Dio offshoot band Last In Line will play most of the band’s material from the first two albums but not as much of the third release, Sacred Heart, because the material carries too many bad memories.
Guitarist Vivian Campbell, now with Def Leppard, last week told Classic Rock he aimed to reclaim his heritage by playing songs he co-wrote for the first time since being fired by Ronnie James Dio in 1986. But he’s not ready to extend that to the album he was touring at the time he was fired.
Campbell discusses the setlist with Talking Metal and says, “We haven’t completely finalized it yet, but it’s basically going to pick itself. There are only nine songs on Holy Diver and I think there’s only nine songs on the The Last In Line album.
The Sacred Heart album was very difficult for us all – that’s when things really started to go wrong with the band. No one wanted to be in the studio with Ronnie.
We would literally just come in and do our parts; we wouldn’t really hang, whereas with Holy Diver and Last In Line we were in the studio 24-7 and everyone was committed to making those records.
So the Sacred Heart record, we don’t look upon it as favorably. We probably won’t play too much from that.”
While Campbell and bandmates Vinnie Appice, Jimmy Bain and Claude Schnell used to perform some Black Sabbath and Rainbow tracks with Dio, the guitarist feels it wouldn’t be appropriate now they’re working with singer Andy Freeman.
“I don’t think it would be legitimate for us to do that,” says Campbell. “The original Dio band played Man On The Silver Mountain, Stargazer, Long Live Rock N’ Roll, Mob Rules, Heaven And Hell and Children Of The Sea. Those were legitimate enough for us to do because Ronnie was there and he’d been in those bands.
“But without Ronnie there, I don’t think it’s very legitimate to play Sabbath or Rainbow songs, so we won’t be doing that.”
additional source: classicrockmagazine.com
10 Responses
I’m sure these guys have the goods to deliver, considering that Vivian and Claude are former members of the Dio band, (I had the privilege of jamming on “Man on the Silver Mountain” with Claude when I was a student at Musicians Institute, the week of Ronnie’s death) but they have a lot of work to do if they’re going to top Dio Disciples. I saw them in November of last year and they were absolutely brilliant on every level!
I don’t think Vivian does anything half-assed. This seems to be really important to him and I think he knows he has some credibility at stake if it doesn’t come off well. Personally I love his playing and got out of Dio when he was turfed. I’d love to see this version of the band perform.
There’s only one Dio TRIBUTE band that is the best in the world Called HOLY DIVER from New England (no disrespect to any of the other ones, ive seen dio’s disciples live)They’ve been together since 1998 they started the band when Ronnie was very much alive and well. there’s no excuses, they do it for the Love and respect of the legend and continue to play everywhere to this day but don’t get enough respect because they have no association to ronnie, but it doesn’t matter, check them out and the singer is uncanny. go to you tube type in “gillman fest holy diver” live in south america
Vivian needs money, the Def Leppard paychecks are different from the original members, he gets salary. Dio horsed him for not even scale so he quit. Brokesters like Vin Appice take the thing just to get a roof over their head. Those guys are sure ugly. Like how VC has DL cases in the background.
I’m more intrigued by Claude Schnell’s hair in that photo. I mean, what the hell is going on there? Wasn’t that hairstyle in Friends back in the 90’s?
They better play King of Rock & Roll, Scared Heart, and Rock n Roll Children.
Nothing from Dream Evil either, I guess, too bad. Regardless, those guys are badass.