Paul O’Neill came to me and my bother one night and asked us if we ever heard this opera called In the Hall of the Mountain King? Of course we never did (laughing). He went on to play the famous part of the song to us. Criss kicked me under the table, like “this idea is nuts”.
Raising the Curtain arose from the ashes of another tragic guitarist death in his life, that of longtime Pain guitarist Matt LaPorte. Convinced by a friend, and other members of his band, he commenced work on completing unfinished songs he had, as well as those of his friend Dan Fasciano.