniya (DIET OF WORMS). Damond performed Zak's parts on tour, with Jon having an increased vocal role in proceedings.

Jon's brother Criss, who was one of the founding members of SAVATAGE, was killed in October 1993 by a drunk driver when he and his wife Dawn were en route to the Livestock festival in Zephyrhills, Florida. The driver of the other car was found to have a drunk driving record of seven prior DUIs and having a blood alcohol content of .294 percent.

Photo courtesy of REVERENCE