EXCLUSIVE: Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Al Pitrelli talks TSO’s 30 years, fatherhood ahead of Jax show

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Trans-Siberian Orchestra is coming back to Jacksonville in December. The holiday rock group will be at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on December 17 as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. I got the chance to talk with music director and guitarist Al Pitrelli ahead of the Jacksonville show to talk about reaching the 30-year milestone, and gives me some advice on fatherhood.

“That sort of longevity doesn’t occur too often in this business,” said Pitrelli, reflecting on 30 years. “Recording this stuff starting in ‘95, right through the release in ‘96, I was just happy as an artist, as a guitar player, to be part of something like this, this great music. I’m enjoying recording this. And when it was released, it sold like three, four million copies that first season, and then the next year we did another record, and that sold a bunch, a couple million copies, and to be honest with you, I don’t know if I ever mentioned this to you in the past, but it felt like we were the Steely Dan of Christmas. Like we’re selling millions and millions of records, and we’re not playing live. Then you do the movie in ‘98, and people lost their minds; they loved the film. That became kind of like a tradition in the household. Then in ‘99, you start thinking of doing some live shows. In 2000, you got to chop the band into two halves because people all over America want shows. By 2003/2004, we got to do matinee because we sold out the evening show. [...] So incrementally, over the years, it was like new precedent, new precedent, new thing, like it was like ‘okay.’ and then you and I are having this conversation, it’s like 30 years ago. I recorded this music; I was 32, 33 years old. I turn 64 next week. [...] My kids were born into it, my younger daughters are into it, and my grandchildren are running around the house with their plastic Minnie Mouse guitars because Grumpy is on the TV. So I sit there, and I look in the rearview mirror, and I go, ‘Wow, this is incredible, thank you so much,’ and the fact that this thing- if this is Paul O’Neill’s child and I’m the weird uncle- I’m just proud of something that we created decades ago that now people are still enjoying; it’s still important, and we’ve now gone multi-generational, where grandkids are coming with their grandparents now. So it’s kind of cool, to say the least.”

You hear Al’s advice on fatherhood and how he still feels that thrill of music after all these years in the full interview.