Original Dio Star Not A Fan Of Hologram, Talks Changes To Early Band

Original Dio drummer Vinny Appice (Last In Line, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell) says he is unsure if Ronnie James Dio would approve of the hologram or not and also discussed how things changed in the band after their hit debut album.

The North American Dio Returns tour recently kicked off with members of the final band performing with a hologram of the late legendary metal vocalist. Appice was asked if he could ever see himself performing with a hologram during an interview with Rock Hard With Jay Conroy.

He responded, "In my opinion, I don't know if Ronnie would dig that or not. I can't answer that - I don't even know what it looks like. I think it would be very strange for me to do that, because I'm used to seeing Ronnie in front of me. I've seen Ronnie's ass for 30-something years in front of me. Now I'm going to see the back of a screen? It would be freaky for me."

Vinny also discussed the falling out between Ronnie and original guitarist Vivian Campbell (currently in Def Leppard) and the changes the band went through following the release of their debut album "Holy Diver" in 1983.

"Vivian did the first three albums with us. Then Ronnie and Vivian weren't seeing eye to eye because of business things that were promised that never materialized. They replaced Viv with Craig Goldy. Craig's a great player; he's a great guy; he's a good friend; but as the years went on, the band changed.

The sound changed a bit, and there were more keyboards added. It was not a good idea to do that. 'Holy Diver', which was hugely successful and still is, that album, we went into Sound City - we rehearsed there and recorded there.

We used to go in there and just smoke a lot of pot and jam and have a great time - just f*** around and try all sorts of sh*t. It was, like, anything goes, and we made a great album.

"'Last In Line', we went up to Caribou Ranch in Colorado to do the album, so we were secluded, and then Ronnie started taking too much control of the production and stuff, and the word 'can't' came into the equation, 'well, we can't do that'...

"Then we had keyboards at that point too, Claude Schnell was on keyboards, and then we started bringing in more keyboards, which mellowed it out some. There's not the raw riffs of 'Holy Diver'.

"Then the next album was about the same thing - it got a little more planned-out rather than a crazy bunch of guys on fire in the room, so the sound changed."

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