The music of Ronnie James Dio continues to resonate with the metal masses. But with Dio having been sadly deceased since 2010, the torch has been handed to other artists — including Last in Line.
Comprising two former Dio band members, guitarist Vivian Campbell (also a member of Def Leppard) and drummer Vinny Appice (also a member of the Dio-era of Black Sabbath), as well as singer Andrew Freeman and bassist Phil Soussan, Last in Line (which shares the name of Dio’s classic 1984 album) returned in 2019 with their sophomore effort, the Jeff Pilson-produced II.
Appice spoke to VintageRock.com shortly before the album’s release.
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How does II compare to Heavy Crown?
It’s a little bit more involved in the songs. I think the songs were a little bit more complicated, but it still maintains that raw edge. And we played with Phil Soussan as the bass player. It’s still got the edge of the first album, but the songs I think are a little bit more polished, and there is some great playing on it.
Phil is an underrated songwriter, as he co-wrote one of Ozzy’s biggest hits, “Shot in the Dark.”
Right. But with this album…actually, all the albums I have ever done since [Black Sabbath’s] Mob Rules, we never had songs that were written beforehand. We always got in a room together, and just tossed around ideas and riffs, and built upon that – and created a song with everybody involved. Nobody ever brought in a song.
How is it playing with Phil compared to Jimmy Bain?
They kind of play similar, but Phil can be a little bit more busy and maybe a little more melodic. Jimmy liked to lay down the foundation. And Phil is a little bit more musical in his playing – and sometimes makes the bass sing a little bit more. It’s cool. But they’re very similar — they come from the same era, the same music history. It’s great playing with both of them. And I’ve played with Phil before this in other projects.
Let’s discuss the new song,“Landslide.”
I don’t know if that was the first song we wrote…it’s hard to remember, because we didn’t do it all at once — we had a couple of weekends where we got together, and then we didn’t, and then we got together again. So, the times were all broken up. But “Landslide,” Viv was messing around in the room with his amp and his guitar. He was going bop-bop-bop [with the guitar’s toggle switch], and we were going, “That’s really cool!” So, we used that as an intro, and developed it a little bit more. Then built upon that as, “OK, now where do we go?” A lot of times, Andy wasn’t in the room with us, so what we did was we constructed the song part by part by part – not necessarily in the order that it wound up to be. And then, Andy would write to it. And depending on what he wrote, that would be how we played it — as far as the arrangement. Believe it or not, it started with that little intro that Viv was playing with his toggle switch.
Why did Ronnie and Vivian seem to not get along?
Well, it was more of a business thing. We were promised a lot of things from Ronnie and Wendy [Dio, Ronnie’s wife and manager] — to share in more of the profits of the band. And it really didn’t materialize. And Viv was upset about that…we were all upset about that, but I had to deal with it on my own terms. Viv didn’t like what was going on with that, and that caused a little bit of a friction. So, it was nothing ever musical, it was just a business thing — you’re promised something, and it doesn’t happen. So, you’ve got to call people on their word. That’s what happened — it was more of a business thing.
Did Vivian ever mention to you if he regrets not being able to patch up his differences with Ronnie before Ronnie’s passing?
No, we never really talk about it. So, I don’t know how he feels about that. It’s kind of sad it happened, but of course, that affected the music — we wound up having to get a different guitar player [after 1985’s Sacred Heart]. Ronnie was adamant about, “Alright, we are going to replace Viv with Craig Goldy,” and that changed the band and the music somewhat, and it changed the success we were having, too. So, it did lead to that, which wasn’t good. I mean, when you’ve got a successful thing and a great band – leave it be. That’s the way it should be taken care of — not short-term, like, “Ah, get rid of this guy.” And then, success dwindles, y’know?
Did you keep in touch with Vivian after he left Dio?
Yes. Not a lot in the beginning, but later on we kept in touch here and there. He did a little blues thing on his own, and I went to see him play. But not a lot, because when he joined Def Leppard, he was busy and out of town a lot. So, I didn’t really keep in touch with him at that point.
Do you sense competition between Last in Line and Dio Disciples?
Well, they’re two different things. Last in Line started out with me, Jimmy, and Viv, and we were the band that wrote those songs and played those songs — on those albums. We’re not a tribute to Ronnie, we just started playing the songs that we wrote. Unfortunately, Ronnie is not here — if he was here, maybe it would have been a full-on reunion. But Dio Disciples are playing a Ronnie show, basically — they’re playing “Man on the Silver Mountain” and old things from Ronnie’s career. And they weren’t in the original band, where all the important albums or songs were written. Some of the guys never even played with Ronnie. But they’re good — it’s a great show. But I call that more of a “Ronnie James Dio show” than Dio or something. They’re more of a tribute to Ronnie, we’re the real deal — we’re the guys that played it. And now that we have II out, we’re starting to get established on our own – as a real band, because we’re writing original material. The first album [2016’s Heavy Crown] did OK, and the tours have been good. Things are looking up, and are getting more successful. We’re building this pretty much on our own — as our own band now.
Touring plans?
We start next weekend in Northern California, and then we do Arizona, LA the next weekend. We’re going fly-outs, so up until May, the first three weeks of May, we will be touring all over the place. We’re going to the east coast, we’re going to Texas. And then in the summer, we’re actually going to play a gig with Def Leppard at the Download Festival in England. So, Viv is playing twice — I think we’re headlining a smaller stage, and then obviously, Def Leppard is headlining the big stage. And then we’ve got a gig in London on our own at the O2. So, there is going to be a lot of touring, and then we’ll continue all the way up to September, and then in September, we’ll continue again – because we want to stay out there and keep this album supported. And we love playing together — we have fun. We rehearsed yesterday and we are rehearsing today, and we have a lot of fun hanging out. I look forward to it.
Are you still in touch with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler?
Just via email, pretty much. I’ll get an email from Tony and I’ll reply — same thing with Geezer. But more with Tony. I like to always keep in touch with him and see how he’s doing. We had a lot of close times and great times together. Great music. So yeah, we’re still in touch.
Would you ever like to work with them again?
Oh yeah, absolutely! Who wouldn’t want to work with Tony and Geezer? Besides who they are, they’re really family, and just the way they play is amazing.
You crossed paths with John Lennon back in the day, right?
Yeah. I hooked up with John Lennon, and we had a band in Brooklyn, and we had four horn players. A great band. I was like, 16. I was friends with Jimmy Iovine, who brought us into the studio — Record Plan Studios, in New York — to produce us. We did that, and then the Record Plant signed us to a management deal, and they gave us a room to rehearse at the Record Plant Studios. So, we were there all the time – rehearsing and recording. And then Jimmy called us one night to do hand claps on a song he was recording. So, we went downstairs…and there’s John Lennon in the control room! So, we did hand claps on the song “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” — that’s me and my band. We were freaking out. I mean, I was in high school — I was going to high school the next day. And then John asked Jimmy, “Who were those guys? They came down in five minutes.” He told them, and then a couple of days later, John came up to our rehearsal room to watch us play. He really liked us, and we started hanging out with him. He kept coming up, and we’d play pool, he’d watch us rehearse, smoke some pot. It was really cool. Then he asked us to do a few of videos, so we did three videos with him in the studio there. And then, we did a live gig — he asked us to do this live gig at the New York Hilton, which was going to be on TV, all around the world. So, we did that. I found out not long ago that that was his last live performance — ever. Who would have thought, right? All that was while I was going to school, so, I didn’t really want to stay in school! It was a different world — like day and night. I was 16.
What was the name of that band?
BOMF. If you look it up on YouTube, you can see it (listed as “John Lennon and BOMF”). If you look it up online, there’s a picture of us all together — a bunch of pictures. John wanted us to wear two faces at the show, so we went — with John — to get our faces molded and made a mask of. And then, we all got fitted for jumpsuits — ours were black, his was red. And we used to do this with him — we went in a van and got fitted. It was really an amazing time. And we went onstage – we come out, and nine guys have two faces on, with no hair, black jumpsuits on, and John comes out in red. The reason for it was the show was a tribute to Sir Lew Grade, who was an entertainment guy in England — and John didn’t like him. He thought he was two-faced. So, we came out in this thing, and people were shocked — it was a black tie affair. It was crazy, crazy stuff.
