Kamelot keyboardist Oliver Palotai recently spoke about how the departure of iconic frontman Roy Khan affected the band.
In an interview promoting his new album with Sons Of Seasons, Palotai explained how the cancellation of 2010 North American tour was one the worst experiences in his life.
"It affected me a lot, but not musically," said Palotai. "The hard thing is, when a tour like that is cancelled there’s no insurance or anything like that. I was moving at the time, and I was relying heavily on my income from that tour, and it was at a time when the new Sons Of Seasons album was still in the making, which is something I invest a lot of my own money in. That money was missing, so it made the last steps quite hard.”
“Musically, well, I guess it did affect me after all because there’s only one other incident in my career that shocked me just as much, and that was Blaze Bayley’s criminal management, which caused the band to split up. That and the Kamelot tour cancellation are probably the two worst things that have happened in my life.”
Leave's Eyes, one of the support bands, had already flown from Germany to the US before they were notified of the cancellation.
“It affected the support bands a lot,” said Palotai. “It was so tough for them. I spoke with Terry ('Roadcase' Deschenes) from Blackguard at the 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise and, yeah, they ended up in a pretty bad situation. I mostly felt sorry for the support bands and everyone else around the tour – promoters, road crew – because they couldn’t just get a substitute band.”
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
Palotai collaborated with his partner, Epica vocalist Simone Simons, for the latest Sons Of Seasons album, Magnisphyricon, which was released last month.
Evidently undaunted by the previous experience, Kamelot have booked a North American tour running through August and September, with Rhapsody Of Fire vocalist Fabio Lione fronting the band.
