SW: Did [current Megadeth guitarist] Al Pitrelli play on this record?
JON: I think he played on two songs...I think it was "The Rumor" and he might have had some guitar solos on "Commissar." We weren't really shocked when Al decided to leave the band, we were kind of preparing for that over the last three or four years.

SW: I know that your guitarist Chris Cafferty also has a couple side projects, like the band Metallium...
JON: Yeah, he was hired as a producer/writer/guitarist for the first Metallium album. The guy [in Metallium] kind of led people to believe that this was Chris Cafferty's new band, but that was never the case. It was simply just a project that he did.

SW: Speaking of side projects, I know that the Trans Siberian Orchestra is going very strong and is very successful. Now, are all the guys in Savatage involved in T.S.O.?
JON: It's basically Paul, Bob Kinkle and myself. The other guys are all involved since they're all my friends, so if I need a bass player, I'm gonna call upon Johnny [Lee Middleton], so they are involved because of their involvement with Paul and myself. There are other guys involved in Trans-Siberian that have nothing to do with Savatage. When we did these two Christmas tours last year, we were trying to show people that it consists of multiple players, so it's not really a set band, per say. Trans-Siberian is all about the performance of the piece - the story, the narration, and the music. It's a very cool environment to write for because there are no limitations whatsoever. If you want to do something Indian, Paul will go get Indian guys to play on it! So it's kind of cool like that, we use a lot of very talented people from actors to great rock musicians to orchestra musicians.

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