Wildness Frontman Jon Oliva recently went into memories with Sakis Fragos of Greece’s Rock Hard Magazine in a new, world exclusive interview. During the interview Olive talks about his earlier days with WildnessDecisions made throughout the band’s career, stories about songwriting and, most excitingly… he talks about his near audition with heavy metal icons Black Sabbath almost four decades ago.

“We wanted to separate after Fight for the nightmare” Olive remembers. I mean, it was over, and um… I had actually received a plane ticket and a setlist via FedEx (for Black Sabbath). I was supposed to fly to LA the next day or the day after to audition. Black SabbathBecause Old Butler really liked my voice. And Criss (Olive), (Jon’s Brother and then Wildness‘s guitarist) wanted to fly to Phoenix to play with (Dave) Mustaine about accession Megadeth. So we meet with Paul O’Neill (the produced Wildness).

“He said, ‘You’re together. You’re not splitting up. I’m giving you $50,000.’ And I remember kicking my brother in the leg under the table… And he gave us a check for $50,000 and said, ‘You’re not auditioning for Black SabbathAnd you (Criss) will not be there Megadeth. You must stay together and we will have a real Wildness Album.’

Olivia says: “To be honest, Criss and I didn’t want to split up. We loved being together and doing our shit. We didn’t want to split up. I would have loved to sing for Black Sabbath! I mean, I know… I’ll tell you right now, I would be the best singer for Black Sabbath aside from that Ozzy (Black Sabbath’s original singer). And I got a demo of the Eternal Idol Album – the song The Shining – The Wonderful World of Madness was one, and Ancient Warrior was another one. And then I got a list of classics like War Pigs, FEATHER. And I knew all these songs anyway. I was like, “Oh man. I’m going to tear them up.” I was so confident.

“And then, when Paul stopped us because he gave us all the money. He wanted to keep us together and renew our contract with Atlantic. And then I find out that Ray Gillen flies to California in my place and gets the damn job. “You know what O´Neill said to me? He said:JonI know you would have gotten the job, but you would never have made any money.’ I say, ‘Well, I haven’t made any money in 20 years. It’s Damn Black Sabbath” Olive says.

“So Ray Gillen went out and he got the job. Because beam was a really dear friend of mine. I loved Ray Gillen. He had a great voice. He was one of those magical guys. And he got the job and went on tour with them and he raged; he kicked ass. And he sang all the songs on the Eternal Idol Album. And then he came with Jake E. Lee and set wasteland together; he and Paul actually assembled. And he stopped SabbathHow can you fucking stop Black Sabbath?” Olive says with extreme emotion. “And then they got Tony Martin.”

According to this story Olive continues the interview to discuss how great and nice all the guys in Black Sabbath were for him, and he pays respect to the late legendary and iconic singer Ronnie James Dio (former Black Sabbath, Rainbowand extremely successful solo artist God). This is a great interview to listen to the discussions that Olive had with Black Sabbath guitarist Toni Iommi on guitar riffs like Olive was inspired by them and how much he really respected them. It also shows that you never know if someone who inspires you or idolizes you will call you one day to audition for their band. For example, singer Tim “Ripper” Owens (formerly by Judas Priest), or Jay Weinberg (current drummer for Slipknot). The point is…dreams can and do come true!