Hello George !

Here are my answers to your interview. Thanks very much for spreading my
name to the Greek audience !

1 - What's your opinion about Ronnie as a singer, songwriter and
as a person

In my opinion Ronnie is the best Rock singer in the whole world. His voice
is very charismatic and definitely has something very special. He sings
very melodic and emotional and you can feel that he puts his heart into
every single note he sings. The melody lines and songs he writes and sings
are very unique and filled with power and emotion and he definitely adds
the "magic touch" to all songs he is singing. Apart from that he is my
favorite singer of all times, he is also a very nice person too. He treated
me very well when we first met and talked, it was like seeing an old friend
again after a long time.

2 - For how long are you a Dio Fan ?

I'm a Dio Fan since the first Rainbow album came out in 1975 and I really
recognized his brilliant voice. It really impressed me much.

3 - Which was the first song that you have heard from Dio

I remember it was Rainbow's "Snake Charmer" which was played on the radio
introducing the first Rainbow album.

4 - Which was the first Dio's LP that you have bought

It was Rainbow's self titled first album from 1975. After that I bought
every record with Ronnie singing on it.

5 - Which is your favorite Dio song

I really can't tell, because I love so much of them all and it's not easy
just to pick only one, but here are a few: Stargazer, Heaven And Hell, A
light In The Black, Children Of The Sea, Gates Of Babylon, . . .

6 - Which is the best period of Dio's entire career ? Why ?

I have to say the "Rainbow" period, because I'm an absolutely Ritchie
Blackmore Freak too and the combination of both my favorite musicians of
all time is not toppable by anybody. This team definitely had put so much
input to my personal career. Incredible !

7 - Have you attended any Dio shows

Yes, sure !  The first time I saw Ronnie performing live, was with his band
ELF, when they played at a big festival in Germany in the "Westfalenhalle"
in Dortmund on the 23rd of March 1975. It was quite interesting, because it
was one of the last shows with DEEP PURPLE performing with Ritchie
Blackmore. I still remember that ELF's guitar player had some serious
technical problems on stage with his amplifiers and I remember too, that
Ronnie wore his famous Jeans with the "Stars" on it.
The next time I saw him playing live was at the same venue, but on October
2nd 1976 during the Rainbow "Rising" Tour. It was a big festival too, where
also the Scorpions (with Uli Jon Roth) and UFO (with Michael Schenker)
played and it ì¥Á7            

10 - Tell some info about your career, your band. When did you
started, how many cds you have, what's your influences

I started recording albums with the German band "Steeler" with the
self titled debut album in 1984. We recorded 4 albums with the latest
released in 1988. After we supported "Saxon" on their European tour I
decided to leave that band because they were more into the "big AOR" kinda
music like Def Leppard, Queen or something and that wasn't my kinda thing.
My first solo record "Wild Obsession" came out in 1989 with former Ted
Nugent / Victory American based vocalist Charlie Huhn. It was a success in
Germany and I decided to carry on under my own name. I replaced Charlie
(who had a more "Bon Scott" type of voice) with American singer Rob Rock
(who more sounded like Ronnie, because I always looked for a singer who's
voice is near Ronnie's), and we recorded the album "Nasty Reputation" but
it didn't worked out for a planned tour and I replaced him with former
Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Jeff Scott Soto. With him I recorded several
albums and it worked really well since 1997, when he decided not to tour
any more, because he was involved in a very successful American band called
the "Boogie Nights". It was a 70's Disco cover Band with huge success in
the big Grand Hotels in Las Vegas where they performed in front of a sold
out audience 3-4 times a week ! Then I found American singer Johnny Gioeli
from Los Angeles, who always was one of my personal favorite singers, since
I heard him sing on the "Hardline" album "Double Eclipse" in 1992. It took
me a long time to get in contact with him, but finally we came together and
I'm really pleased and more than satisfied with his performance. He is one
hell of a singer and he really puts his emotions into my songs ! You can
feel and hear this when you listen to any of our songs. With him I recorded
"Oceans Of Time" in 1998 and he did also a few new songs on my ballad
compilation "The Ballads II" in 1999. After successful touring we recorded
another album, "The Masquerade Ball", in 2000. Following that there was a
double CD "Best Of" with the title "The Wizards Chosen Few" released in
late 2000 followed by a tour and several festival appearances in 2001. Now
I'm in the process of writing new songs for a new record which will be
recorded from December this year to beginning of February next year. It is
still untitled and will be released at the beginning of May in 2002 ! When
you count all CD's including the "Best Of" and 2 ballad compilations and
one live album I have released 12 CD'`s so far.          

11 - Tell us some words about the Holy Dio project. How did it
happened and your Still I'm Sad cover was included on the cd

The chief editor of the German metal mag "Rock Hard" once called me and
asked me if I would like to contribute a song for that project. He was the
main guy behind that project and I agreed at the first second. I remember
that it wasn't easy to choose one song, because he told me that a lot of
songs had already performed and recorded by other bands.

12 - Why have you chosen the "Still I'm sad" song

In the first time I thought about doing either "Heaven and Hell" or
"Stargazer", but HaH was already done by another band and we didn't had the
time to really create a good and intense version of "Stargazer", because we
only had spare time in the studio. I decided to record "Still I'm Sad"
because it was one of my favorite tunes from the "On Stage" album and we
already had played that song live on the recent tour and every band member
still knew what to play.

13 - Future plans for your band

Recording the next studio album and then doing a tour around September /
October next year.
 
14 - Any plans to come to Greece for concerts

There are no plans at the moment to be honest. I would love to play in
Greece, but it definitely is a financial risk, like playing in other
countries too. We don't know how much people would come to the shows,
neither does any promoter. You can imagine that we are having "fix" costs
every day that we are on tour. It's definitely not cheap to rock around the
world. For example our last tour in Germany / Switzerland was very
successful with venues of more than 800 - 1200 people every night, but
still the whole tour only covered the immense costs, so that nobody could
fill his pocket with anything. But I hope that we'll find a way somehow to
play in your country !  

15 - Your opinion about Greece (landscapes, food, women LOL)
and Greek metal audience

I love Greece !!! When I have the time I'm always doing my vacation on
"Zakynthos" island, so my bass player Volker does. I've been there 7 or 8
times now and I really appreciate the beautiness of the country and of
course the friendliness of the Greek people. Volker is learning the Greek
language, which I would like to learn too, but I unfortunately don't have
the time for it. But I was taught some words like "Epharisto, Paracallo,
Yammas, Ton logariasmo paracallo, . . ." and also some bad words like
"Malaka", .... hahahaha ! I definitely love the Greek food too with all the
meet. My favorite restaurant in my home town is called "Samos" and I'm
going there once a week at least ! The waiters there are very friendly too
and trying to teach me more Greek words to say, but they always are
laughing when I come next time and try to remember the words and then
speaking it totally wrong . . .hahaha.
I really can't speak about your girls, because my girlfriend would kill me
then, but I really saw some very hot women . . . .  

16 - Send your greetings to the Greek-wizards fan club

I would like to thank you very much for interviewing me and introducing me
to you and your readers !
I really appreciate this and send my greetings to all of you of the great
Greek-Wizards Fan Club ! Continue your great work and remember: "Long Live
Ronnie" !!!


That's it , George !  I hope my answers are okay and thank you very much
again.
We'll stay in contact !

Best regards,

Axel


George Galanis runs the GREEK WIZARDS, The 1st Greek Dio Fanclub. Visit their GREAT web site below: