SAVATAGE's JEFF PLATE On Touring Without Founding Member JON OLIVA: 'He Trusts Us To Go Out There And Do This'

A record and a tour. Those were drummer Jeff Plate‘s modest career goals once upon a time, but more than three decades after he joined SAVATAGE for their tour in support of 1994’s “Handful Of Rain”, he’s assembled a far more impressive list of accomplishments: three legendary SAVATAGE studio albums, as well as a live record capturing the final show of the “Handful” tour; multiple gold and platinum records with sister group TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA; five albums with METAL CHURCH, with whom he played from 2006 to 2017; two records with his own group ALTA REIGN; and hundreds of shows performed around the world.

Apart from a one-off performance at Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival in 2015, SAVATAGE has been on extended hiatus since the completion of their world tour in support of 2001’s “Poets And Madmen”. Since then, TSO — which launched in the wake of the success of the “Dead Winter Dead” instrumental “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” and quickly became one of America’s top concert draws — has consumed most of the group’s energies. The Wacken gig hinted at a possible resurrection, but for multiple reasons — namely, the 2017 death of longtime producer and lyricist Paul O’Neill; the global pandemic in 2020; and ongoing health issues of the group’s heart and soul, Jon Oliva — a proper reunion never materialized.

That changed late last year, when SAVATAGE announced their first tour in 23 years. They’ll kick things off this month with gigs in Brazil, Argentina and Chile before heading to Europe this summer to play a mix of festival and headline dates. They’ll do so, however, without Oliva, who hopes to rejoin the band on tour as soon as his health permits. In the meantime, he’s serving as the band’s musical director while the “Dead Winter Dead”-era lineup — Plate, bassist Johnny Lee Middleton, vocalist Zak Stevens and guitarists Chris Caffery and Al Pitrelli — rehearses for their upcoming shows at the former Morrisound Recording studio in Tampa, Florida, where Plate first met Oliva and O’Neill 31 years ago this month.

Plate recently spoke with BLABBERMOUTH.NET‘s Clay Marshall about SAVATAGE‘s return. An excerpt from the conversation appears below. (Previous excerpts saw Plate discuss the group’s approach to rehearsals, how he came to join the band and his reflections on touring in support of “Dead Winter Dead”. The full interview will be posted shortly.)

Blabbermouth: Zak left SAVATAGE at the end of “The Wake Of Magellan” cycle. Between WICKED WITCH and SAVATAGE, you’d been bandmates for nearly a decade at that point. How difficult was it for you to process his departure?

Jeff: “I’ll be honest — I wasn’t very happy about it. But I understood it. We’re adults. Zak had a family; Zak had bills to pay. Doing this rock n’ roll thing is very deceiving. Sometimes it’s hard to make ends meet doing this. At the time of ‘The Wake Of Magellan’, we were into our second TSO record. At that point, it was very obvious to all of us — regardless of how good ‘The Wake Of Magellan’ did in Europe, TSO was where Paul‘s focus was. He saw this opportunity to do something really significant, and I cannot blame him one bit for that. I think there was this sense of caution with all of us about what our future was, because we saw this thing in Europe finally take hold and do really well, but we also saw this thing in America happening, and it was even though it was this seasonal holiday thing, it was starting to happen in a really big way. Zak really wasn’t part of the TSO thing so much [initially]. Paul had his way of doing things and wanted to go about things with certain voices and certain characters. But yeah, Zak‘s the guy that brought me into SAVATAGE. I knew him the longest out of anybody, and he was a friend, and all of a sudden, it was like, ‘Damn, that sucks.'”

Blabbermouth: That wasn’t the last we heard from SAVATAGE, though.

Jeff: “‘Poets And Madmen’ is a great record. I think it’s underrated, but we were at a point where the environment around the O’Neill/Oliva camp had changed — the energy was aiming more towards TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA. Also at that point, we had started touring with TSO, and there was only so much room for what was going on. But ‘Poets And Madmen’, great record. Jon‘s vocals on that record are fantastic. The lineup changed, and it was really good, but it did not have the same juice that the ‘Dead Winter Dead’ lineup had. At the same time, TSO was really starting to get its feet under itself, and rightly so, Paul and Jon decided to put their energy into that.”

Blabbermouth: You recently posted that you began preparing for the upcoming SAVATAGE shows by playing along to one record a day. Did you particularly enjoy rediscovering any material from either before or during your time with the band as you reacquainted yourself with their catalog?

Jeff: “‘The Wake Of Magellan’. When I began playing along with that record and revisiting these songs, [I thought,] ‘There are some great songs on this record.’ ‘The Hourglass’, honestly, is probably one of my better drum performances on any SAVATAGE record. It may not be the flashiest, but as far as the feel, the fills… of course, Paul and Jon set me up with the ideas, but at this point, I had a little bit of a pedigree, so to speak, so they kind of let me be me a little bit more in the studio. ‘The Hourglass’ is just one of those songs – it flows; it’s big; it’s powerful; it’s epic; and not to pat myself on the back, but I really, really dig my performance on that. Obviously over all these years, you step away from [it and] there’s a lot of things going on in our lives, and all of a sudden, I put this record on and I was like, ‘Wow, I really forgot how good this was, and I’ve really kind of been dismissive of my performance on this record.’

“[In rehearsal,] we’ve torn down all of these songs and built them back up from scratch. [I’ve been] listening to the old stuff with Doc [Wacholz, SAVATAGE‘s original drummer] playing and relearning some of his fills the right way, the beats the right way, knowing where to add a little something. Then even [with] myself, [listening to] how I kind of got away from what I was doing on the record in some places, it’s been a really cool learning experience. The songs are going to be better for it.”

Blabbermouth: You’re in TSO East with Zak and Chris, and you see Al and Johnny every year when both TSO touring troupes rehearse. How did it feel to get back in a room together as SAVATAGE and play something besides Christmas music?

Jeff: “When we came down here in February to audition keyboard players, just getting in the room and playing together, it’s kind of that indescribable thing that just happens with a certain group of people. Myself, Johnny, Chris and Al, once we started playing together, it was like, ‘There it is’ – and this is even before we started really cleaning things up and relearning and refocusing the music. It was great.

“SAVATAGE coming back has always been talked about. We hear it every year from fans. We hear it every year from each other. I’ve kind of taken the position a long time ago like, ‘When it happens, it happens.’ Jon and Paul, for whatever reason, never said this band is over. They had the wisdom of saying, ‘This thing is not over, and it may never be over,’ so we’ve all kind of been sitting in the weeds waiting, and now it’s happening. I’ll be honest — I was surprised that this came about 1745014447, and I’m equally surprised at how strong and positive the reaction has been. For the longest time, I was like, ‘I’m not going to think about this until it happens.’ Now it’s happening, and it feels great. It really does. I think going forward, this is going to be something special. First thing’s first – we’ve got rehearsal to get through, and then this first leg of shows. I think everything’s going to work out well.”

Blabbermouth: SAVATAGE has toured without Jon before, but you haven’t. Will it be strange not seeing him on stage left?

Jeff: “Yes, it will be — but musically, Jon is there. The keyboard positions here are very aware of what we’re up against. I think we know we’re going to go out there and perform well. We’re going to be prepared. We’re going to be well-rehearsed. Musically, these guys on keyboards would not be here if they could not play Jon‘s parts well. Even though Jon has his own unique feel which only Jon can do, if you can get pretty damn close to it, then that’s really good. The more these guys work on these songs, the more the feel is settling in, the more the sound is settling in. And like I said, Jon is there — he’s at every rehearsal. If he hears something funny with a keyboard part, a keyboard sound or even the feel, he’s right there on the microphone, calling it out. We work through it and correct it.

“It creates this interesting question about the original lineup — Jon‘s not there, and obviously, Criss [Oliva, Jon‘s late brother and SAVATAGE‘s original guitarist] has been gone for a long time. Is it SAVATAGE? Is it this? is it that? I’m literally one of the new guys, and I’ve been here 31 years. Pitrelli has been here for 30 years. I think we’ve earned our position here and the respect of each other, but also with Jon. The fans know Jon is not going to be there, but Jon has given us his blessing. He’s at all of the rehearsals; he’s helping conduct a lot of the vocals; he’s going through the music with us; he’s setting up the set list. He’s hands-on involved with this, and I give him a lot of credit for stepping back, knowing that he can’t do this, but knowing that his guys are going to go out and do this really well. He’s got all the faith in the world in us, and that means a lot. He trusts us to go out there and do this, and that speaks for itself.”

Blabbermouth: Zak sang a few songs during the dual SAVATAGE/TSO performance at Wacken in 2015, but the upcoming tour marks his official return as the band’s frontman. Considering your shared histories, you must be excited to have him back.

Jeff: “Absolutely. I’ve obviously known him longer than everybody [else]. Zak is like the same guy that I met back in 1990. He’s got an amazing energy, and his voice sounds fantastic. This is probably the best I’ve ever heard him – and that goes for all of us, I’ll be honest. We’re all hyper-focused. But having Zak back up there in front of me, doing this as we’re going to be doing this, it’s really exciting. We’ve been through [a lot].”

Blabbermouth: And now, you get to write another chapter in the play.

Jeff: “We’re presented with an interesting opportunity — we’re this legacy band that hasn’t played properly in 23 years, so it’s like we’re brand new all over again. Since the last time that we toured, there are kids who are now 20 years old that are going to be getting turned on to us for the first time because their parents have been listening to this music, and their parents were listening to it. It’s just amazing how this thing gets passed off from generation to generation. It all goes back to the music — great music, great lyrics, great stories. I think there’s a real honesty and sincerity and originality to all of this. I find that when I play the stuff, I feel emotion. I feel this great energy that comes off of it, and I also know that this is not cookie-cutter by any means — it’s something that stands on its own. I think this is really going to bode well for us going ahead. There is so much music out there and it’s so hard to compete, but we’ve got something that everybody else doesn’t have, and that’s this music. Thanks to the Oliva brothers and Paul and everybody involved over the years for keeping this thing alive, and to the fans. If the fans never showed up, we wouldn’t be here talking about this. I think out of respect for everybody that’s created this music, going back from day one in the mid-’80s, just being able to carry on the legacy for everybody is important to all of us.

“It’s really cool for all of us to be able to get back out there and do this. We hope everything falls into place, and we can take this a step further year to year, but in the meantime, our focus is on this first leg of shows, and that first show in Brazil is the most important one. Once we get on stage, we’ve got to be spot-on. This is a different age [from] when we ended touring in 2002. Cell phones and everybody having their own video camera in their hand was not a reality; now, it is. Every note that we play on stage is going to be viral within seconds, and it’s going to be critiqued. We’re going to do everything possible to make sure that we’re right-on and give the doubters no reason to doubt us anymore.”

SAVATAGE will kick off its first tour since 2002 at the Monsters Of Rock festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil on April 19.

Photo credit: Josh Ruzansky