Vocal legend RONNIE JAMES DIO spoke to BW&BK recently about a number of topics including how he rates the current Dio line-up (guitarist Craig Goldy, bassist Rudy Sarzo, keyboardist Scott Warren and drummer Simon Wright) compared to the ‘Holy Diver’ band (guitarist Vivian Campbell, bassist Jimmy Bain and drummer Vinny Appice):

“As far as the happiness factor goes I think it’s a much better line-up" Dio admits. "Rudy Sarzo, for example, he’s the best bass player I’ve ever worked with. Not just from a bass playing point of view. He’s a legend all by himself, but also as a person. He has the same ethic as I have. The way he fits so smoothly into this band speaks volumes about what this band is all about. Simon Wright and I have played together for nearly 10 years now. He started very early on with AC/DC when he was 18 years old and he was asked to do nothing in AC/DC. You know, ‘Don’t play a fill or we’ll kill you!’. So what I tried to do with Simon, and with all the people that I’ve played with, is I try to make them better. I try to give them the opportunity to become something that they never thought they could be, something they weren’t allowed to be. In the case of Simon, he’s made such leaps he makes Gulliver look like a guy who needed a hovercraft to get from one world to the next. He’s come miles. He’s also the greatest person I’ve ever know. He’s my dearest friend and I really care about him so much. Yet he gives me whatever I want. As a player he was really underrated for such a long time. I think that’s changed an awful lot and this band has made that difference. With Craig Goldy, he’s one in a long line of guitar players that seem to come and go inside this band. Craig has always been the greatest interpreter of the music that I’ve made in the past, of Ritchie’s (Blackmore) playing and of Tony’s (Iommi) playing. Obviously he’s been a contributor himself on three or four albums, ‘Magica’ being one of them and I consider that to be a great album. He’s just a great contributor, a great kid. He has so much incredible talent and he’s probably underestimated as well. When you put anything in the context of the band, because that’s what it’s about, it’s a band, it’s not Ronnie Dio and a bunch of guys, it has to fit. Craig is that as well. Scott Warren, the keyboard player…well, keyboard players in my band have to suffer a little bit because we’re not a keyboard band. I’ve never considered myself to be a guy who’s that into keyboards. I always loved what Jon Lord did, but I’ve never wanted to be in a band where the keyboard player was as important as the guitar player. Not that I don’t appreciate great keyboard players. Of course I do. But this band Dio started as a non-keyboard band. The keyboards were played by Jimmy and I on the first album, and not a lot of keyboards and probably not very well, but Scott has been able to wear that role very well and I’ve increased his role inside the band. He’s a great player and the thing that shows his mettle most is that he’s shown that he understands what I have expected from him and taken a back seat so that this all works.”

If you could pick one record to be remembered by…
“I’d pick ‘Heaven And Hell," says Dio. "I loved being in that band at that time. I really enjoyed the people I played with so much. W e really bonded so well at that time. Obviously it doesn’t seem as though we did later on, but we certainly did then. We came from the same space. We all came from working class families and we were all very dedicated to the music we made. They’d really fallen apart. The couple albums they made before ‘Heaven And Hell’ were miserable failures and they were really a laughing stock. When I came into the band I felt so blessed to be able to do whatever I wanted to, to finally be in a band where no one said ‘Maybe you should do it this way’, and to be in a band that was so heavy that I could be as heavy as I wanted to be, and more importantly to succeed and to put that band back where it deserved to be. Plus, the songs are great. It’s a great album. But, again, it was an album that we did together. One of those magical things that happened. The Rainbow things are great and the Dio things are great, but from a life perspective, the joy that I had at that time, and the touring that we did and the bad and good things that happened – and that’s all part and parcel of life. We really stuck together and persevered and we succeeded together. I only ever wanted to be part of band. I never wanted to be the man in the band. I didn’t even want to be a singer. I wanted to be a bass player! But life dealt me those cards. That album was just spectacular. I’ve been lucky enough to be blessed with being part of three albums that defined three different generations. I think those are the ones that make me look back and say that no matter what happens I’ve been involved in three very special things and that’s enough for me.”