FEATURESTILL LIVING FOR THE ROAD by Ernie Thomas 
Few heavy metal icons, stand as tall as Ronnie James Dio, the originator the now famous “devil horns” hand gesture so commonplace at concerts today. Dio has had a fabulously successful career spanning three decades, starting with ELF and including impressive stints with Rainbow and Black Sabbath, plus his own self-named group, DIO. The latter has released a powerful new Sanctuary Records CD, Master Of The Moon, which has them on a world tour blasting across America, following runs through Europe and South America. “Even though I’m extremely proud of this new album, we’re only doing a couple of tracks in the show,” he said. “There is too much history to deal with in the course of the two hours or so we spend on stage.” Dio is very conscious of who his audience is, what they expect of him and how keeping them happy, keeps his shows selling out in city after city, year after year. “As much as I’d love to go up and perform the whole new album, our job is to please our audience. I have to do songs like ‘Rainbow In The Dark’ and ‘Holy Diver,’ ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers,’ and so many other songs. People expect to hear certain songs from me. There’s a huge cross section of material to choose from for us. I like to keep what I did in Rainbow and Sabbath alive. If I don’t do ‘Heaven And Hell’, fans will never hear those old Sabbath songs done live again. The same with those great Rainbow songs.” While other artists may be content to rest on their laurels at his age and limit their live appearances to weekend “fly out” dates, Dio continues to get back on the bus for one long and grueling tour after another. “Those who go out as ‘weekend warriors’ are no longer passionate and serious about their music, I think. To me, doing that is like holding up a sign that says – ‘I quit!’. I don’t ever want my career to turn into –– ‘Gee, I could make some fast money this weekend playing rock star and be back in my comfortable home playing with the cat by Monday.’ That’s just not for me.”  Dio says has never forgotten the thrill of his first time playing rock music. “When I started my first band at nine years old, music was the most joyful thing to happen to me. It became my dream to spend my life playing in a band and playing music for people. That feeling has never changed. Playing rock ‘n’ roll is still as enjoyable and exciting for me as ever. Why would I want to stop doing this, when it makes me so happy and makes me feel so alive.”
Drummer Simon Wright and keyboardist Scott Warren are still in the DIO line-up, but there have been some changes. Guitarist Craig Goldy is back on guitar again, after taking a break during 2003’s Killing The Dragon album/tour, at which time he got married and had a baby. “Craig had to deal with a lot of things in his personal life for a while and I totally understood and respected that,” explained Dio, adding that he is thrilled his long time friend, band mate and writing collaborator has returned to the fold. Missing in action this time out though is longtime bassist Jimmy Bain, who goes back to 1976 with Dio during their Rainbow days. “Jimmy and I put DIO together back in 1983, so I was very surprised to learn that he was not coming back to write with Craig and I for this album,” sighed Dio. “You’d have to ask Jimmy his reasons for leaving, he evidently has his own agenda. I only know that we ended things nicely, which I am happy about, because we’ve been through too much together.” Jeff Pilson of Dokken fame played bass on Master Of The Moon, but opted to not tour because he and his wife were expecting their first baby. “I always seem to get mixed up in the middle of people having babies with this band,” laughed Dio. “But things worked out all around, because we’ve got Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy/Quiet Riot/Whitesnake) playing bass with us now and he’s the greatest.” Next on Dio’s plate is the re-release on CD of the Hear ’N Aid charity album where he orchestrated an all-star heavy metal conglomerate in a “We Are The World” fashion. Dio is also currently masterminding a new all-star project which will benefit “Children Of The Night,” a charity childrenof thenight.com that he and his manager/wife, Wendy Dio, endorses which rescues children from the hard streets of Hollywood. DIO performs with Anthrax on October 9 @ Chicago’s House Of Blues |
