Metal Christmas: Ex-Megadeth guitarist touring with orchestra

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Dec. 13, 2002 | 9:32 a.m.

What: Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Where: Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts.

Tickets: $21, $26, $38.50.

Information: (702) 785-5000.

Megadeath. The name hardly evokes images of holiday cheer.

Nor do many of the longtime heavy metal band's song titles, "Symphony of Destruction" and "Wake Up Dead" among them.

But when former Megadeath guitarist Al Pitrelli performs at the Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts on Saturday night at 8, he won't be playing those bleak numbers.

Instead, Pitrelli will be lending his chops to such tunes as "The First Noel" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."

That's right, Christmas music.

These days, the 40-year-old New York City native tours with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, a popular group that has been adding a hard-rock edge to holiday favorites since 1996.

"It's funny because my history has always been playing with rock bands and looking out in the audience and seeing your basic rock fan in the leather garb with the Motorhead button on his denim vest," Pitrelli said in a recent phone interview from a Spokane, Wash., hotel room.

"Now I look out and I'm seeing three generations of families sitting together, all with their little Rudolph sweaters on. Is this a switch or what?"

Actually, for Pitrelli, switching formats is nothing new. For the past 17 years he has played with a divers group of musicians ranging from Celine Dion to Alice Cooper, establishing himself as one of rock's top session guitarists.

"I've basically been a gun for hire for almost 20 years now, and I've had a heck of a time doing it," he said.

After Pitrelli attended Boston's Berklee School of Music, his professional career began in 1985, when he joined up with one Michael Bolton.

"That was when he was still a headbanger, before he became Engelbert Humperdinck," Pitrelli joked.

Recording and touring opportunities with Dion, Cooper, Taylor Dayne, Expose, Asia, Great White, Dee Snider and many others followed, before Pitrelli signed on to work with heavy metal outfit Savatage in the mid-'90s.

Working with Savatage producer Paul O'Neill, Pitrelli added his soaring guitar licks to several tracks on 1995's "Dead Winter Dead," including a rocking Christmas medley titled, "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24."'

With Pitrelli in tow, Savatage headed off on a European tour. When they returned, they were shocked to discover their holiday ditty burning up the FM dial.

"Somehow, WPLJ in New York City got a copy of the Savatage record and started playing 'Christmas Eve/Sarajevo,' and it spread like wildfire across the country," Pitrelli said. "A week later, it was the No. 1 requested radio single in America, and people were running to the stores looking for the Savatage record."

Recognizing that the smash Christmas hit sounded out of place on a heavy-metal CD, Atlantic Records approached O'Neill about recording an entire album of holiday music. Thus, Trans-Siberian Orchestra was born.

Since then, the group has released a pair of Christmas albums -- 1996's "Christmas Eve and Other Stories" and 1998's "The Christmas Attic" -- along with a Christmas DVD, 2001's "The Ghost of Christmas Eve," and one non-holiday CD, 2000's "Beethoven's Last Night."

More than its recorded output, though, TSO's live performances have established the orchestra as a modern holiday tradition.

"People online are saying its their third year at the tour, and this is their Christmas tradition now," Pitrelli said. "It's like when I was a kid watching Charlie Brown or the Rockettes at Radio City, or my wife and I watching "It's a Wonderful Life" or "Miracle on 34th Street.

"Now, all of a sudden, people are going to the TSO show, and bringing aunts and uncles and kids and everybody in tow. It's a trip."

The Trans-Siberian live experience features a six- or seven-piece rock band, an eight-piece string section and eight singers. The show also includes narration, weaving a cohesive story throughout.

Pitrelli summarized: "It's kind of combining a heavy metal band with an orchestra and a Broadway show theme, if that makes any sense,"'

The concept really didn't make sense to Pitrelli when he first heard O'Neill describe it to him at a kitchen table seven years ago.

"I remember sitting there going, 'You want to do what?' And he goes, 'I want you to play traditional Christmas songs, real rock 'n' roll style, but with an orchestra, poetry and narration. It's going to be great.' And I was like, 'You're out of your mind,' " Pitrelli said.

As it turned out, O'Neill was onto something. And when Pitrelli's stint in Megadeath ended in April when frontman Dave Mustaine folded the band after sustaining a hand injury. Pitrelli then decided to make TSO his permanent home.

"It's a year-round project, but we only tour for six weeks each winter," Pitrelli said. "We were working on a new record until the day we left, and when we get back, after a week or two off, we'll get back to work on that. Hopefully, it will be out in time for Christmas 2003."

You might expect Pitrelli's former metal bandmates to chide him about playing Christmas music. He said just the opposite is true, that most are fans of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra's hard-rock approach to the holidays.

"There's nothing light about it. When you're playing 'Marriage of Figaro' with a Strat (Fender Stratocaster guitar), or when we're playing some of the Beethoven pieces, you don't get any heavier than some of that stuff. I'm getting to tear it up and have a good time."

And as Pitrelli entertains families throughout the country, he's also enjoying spending time with his own loved ones during the holiday season. His wife, Jane, plans piano for Trans-Siberian, and the couple's Boston Terrier, Moose, is also along for the journey.

"It's the three of us on the bus for six weeks, making people's holidays a bit more special," Pitrelli said. "We're having the time of our lives."