Master Of The Moon is blowin' me away! How long did you work on this CD?
Thanks! The writing process, unless it's a really long thing like Magica, usually always takes about the same. It takes two and a half or three months to write it and usually about two months to record it. It's usually about a five month process. Nothing really seems to change that much anymore. You either get good at it or you get used to the same routine every time.

The songs have taken a little different direction on this record. Instead of focusing on a lot of fantasy subjects in the lyrics the songs seem more "real," if that makes any sense.
I think it is a product of the time, really. We actually started with the thought of writing the next two parts of Magica. We were in that mind-set right away and then I realized there wasn't going to be enough time to do that properly so we embarked upon the album you hear now. Because we were in that mind-set I think a lot of this album became a lot more realistic, touching upon events that are happening in the world today. It turned out to be the heaviest of the Dio productions so far, as far as sound-wise goes. I think some of that had to do with the fact that we thought we were going to do Magica, which would have been a bigger, broader piece. The things that were happening at that time are the same things that are happening now; terrorism, the war in Iraq, I could go on and on about all the horrible things that are going on in this world. I really couldn't bring myself to write a whole lot of things about fantasy when all you hear about is real death and destruction.

Are any songs on the record more important to you or have a special meaning to you?
I think the song "The Man That Would Be King," although I did not begin writing this song about any kind of political venue at all, it kind of turned out that way. It was going to be about King Richard the Lionhearted and the Crusades in the perspective of the soldiers that went there. Immediately as I sat down with pen and paper I realized it was the same correlation with what's going on today with our current president and our government. I guess it could be looked upon as some kind of political statement. I didn't mean for it to be because I'm a musician not a politician. I think musicians should stay out of that realm unless you're going to run for governor and give up your career. Of course you have to be an actor to do that! I try not to make those statements if I can. Unless you're fully involved in the ring then there is no sense in putting on the gloves. I'm not that involved. Again, I'm a person of the time we live in and I certainly have a right to say it. I think it's a little more burdensome when you have some type of celebrity. That's when you have to really sit back and say that perhaps my attitudes are either wrong or don't need to be given to people at this particular moment. I shy away from that. I didn't mean for it to be that kind of statment but at the end of the day it kind of turned out that way. I think that's a song that people immediately point to because they see the correlation. I would say that is one of the most important songs on the album. An album is all of the songs and not one of it's parts. I think you have to take it all.

What was it like working in the studio with Jeff Pilson again?
It was great to work with Jeff. He's such a great player and such a good person. He's been a friend for such a long time and obviously we've played with him before. That was very easy. The entire album was written by the time we needed a bass player. Jimmy was going to be our bass player and that fell apart. Jeff was brought in really as a studio player more than anything else. He doesn't see things that way. Jeff comes in and loves the music. Even if he doesn't like it he'll still do a good job with it. Fortunately he liked all the things we were doing. Rehearsals were a joy and I thought he played absolutely brilliantly on this record.

Is Rudy Sarzo a full-on member of the band now?
Yes, he is.

You just got back from a few shows in Mexico and South America, what, about two weeks ago?
That's right. We were there for about two weeks. We started in Mexico and went to Brazil, Argentina, Chile.

Did you play any of the new material on that run?
We did a tour before that in Europe. We had planned on having this album released in time for that tour which began toward the end of July. Unfortunately, as it sometimes happens, the record company said they had to push the date back. "Well, thank you very much!" We were over there with a new album that's not released and a chance to play it in front of all those people. The same with South America. We had the album finished and ready to go but it wasn't released at the time. We did one song, a song called "The Eyes." The beauty of that song is that it has a really "anthemy" part toward the end. That always works, especially since we were doing some festival shows in Europe and a couple in South America. The song worked really, really, well and was accepted without even being heard before. I think that is quite a kudo for a song.

How long is your setlist?
It's about an hour and 50 minutes, sometimes two hours. I think there are 18 songs.

There's a big US tour coming up, right?
Yeah. We're leaving on Monday as a matter of fact to go to Hartford where we start our production rehearsals. It all begins at the very end of this month.

You've seen a lot of things in your career. What's your opinion of the music biz as it stands today?
When I first started you really had a lot more opportunity via a record company and the people that ran those record companies. They wanted to give people a chance to develop. I think that's so very important that you don't have the mentality that I find today. I call it the "Big Pen Mentality." If you don't have a big hit on your first product then they throw you away. I think that's difficult. With digital recording and home studios there is a way to give you just as proper a piece of product as big professional studios. It's opened up the competitive lanes incredibly. It's made the throw away thing even harder because if you throw one away there are 25,000 waiting for you to try them out as well. It's the lack of care that used to be there that I just don't find anymore. That is one good reason for independent labels. Until they're swallowed up by a bigger label they're usually people who are fans of the music. They're really involved and they want to give it a chance and they do. That's the biggest difference that I've seen. Musically I think we've kind of retrograded. The people I grew up listening to that I wanted to be like were good singers, good musicians, great singers, great musicians. That's what I wanted to be. Generationally the music has changed and it went to more of a social aspect of punk music to no punk music to punk music coming back again to no punk music to punk happening again! It's cool because I think making a social statement is excellent. I think that musically things have suffered a bit. Especially from the end of the vocalists.

I think things have suffered because someone can take their crappy vocal tracks and plug 'em into Pro Tools and fix it. You don't really have to be able to sing or play your instrument any more!
That also can become a little bit of a danger, even for people who have been doing this for a long time. Pro Tools, as luxurious as it can seem to be, a lot of times does take away the hard work that needs to be put into what you need to do. It's become so easy that even the good musicians will let a mistake ride and say, "I'll just fix it in Pro Tools." I think that can be a real danger. I'm glad I didn't start that way. We did use Pro Tools on this album and the one before it. We used it only to improve what we had, not as a shortcut. It has become means for anyone to have a hit record. From an American Idol perspective you can see all the people who are trying to do that in their home.

When a band takes a shortcut in the studio and then you see that band live, they can't pull it off on stage! It's a joke!
That's true. That's always been the point with me. Whatever you record, if you can't do it live what the hell are you doing it for? Do everything live. That's the whole point. Pro Tools is a great avenue of fixability and it does cut time down, for example if you have a repetitive guitar part that doesn't change. Truthfully, seeing engineers work to get Pro Tools to do the things they want them to do is very time consuming! I think if you can just do it from the get-go you're much better off.

Through your entire career, when have you had the most fun?
Actually I think the most fun for me was the very beginning with my first band, Elf. That's easily the most enjoyable for me because everything was an experience for the first time. I'd never been out of the country. Going out of the country for the first time was a wonderful experience, not only for me but the guys in that band were friends I grew up with. To share those experiences together was absolutely the best thing that's ever happened to me. That was certainly the happiest time, the most "wide-eyed" time. Musically the Heaven And Hell time was the most enjoyable. At the time Sabbath was not doing well with their last couple of albums. It was a real down-turn time for them. My inclusion in the band meant that we had an opportunity to succeed again. I always felt that band needed success. It deserved success. After all, it's a band that created heavy metal. Guys like Tony and Geezer in the band are great players. Bill and Ozzy...it was a special band and for me to come in and reach success again was a lot of fun. I really liked the guys a lot and we got along so well. It was almost like being in my first band again. They came across with this attitude, not really simplistic, but wide-eyed, moreso than other people I've worked with. Unfortunately those things fall apart but it was very productive and really a lot of fun personally.

When you first started with Elf did you ever think you'd still be making records in 2004?
I do look ahead to everything. I am one of those people who doesn't look over his shoulder. I think that you can't live in the past. You've already done that. People ask me if I listen to my older albums. Of course not. I've recorded them once and probably already played them live enough to where I'll never have to do that. When you rest on your laurels I think that's the end of the day for you. I never thought to myself that I'd be doing this in 2004. I only lived for what was going to come next and wanting to make that as good as it possibly could be. As you can tell Jesse, I go the long way around when it comes to answering these questions! Today is today and it's 2004. Cool. All those things are only numbers to me. I don't look at dates and times don't really make a lot of sense to me. As we're talking that time is gone and I'm already looking forward to your next question! I never really considered it then.

I'm really looking forward to your response to this question. What do you think of the state of the world right now? Do you see things going on in the world and relate it to religion at all?
Religiously, I've had the tendency to write around religion a lot. Not because I'm an extremely religious person. I have my own religion. My religion is that a good, an evil, a god and a devil reside in each one of us as people. We have choices to make. You take the high road and you can take the low road. To me, heaven and hell is where we're living. I don't really go a lot beyond that. I hope I don't become one of those people who says on his deathbed, "I'm sorry. I believe." Just to try and get that last little favor! I've used religion a lot in songs, more to say that you really don't need to go to a place with a roof over it to pray to your god, whatever your god may be. Your god resides in yourself. Your body, your heart, your soul is your temple. I've always believed that. Therefore, I've had a go at religious beliefs at times. Not a go at god, I don't mean that at all. Growing up I was a catholic and I had a typical catholic upbringing. Nuns teaching you on a Wednesday and all the things that go with the trappings of the catholic church. They're still so archaic in their beliefs that it stuns me to this day. I understood right away what was going on with religious teachings and I didn't understand why I was being taught by fear instead of love. I really felt that I was being told all the time, "If you don't do this you will burn and suffer!" I never wanted to be taught by fear. I always had a slanted view of religion, especially the one I was reared in. Religion is responsible for so many of the problems we face today. At the end of the day everybody believes in the same thing we just give it different names. That's the greatest sin that religion has caused. So many people have suffered and perished and we can see it happening in the Middle East right now.

I've read that religion is the leading reason for war in the history of the world.
I would think it would have to be. It's a thing that people care about the most. One of the reasons being that nobody knows what's going to happen. Religion has always been faith. If you believe this will happen then that will happen in you life. We don't really know. It's like politics. You can't really argue either one because there is no conclusion.

Here's a question that's not as deep! When you're not creating music or performing, what music do you listen to?
I listen to classical music. I started playing the trumpet at five years old. Through my training I played classical music. I admire the great classical composers so much. All of us rock 'n roll people have stolen from Bach. He wrote the best basslines anyway! I like to listen to it as well because it really cleanses my mind. I'm busy playing rock 'n roll every day of my life. I genuinely understand and love classical music.

What's a typical day like for you if you're not involved in your music?
I'm a sports freak. I love sports. I always wanted to be a baseball player. That was my dream. I never got big enough to be able to do that. I think I might've had a shot at it talent-wise. I certainly never could compete with the monsters of today, especially as small as I am. That's what I wanted to do. I'm in awe of athletes who are so dedicated. I think we can all learn from that. It takes severe dedication to achieve that kind of goal. That doesn't mean that just because they're great athletes - and we've seen this time and time again - that they're good people. When I'm not on the road I'll watch any type of sporting event. Chair throwing, bottle throwing, football, baseball, basketball. I can equate with them. I find them very similar to musicians. I've always said that the quarterback on a football team is like the lead guitar player or the vocalist. The runningback might be the same thing. The drummer and the bass player are the linemen. They're the guys that let you move. You can see how engrossed I am in sports to relate it that way, but that's something I enjoy very much. Aside from that I just don't have much time for anything outside of music. It never really ends.

What's in the future for you? What do you have in the works?
The Magica album was always meant to be a trilogy so there are two more parts to it. I want to do those two parts together as one product. I'm looking forward to that being the next project. In 1985 we did a project called Hear 'N Aid. It featured one long song with different guitar players and vocalists singing on that one song. There was an entire album. There's a charity I've supported for the last 12 years called Children of the Night. It's a charity for runaway and abused children. We were able to build a school for them and a home for them to prepare them for what comes after the horrible life they've had to live from age 12 to 18. It's a private charity so it's an ongoing thing. Money always needs to be raised for this project. We're going to do the same thing that we did with Hear 'N Aid. We're also going to release the Hear 'N Aid project on CD because it was never released that way. We'll put it in the whole package. The new event will be filmed, much like the Hear 'N Aid thing. That will probably be after the first of the year.

What would you like to say to your fans?
Thanks for giving me such a long and productive career. Thanks for understanding that I've written these songs for me and you and together we've shared them all. The only reason that people like me survive is because people care about music and care about the person that's making it. Thanks for all the years and I don't plan on stopping yet!