Ronnie James Dio and his band, Dio, - what could I possibly say about the two that hasn't been said a thousand times before. I'm just lucky enough to have interviewed the man a few times and we are all blessed to have the fantastic music he has made year in and year out from Elf to Rainbow to Black Sabbath and now Dio.

RockNet got the chance to talk to Ronnie James Dio while at home on a rare day off between tour dates supporting Dio's latest opus "Angry Machines," and this is what he had to say:

RockNet: Tell me about the song "Games" you sang on with the band Dog Eat Dog.

Ronnie James Dio: They called my management three or four months before I did it and posed the question that "we are big Dio fans and we've got this song we wrote. We know Ronnie is really into sports and we would like to have him come and sing on it if he would." So they told me about it and I said I really don't know the band, I don't know much about them and stuff it wasn't really my cup of tea. They sent me a CD, I listened to the music and it's not bad. It's not so full of itself, it just wasn't that serious. I spoke to the singer, Dale McClain, and hit it off really well and thought what the hell, sounds like it might be a lot of fun. So I flew out to New York and did it and that was it. It was good fun.

RN: There is another song you sang called "What Cost War," from the "Free World" CD

RJD: That's the one from the drummer from Loudness, Munetaka Higuchi, side project called Dream Castle. That was just a guy we know from Japan, this Japanese guitar player that played here for a while. So he had talked to Wendy a long time ago and Wendy had said "yes, I think Ronnie will probably do it." So the time came and I just went and did it in the same studio that we recorded "Angry Machines" at. I just went down and did the song that Jeff Pilson wrote. It is a really good track the song is cool, right to the point. I had a good time doing it. Very, very professionally done.

RN: Before I get to "Angry Machines," let's play a little word association with a couple of musicians. How about Jerry Best?

RJD: Well, Jerry played with us for a little while. Then we came back from South America and did a tour there with Jerry and came back and it just didn't feel right to us. It just wasn't right. I mean Jerry's a fine player and a great person, but it just didn't have that magic we had with Jeff. We were in the midst of writing for another album and it just became more and more difficult. When you're not pleased with something you just have to kind of let it go. And that is what we did.

RN: So then Jeff Pilson came back in?

RJD: Jeff came back and was able to write and record the album with us, yes.

RN: Then Jeff returned to Dokken again?

RJD: Yeah, well we knew about that always anyway. Even before Jeff played with us the first time that the Dokken thing was in the works. So we weren't laboring under any false pretenses that there might not be a problem. Luckily he was able to do the first tour with us and he couldn't do this one again he had that second Dokken commitment that took him away again. But we were able to, like I say, he wrote like half of the album with us then recorded it. Then he had to go off to Dokken again so of course we replaced Jeff.

RN: And that would be Larry Dennison.

RJD: Larry, we got in an audition. Jeff had actually spoken to Larry, told Larry to come on down and stuff. Larry came down and we auditioned three other people and we really liked Larry. He was great. Good player, along the kind of music that we wanted to play, great guy. So Larry became our choice. He played with Lita Ford for a while, he played with Tony MacAlpine. Larry's originally from St. Louis but he has probably spent the last four or five years out here. I think he just came out here with a band from St. Louis.

RN: Now on to drummers. James Kottack.

RJD: James only played with us for ten shows. Vinny (Appice) was recovering from pneumonia and he needed to take some extra time off so he could go to Europe. So James played with us for those ten shows and it was great, a lot of fun.

RN: Was it very different when he's behind you?

RJD: Oh, it was very different, but James plays good and loud which helped a lot. Because he only had, I think, two, three days to learn the set we were doing, which was pretty amazing. He had played a little bit more on the simpler side, until we kind of got to show nine and ten and he was starting to let it rip. But it was just really different, he was a very different kind of player in than Vinny. But it was great, he did a great job and we really enjoyed a different kind of energy. It was a lot of fun.

RN: So speaking of Vinny, how do you keep that Vinny guy with you year after year?

RJD: Oh, I don't know. I think so much of it has to do with the fact that Vinny is like me and somebody who doesn't want to play music, if it doesn't make him happy. If he finds people to play with that allows him to do what he does and will write and make music that he's proud of, then you know he's gonna stay there. I'm sure like everyone else he'd like to make like millions of dollars as well. Maybe that will still happen, maybe he has already. It's just being so connected musically and luckily enough we've been friends for such a long time that certainly helps too. If we were playing a different type of music, he wouldn't stick around.

RN: Do you read the music message boards on America Online?

RJD: We have America Online on a laptop and we just came back from Europe and we didn't take the lap top with us. So I haven't even looked at it since I've only been home for a couple of days.

RN: So in there from time to time, especially today actually, Tracy G has been under fire as being compared to past guitarists you have worked with. Do you have any words for Tracy's critics?

RJD: All I can say is this, they don't play with Tracy and they expect something else from Tracy other than what he is. And Tracy is absolutely a brilliant guitar player. It's a shame more people don't get what Tracy is trying to do. He doesn't want to be the guitar player they expect him to be, they don't want him to be Richie Blackmore and Tony Iommi and what not. I think he's a combination of all of those people and an individual as well. Tracy G is a real progressive thinker, he plays the kind of music that Vinny and I would want to play and I understand the crap that he takes. I certainly understand that but it's very, very unfair of the criticisms because Tracy is a great guitar player. I love to play with him. He's got a great sense of feel, he's got a great mind, he's a great player. He's just brilliant all the way down the line. People are always going to have critics when they replace people who are really loved by some fans they are always going to go “oh he doesn't do that, he doesn't do this.” But Tracy G is capable of doing absolutely anything. I think he does a better job than anybody I've ever played with. I hate to defend Tracy G, it's terrible to defend somebody who doesn't need any defense, if people don't get it as far as I'm concerned they can just fuck off!

RN: I'm sure a lot of young bands would kill to have you produce, have you ever thought of putting your work aside and just producing?

RJD: I thought about it at times. I never thought about putting my work aside and that is what the trouble is. You need total time to do something like that. You need to have great blocks of time and I'm not ready to stop singing yet or stop writing and stop playing. When that time comes it will probably be too late to produce anyway but it doesn't matter to me. I know what I am capable of and I'm certainly capable of producing because I have my own things and a few other things and I'm very confident in that way. But it's not important to me, what's important to me is to be able to do what I do still. I've given it thought and should the right time frame and project arise, I'd do it.

RN: Have you been approached to produce before?

RJD: I've been approached a lot of times. But it is always a time restraint and I just don't have the time.

RN: Have you been approached to write songs for anybody ever?

RJD: Yeah, occasionally. That is something I would think a lot more of if the situation were right but it would have to be pretty right because I'm kind of opinionated as to what I like. I haven't really been approached for that one. I'd probably consider it.

RN: When and where did you guys record "Angry Machines"?

RJD: We did it in the summer time. It was very pleasant by the beach because we did it at Redondo Beach in a studio called Total Access. We did it in five weeks, recorded it, mixed it, mastered it in five weeks. We were very well prepared. We had spent writing the thing for six months anyway so with time off, going to South America and trying to find bass players we were really well prepared. That is where we did it and how much time it took.

RN: So are you ok with where to stop on producing a song?

RJD: I'm pretty good about that, that's not really a problem for me. I usually have a pretty good built in sense of when enough is enough of a song.

RN: So how important and how much time goes into sequencing in as far as what song goes number one or number ten?

RJD: As we wrote them we just left them in that same order. We obviously thought about well let's put it in a certain order and the logical order was the way we wrote them. So we were pretty lucky on that one.

RN: Is there any story behind the title "Angry Machines"?

RJD: Only that it's supposed to represent kind of the attitude of the album especially as far as it's lyrical contents. It's meant to be realistic and not as escapist all talking about the real world and parts of society in it. Probably nine grim statements softened by a final one that just speaks about maybe all isn't lost, the song "This Is Your Life," it's pretty bad out there and maybe as individuals we can change it somehow. I didn't want to go off on such a cynical note, but again it just worked out really well as far as the progression goes.

RN: So when you go in the studio to do vocals, how do you raise up your rage for some of the tracks in such a sterile environment? Has that ever been hard for you?

RJD: No.

RN: It just comes out?

RJD: Yeah, I mean that's the real chance to interpret the song, when you are singing it. The environment isn't something that you really notice anymore. I mean once the music is pumped through your head phones, you're right inside that song because there is nothing like a set of head phones and a great microphone in front of you anyway with a great backing track so, the rest doesn't matter. There are a lot of starts and stops and all that, but you're so immersed into the song and you do without more than one opportunity of course to portray your emotions. So it's not difficult at all, at least not for me.

RN: I read once that you said you would never do another ballad, and low and behold.

RJD: It's not a ballad, I don't do ballads.

RN: What is it then?

RJD: It's a statement! Ballads are pretty little things that people talk about birds and flowers and stuff. This is not about that, this is about something intensely personal. It's about someone's life, one life in general. Ballads are love songs and I don't write ballads. This is not a ballad anyway because it's not written as a ballad, it's written and even musically it's a statement. It's meant to be very simple but then it becomes a classical nature in the middle of it. So it has an arrangement, it's not a ballad.

RN: And it has some piano on it, who did that?

RJD: That's Scott Warren, our keyboard player.

RN: What would you like the record buying public to know about "Angry Machines"?

RJD: Probably that it takes more than one listen before you start to really love it. But that happens with a lot of songs that we did because we are such an intense band, usually the music is just so intense that it takes a lot to digest it. I think it raises the hackles sometimes. I think people need to listen to it at least once through it and then give it another listen before they go, “yeah, it's really good.” Again sound wise it's an album that is in your face a lot more like the earlier things we did "Holy Diver" and such. It's not the music itself, but the sound of the music, the sound of the production. Hardly any effects on it any where, no double guitars, no double voices, very few of that if there is any at all. Drums very live sounding, a much more modern sounding album. Lyrically, very observational, no dragons, witches and lizards in it because it speaks about real things that I certainly needed to confront. It's musically a lot more progressive than other things we have done but still traditional. We're more modern in attitude, we listen to the music that is around us and some of that music is like oh, what's that? It's really cool. Things that people do just off the top of their heads. There is no reason why it can't be put into a more metal sound text. So that is what I say about "Angry Machines."

RN: What are your touring plans?

RJD: Were going back out, next Tuesday is our first gig in Tucson. We started in October and we just got back from Europe so we have been touring since then. We'll do this part in about four weeks in America and then we go to Japan after that. We'll be in Japan about ten days and then we'll come back and probably we'll go to Europe and do some festivals. Then come back and perhaps do America again. We'll probably be on the road until August or the beginning of September.

RN: So what can our readers expect from a live Dio show?

RJD: Well I think it's the same thing they always get from a show you know. It's very intense, musicianship caliber is great. If you're not a Tracy G fan don't come. We do some things from my past, from Rainbow, Black Sabbath, not a lot. We do classic Dio songs you know from "Holy Diver," on through. It's hard to put a set together anymore because there is so much material. You don't want to piss this person off and this person is going to be mad, you just have to do the best you can. We try to put together what we think is going to satisfy everybody ninety percent anyway.

RN: So what do you foresee for the band's future?

RJD: Were gonna do a live album. We've already recorded one show in Germany, we're gonna do Denver and Chicago. That will be the next album, it's gonna be a live album because we have never done it before. So it was about time we did. Also following that we'll do a studio album. That's what we are really looking forward to doing. We probably won't be able to get to recording another proper album until the first of the year. If we go to the studio and take care of a live LP relatively quickly then we'll have some time to sit around and write. It usually takes us three or four months to write and record an album, if not more sometimes. That looks like what is in the cards.

RN: So you guys don't write on the road?

RJD: No. I only find myself pretty much writing for the project. If there is an album to do and we need twelve songs, then we will write twelve songs and not have anything left over or write things on the road. Of course there are little ideas that come to you on the road but we don't take them to any kind of flouision. We don't sit around and go hey I got an idea, let's check this out, let's write a tune. The road is brutal enough with out having to come up with a real good positive attitude so you can write something.

RN: Do you ever get free songs? Do you ever wake up with a song?

RJD: Occasionally I'll end up with a couple of things not really mapped out in my head but just a great idea. Just a really excellent idea around which to build a song. But most of the stuff is hard work.

RN: In closing is there something you would like to say to our readers and to your fans?

RJD: You know, we're just happy to work and we're on the road. We're still playing for people. That we are able to make music that we think is taking some steps forward as opposed to sitting and devouring yourself by the tail. The show is intense and it is great to be on the road again and we look forward to seeing you.

Interview conducted by Alex Richter - Editor of Hard N' Fast.

Note: RockNet wishes to thank Paula Hogan and all the great folks at Mayhem Records. And to Ronnie for giving us all the great music over the years, cheers! Oh, and special thanks to Big "Dio Fan" Jim.