 |
Steve Wacholz has
always been more than 'just' the legendary 'Dr.
Killdrums'. Apart from the fact that he never touched a
drop of alcohol during the tours, and formed the 'sober'
equivalent of the Oliva bros. together with Johnny Lee
Middleton, he took care of the band's promotion in the
early days, and later the settlement of affairs on tour. "Someone eventually had to look after the fact that everyone had their passports with them and that the road crew got payed in time. I have tried to keep up at least a mimimum of organisation.Basically, it was a job of it's own". |
Apart from all that, he kept the bands fanclub going for many years, together with his mother 'Ma Killdrums' - and treasured each picture, each magazine, each tourshirt and any other rarity since 1977. This way he collected hundreds and thousands of pieces. "I have collected trunkloads of stuff".
Chris Caffery remembers "A running gag when we were on tour. Whenever one of us lost something - Steve would pack it in one of his trunks..."Thanks to this collectors-mania a complete documentation of the bands history was created. Even the original paintings of Gary Smith's cover artwork found their way into Steves 'museum'.
| The Doctor, who has 'not played since the recordings of 'Edge of Thorns'", because there simply wasn't anybody who managed to come close enough to the Savatage level...("I've had a lot of offers, but none of them were satisfactory")gives drumming lessons a few times a week , works in the drums- and percussion- department of Thouroughbred Music in Clearwater, the biggest music store in the Tampa Bay area during the daytime and has for many years been promoting"From normal gigs of local acts through biker festivals to october feasts"justabout anything that could be done on stage. |  |
With 'Spybat Records' he has also got his own record company. Spybat's first release was the re-release on CD of ' Sirens/ Dungeons', the second one will probably be the U.S. release of the Dr. Butcher album, that has been overdue for more than a year. Steve:"One of my personal favorite albums, while it comes closest to the original Sava-sound".
Next to Tommy Aldridge, Steves biggest idol as a drummer , you'd hardly believe this, is Jon Oliva ! "He's a marvellous drummer. Not only has he written our songs, but most times he has also given me a tape with the drumtracks, to show me what he wanted the rhythm section to sound like. Most times all I had to do was add my two or three percent untill it was perfect".
From RockHard Legends, Savatage
Translated by Ellen Bakvis