← Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
Behind The Song: Classic Rock Chronicles
Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Rockin’ The Holidays with Al Pitrelli
00:29:00
Uncover the magic of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with musical director Al Pitrelli in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast!!
Loading summary
Transcript48 lines
- [00:00]
A
97.1Fm the drive presents the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes. Here's your host, Janda.
- [00:11]
B
Hi, it's Janda Here tis the season for Christmas songs and there aren't many more remarkable stories about yuletide music than the story of the Trans Siberian Orchestra. It started out as a phenomenal concept, an idea by the late producer Paul O'Neill to do something that had never been done before. Take familiar Christmas songs, mix in classical music and put it all through a progressive rock presentation. That idea kickstarted the genesis of TSO back in 1996, with O'Neill selecting members of the metal band Savitage to form the initial unit that would bring his idea to life. O'Neal, a New Yorker born and raised, had previously worked with artists ranging from AC DC to the Scorpions and many more, and produced albums for Sabotage leading up to that point. His idea was to create a Christmas rock opera mixing music styles from elp, Pink Floyd and the who with Broadway at Christmas Time. When their debut album Christmas Eve and Other Stories was released, it included the song Christmas Eve Sarajevo 1224, which was based on a story about a lonely cello player playing a Christmas carol in the town square in war torn Sarajevo. That story is loosely based on a real life person, a musician named Vedran Smailovic, who did play in Sarajevo during the war as his city crumbled to ruling. The song includes the Carol of the Bells and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, some of the most familiar and oldest Christmas carols in existence, mixed in the piece with a ferocious rock sound and of course a cellist. When that single was released, it was picked up by radio stations one after the other and it became one of the best selling Christmas singles of all time. That led to TSO forming a touring party and beginning their perennial concert tour which has now been a part of their many fans holiday experience for decades. To see the Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert is to be blown away. Dozens of performers on stage singing and playing this fantastic blend of Christmas music and rock music with pyrotechnics and a spectacular light show set to the music, designed to be a cathartic experience. You have to see it to believe it. Paul O'Neil passed away in 2017, but the core members of TSO have kept his vision alive every year since, performing in a seasonal blitz from November to December. A dollar from every ticket sold to every one of their concerts goes to charity. In the spirit of the season, as O'Neal wished, Al Petrelli one of the founding members of Trans Siberian Orchestra was one of the members of the band Sabotage hand selected by O'Neill in the very beginning of TSO to bring his vision to life. Petrelli is now the longtime lead guitarist and musical director of tso and he shares his stories about this remarkable, totally unique Christmas time rock and roll extravaganza with us in this special episode of the behind the Song podcast. If you like it, give it a like and hit. Subscribe and let us know in the comments. And happy holidays from all of us to all of you this season. And now, without further ado, let's get into the story of TSO with Al Petrelli. My dad works in B2B marketing.
- [03:50]
A
He came by my school for Career.
- [03:51]
B
Day and said he was a big roas man. Then he told everyone how much he.
- [03:56]
A
Loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day.
- [04:01]
B
Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn you'll be able to reach people who do get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com results to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn the place to be to be I think you're on mute Workday starting.
- [04:21]
A
To sound the same. I think you're on mute. Find something that sounds better for your career on LinkedIn.
- [04:29]
B
With LinkedIn job collections, you can browse curated collections by relevant industries and benefits like Flexpto or hybrid workplaces so you can find the right job for you.
- [04:40]
A
Get started@LinkedIn.com jobs finding where you fit LinkedIn knows how thank you so much for having me today.
- [04:50]
B
You're really important to the whole Trans Siberian Orchestra picture because you've been there from the beginning, since Paul O'Neill sort of envisioned this whole thing. So I was wondering if maybe you could take us through how that got started.
- [05:05]
A
It'll be 30 years ago this coming February, believe it or not.
- [05:09]
B
Wow.
- [05:10]
A
And yeah, and went by in a blink of an eye. I had known Paul O'Neill. I think we first met in 1985, you know, kicking around the streets in New York City. I was trying to cut my teeth as a guitar player and he was already well established as a writer, musician, producer. You know, it was one of those gratuitous conversations. Hey dude, we got to work together one day, okay? You know, like everybody said to everybody back then, you know, and you fast forward to again. I'm pretty positive. Early 2-2-95 and he called me up and he said, I'M working on this project that could really use some help. I'm kind of struggling here with bringing my vision to life. I was like, yeah, absolutely. Jumped in my car, drove to New York City, and I went in the studio. And the first thing he did was he put the faders up on the song that was to become Chris Steve, Sarajevo 1224. And I looked at him. Your dog looks at you and tilts his head a little bit. It doesn't really understand what's going on. And I said, brother, what's. What's with the Christmas song? And he laughed, you know, he goes, well, it's not really a Christmas song. It's a soundtrack depicting events that took place during the war in Bosnia or Sarajevo. Wow. All right, now. Now you. Not your normal conversation you have preceding a recording session, but. And I said, well, you got my attention now. Do tell. So the long and the short of it is that. And this is historically accurate is that during the war, there was a classical musician who would take his cello to the town square and play works by Mozart, Chopin, whatever, in protest to the bombing raids. And the hair on my arm stood up. He goes, what's the matter? I said, well, I was Alice Cooper's musical director, and we played in Zagreb and Belgrade before the war. And I was in that town square. You're talking about press record right now. And that's when those opening notes, that ostinato that precedes the entirety of the song, just came out of my hands. Because I understood what he was trying to depict visually. I understood it now melodically. I had to create something that was. It's almost like doing a film score, you know, like you're seeing this. This image on. On the screen. It's got nothing to do with me, you know, the virtuoso side of guitar playing or musicianship. It had to do with creating a mood, creating a vibe that's bringing his thoughts to life. And that was the beginning of it, you know, And I thought, you know, okay, well, this is an incredibly powerful piece of music. I hope, you know, maybe somebody will hear it one day, you know.
- [07:37]
B
Right. I'm astounded by the vision of taking something like something as familiar as A Christmas Carol, you add in some classical music, and then you present that in a very progressive rock way. And it had never been done before, ever. And then all of a sudden, here's this debut album in 96, right?
- [08:02]
A
Yeah.
- [08:03]
B
And then you have Christmas Eve, Sarajevo, 1224, that comes out, and then that's single was everywhere. I mean, everywhere. You couldn't avoid it. It became kind of this ubiquitous thing. And then was it at that point that you all got together and said, well, maybe we should take this thing on the road or do a live show.
- [08:24]
A
So winter 95 is when that song hit the radio. And, you know, you got a hit on your hands when talk radio is playing your song.
- [08:33]
B
Oh, definitely.
- [08:35]
A
You know, I mean, literally, it lit up the entirety of America. And that's when Paul said, let's write it. I want to write an entire record. Excuse me. Around that one song. He's like, dude, I'm with you. Like, let's go. I'll follow you to the ends of the earth. Right now we're good. And we recorded Christmas Eve and All the stories in 96. And it came out in 96, and it went, like multi platinum literally overnight. And then we went in and said, okay, let's do another record, you know, And I. I used to joke about as I, you know, we became the Steely Dan of Christmas. All we're doing is making records and, like, millions and millions of people buying these records. I was so happy, so proud. I was like, you know, wow, this is fantastic. Who's buying these records? I'm, you know, I want to know, right?
- [09:20]
B
Everyone.
- [09:20]
A
Radio was very kind to us, you know, and then somebody dared Paul, I think it was, I don't know, Summer 99, and said, you know, there's a lot of people. I think it started out in Cleveland, Ohio, that if we do a show, I promise you it'll be over the top. And one of the things you don't ever do is dare Paul O'Neil to do anything, because now it's on. So he goes, hey, you want to go out and tour for this? I'm like, how are we going to tour for this, dude? You got, like, 24 singers on the record. You got strings, you orchestra, you know. He goes, I don't know, but let's figure it out. Count me in. So in 99, we did seven shows, I think, which sold out in a matter of moments. And I, you know, 2,000, 3,000 seats. But the funniest part about it is, again, not knowing who bought all these records, who's shown up to these shows. You know, you hear things like, you know, we sold out in Cleveland, so they added two more shows, huh? It sold out so fast, we had to change buildings. You know, we couldn't get to the same theater for the third night. So, anyway, opening night, the Tower Theater in Philadelphia. And I remember Saying, okay, well, you know, we got a good show and this should go good. I don't know. And the curtain came up and I nearly had a heart attack, because right in front of me in the first row was an older couple, like somebody's grandparents. You know, those crocheted reindeer sweaters people will wear?
- [10:42]
B
Yes.
- [10:43]
A
I'm like, that's fine. But next to them was a dude wearing a Slayer hoodie.
- [10:47]
B
Right.
- [10:48]
A
I'm like, this is going to go one of two ways, either really good or really bad. And we got a standing ovation at the end of the show. And I was so excited. Johnny Lee Middleton and I, the bass player, walked off the front of the stage to start thanking these people because we were so, like, emotional. Like, it's one thing to sell a couple million records. It's another thing to watch everybody's expression in the audience change and their fists in the air and they're gloving every second of it. And I knew we were onto something. Now, did I know that 25 years later, you and I are going to be having a conversation about the same thing? No. You know, but I'm very glad that we are today.
- [11:20]
B
It all goes back to that. That. That sublime vision that Paul O'Neill had. And I know that it must be difficult to talk about, but I gotta touch briefly on the fact that, of course, he's no longer here with us, having. Having passed in 2017. And I know that a big part of TSO is the sort of philanthropic work that goes along hand in hand with all of these shows and all of these album sales over the years. And that was kind of part of his vision. Right? Like, he wanted to do something that would give back to the local community. So I wonder if continuing on from 2017 and making sure that, you know, portions of the proceeds from ticket sales go back into the community or to national charities, is that. Is that your way of sort of honoring that legacy of giving that he established?
- [12:18]
A
Yeah, this was who. All I'm going to say is, because he'll always be alive in my heart. You know, going back to the early days of recording, you know, we'd be working on 18th street and 5th Avenue in the studio, and he said, come on, let's go out and get some pizza or get a bite to eat. And, you know, we'd be walking, and I'm on 28th street and I turn my shoulder and he's gone. He's like four blocks behind me. Handing somebody on the street who's obviously suffering from very unfortunate Circumstance. He's handed him a 10, $20 bill. And then when he finally would catch up with me, I'm like, what was that all about? He goes, dude, you know, the money in my pocket's not going to change my life, giving it to somebody, but it may change that person's day. And if I could change their day, maybe they got a half a prayer of a better tomorrow. And I remember looking at him like, you're just extraordinary on every level, you know, so this wasn't a conscious decision that he made. Said, okay, we're selling tickets, we're selling tickets. Let's start. This is who Paul. Generous, you know, generous to a point that I. I couldn't believe how far he'd go out of his way to help people. You know, he and his family both are all the same. So when we again go back to the Sour show in Philly opening night, he grabbed me and he said, we're going to donate $1 from every ticket to a charity here in Philadelphia. And I'm like, fantastic. He goes, yeah, but we're going to do it forever. And, you know, and especially around the holidays, you know, people need a little help. Nobody knows why they're in the circumstance. Circumstances that they're in. They just are. And Paul wasn't concerned with why. He just wanted to help people. So I think we passed 20 million tickets sold not too long ago.
- [13:51]
B
Wow.
- [13:51]
A
And if you do the math, a dollar from every ticket forever has gone back into the community.
- [13:56]
B
Now, I want to go back to you. You mentioned your work with Alice Cooper, and I want to mention here, too, that, you know, you are super qualified for the job that you have. You know, you can't. You know, you studied at Berkeley. You were in Sabotage. I mean, you know, you're no stranger to an instrument, let's say. And so you did work with Alice Cooper in the late 80s, if I'm not mistaken.
- [14:22]
A
Yeah.
- [14:23]
B
Okay, so he is the host of our weeknights here on the Drive with his Alice's Addict program. Looking back, do you think, wow, that really. That really kind of helped me out, you know, in terms of what you're doing today.
- [14:35]
A
Oh, my God. Yeah. I had. Well, first. Yeah. One of the original artists who would present his music in a theatrical manner.
- [14:43]
B
Right.
- [14:44]
A
Going back to when I was a kid in junior high, you know, hearing stories about this guy, like, hanging himself on stage in the gallows or being decapitated, you know, I was like, dude, this is going to be awesome. You know, my parents were not as enthusiastic As I. But what are you going to do? Different story for a different conversation. But little did I know that basically he was handing me a curriculum to study back then, you know, when he would put the straight jacket on and sing the Ballad of Dwight Fry, he was no longer Alice. He became Dwight Fry. And I remember being terrified kind of on stage, looking down, going, he's a different person right now. He became the characters in his story. So on occasion throughout that tour, he's like, hey, we need an extra 15 seconds of music because the film is longer than what we have. And I was like, okay, cool. And I would sit down and I had. I grew up in an era where Leonard Bernstein was very important in my household. Rodgers and Hammerstein, you know, all those shows were big, you know, and when they would come on tv, that's what we watched. So I. And growing up in New York, going through the public school system, being an orchestra, band, wind ensemble, choir, I was very well versed in large ensemble presentations. Now, I didn't know it was going to come in handy at any point, but in that moment when Al said, you know, we need some music right here. Well, I would kind of look at the film and go, what would John Williams do? What would Hans Zimmer do? Or Danny Elfman or whomever? You know? And I would just kind of go, okay, I got something on the piano. And he goes, yeah, that's really creepy. Whatever. And I learned right there and then that part of my job is to be a guitar player. The bigger part of my job is to be an arranger or a composer and bring this vision to life, just like if you're watching a film. So I was doing that a lot with Cooper over the. Over the years, and please send him my best. I love him to death. One of my first and most important teachers ever. And as my career continued, I learned that, well, serving the song is. That's my job, you know, maybe being able to shred on occasion, fine, whatever, you know, but serving the song, serving the artist, and every artist I worked with from Alice up until that. That February 95with Paul taught me something. And again, I didn't know at the time it was a curriculum. I just knew that, well, I'm going to work with Celine Dion in a different manner than I would work with Dave Mustaine and Megadeth or with Dee Snider or with Taylor, Dana, whomever, you know, I just knew that I have to create something for their song. And so when I sat down in the chair with Paul, immediately, again, going Back to the opening motif for Christmas Eve, you know, it was basically, I went back to my Simon and Garfunkel days of the Sound of Silence.
- [17:21]
B
Oh, wow.
- [17:22]
A
You know, which, you know. And again, was it a conscious thing? I didn't say, oh, I'm gonna kind of play a Sound of Silence type of. No, but that's what came out of my hands because like the silence of the calm before that impending storm of the bombing raids, that's just being a very well educated musician and a lover of all different genres of music. So if I'm listening to a Frank Sinatra track or Barbra Streisand track, because that's who my parents loved, I was paying attention to the orchestrations, you know, or again, going back to west side Story with Leonard Bernstein. I mean, the music is absolutely on a different level of brilliant, you know. So when you listen to Maria and he's got this like, try. I'm going to sound like a nerd. Sorry, but he's got this tritone tonality. Well, I had to go trace that back to when Schaikovsky scored the original the Romeo and Juliet, you know. And I'm like finding. The further back down the rabbit hole I go, the more I'm discovering the origins of a lot of these music. So I was a student, I still to this day, every day, studying music, listening to things that I normally wouldn't listen to because, you know, you have a finite amount of ingredients in this art form. We only have 12 notes with an infinite amount of combinations available to you, you know, so I've always approached it from a cinematic point of view, more so than, you know, I want to be a guitar hero.
- [18:40]
B
You know, you mentioned, you know, composing and how all of those things are so important for what you're doing now. You're the musical director for a pretty big outfit. I mean, how is it to. There are so many vocalists, there is a string section, there's guitar, bass, drummers. How do you manage all of these different personalities of truly talented people getting all this stuff together? Especially since I can't imagine everyone lives.
- [19:08]
A
Close by, you know, So I always equate it or compare it to like one of my children is this infant, you know, I gotta clean it, change it, feed it, love it, take care of it, protect it, blah, blah, blah, blah, all this stuff. And as that infant now is 30 years old, you know, still my babies. So as they grow, you grow with them in theory, you know. And this thing started out as a very small unit with a lot of outside people Coming in to record. And when we started touring, you know, we had one, I think, 24 foot box truck, a fog machine and a bus. Okay. And we thought we were cool then, but we've been doing it for so long that you just incrementally learn how to. To do this. I have this thing where I tell everybody that I've had to learn to speak 50 dialects of English. I can't speak to one of the young ladies in the band like I would talk to. Johnny Lee Middleton is, you know, the bass player. We've been brothers for like 30 years. It's a different conversation, a different way, because I learned the hard way that, you know, they don't acclimate to you. I got to acclimate to them. So being in the studio with whomever and being in close proximity with whatever artists I was working for at the time, I learned very quickly to accommodate that artist. Okay, Verbally, musically, whatever it's going to be. So people skills is one of the biggest parts of my job. How to deal with artists, how to deal with a lot of them in one room, you know, And I was here from the jump, like you said, you know, so your reputation kind of walks in the room long before you walk in the room, you know, so everybody knows that. I was in that chair next to Paul O'Neill with some of the other guys before this thing was even a thing. Therefore, I walk in the room, let's get to work.
- [20:51]
B
And there's a lot of work involved in something that takes this amount of production to deliver. And that brings me back to the lights. And you mentioned how Ohio was a big part of TSO getting off the ground and becoming very popular and finding early fans there. And I just think this is so interesting. I'm recalling back to those Miller Lite ads a few years ago at Christmas time. That was a video of a house that a TSO fan had strung up. He obviously had some kind of engineering, you know, ability. Strung up lights on his house for his Christmas display and timed it to your songs, and it became so popular. I have seen people do this. Neighborhoods, neighborhoods full, neighborhoods like this, decked out. I know you couldn't have seen something like that coming.
- [21:47]
A
Listen, when Paul and I were kids, we lived on Long island and New York City was, I don't know, 30 miles away. Might as well have been Jupiter. A different world, you know. And when bands would come through town, especially at Madison Square Garden in the 70s, you know, they had to show the flag because that's where the majority of the record companies and all that stuff was, you know, and when Kiss would come, when Pink Floyd would come through AC dc, Aerosmith, the who, you know, we would sit back in the chairs and just go, oh, my God. Now a you're hearing your favorite songs and you couldn't believe the production. You know, when Genesis came through, they. I think they were one of the first bands ever to use what's called fairy lights, where the light moved on its own, you know, and it would change the gel color by itself. It's like, oh, my God, this is the great. When. When Rush came out with the lasers. What? Yeah. So that's what Paul grew up watching. And he said, if ever I'm in a situation where I could do this, I'm going to do it bigger and better than all these guys. And there it is. He put everything back into the show. And going back to that Miller commercial, the dude who did that at his house in Ohio, Paul was like having a conversation with our lighting designer. He goes, I want the lasers and the pyro to be synced up to all Al's guitar work on Wizards of Winter. And the guy's like, man, that's too many notes. I can't do that. He goes, really? There's a guy outside of, like, Toledo, Ohio, who did it with a staple gun and a ladder from Home Depot, you know. And our lighting designer went, then my boss, I'll get it done. And he taught us that if he sees it in his head, if we just work really, really hard, we'll be able to pull it off. And from production wise, you know, he taught the crew a lot of those kind of things. And as a guitar player, he asked me to play things. I'm like, dude, I can't do that. That's impossible. Negotiating, you can just try, work on it for a couple minutes. And I learned that, well, if he hears it and he trusted me to. To articulate that, I'll figure out how to do it. And you wanted to work harder for Paul. When you invite us into your home and play our music from Thanksgiving to New Year's, which I've heard a thousand times, or it's not the holidays till, you know, you guys come to town and we start our holiday thing at a TSO show, that's a wonderful compliment and a massive responsibility ability that we don't take lightly. That's how much they love this thing, you know, And I'm just so proud of it. Again, like one of my children. The folks in the audience aren't and why should they know that we've been working on this for 11 months before, you know, the first downbeat? You know, they don't know the level of scrutiny. I always say that the devil lives in the details. You know, they just know that this is awesome or it's not. You know, and we owe it to everybody in that audience to make sure that they're put back on their heels from the downbeat until the very last pyro hit. That. I can't believe what I just saw because we take pride in what Paul created all these decades ago.
- [24:34]
B
Well, and that is a perfect way to end there, Al. And you answered a question I was gonna ask, which is, when do you start working on the next one? But you said, you know, like, it's a year in the making to pull off the TSO show and the touring in the short amount of time that you have. So with that, I will say thank you very much. Uh, we are very. We are very much looking forward to the two performances that you have here in our Chicago area. December 23rd. An afternoon show and then an evening show at Allstate arena in Rosemont. I will be there, and I know that many, many, many of our listeners will, too.
- [25:13]
A
And Lou Malnado's pizza or Malnati's. I can't wait.
- [25:17]
B
Correct. Correct. Deep dish all the way. That's right.
- [25:20]
A
And that's coming from a New Yorker. Listen, I've enjoyed our conversation, so thank you so much everything. I'll see you before the holidays.
- [25:27]
B
So see you before the holidays.
- [25:29]
A
I wish you a merry Christmas Day, and thanks so much for everything.
- [25:32]
B
I hope you enjoyed this special episode of behind the Song. If you liked it, give it a like and subscribe to the channel. Special thanks as always to Christian Lane for the music you hear on these podcast episodes. You can find me on the air at 97.1fm, the Drive in Chicago, and a wife drv.com on the way. Much more classic rock and roll.