Letters From Earth
Egon Lundberg sets the whole Dio Community on end with his GREAT idea!
by Ken Boyd
Above Pictured Ronnie and Egon as he receives his gift of Letters From Earth on the face of the news paper (see full article translation below). * Also below you will find Real Audio files of out conversation before and after Egon passed the gift on to Ronnie.
Well here it is my fellow fans! I gotta tell you I am so excited to see the completion of this project!
I talked to Egon (the project founder and coordinator) before and after the whole event. And I have to tell you it seems an exhausting experince from the creator point of view.
When I spoke with Egon this is what he had to say:
KEN: When did this whole thing start? How long ago did you begin this great
project?
EGON: I do not remember the exact date or month, but I think
that the Letters From Earth project took about 6 months.
So late November or early December I think I came up with
the idea.
KEN: At any time did you ever feel overwhelmed by this project once it was
already started? How did you cope with that feeling?
How it Started 
EGON: I felt that this was big when I saw that people all over
the world started sending me contributions, and that both
felt great and both scary.. Along with the growing numbers
of contributors, the "fright" of not being able to make
this gift good enough also grew bigger. Especially when You
also got "Celebes" like David Rock Feinsten, Tracy G, Chuck
Garric and Martin Popoff. It was of course GREAT but then
I also got more pressure, but that was good I think. :)
KEN: Doing this gift for someone who has meant and still means
so much to you, is a wonderful feeling and I am so happy
now that I pulled it through and now I can only hope that
Ronnie James Dio and You all, his great fans, will like it.
EGON: I always kept in mind, especially when things was tough,
that this was for RONNIE and that he deserves this. That
was the never fading spark that kept my fire going.
Where did all this take place? What was the city and the venue or hall?
EGON: The name of the town is Lulea, northeast of Sweden.
The place is called Delfinen (The Dolphin) and is
a "hockey hall".. an indoor ice rink..
KEN: What time did it all take place? What was the date of such an historic
event?
Date?
EGON: The time when we got to meet Ronnie was about 7:45PM.
The date was the 5:th of May 2001.
Still
Working
KEN: What was the newspaper that carried this? Were there any pictures to
commemorate the moment? When will it be out and more importantly can you translate it for us, after all: we are only an American! LOL!
EGON: The newspaper's name is Pitea-Tidningen ( http://www.inorr.se/ )
and there will be some pictures. It will be out tomorrow Monday
(tonight actually). I will make a translation for all of you.
KEN: And so here it is, the translation directly from the article:
GIFT. A happy Ronnie James Dio received just before the show the CD-Rom
that is the result of an international fan-project under the guidance of Egon
Lundberg in Pitea.
-Nice, wonderful, thank you so much, very cool, said the idol when the two of
them met.
ANDERS SANDLUND
Anders.sandlund@pitea-tidningen.se
0911-64596
(Translation into english: E Lundberg)
LULEA (PT)
The legendary singer
of Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio greets us welcome, true to his habit, in the
dressing room, one hour before the concert in Lulea. The band are charging up
and are eating the good snacks that has been brought to them on a table. Ronnie
invites us to sit down for a chat. He smells like newly put on skin cream and
Old Spice or some other mature aftershave, which must say goes well with the
father figure he has become in the hard rock world.
Tributes
The CD-Rom holds
more than 80 tribute-letters with photos from fans all over the world. The rumor
about Egon Lundberg´s project has gotten to Dio fans on the net and the result
has become a massive positive reception. Worth mentioning is that both Tracy G,
the former guitar player in Ronnie James Dio´s band, and Dave Feinstein who
played with Ronnie in the group Elf in he beginning of the 70's, has
participated in this project and sent their contributions to Egon who has had a
hectic time putting all of this together.
During the meeting
with Ronnie, Egon had some troubles getting the words out, but he is very
pleased with his creation and to personally handing it over. For the first time
he remembers to ask the idol to sign some records for him.
-Fifth time's a
charm, says Egon and smiles. For this is the fifth time the two of them meet.
Love affair
The CD-Rom from Egon
is the first gift of this kind that Ronnie James Dio gets. On the other hand he
has been given many gifts through the years.
-I have been forced
to throw away furniture to make room for the presents. I have saved almost
everything. In Moscow I once got a stuffed lion that is twice as big as myself.
I have it at home in Los Angeles.
The fans are united:
the idol takes good care of them, writes happily his autograph when there is
time and listens both to praise and criticism.
-Without the fans I
would just be a good singer that no one had ever heard of. I really care, it is
like a love affair between us.
Charity
After the tour
awaits a longer time off. After that awaits the work with a new album.
-It will be a
song-orientated album, not a "Magica Part 2", he tells us.
Besides his music
career, Ronnie gives much of his time to a charity project, "Children Of
The Night" that helps sexually abused childs. The song "Throw Away
Children" he has written together with the guitarist Craig Goldie special
for an album on which among others Doro Pesch will participate. The album will
be sold in the benefit for the project that for example helps young prostitutes
off the streets.
-Sexual abuse of
young people is something that I really do not like. Children only knows how to
love. They do not know anything else, before someone teaches them to hate people
that has another color of the skin or to use drugs, Ronnie says very seriously.
Biography
Another project is a
book about himself, of which one third is already written.
-It will not be a
"tell everything"-book about people that have treated me bad, it will
be a book about funny experiences that I have had. Before I am finished maybe I
have experienced so much that it will be a couple more, but I think that this
book will be finished in a few years, says Ronnie as a closing, he thanks us politely
and gets ready to take care of – that´s right – the fans.
Egon is pleased
afterwards:
-What can I say?
"Wonderful" is the only word I can think of. I wish that everyone
could meet Ronnie, he is just so nice. A big role model in a small body.
KEN: Can you give me a list of all those who worked on the project?
I don't know the names of your fiends who did the disc label, and did the
printing on your end, etc?
EGON:
Project Concept: Egon Lundberg
Egon Press Photograph: Robert Lundberg, Pitea-Tidningen
Cover Layout: Ken Boyd
PowerPoint Slide Skit: Egon Lundberg
PowerPoint Slide Shows: George Galanis
Trivia Game: Egon Lundberg
Spiral Planet Graphic: Ken Boyd
Html and Graphic Effects: Egon Lundberg
Dio Collage (Back): Lorene Casey-Socobasin
Editor Note: Ken Boyd
Fan Contact: Scot Clayton (We Rock Mailing List); Ken Boyd (DioZine.com)
Contributions: Tracy G, David Rock Feinstein
Chuck Garric, Martin Popoff & Fans Around the World!
Support: "Annie" from the Official Dio Fanclub
Printing & Icon-making: Fredric Holmstroem
And those that contributed to the project:
Participants:
Just
before giving it to Ronnie
KEN: What was Ronnie's reaction when you gave it to him?
EGON: He was very interested in what was given to him. He
immediately
looked at the gift and commented on the title "Letters From Earth"
and said "Good title! Maybe I should write a song with that name
someday... ;)"
Then he opened the case and read the small letter I had put
in there. Just a few words and they were (if I remember them
correctly) these:
Hi Ronnie!
This is a gift to You
From your fans
All over the world
This gift holds
Letters from Your fans
And from People You know
Other goodies
Not mentioned here
Are also included :)
From all of us
This is our way of saying
Thank you!
KEN: Can you walk us through that whole day so we can experience it as best we
can by simply reading your words?
EGON: I will write this for you later
KEN: Did any of the other band members see it?
EGON: No other band members saw the gift when I was there.
KEN: Anything you would have done differently now that you have experienced all
the challenges?
EGON: I should have slept more and not worry so much about
everything and also planned my days when to work on this.
That would have helped a lot. :)
KEN: Anything else you can think of that you would like to add for the article?
EGON: No, I am think that is all.
KEN: Any final thoughts on this project coming to a successful close?
EGON: The most successful way to "end" this gift would be Your idea
of making this Letters Of Earth-CD into something that people
will buy and that all the money goes to the Children Of The Night
fond. That would make this gift to Ronnie really shining bright.
I feel now that I am almost out
of energy.. It is not until now that
I feel all the time and energy I have put
into this.. When I was doing it, I did not
feel like this.. But that is because when
I was working on this, all I had in my
mind was that this is for Ronnie and that
kept me going. Now, when it is all finished
and Ronnie has gotten the gift, I just feel
weak... :))
Take care!
/Egon, Sweden :)
KEN: Thank you my friend, this is a GREAT thing you have done for the Dio community to allow us fans to FINALLY give back to Ronnie James Dio-- the man that we have SO enjoyed over the years.
You rock my man!
All The Best, and See you in Thirty!
KEN