**Editor’s Note: When I first started this project, I was simply excited about the possibilities of Craig being back into Dio after an absence of over 10 years. I had heard some of his solo material over the years and knew something of what to expect. But this article prompted further investigation both into Craig’s musical career—picking up some of the music I had missed out on BEFORE Dio as well as his most recent material I could track down from 1995. As I delved deeper and deeper I found myself coming across research material that had just as much to do with Craig’s personal beliefs and the drives he has BEHIND the music that he crafts…and I found myself respectfully intrigued.
So here it is, after some measure of hard research, a surprising level of inner debate as to what to truly make the focus of this article, and finally, the struggle to present it as I would hope Craig as well as his fans would like to have it read.
Please, Enjoy!--KEN
“I was insecure when I first started playing,” Craig told Guitar Magazine, (January 1987) “because my parents were real military types.”
Obviously he did not let that stop him. In fact this guitar slinger went to some great lengths and hard times to get where he is today. Perhaps some harder times than most people would care to face in a life-time—let alone in the few years of a boy moving into adulthood. I found it fascinating as I discovered how he told of where this inner strength came from to make it through those times, and make it into such an unforgiving industry as that of a musician.
“I got my first hometown band together in San Diego,[Being born in La Mesa, California October 6th 1961]” Craig went on, “and I got kicked out for somebody who was better than I was.” Craig took this on as a challenge to better his own guitar skills. “He stayed the same while I eventually got better than him. I was about 15 when this happened and that’s when I knew I was going to be a guitarist.”
When asked when it really all started for him, Craig indicated: “It really all started for me in seventh grade, woodshop. There was a teacher there who was just a great guy. And he was telling me about Christian rock. And so, we went to his church in San Diego (California), called Calvary Chapel.” Though he had been playing music up to that point, he countered: “I stopped playing house parties and started trying to put a Christian band together….[That was when I discovered] it's one of the most powerful forms of communication that we have.”
So, one might wonder how is it that Craig went from such a powerful message, with a mission, to that of just another rock musician trying to cut it?
“I had been kicked out of my house when I was 17,” he said, “I was living in a car on the streets. The car wasn't even mine. It was my girlfriend's at the time. Which goes with that joke: What do you call a musician without a girlfriend? Homeless.”
Not only that, but jobs seemed to never quite fit right.
“I’d be a dishwasher for a week,” he continued. “It didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to play guitar.”
Craig Goldy has had the opportunity to play with some of the top notch world musicians from the world over, including Rudy Sarzo, Tommy Aldritch, and David Glenn Eisley, just to name a few.
“So,” Craig went on, “I was living in a car on the streets. No amp. No money. No nothing, just a guitar. And I was just so frustrated. I knew that I was talented enough. And I prayed. And what did I pray - that I could get out of this situation. But my prayers weren't exactly specific enough. Not that they needed to be, because He knew my heart.”
By the time Craig hit 17 he was placed in a position to either go for it or get out of it.
“I was playing guitar all the time. Some friends of mine liked the way I was playing guitar. I did things differently than other people. So, word got around.”
This period was when Craig was apparently with a band called Vengeance, circa 1982 to 1982. Rumor has it they were a hard rockin’ quartet, but no recorded material is known to exist to attest to this. According to Tapio’s Dio Pages the band consisted of Craig Goldie (Check out his link for additional information) on guitars, a fellow named John Osmond on bass, Lee Roy slated to have been playing drums, and Pete Papps surving up the vocals. During this period was when Craig was attempting to perfect his own style while learning some of the better techniques of the well known guitarists in the industry.
“One guy ended up getting an audition in Los Angeles. Then he got hooked up with some people who were in a band that was produced by Ronnie James Dio, and managed by his wife.” Craig is speaking of none other than Rough Cutt.
When Randy Rhodes died in the airplane crash, after Ozzy put himself back together over the tragic loss, the Ozzy Osbourne band hired on the young Rough Cutt axe slinger Jake E Lee.
“So, it just all worked together,” Craig related. “My friend ended up knowing them [Rough Cutt]. So, I sent a tape up to them that they asked for. I got the audition. I got the gig. And that's how the whole thing started.”
Recognize Craig Goldy second from the left in this promo release during his Giuffria days.
Second from the Right we also see David Glen Eisley whom Craig later worked with on Craig Goldy’s Ritual and Hidden in Plain Sight.