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Guy LeMonnier talks TSO, Kings of Christmas, more in new interview
#20
>I've heard/read numerous interviews with Paul and Al and others who have commented on the talent onstage, including new faces, etc. ... It's easier to fall into a simple pattern of running through the same talking points that don't change from interview to interview for those high-level press blitzes where they're talking to 10 stations in a row.

But, what if not just the talking points are scripted myths to paint a better picture of the band and has nothing to do with making interviews convenient? While what if numerous people in the band all give different interviews using the same lines?

Al has said in how many interviews that watching the Beatles he picked up a guitar, realizing they were something unique, and wanted to make music his career. He was 2 years old. Nobody at 2 knows the history of music, let alone even what the word "career" means to start one. What's strange is that until TSO he always told a very different story. He talked about seeing Steve Miller in concert in high school and deciding then to be a full time musician and I'm looking right now at an issue of Guitarist magazine from 1994 I just got on ebay where he says his mom bought him a guitar at age 8 as "she thought it would be cute to entertain all the relatives". (I'd be happy to PM a scan if you don't believe me)
Or, all the stories about Paul's big career as a promoter, though if you ask the members he drove an ambulance for decades.
Or, the fact that some members refuse to speak in interviews for fear of going off script? While those who are verbal gives very different stories than the preferrred spokesmen.
I just hear Al give the same story that Paul gives that anyone else gives over and over and until 1996 they all had very different life histories. It's not about talking points. Compared Al's interviews with Alice Cooper who does far more interviews and Alice's stories change to the point that he contradicts himself, as his myth has not been completely memorized. He's just entertaining.
You read interviews with most musicians and yes they follow patterns, but there's also a lot of diversity and you don't have two or three members all giving the same lines every single year, interview after interview. Even Alice varies how he describes the different myths how he got his name or the chicken incident, though he's also said that if someone asks him how he got his name he would stop the interview as it's common knowledge. Yet, Paul tells over and over over that TSO is like Pink Floyd as though journalists have never read anything about TSO before, not even on wikipedia. It's almost as if the questions are approved first.
In TSO it's not about doing patterns, but about presenting a user friendly look. People would rather hear Al picked up the guitar via watching Ed Sullivan than going to a Steve Miller concert.

>Again, with any band you can say "I'd like to see the small show days"

But, what about when the musicians say this - not the fans? I've had numerous former band members tell me that they enjoy getting away from the big show and doing the show the way it was, bringing back the intimacy that was lost.

"Most of the band and management grew up inspired by the largest shows of the time: Kiss, Floyd, the Who, Genesis, ELP, etc. Those shows were the biggest productions of their time and the plan was always to build up to recreate that. Savatage had that at their height as well, they didn't keep it minimal.

I've seen videos from every year of Savatage right through Damond and they put on a basic rock show no different than any other band. I don't see them recreating any classical rock concert light show ever. Musically they might, but I've yet to find a Savatage video showing them with a show even close to the Who or Genesis. Are we talking about the same Savatage? Are you referring to Avatar maybe? The videos on youtube Keith Collins puts up are pretty crazy small club shows.
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RE: Guy LeMonnier talks TSO, Kings of Christmas, more in new interview - by aaroninmaine - 02-12-2015, 01:10 PM

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