Ronnie James Dio Reclaims His Throne
~ by Kara Uhrlen

With some properly orchestrated planning, DIO is back on track and certainly ready to reintroduce fans to the type of music that brought the band legendary success early on.  Vocalist and founder Ronnie James Dio admits that the band had gone through a period of time where their direction became confusing to their fans and even to themselves. 

After lending an ear to what was going on in the musical world around them and listening to the always-dissatisfied industry personnel, he says, “We weren’t really DIO anymore.” “When Craig came back with us again, I wanted to do something that reminded people of what we were all about. Something with a lot of melody to it, and fantasy kind of themes (Magica)…that to me introduced us back to the people who loved us for what we were. And then this album (Killing the Dragon), which is so much more like the early things we did, so much more like our first couple albums, I wanted that to happen as well so that we really solidified ourselves back into being what we were.  Not only so people knew what we were but so we knew what we were.” Having spent ten to twelve hours working intently on Magica every day for three months, it was critical to give Killing the Dragon that same dedication.

However, guitarist Craig Goldy’s recent marriage and newborn child did not leave him in a position to tour.  And, according to Dio, when time came to work on the album, “his interest wasn’t even close to being there. In fact, his availability was very limited.” 

“You have to understand that we felt very miserable about ourselves at that time. Jimmy Bain and I were doing all the writing, and not that we were miserable because we had to write, but it’s a lot easier when you have a guitar player in your band who’s there to play the guitar.  We’re not exactly great guitar players, but we had to do what we had to do.”

Luckily the band’s second attempt to recruit Doug Aldrich proved successful, the timing was right, and as Dio puts it, the outcome has been “absolutely unbelievable.”   

“When Doug came in, the attitude just became one of just like total happiness for being able to play again.  The songs came alive, his freshness, or just the way that he knew what DIO was supposed to sound like – I can’t say enough about him, I can just go on and on about what a great player he is and his technique and etc. etc. But, I think he speaks for himself, he’s just a great player and he was the missing ingredient for us.  Now we have a guy who actually is better, as far as I’m concerned, than Craig. He knows what he is supposed to do in this band, he knows what DIO is all about, and you couldn’t ask for more than that.  This is the best one so far I think.”

Despite the personnel change during Killing the Dragon, all of the material written was kept for the album as always.

Dio says, “We always write for the project for the moment...it may lose its naturalness and intensity if you do it a year later.  Maybe the subject matter will be wrong. So, for that reason we just write as we go along.  In this case we did it over a period of about four months. And we don’t usually take that long…”

Dio and bassist Jimmy Bain spent eight to twelve hours every day of those four months writing the bulk of the album as they had done in the past with releases like Holy Diver and Last in Line. And, while Craig Goldy hadn’t been around for most of that time, he did leave his signature on a few songs on this album. 

“There were a few things, three other tracks we wrote with Craig in some varying forms and those are the things that probably remind you a bit more of Magica.”

Although the message may at times be hidden in his own signature medieval phrases and medieval fantasies, Dio says, it’s almost always people that inspire his passionate writing.

“I’m a real observer of what the world is around me, especially with people, because humanity has taken over this world.  The deer don’t own it and the raccoons don’t, which is probably really unfortunate at some point.  It’s a people world and so you have to examine and then know how to kind of wind your way through the maze of what some people think.  But, it’s pretty easy to put them all into categories, people are people at the end of the day, they’re greedy, and they’re miserable, and they’re happy, and they’re charitable, and they’re all these things.”

You may catch Dio writing about people that are afraid to face the world, people that have no dreams, and people who need to bury themselves in some kind of fantasy, but he says, really, at the end of the day, he’s still writing for them. 

“I have the stage to do it, I’m a very fortunate person that I can get up there and I can write these songs, and I can sing them and perform them, and so I’m doing it for them.  They don’t have that luxury.  So, when we play I connect with everyone, they know that I’m speaking their words, as they like what we’ve done.”

DIO will have a great opportunity to showcase selections from Killing the Dragon appearing as a special guest on the Deep Purple/Scorpions co-headlining tour this summer, and they have no problem deferring to the history and legend of Deep Purple. 

"For us it is not a battle of the bands, we never go into anything like that thinking that it's a battle of the bands, because once you do that, you've taken away what you are going to do and suddenly it becomes a competition." 

Dio says there is no competition, because nobody is like Dio, nobody is like Purple, and nobody is like Scorpions, and he suspects it will be a fun tour, because they all know each other so well. More importantly, it will be a productive tour for them since they are the only band on the tour with a new album. However, an opening slot leaves them with the great challenge of selecting a one hour set that will meet at least most of the expectations of their fans.

“The problem with this one is, we do have a lot of songs, and we have an hour to perform them in.  So, it almost makes it impossible to do Magica, because Magica is a song unto itself to me.  I mean, you can take a bit out of it here and there, we would. We’ve taken ‘Lord of the Last Day’ and ‘Fever Dreams’ and put those two pieces together just as a representative.  But, in the case of only one hour, I think we probably owe it to ourselves to play some things from the newer album than we do from the old one, because Magica is going to carry on. 

When we do play again in the states, which we’ll do, we’ll tour ourselves on our own.  At that point, we can do ‘Fever Dreams’ and ‘Lord of the Last Day’ without a problem. So we won’t forget the piece. But, I think because we do have such a limited amount of time to do so much material that our job is to make sure people go away not being too dissatisfied by the things they didn’t hear, but satisfied by all that they did hear in one hour.”

unlocking secrets

When it comes to his vocal capabilities, Ronnie James Dio says, “It’s a matter of knowing how to do it…have some talent, have some technique and have a brain to use those other two things…of course these are all my methods, and I don’t know if they work for anyone else.  For me it does, I’ve just been very lucky, very fortunate -- very blessed `in some ways and very determined in other ways.”

Education
“I was very fortunate in that I started playing music at five years old.  I was a trumpet player.  I started at five and played for quite a while, through my high school years.  And, played a lot in orchestras, classical music. 

I was quite a precocious child.  I was very good.  I had scholarships at Julliard at the end of my high school.  I never wanted to do that.  I wanted to be a rock-n-roll musician, but it was such a wonderful training for me, because you sing the same way you play, you do it from your diaphragm, there’s a proper technique to do it.  So, I just applied what I did as a trumpet to that all the time.”

 Talent

“Of course, I had the luxury of having some talent from my folks, my dad’s a really good singer, not a professional singer, but he always had a really good voice, and so that was passed on to me.” 

Technique

“Then, most importantly again knowing how to do it.  You must have technique, this is my instrument, just as a guitar player needs to know how to play a certain kind of a vibrato or to play a harmonic or to play this or to play that.  A singer using his voice as an instrument needs to know all those things too.  So, (I) never took any vocals lessons, I never felt I needed to.” 

Emotion

“I’ve always sung this way, and I’ve always been a very emotional singer.  I believe in the things I sing.  Words are the most important things there are to me really.  Reading was my life and still is my life.  I think that communications is what makes us one step above the apes.  So, I’ve always believed in the words I’ve sung, and no matter how many times I do ‘Holy Diver’ or any song as old as that I always believe what I’m singing and always need to pursue the inside of it.”

Health

“I don’t abuse myself physically, and I think that certainly helps.  I don’t smoke and I probably drink too much, which is worse than smoking really at the end of the day, but not enough to bother myself.  And, especially on the road I look after myself, because once a virus strikes, then that’s death for the singer.  So, you try to stay away from the people that are sneezing, pretty impossible on the bus sometimes, but you do the best you can and you try to fight through it.” 

Attitude
“You have to have a very strong mental attitude as well.  And, you need to have a goal.  Your goal needs to be ‘I’m going to be great every night, I’m going to be so good tonight, I’m going to reach that perfection. Tonight’s the night’; and as long as you have that goal every time, then your mind makes you work as hard as you possibly can.”