Brutally Honest Dio Interview - 1994

I just found this interview on youtube. Dio discusses all of the albums he had done up to that point and what he thought of each. He discusses Ritchie Blackmore, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Viv Campbell and others and he pulls no punches. It's obvious from these videos that he was still pissed about how the whole Dehumanizer tour debacle went down. Check it out:

I've seen these before, I do think that it's funny that while everyone says that Ronnie was a great guy, it's also pretty true that he fell out with just about everyone he ever worked with!  

I had seen a couple of these too; it's like he was having a f*cked-up day or something. I wish more popular musicians would open themselves up in interviews like he does here.

He was spot on in his prediction about Strange Highways. It was over looked for years, but now people are actually giving it some much due respect. It's always been my favorite Dio album.

I loved 'Strange Highways' the minute it came out, it was the follow up album 'Angry Machine' that took me awhile to get into

I just watched it. Funny how he described Rainbow Rising:

"the album that everybody always says 'this is the greatest album ever blablabla', - yeah it's okay."

*holds Rainbow debut album* - THIS is the best Rainbow album to me, not this one:

*holds Rising* - THIS album is about self-indulgent shit on the second side

Funny this came up. I watched the whole thing again this week.

When someone starts going on and on about what an amazingly perfect, wonderful, nice, gracious guy Dio was and how Blackmore/Cambell/Iommi/Butler/Osbourne are such jerks ... this is exhibit A against that argument. There are plenty of other pieces of evidence too.

"Strange Highways" is an excellent album that was timely and didn't get its due and he has every right to be proud of that disc. He's 100% right that unfortunately classic artists aren't allowed to change much.

BTW, I listened to the first Elf album this week too and it is really an excellent rock-n-roll disc. Any fan of Dio should listen to it at least once. His voice was amazing even back then and the songs are very good.

Temple of Blood wrote:

When someone starts going on and on about what an amazingly perfect, wonderful, nice, gracious guy Dio was and how Blackmore/Cambell/Iommi/Butler/Osbourne are such jerks ... this is exhibit A against that argument.  There are plenty of other pieces of evidence too.

People have a habit of, pardon the pun, dehumanizing their idols & making them out to be saints. I'm sure a lot of times he was the wonderful, nice, gracious guy he's portrayed as. However being human, he was probably also seen as a jerk or an assh*le by some. And he probably was at some point.

Temple of Blood wrote:

"Strange Highways" is an excellent album that was timely and didn't get its due and he has every right to be proud of that disc.  He's 100% right that unfortunately classic artists aren't allowed to change much.

Funny thing was... if Sabbath had released Strange Highways as a follow up to Dehumanizer... it would have been heralded.

Although the thread title is called 'Brutally Honest Dio interview' did anyone believe him when he said that he didn't want to write songs about dragons, dreams and rainbows any more?

Thought not!  

Strange Highways is KILLER. My second favorite Dio solo album after Holy Diver.

I've really enjoyed every album Dio released, Sacred Heart being the weakest link.

well, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was having one of those days where you just seem pissy. we've all had those days. If this is the real RJD, then we've all been duped into thinking he's such a class act and such a pespectful guy, and in the end he's just like most rock stars. I can't tell one way or the other but again I'll just give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was having a someone-pissed-in-my-cheerios kinda day.

Every other interview I've seen him in, he was very much a class act and respectful guy.

Well, I think a person can be brutally honest about his working relationships with other musicians and also treat the fans great.  I don't really think this interview reflects badly on Ronnie at all. Clearly he was angry about the fallout from the Sabbath debacle and pulled no punches.  Also, saying Ritchie Blackmore is arrogant is like saying water is wet. We all know this.  Frankly, he let Viv Campbell off easy, and said very little about him.

Further there is now way in hell that Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow is the best Dio-era Rainbow.

To me, the real value of this interview is it shows what a deplorable state traditional heavy metal was in back in '94.  Even RJD was unwilling to sing songs with any hope or fantasy in them.  Compare this interview to the interview on the Sacred Heart DVD just released where he says they would never change theie sound to whatever was popular at the time.  Clearly he did that in the 90s with little success.

The Rainbow debut happens to be my favourite Rainbow album.

Lari wrote:

The Rainbow debut happens to be my favourite Rainbow album.

Yep.

BearOnUnicycle wrote:

Lari wrote:

The Rainbow debut happens to be my favourite Rainbow album.

Yep.

I've always liked it, but it's my least favorite of the Dio stuff.

Funny thing is, I used to believe wholeheartedly that "rising" was the best. However, I've recently come to view "long live rock n roll" as rainbow's best album, with "Gates of Babylon" surpassing "stargazer" as my favorite "epic."

I've always loved Long Live Rock and Roll and Down To Earth, not really because they are the best Rainbow albums, but because they were made around the time I was getting into music and i loved Rainbow from the off.

As for Ronnie's nice guy rep, the fact is he is one of the best singers to ever do it (in hard rock at least) Blackmore and Iommi are two of the best guitarists ever, there is bound to be a lot of ego floating around, it doesn't mean he's a bad guy, I guess that you have to be pretty strong minded to survive in those kind of bands.

     

I don't think the interview (which I'd seen a couple of years ago) reflects very badly on Dio. Being a nice guy doesn't mean he isn't proud and even a bit arrogant about his career, and he did have a temper. As for the Rainbow albums, I like all three of them (actually, I probably do listen to the first one the most...) but as interesting as his perspective is, I think Dio is too close to the work. As fans we just listen and call it as we feel, but he actually had to put up with Ritchie Blackmore while making those, which is probably why he's not as happy with the latter two, when Blackmore was supposedly taking greater control over the band.

With more and more rock autobiographies coming out, it's becoming more and more apparent that someone is the band has to be the dictator, and sometimes, the bad guy. As much as everyone likes to say/think being in a band is like a marriage or democracy, the most successfull bands had one driving force that made them what they are. And sometimes, that person has to be a dick.

There was a recent article in Classic Rock mag where they discussed the making of Holy Diver, Ronnie's first album where he was in charge. Wendy made a good point that Ronnie was just coming from 2 "failed relationships" (Rainbow and Sabbath) where he was the hired hand and worked with 2 egotistical guitarists/band leaders (more Ritchie than Tony, but still). This new band was going to bear his name and he was the leader, hands down. The band members did what they did, signed what they signed, etc, but at the end of the day, it was still Ronnie's band.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Funny this came up.  I watched the whole thing again this week.

When someone starts going on and on about what an amazingly perfect, wonderful, nice, gracious guy Dio was and how Blackmore/Cambell/Iommi/Butler/Osbourne are such jerks ... this is exhibit A against that argument.  There are plenty of other pieces of evidence too.

"Strange Highways" is an excellent album that was timely and didn't get its due and he has every right to be proud of that disc.  He's 100% right that unfortunately classic artists aren't allowed to change much.

BTW, I listened to the first Elf album this week too and it is really an excellent rock-n-roll disc.  Any fan of Dio should listen to it at least once.  His voice was amazing even back then and the songs are very good.

With Dio always good about playing his songs from his former bands during his solo tenure, I always wondered why he totally igonored the Elf days. Never More from the first album would of fit in pretty well I thought.

I've always liked Ronnie James Dio; his importance in various musical entities; his voice; his honesty; and most of all his legacy. Let's face it, the man was also very self-righteous. A common theme throughout this 30+ minute interview, were how "Others" were always wrong and how "They" were always the reason for the undoing of the band. Clearly, Ronnie by the time this video had been shot, he had a falling out with Ritchie Blackmore, Vivian Campbell, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler. With that being the case, what was the likelihood that the four mentioned were the sole reason for the dysfunctionality within the band? Not very likely.

Though I consider Ronnie to be a smart man, I think his analogy of making comparisons of the Persian Gulf War and the war in the former Yugoslavia were a bit flawed regarding the world's involvement. First off, that region in Europe has had the distinction of producing two World Wars, so there wasn't going to be a rush by other countries to get involved. Once it was found out that ethic atrocities were taking place, I think it was one of the few times in recent memory where the U.N.'s role was effective, and our limited involvement a good thing. Regardless of what people think of the world's involvement in the Persian Gulf War (34 Nations), diplomacy ran it's course, and action was eventually taken...

Regarding the two Ozzy shows that Ronnie refused to be a part of, I think was a bit silly. We weren't talking about a whole tour where the DIO fronted Black Sabbath was going to open for Ozzy; we were talking TWO concerts. I think many times in life, one needs to do a little pride swallowing. Obviously the disdain for Ozzy went so deep, he thought this was beneath him. I don't get it, but oh well.

I always viewed Ronnie in the same vain as I do Bruce Dickinson and Dave Mustaine. I think these three men were/are very opinionated, very smart, in tune with the world, but they had/have very ego-centric personalities. Understanding that, I think that has always been a good thing for the genre they play in, as the general perception of most within the industry is for the most part not very flattering.

Great post man.