Jason and Paul had the vision to create the record. But a record is
just a record. It takes years to create an entertainment superstar
like TSO. Here’s what really happened. By 1998, Atlantic wasn’t
getting enough records out and Christmas Eve and Other Stories’ sales
fell by a third, as did radio spins on the single "Christmas Eve
Sarajevo 12/24". Atlantic wasn’t promoting TSO to radio because it
was felt to be some old fashioned sound put out by Jason for his
buddy with 8 failed Savatage albums, and also, it was just a seasonal
album. They weren’t yet seeing the long term franchise potential. I
decided to fight the decline by switching strategy, which I did with
the support of Jason, Ron Shapiro, Vickie Germaise, Lou Plaia and
others, so that TSO would be show driven, not record driven.

In 1999 in order to mount the show, I had to co-promote it in three
out of the five initial markets. It was so successful, selling out
four out of eight shows, that I decided that we could launch two
touring companies in 2000. We could do this because TSO was not
actually a band. In 2003, at the end of my tenth year representing
O’Neill and TSO, the two companies toured 70 cities doing 84 shows.
I’ve always believed in building superstar attractions by developing
deep roots and fan loyalty through touring. That the strategy has
worked is evidenced by the long term ongoing success of these bands
and attractions.

Regards

David