After more than twenty years away from touring, Savatage has finally returned to the stage, kicking off a run of concerts across South America with a much-anticipated performance at the Monsters Of Rock festival in São Paulo, Brazil, on April 19. All these shows have had a major absence: founding vocalist and keyboardist Jon Oliva.
Oliva’s health struggles have been mounting. In 2023, he suffered a serious accident that fractured his T7 vertebra in three places. The injury left him reliant on a wheelchair, and subsequent diagnoses of multiple sclerosis and Ménière’s disease have only made his situation more complex.
Speaking to Argentina’s Rocktambulos, Oliva opened up about the extent of his injuries, saying, “I got in a bad accident and I messed myself up pretty good. And it’s a long process, long healing process, and with the injuries I have, I can’t really sing, because it’s too painful. And it’s hard for me to even stand up for more than a couple of minutes at a time. So, unfortunately, you can look at me as a football player who got injured. And I’m on injured reserve.”
When asked whether there had been any improvement since his accident nearly two years ago, Oliva didn’t sugarcoat the reality. “Well, yeah. It’s hard to explain. It’s very difficult when you fracture your spine, especially since I’m not 18 years old anymore. So the healing process is very slow,” he explained. He also shared his decision to avoid invasive surgery: “They wanted to put metal — they wanted to replace things with metal — and I was advised not to do that. And it makes it longer to heal because you’re not replacing it with steel. Plus, I’m afraid of knives anyway. I’m, like, ‘You’re not cutting me open for nothing, motherfucker. No way.'”
The pain has taken a severe toll on his ability to perform. “As it is now, I can’t sing. If I sing anything, it feels like somebody’s stabbing me with a screwdriver… Oh, it’s bad. Oh, trust me, man. I don’t advise it to anybody,” he said.
Despite his physical limitations, Oliva remains deeply involved with Savatage‘s new live chapter. Although not on stage, his influence is clear. “I’m more a part of this than you think,” he revealed. “So it’s, like, I, basically, because of the injury, I’ve had to take the role of like just being the musical director kind of, and I put the show together — working on the show and how it’s gonna go and what songs they’re gonna do.”
According to Oliva, the band — featuring Chris Caffery and Al Pitrelli on guitar, Johnny Lee Middleton on bass, Zak Stevens on vocals, and Jeff Plate on drums — is more energized than ever. “I’ll tell you one thing about the guys — they are so ready for this,” he said. “They’re like a young band, 18 years old. That’s how hungry they are for this.”
Oliva, who famously co-founded Trans-Siberian Orchestra alongside Paul O’Neill, also gave fans reason to hope for new material. A fresh Savatage album is close to completion, although his accident temporarily derailed the recording plans. “Here’s what happened. I worked on a lot of material with Al Pitrelli and Chris Caffery, and we have a lot of material in the can, ready to go,” he shared. “And then this accident happened, and it screwed everything up.”
Rather than cancel upcoming commitments, Oliva chose a different path: “I decided to send the guys out to make the fans happy, first of all, ’cause I didn’t wanna cancel the shows. I was, like, ‘No, no, no. I can’t cancel.’ I’ll just rearrange them so the guys can come down there and the guys can play.”
Looking ahead, Oliva hopes that by the time Trans-Siberian Orchestra‘s fall and winter tour wraps up later this year, he’ll be ready to dive back into recording. “Hopefully, by the time they get back and we get the TSO stuff done in November, December, I’ll be okay by then for us to start recording the new Savatage album in January. That’s my goal is to start recording new material,” he said. “The songs are basically all written. They just — I need to be healthy to be able to do it. I can’t sing like I sing without feeling like somebody’s stabbing me with a screwdriver.”
