Meeting with Ronnie James Dio for the interview, in the backstage of Rockwave festival, was like a dream come true. With so little time available and so long history to cover, we tried to include every significant period of his career and let the legend do most of the talking. The gentle Dio was very amiable and the politeness of him, his manager, Wendy Dio, and his tour manager Roger Sammers, enthralled us both.

Interview to George Anasontzis and Sakis Nikas.

The interview starts with Ronnie describing the route of their traveling back home after the show. It was his birthday the next day, so as he said, it wouldn't be so happy birthday, since he'd have to be on a "stupid" plane and fly all day long...

Rockpages.gr: But, you'll manage to reach Los Angeles so as to celebrate, won't you?

Ronnie James Dio: Yes we will, but I won't celebrate... I've forgotten all those birthdays now... If you get at a certain point, you don't talk about birthdays any more.

Rockpages.gr: Maybe you should mention something tonight...

Ronnie James Dio: I hope nobody mentions my birthday tonight, but then again, I know that someone will. Maybe they shouldn't say much because we only play 1 hour and 15 minutes, so if it takes too much time, we won't be able to do all our songs. And music is more important than my birthday...

Rockpages.gr: Did you have the time to walk around Athens?

Ronnie James Dio: No, not this time. We could see the Acropolis from the hotel's restaurant, but didn't manage to see many things in Athens. Well, I've seen the Parthenon, the Acropolis and many other things in the past. What I'd like is to go to the islands, to Rhode and all the other great islands, but I'll gonna need holidays to do that and I never had holidays in my life. So, maybe I'll never see them.

Rockpages.gr: You've playing in a lot of festivals. What makes festivals so attractive for an artist?

Ronnie James Dio: It's good to play in festivals and this is a big one... It's nice to play in front of so many good people at one time. This band is such a special band and it is wonderful for me to present this band to this kind of people, cause we've been together for a while, apart from Rudy (Sarzo) who's been with us only for a year, but he's sooo good and so wonderful on stage and such a great person.

Rockpages.gr: Last year you released "Master of the Moon" returning to the classic mid tempo Dio sound. Why did you choose to do this kind of comeback?

Ronnie James Dio: I think that mostly it was because it felt like... Every album that we do, every album that I write, is what I feel at that time. If it's a terrible world, I write about terrible things. And if it's a happy world, then I write happier things. It's not a great world out there. So, the medium tempo songs allow me to express myself a little bit better and give people the chance to understand what I'm saying, rather than "Stand Up and Shout" (makes his voice like shouting). Things like that go by so quickly and "Stand up and Shout" was a wonderful time of my life, so it said what it said: "Hey, it's a great time, let's stand up and shout". "Master of the moon" comes in a time when terrorism and the stupid war in Iraq and all these things happen... there's a song in this album which is "The Man will Would be King", which is more of a song about the political structure and what happened at the Iraq war. It didn't start that way... it was supposed to be about the Crusades. And when I realized that I was writing about Richard the Lionheart sending his troops down to the middle East to capture the Holy Grail away from the infidels, I realize it's the same thing that's happening now. George Bush was a man who would be king and I saw the correlation between them.

Rockpages.gr: Actually, history makes circles...

Ronnie James Dio: History always repeats itself. There's nothing we can do about it.

Rockpages.gr: You keep releasing albums regularly every two years. How can you sustain this level of inspiration while other classic rock and metal bands struggle to make a release every eight years or so...

Ronnie James Dio: I must be better than them. I don't know what else to say. I would like to say that, well, they had problems and... whatever. But, I think I must be better than them in my mind. Because I insist in what I'm doing. That's what I've done in my life and I don't know any other way. Why do you write albums, why do you make albums, why do you tour all the time, why do you do all these things. I don't understand, that's the way I am, that's the way I was brought up in my own career. You know, playing with Ritchie, playing with Sabbath... well Sabbath is not a very good example because they don't do albums for ten years. But that's always been my way. Coming from the Deep Purple organization... kind of thing... we always prided ourselves upon making records all the time, making new music all the time.

Rockpages.gr: However, Deep Purple hadn't released anything for five years... (we were talking about the period between Abandon and Bananas).

Ronnie James Dio: They had an album in 2003. The previous album was Abandon in 1998, they had the one in 2003 called Bananas... I'm sure there's one between those two... yes, because they did the concerto, that's why...

Rockpages.gr: ...with you. (laughs)

Ronnie James Dio: Well, I didn't do the concerto. Anyway, I don't know, I just don't know any other way but I still think that I was trained very well in the Deep Purple era of my life... that I learned to do things that way which was classy way. They're classy people and they did everything the right way, everything was first class. And that's why you're saying now that "you did it first class and that you release every two years" when in the past you could do that once a year. But you know, the world has changed and it takes a lot more to do things, we tour more and that's another thing about Purple I think. They tour a lot and that doesn't give you the chance to do it (to release albums). In our case, I'm sorry to be able to do it only once every two years. I'd like to do it every year, but I can't. There's not enough time and now it takes longer to write and to prepare an album.

Rockpages.gr: So, that's the motive to keep doing what you do, because you've been trained to do that?

Ronnie James Dio: The motive is, yes, because that's what I've been doing all my life and the motive is that I love what I'm doing all my life. I'm the luckiest person on earth. I had the chance to sing, which I love so much, I had the chance to write music and to be around musicians that I love and to satisfy people. Without people there's no Dio, without an audience there's no Dio. The audience knows I care about them and my care is that I want to do an album for them every year. For, at least, Dio fans, I want to do it for them, I want them to know that they can always rely on Dio. We were always there for them. They think I'm immortal, they think that I'll never die and you know what, they make me believe that maybe I'll never die either, but I think I will. But it's all about the audience and the fans.

Rockpages.gr: When you supported Deep Purple, the first time you met Ritchie, could you imagine that you might end up singing in Blackmore's band?

Ronnie James Dio: I'm sure that the fans didn't... and I didn't think it either. It was not in my plans. I was in a band called Elf and Elf was everything for me and that's why I thought I would be successful in Elf... And then Ritchie became dissatisfied by the band that he was in, Deep Purple. I think that what he told them was that he thought the band had become more like an R'n'B band. They became what he called a chowtime music. He was now looking to do something for himself. So, he called me and said that "I want to do an album, I wanna do a song". He said "I know you don't know the song, but I wanna do one song as a single". I said "What's the song" and he said it's called "the Black Sheep of the Family". I said "Oh, the pretty song by Quatermass". He said "You know the song" and I said "yeah, I love Quatermass". He said "Ohhh!" and right away we had some connection. And then he said "What kind of music do you like" and I told him that my favourite composer was Bach. So right away, our sympathy was really incredible. That was the beginning. and then he would call me when we were on the road, cause we opened for them for a long time, and he would say "you wanna go and do some singing, have a jam?", I said ok and we jammed and he said "Oh, you're really good". So when he decided to leave the band, Deep Purple, he asked if I wanted to form a band with him. No, I never thought that that would happened and I wouldn't have done it if he didn't do what I asked him to do. I said "I won't do it unless you take my band" and he said "Oh... ok, I will". So he took everybody out, except the guitar player and that's the only reason I would do it. The rest is history.

Rockpages.gr: Could you say that Rainbow might have a more successful career if you stayed in the band?

Ronnie James Dio: I think they had certainly a more successful pop career. They had a career that lasted..., well not lasted but probably sold them more albums in those days... Because we were considered to be an underground band when I was in Rainbow, we were very different then, we were an orchestral metal band and when we first started touring in America, the first show we played was in a place for maybe 12000 people and we only drew 150 people and I thought... "Well, that's the end of that one"... And it got bigger and bigger and bigger and today, the only band that they (people) really want to hear back together is Ronnie and Ritchie. So, that shows you how important it was.

Rockpages.gr: So, what about it (the reunion)?

Ronnie James Dio: No. Nope. Never, never, never, never, never... I gave him the opportunity to do it. I said to him that I would do it. It almost happened but then it fell apart. That happened about five years ago. It fell apart and after that I decided that it was not worth my time. I only wanted to do it, not for him, not for me, but for the fans. Because the fans always ask over and over "Will you please do this" and I say Yes I will. And I tried to do it and it didn't happen. So, now, I don't want to do it again. And Ritchie doesn't want to do it again neither. So, it's fine with me and it will never happen. Never.

Rockpages.gr: When you left Rainbow and joined Black Sabbath, you released one of the most classic metal albums, Heaven and Hell. How difficult or easy it was for you to get the respect and approval of the fans who were used of Ozzy on vocals?

Ronnie James Dio: In the beginning, I would see this a lot. And then, we played one time in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, maybe after... four shows, and someone came up with a big banner... a huge banner, maybe four meters long, and it said: Philadelphia loves the reverent Ronnie James Dio. And after that time, for some reason, I never saw this again (the disapproval of the fans). And it didn't bother me... I never cared. I mean, I'm a good singer, a good writer and a good performer. It never bothered me because I knew that eventually they would see that I was as important as Ozzy was. So, in the beginning it happened, but it never bothered me... as far as they say that Heaven and Hell was a great album.

Rockpages.gr: And after Sabbath you went on solo. Along with Ozzy, you are one of the two cases that come in my mind of singers that were big bands and they had a great success as solo musicians.

Ronnie James Dio: Well, no, it was because of the people that played in the band and the songs we wrote. That's why we were successful. It was the magic that we had with Vivian (Campbell) and with Vinnie (Appice) and with Jimmy (Bain) and myself. That was magic. Like Rainbow was magic. And Heaven & Hell with Sabbath was magic. They were things that just fit together like a wonderful puzzle. That's the reason we were successful. Because we wrote great songs and we performed great songs. And there were great musicians. It was a perfect team and lesser musicians would not make it that good. But, you know, I still wrote some great songs in those days. Holy Diver and Don't Talk to Strangers were the first two songs that I wrote. So I gave them to them (the other band members) and I said "Here are the songs". Without knowing that I could do it myself, they helped me prove to myself that I could do it along and put a great band together. But I give them as much credit as I give to myself.

Rockpages.gr: You probably saw the Live 8, or maybe you were there...

Ronnie James Dio: I wasn't there but I saw it.

Rockpages.gr: About 20 years ago, you did the Stars Project, the Hear'n'Aid. Do you think that now, after all these years, these events can actually help solve the world's severe problems?

Ronnie James Dio: Only in a small way. Only by making people who didn't know, aware of it. And I think that that's maybe young people who become aware of it. But you know what? I don't think the people who went to see those shows gave a shit about it. I think they went there to see Pink Floyd, to see Paul McCartney, to see Stevie Wonder in Philadelphia, to see Green Day... wherever Green Day were, that's why the went there for. I think at the end of the day, it's not gonna make any difference. The money isn't going to make any difference at all.

Rockpages.gr: Do you think that bands went there for the right reason?

Ronnie James Dio: I think the bands went for the right reason. Absolutely. Of course they did. But I think that if you look at the reality of it all, what they did is not gonna make any difference. The only thing that makes a difference is a good government for a country, a government that cares about their people, not warlords, not people like in Rwanda. In those countries that there are people that don't care and all they want is to make money, if you can deal with those people as a government, then maybe it will be ok. But I don't think that musically, I honestly don't think that it will really make much of a difference, but I think that the musicians really really care. Of course there are people... well, most of the people that played there, did it because they care, but I think that maybe some of them - you know, I'm gonna be right about it - some of them will say This will sell more records for us. Of course that's going to happen but that's what humanity really is. Humanity is a lot of good people and a lot of bad people and a lot of people in the middle. But I'm so glad they did it. So glad they did it, because it makes some awareness.

Rockpages.gr: Heaven and Hell is actually a song that somehow talks about the big differences between good people and bad people. Do you think that, now, after Live 8, the world goes to Hell and music is maybe the only way to Heaven?

Ronnie James Dio: Well, I would like to think that the world is not going to hell, but I tell you it doesn't matter what happened in London, it doesn't matter what happened in 9/11, the world is, speeding down to hell, yes it is, it absolutely is. I don't have a lot of hope for this world and that's because humanity is a very... well, I've always thought that we humans are like cancer. We are like a cancer on this world, on this earth. We've only been here for such a short time, when you think of how long this earth is been speeding round the sun, and has taken us so little time to destroy this wonderful planet. And we keep talking every day about saving it and every day we destroy it more and more and more. So, it's our fault, it's humanity's fault. And I see no way to turn it round, no way whatsoever. So, we definitely speeding into hell and we should hope it doesn't come in our lifetime, yours and mine but it's going to happen.

Rockpages.gr: We are the next dinosaurs, aren't we?

Ronnie James Dio: We are... we are, but they lasted a lot longer than we will ever last. Well, there's an asteroid out there with our name on it. It says: Humanity, it's your turn, pal. I don't mean to speak of doom, because I'm not that kind of person, I'm very optimistic most of the time, but I'm also a realist, and I realize that we are very quickly driving a very very fast Ferrari towards the wall. Just like Cozy Powell did...