Savatage: "We have to finish the business, get Jon and come back"

Usually, there is no need for a particular reason to write something about Savatage. They may have been absent from the music scene for many years, but the love their fans have for the band is unique. And the flame - which never went out - was rekindled with their recent return to the music scene and filled us all with joy, hope, and anticipation once again

The fact that they are back in action would be enough reason on its own, but if we add their recent return to the stage, the talks of a new album, and especially their upcoming appearance at the Rockwave Festival, here in Greece, we already had too many reasons to want to talk to someone from the band and just learn as much as we possibly could about the current situation within the camp and what is yet to come...

Zachary Stevens (or just Zak), the brilliant voice of the on iconic albums such as "Edge Of Thorns", "Dead Winter Dead," and "Wake Of Magellan," to discuss all of the above with him. And we were not at all surprised by how lovable and wonderful a conversationalist he was. Enthusiastic and talkative, Zak explained why he loves Greece so much and why feels he feels it like second home. He explained how he was first a fan and dreamed of the position behind the microphone of Savatage many years before he actually got there. Also we talked about how he felt on stage during these first shows that followed the reunion, and how they choose the songs for their set, while he shared with us some exciting information regarding the new album that's still in the making.

In fact, there are no typical questions or typical answers in the following interview. When the discussion is revolving around Savatage, emotion prevails, whether you are on the band's side or just a fan. So, just enjoy the lovely Zak Stevens...

Hello, Zak. How are you doing?

Good. How you doing?

I'm doing fine you. Thank you so much for your time. You know, I've been thinking that it's kind of surreal… Thinking about the young boy that I was 30 years ago, just learning about music and got a cassette tape with "Edge Of Thorns" and my mind was blown away. And then that 30 years later I'm still here talking with Zachary Stevens, the guy that was singing on this cassette tape with hand written titles on the side, that a friend gave to me. I guess that's just one of these things that you have to appreciate and that you have to enjoy in life. So I I'm really happy and it's great to have a chance to talk with you.

Thank you so much! And I'm so glad that our music got to affect your life in a positive way.

Savatage music has been able to reach people like that in good times and bring people through hard times

Yeah, I think if there are a few bands that affect lives in a very positive and in a very deep ways, Savatage have the privilege to be one of these bands, with your music and your songs…

Yeah, we hear that. It's very special to hear that… through the years people tell us all the time… I get it personally, but I've heard from all the guys in the band, they get messages and emails and stuff saying "Man, your music really helped me through a really tough time. It helped me through a really hard time in my life. I don't know how I would have got through it, without your music". We get that a lot, but we get it from every side. It comes from the side of people going through very tough times in their life, through pain and through very hard times and we're able to get them through that. We hear that a lot. I don't know if every band hears that all the time also. I don't know… I can't be every band! But, I know that Savatage music, like you said, has been able to reach people like that in good times and bring people through hard times. So, that's really special. I mean I'm I feel lucky to be playing in a band like that.

I was a fan of Savatage before I got into the band because of the depth of the music

Yeah, you kind of transport a message. I don't know if the expression is good. Somehow every music has its scope, either it's there just to entertain people or whatever… But with Savatage it becomes more personal if you allow it to get inside. At least, I think so. And it's not superficial… I can say because I've been there for 30 years. I've made friends because we both loved Savatage back in the day. And they're still my friends. So I can I can reassure that it's true...

Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Like you said, every band's different. With Savatage it has a depth and that's something that always attracted me to their music. I was a fan of Savatage before I got into the band because of the depth of the music. It just covered such a wide range and scope of style. And the stuff that that they were willing to explore musically, especially Paul O'Neill… the late Paul O'Neill and Jon Oliva. And Criss oliva. I mean, just giving us such depth in the music… I was attracted to it right away. I used to sing Savatage stuff when I was growing up. I think I first got into them when I was in high school and then into college. So I think I was a senior, my last year of high school when I discovered Savatage, it was maybe 1983 or 1984. And then coming into ‘85 I think I discovered them on "Fight For The Rock" and then "Power Of The Night"… Well, "Power Of The Night" was before that, so I think it was probably "Power Of The Night", whatever year that was… '85...

I always tell people "Υou gotta think about putting yourself in the place that you want to be in". Like, imagine yourselves there. What's the worst that can happen? That you had a dream. Maybe it didn't happen

It was in 1985…

And then going into college, I used to sing Savatage in the garage. I have no idea why! Cause, I don't sound anything like this guy… (laughs) I don't sound anything like Jon Oliva…

But, you know, the music's so good, you just want to sing it. So, I would just go in the garage and put on to whatever it was, like the hot thing at the time and I was dreaming about singing. I had been playing drums my whole life, so I would be a drummer. But, I was just getting interested in what would it be like to be the front man of a band… I don't know. You're, 19-20 years old people and I was just singing along with it and not doing it… I don't know, I was having a tough time at it… Because it's hard to sing that stuff… It's still hard to sing Savatage... (laughs) I mean, after all these years…

But, back in those days I was just dreaming. I always tell people "You should always dare to dream"… Who knows? If you dream about it and you place yourself in there… I was like "This music will be cool to sing. Now, I don't sing anything like Jon Oliva, but it would be cool to sing this music and I can play around and fantasize that I'm in front of the crowd". And you place yourselves there. And you never know. Then, later on in life, you start meeting a few people like I did and before you know it, you're singing in a band that you were a big fan of. And so dreams can happen. That was a dream for me and it actually came true. From singing in the garage, saying "ah, I don't really sound anything like this guy".

But I loved the songs. And then trying to sing them. And it's very difficult. And you learn and you learn and you beat yourself up and you're like "killing yourself". But, I always tell people "Υou gotta think about putting yourself in the place that you want to be in". Like, imagine yourselves there. What's the worst that can happen? That you had a dream. Maybe it didn't happen. But you have to place yourself where you believe you want to be. And you've imagined that. And then one day… "Hey!"… the way that things happened… if you didn't place yourself there, if you didn't believe in yourself, it would have never happened. But it very well could happen... I'm living proof.

And so, here we are all these years later. We're not a young band anymore. I've been doing it for 30-31 years or something in Savatage… Three decades. And I'm not the original. You know, other people, they're in the 4th decade! But, we're just so thankful to everybody. And everybody in the heavens and everybody who accepts rock'n'roll. We're very thankful to still be doing it. It's just great.

Sometimes I'm thinking I can't even believe I'm going back to Greece here in a couple of weeks. Because Greece is the 1st place I ever stepped foot outside of the United States, as a matter of fact. The first city that I ever went to outside of the United States was Athens. Athens, Greece. Because I was an exchange student in high school. We actually had a program where students from Greece went to America for a couple of weeks and then we traded with them. And then I got to go to Greece and have a place... I think it was the little island of Salamis. A very-very small island, where back in 1983 the only cars on the island were the taxis. And they only had a few televisions. There were only a few televisions for a very few families on the island. When it came for our favorite TV shows, which were actually American shows back then, everybody in the village had to come to these two or three different families' houses to watch the TV, because not everybody had one. And I got to stay with the family on that little island that we took a boat from Athens. And that that was my first experiences outside of the United States. So, I have a special place in my heart for Greece. And it was like landing on a different planet because of the language. As you know, Cyrillic… we don't even know what the letters mean. So, I landed at the airport and I looked up at the first sign and then it's in the Greek language, so I'm like "I'm not going to be able to read this at all". It's completely different.

Now, my wife is Greek, so she's bilingual. She knows Greek language. Her dad was 100% Greek...

Have you learned anything?

Well, no. I could do better. I started learning a few languages, but I haven't gotten into Greek, because I've been studying Spanish for many years, and that's difficult too. And then, I started learning Hawaiian. Because I went to Hawaii for the first time this year. So I went "wow, it'd be interesting". So, I went into this app that has the different languages. She got into Greek. She pulled it up so she could review and then hone her skills and get really good. So she's doing the Greek, and she's been every day. She's had a lesson for 400 days in a row. Over one year, 400 days… Now, she's going over to Greece with me, especially to spend a little time after the tour. We're going to go over to Athens and then she'll be back with her people in the motherland as I call it. But, lucky for me, I can now have her to be able to speak the language and we can get things done much easier.

But, yeah, I don't know why I picked up Hawaiian. Now I'm stuck with it. So I'm sitting there. The Hawaiian language is just like Greek, because it's completely different and there's only one in the world and you don't know what anything means. But one of these days I'm going to start studying the Greek language because I know she can help me, so I can get better at it.

It could help you communicate with your wife in Greek and no one else around will understand what you're saying…

True! We can talk about everybody…

Yeah, we Greeks do that, you know.

Yeah, I know… I know… (many laughs)

We still have a lot of work to do in America, because Savatage is known, but not very well here. And not near as well as it is in Europe and places like Greece and Germany and all around South America

I was thinking while you were saying all these things about joining Savatage and stuff like that. I've bought all the vinyl reissues that came out lately and they have so many nice stories, so many liner notes inside the booklets, they're so exciting for a fan. And they were describing how you joined the band, how Paul played you "Sleep" on the acoustic guitar, a song he didn't even consider for Savatage, but you performed it so nicely that it ended up on "Edge Of Thorns". And this is overall such a beautiful story, even through the tragedies you've been through. There's a camaraderie, it's like family stuff. So, everything you said made sense to me, having read all these stories and all liner notes. I was even imagining it would be so great if someday a movie would come out, or a series. I think, there are so many so many nice stories to tell...

Yeah, it's just a blessing to be able to be part of it. And we're always telling the story. But yeah, if it becomes a situation where we can make a story or a movie, I think we could! Especially, for the European audiences and the South America, where the band is so well known. We still have a lot of work to do in America, because Savatage is known, but not very well here. And not near as well as it is in Europe and places like Greece and Germany and all around South America. We just now got to where we could play some other places in South America, so we still have a lot of work to do as far as growing the name around the world. We got work to do in our own country.

I'm glad to be back at work and now we can do it. When you're out there playing, you can now do the job of gaining even more new fans. I know Savatage has the age group of fans… we're seeing so many kids… I think it's because the original fans are my age and then you have kids and they're telling them that @you got to listen to this band@. So it's really the generation of Savatage fans that are what I call the original generation, older people having children about the age of my own children. I have two daughters, aged 27 and 22. So, now that's the age where they start to get a little more interested. So we're seeing a lot of kids in their 20s. Sometimes you'll see much younger kids, but we still see that as well. You know, even kids in their teens or 12-13. So it's very nice that the music has been able to reach multiple generations. That's what we're going to be able to work on, when we're taking the music live, to the stage.

It has been a big advantage for Savatage, being able to have the modern ability to just click on YouTube or just go to social media and then be able to look into the band

In this current situation, there are pros and cons in today's music, because I remember - as I said I was in agony for years maybe, trying to find someone having a cassette with your music, so I can copy it and get access to it, back in the mid-90s. Nowadays it's just a click away. And you have the legacy, so if one gets interested, then right away he can transcend into the Savatage world if he wants to. But at the same time there are cons in all this situation, regarding the artists and the bands. We know all these problems that streaming music has brought and music being a commodity nowadays...

I think that has been a big advantage for Savatage, being able to have the modern ability to just click on YouTube or just go to social media and then be able to look into the band. Because you're right! Back in the 90s, especially in Greece, it was very hard to find the product. Because, we would have distribution such as like Germany, I think that was where the main distribution came from. But that doesn't mean that it's going to make it and turn it into a robust market for Greece. That didn't happen. So it's good that you don't have to look for a cassette or just try to copy one. I know what you mean, because I used to do that same thing even in America when I couldn't find a band. But, I think it's been very-very positive for Savatage to be able to have things where people can just go "Hey, what's this band about?" and just go find us on YouTube and find some old videos and just try to look at some live stuff, recent or past. So that's been big for for Savatage.

I don't know if there's a really good way to describe the feeling you get

Alright! Let's get to the present! How does it feel now that you've reignited the Savatage engine after so many years? What's the feeling you have and what's the taste you have from your first live appearances and being back on stage?

Well, it's hard to describe. It's magic! I don't know if there's a really good way to describe the feeling you get…

The first time we popped on stage in 15 years, we're looking out at 45,000 people at a festival in in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And then they had this… it's a permanent stage that takes place on a soccer field, where they play football. And the stage stays there because that's where the entertainment happens after they have the football games. So it has this long runway ramp that goes out because the way they do the entertainment over there is they have performers that go down this long ramp. It's like a stage, but then you have this long-long ramp. So I'm like "That is going to be used to its fullest. I'm not going to have that ramp sitting there and we're not going to do anything with it". So they said you can use it. They didn't have any limitations. First, we didn't know if we could use it… Because the of the bands higher on the bill… you know, when you got Judas Priest and the Scorpions coming on in Europe, sometimes they say "You might not be able to use it. Only the headliners can use it!" But, they said no problem, because they weren't going to use it, because when it became dark the bands don't need to use it anymore, because it was mostly a video show. It was the strangest thing.

But, we played in the daytime before sunset, right before sunset. So the first thing I did was run all the way down the ramp and start singing "Welcome", the opening number and I just stayed out there as much as my in-ear monitors would allow. Because you can't get too far away from the signal, cause then I can't hear what's going on. But it was good enough. I just tested the limits of the system and I worked it all day long. And it was a good workout. It was almost like running, that show. I felt like I ran 5 miles. It was just amazing.

But the adrenaline factor of playing again… I didn't even really think about it. The fans, obviously, really enjoyed what we did. And I haven't seen a runway at the end of the stage, since that time... (laughs). I don't really know if I even want to see another one. That's hard, but it does get you out there in the middle of the audience. I mean, the thing just went straight down into the crowd. So you got people to your right, left, at the end… And they told us to kick some soccer balls out there. We signed them, we put the S and everybody signed the soccer balls. And they said they told me to kick them out. I kicked out three in one song, "Edge of Thorns" and I think three at the "Hall Of The Mountain King". And I put them way out there. And I saw people really fighting for the ball. But it wasn't too bad of a fight, but it was like people just wanted the ball. That was Jon Oliva's idea…

I think we're better than we've been in a long, long time. Because everybody cares

(laughs) Of course…

Because he comes up with stuff… I mean, he's involved with everything we do. But just to get out there and trying to get all the muscle memory for all the songs and stuff like that, it's amazing. I can't even really describe it really. It's just a little bit overwhelming. We're just so happy…

And I really think the band is much better. I think we're better than we've been in… Gosh… a long, long time ago. Because everybody cares. Everybody cares so and we didn't have it! We weren't able to get it going. We did Wacken in 2015 and we were supposed to go back out, but then Paul O'Neill passed away two years later, as we were trying to get everything going. That really set us back because it was sudden. We had discussions, but we didn't get to finish the discussions. So we've had so many things that we had to deal with. But, I'm glad it finally came back around. It took too long. I wish we could have done it 10 years ago. That would be a different story right now. But you have to start sometime. So I'm glad we did get to start. It's better than not being able to start at all. Now we have a good plan ahead of us for a good for a long time. We have a good 10-year plan and we're going to keep building this. We're going to build it in America, we're going to build it all over the world, and we're going to do a record. And that seems to be the plan…

Also, the plan is to get with Jon hen he gets healthy. You know, he's working with his doctors. Jon is involved in everything we do, but now we have to work with his doctors. They have to get him healthy enough to be able to travel. And that is pretty rigorous, just getting out there and traveling again. You realize this is hard. And as you get older it's even harder and harder and harder. So hopefully everything will go properly. I miss Jon so much on the stage. I miss him. He's my mentor and he's always been like my mentor and teacher. I miss not having him up there. But I've been in this situation before, because when I first joined the band in '92, we didn't have Jon. He said "I gotta take a break". So, I've seen it before. It's not the most optimal thing for me, but we've been in all these different situations before. So it's just another chapter and we'll be fine. And Jon, we know that he's going to join us on some shows. But we're just trying to get him to be able to come out as far as all of them would be great.

I would feel so great, because having us both up there and that dichotomy of the voices is good. But everybody in the band is singing great. The band has got great vocals right now, with our keyboard players...

It's an integral part.

Yes! We got two keyboard players. So we got Paulo from Columbia, South America and we've got Sean, who is basically right now living in Nashville, around the Nashville, TN. They really are fantastic. It's working out well. But what I'm saying… The ultimate thing, will still have to come when we got to get Jon… It'll be great.

So it's job unfinished, cause you have to bring Jon back to Greece. I'm pretty sure he would like to come here…

Yeah!

We have to finish the business, get Jon and come back. That's the plan

He loves us, we know that! And he knows we love him...

Yes. That's right. The story's unfinished everywhere. Like you said, we have to finish the business, get Jon and come back. So that's the plan. We're just working towards that and everything's going great so far. He's coming along and I think everything's coming along to plan.

We're working up lots of different songs in order to change up the sets, so we can throw in two or three different songs on different nights, possibly more

One thing I was wondering is that must have been a big headache, to choose the songs that you're gonna play live. I know that on your main set you played 20 songs and still people were like "Oh, I am missing this and I was missing that". So, how did you end up choosing the songs that you actually played live and how do you plan to deal with it?

Well, yeah, it's hard to do that. What we're doing now is we're working up lots of different songs in order to change up the sets, so we can throw in two or three different songs on different nights, possibly more. We've got the set running about almost two hours. I think it's like an hour and 45 minutes or something. It's mostly vocal songs. What we did was, we just said "Hey, what are the songs that in the past 30 years that have the best crowd response?". We even look online and look at numbers sometimes and see what songs are popular in what country. Now you've got all that data. You can see how many downloads or hits or how many spins of the songs that occur in different countries or even different cities.

We don't go completely by that, because you can't get everything from that. But we do look at that one aspect and just bring that into the overall decision. We say "Hey, the title tracks seem to be what people want to hear". Like "Wake Of Magellan", "Handful Of Rain", "Edge Of Thorns". Or songs like "Chance". People want to hear stuff that's really on the title track side, so that was easy. And then we get into the deeper tracks, that's where it gets to be a little bit more time consuming. But there's never going to be an easy time, cause, like you said, you could have 25 songs and still people going to go "I just wanted to hear these other songs from streets"…

Jon is very instrumental in choosing the setlist

Yeah, exactly…

I mean, "Streets"… now see, that's me. Because I would look at the set and I would go "I was always a fan of "Streets". How come we can't have some of these deep tracks from "Streets?". But maybe one day…

But Jon…that's another thing. Jon is very instrumental in choosing the setlist. He does a great job, because obviously he's gonna do a good job. So we listened to him. He presented us the first list and it was like MEGA, really long. What made it easier for us was that we let him give us one big long list of his favorites and then we could start maybe taking out a few things that weren't totally necessary and then looking at stuff that we might throw in. But, yeah, that's going to be an ever changing set list from here till the end of whenever. For as long as we're out there, we're going to be able to throw in multiple different songs to change things up. We'll keep what I call the old standards, which is like the title tracks of the records and stuff, but we have the ability to change out quite a lot. So we're going to continue to change the setup. Because that's gonna be our way of being able to get in some of those songs, like you mentioned, deeper tracks that people still want to hear.

Years ago we were talking about playing the "Dead Winter Dead" album right there in Sarajevo

You mentioned that you have a long term plan ahead, so would you consider setting a production to play some albums in full. Because your albums are meant to be listened in full. Like, how great would it be to present "Wake f Magellan" in its fullness". Or "Dead Winter Dead" in its fullness? Maybe it's just daydreaming, but it's free… (laughs)

Yeah, we definitely have talked about that. And maybe even in places that they were even more impactful or maybe the places where it happened… We had talked about playing the entire "Dead Winter Dead" – well, there's another title track, by the way. I forgot to mention, "Dead Winter dead"… Even years ago we were talking about playing the "Dead Winter Dead" album right there in Sarajevo or something. Making a video in the place where the record story occurred, in the Balkans. I don't know how possible that is these days. But, we've gone as far as to think about stuff like that and maybe do a live DVD. But yes, absolutely we could play "Handful Of Rain", "Dead Winter Dead" or some of these records in full. Definitely had discussions about that, so I think it's totally possible. We've been talking about that for quite a lot actually.

What I'm excited about is we got at least two songs which I think will probably remain, cause they're so strong, which will be duets for me and Jon for the first time!

That will be interesting! You, also, mentioned that you have a new album in the pipeline. We've heard through the last years Jon, saying that it's in the making and stuff. Have you made any progress? Have you recorded anything? May have a time plan on when it could be released or when it will be finished? Or is it just somewhere there and you see what happens?

Well, I've got a lot of files… I have 20 different songs that I have on my computer right now. But the thing is that Jon is always writing and especially now that we got the band together and he's out there playing with us in rehearsals… you know, he was joining us when we were preparing for South America. And now being in the feel of the live rehearsal thing that has actually inspired him. He says he has another whole group of songs now. So, the thing is, it's either going to have to be a double album or we're going to have to start replacing the older tracks that we have, which is totally normal. I knew that was going to happen to some extent that we're going to start beating… what we call beating is saying "this thing's better than this old track. So, that tracks out". We still save it. It might make it on a later album. But that is the process that we're going through right now. Getting the new songs and seeing what they are now replacing. What are they better than? And what I'm excited about is we got at least two songs which I think will probably remain, cause they're so strong, which will be duets for me and Jon for the first time!

It was wild and weird to me that we never had a song that me and Jon sang on at the same time

That's amazing!

Because, if you look at everything we did, it was wild and weird to me that we never had a song that me and Jon sang on at the same time.

One of my favorite songs that I've got in the group of songs has elements of "Chance", but then it jumps over and then it has like a little bit of "Wake Of Magellan", it's got everything...

Yeah, that's true!

So, now we have a few of those, and let me tell you, they're really good! One of them is one of my favorite songs that I've got in the group of songs, right now. Gosh, it has elements of "Chance", but then it jumps over and then it just has like a little bit of "Wake Of Magellan", it's got everything… But the cool thing is that he starts the singing on a clean opening, kind of like softer, in his clean voice. And then it lets me come in really hard on the verse and then we kind of go start going all kind of different. Then it goes crazy. It goes like Queen. But, you know, then you got shit happening everywhere.

So that's what I'm kind of excited about. Hopefully we'll just get an agreement. We're going to wait on agreement from the labels about when we can do it. The thing is we have to decide whether you're going to go tour or you're going to do the album, cause it takes time. You know what I mean? We either have to start the album right after this TSO tour gets done, which is January. Like go right in, try to get it done and then have Savatage still able to go play some festivals and do some things next summer. I think that's kind of what we need to do. We need to finish the album in January, February, March and April, and then let us go do our normal thing in May and June and maybe later when everybody goes on vacation. When do you guys in go on vacation in Europe, like in July?

July and August…

Yeah. July and August, yeah…

But basically, August… All the main festivals are in June and July though….

That's exactly what I told my wife. So I'm correct. I love being right! (laughs). I said they all go on vacation in August.

Yeah, that's true.

I wonder if that's the best time to get flights, like a good deal on a flight.

Because everyone's travelling, the prices are high…

All the prices are high in August, right?

In Greece, every flight is overbooked in August. So, I don't know if that's wise decision regarding the price…

Yeah, we didn't see there's a problem. You get these flights all day long that go from Thessaloniki to Athens. I mean, they're just like all day long…

I don't think you'll have any problem when you're coming…

Yeah, because it's June…

Yeah. You're coming in about 20 days now, 28th of June. You're playing here in Greece. Can't wait.

And the time that I want to spend will be after the tour, like a week after the tour, like July 7th. So I think it's not a problem.

No, not at all…

I don't want to take the train, because I know the train over it breaks down all the time. And then you lose hours and hours… that's what they tell me. Because we have all these relatives, my wife has all her family there, the relatives are in Greece and we got friends here that still travel to Greece. We got friends in my town, where I live in. Here in South Carolina, actually has a high Greek population of people who migrated from Greece. So they live here now, but their family is from Greece. We have a high Greek population.

Yeah, I know. No train. Prefer the road. We have pretty decent roads by now...

Highest. Yeah, buses! They say the buses are even better if you can't take a plane. But, we're going to be flying. But still, I think the second choice, if you had to take a bus which takes forever, it's still is better than the train. We just talked to Sally, my friend from Greece, she goes "No, everything's on cell phones". She goes "all the guys who run the train have these things". So they're just calling on the cell phone all the time, and if it breaks down, you lose 7 hours.

Well, it's not that bad, but I guess you'd better take the bus if needed…

Alright, thank you!

Man, we love Greece! I love it! It's like a second country to me. It's very much family

So, so just before we close because this conversation, cause our zoom meeting is gonna end, I have to send the greetings from the Greek Legion and Jon. He is a dear friend of mine and we were talking right before the interview. Actually e's playing with his band, Need, on the same day with you on Rockwave Festival. So there will be the whole family of Greek Legion there...

Really? Oh great! Please tell him hello. We love him and we love all you guys! Man, we love Greece! I love it! It's like a second country to me. It's very much family. You know what I mean? I and I'm very happy for my wife and all of my friends that have Greek heritage. They're very happy that I'm going and I'm happy for them to be able to go to Greece to see where it all came from, for my wife's family. If it wasn't for Greece, she wouldn't be here! Because her dad is the first generation to come to the Unites States!

I hope to see to see you in person in in Rockwave Festival. I hope to meet you there! It was such a pleasure talking to you!

Thank you so much Chris! You're great, man. And thank you so much for your time. I send you a cyber hug! Oh, no! I'll do it in person! Great talking to you! See you soon!