CRAIG GOLDY Was 'Surprised' By How Many Times He Appeared In RONNIE JAMES DIO Documentary

Former DIO guitarist Craig Goldy has told Rockin' Metal Revival in a new interview that he thought the "Dio: Dreamers Never Die", the first-ever career-spanning documentary on the life and times of legendary metal icon Ronnie James Dio, was done really well. "Me and my fiancée were there [at the Los Angeles premiere in late September], and at times — it's probably different for everybody else — but after a while you forget you're even watching a documentary because you're really kind of listening to an audio story, which is the same thing," he said.

"Documentaries aren't exactly everybody's favorite because it has an element as if it is educational and not entertainment. And I told Don [Argott, co-director] I go, 'You just created a new kind of documentary that requires a new kind of adjective, 'cause I don't have an adjective for it.' And I was surprised to have been in there as — I'm not [in there] a lot, but the portions that I'm in, I thought, 'Well, okay. That's cool. That makes sense.' Because they're trying to tell a story. And everybody went in and did an interview, and they used pieces of that interview to tell their story. So I felt really nice that it seemed to be pertinent. Whatever point they were trying to make, everybody's piece in those interviews, that were on camera, were pertinent. But I didn't ever really consider myself to be that pertinent to be a part that many times in the actual documentary. Me and my fiancée were kind of, like, 'Wow. That was cool.'"

Executive-produced by Dio's widow and longtime manager Wendy Dio and fully authorized by the artist's estate, "Dio: Dreamers Never Die" delves deep into the singer's incredible rise from a '50s doo-wop crooner to his early rock days in ELF and Ritchie Blackmore's RAINBOW, to replacing Ozzy Osbourne in BLACK SABBATH, and finally cementing his rock star status with his own band, DIO. The film incorporates never-before-seen footage and personal photos, as well as offering intimate scenes with his closest peers, family, and friends, among them Wendy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Glenn Hughes, Vinny Appice, Lita Ford, Rob Halford, Sebastian Bach, Eddie Trunk and Jack Black, as they bring viewers inside the life of one of rock and roll's true heroes and one of the most beloved figures in rock.

Goldy joined DIO during the "Sacred Heart" tour in 1986 after original guitarist Vivian Campbell was fired from the band following a contentious business disagreement with the legendary heavy metal singer and Ronnie's management. After joining DIO, Goldy became Ronnie James Dio's right-hand man and went on to co-write such DIO classics as "Dream Evil", "One More For The Road", "As Long As It's Not About Love" and many others.

For several years, Goldy played sporadic shows with DIO DISCIPLES, which is made up of former members of DIO, along with a rotating lineup of singers, including former JUDAS PRIEST frontman Tim "Ripper" Owens.

Back in 2015, Goldy paid tribute to Ronnie, telling Rock Scene: "Just like you will always remember where you were on 9/11, anyone who ever heard Ronnie James Dio sing for the very first time will always remember where they were. I will never forget it. [I was] sitting in a car with a friend a mine; we were getting a band together. I was all upset 'cause DEEP PURPLE had just broken up and disco was taking the scene, so the world was upside down. And all of a sudden I heard 'Man On The Silver Mountain' [from Ritchie Blackmore's RAINBOW] come on the radio, and I said, 'Who the hell is that?' And next thing I know… I came from an abusive family, so I was living on the streets of San Diego. Five years later, I'm headlining Madison Square Garden with my favorite singer, Ronnie James Dio, playing songs that we wrote together, and it was an actual dream come true. So dreams come true."

He continued: "Ronnie changed the world because he created his own universe with his lyrics and the way he wrote. And he also… That kind of music called to the downtrodden and the black sheep of the globe. 'Cause you could hear what hurt Ronnie was… subject matter that also hurt me. And when he was angry, those are the things I was angry about. So it was almost like we were talking to each other before we even met; it was like I knew him before I even met him. And he had that relationship with the whole world."

Goldy added: "He was so good to his fans. I mean, he would always pick the least and make them the most. The one weirdo that got backstage who always got overlooked or was the last one to be picked on the volleyball team in high school, Ronnie would pick him and make him feel the most special. He always had a way of making you feel like you were the only one in the room for that time that you were together. It'd be almost like having the golden ticket for the cholocate factory and meeting Willy Wonka in the chocolate factory. And so you had the keys to the kingdom and you were gonna get to meet the king, and he would turn it all around and become your servant. And he'd go, 'Hey, can I get you anything? Can I do anything for you? Can I make you a sandwich? Can I pour you a drink?' And then he would just blow their minds with kindness.

"Anybody who didn't ever really meet him in person, they had a special relationship with him because of the way he wrote and the way he sang and the way he was to his fans. His family was the world, and the whole world was affected by that man."

Asked what the most important thing was that he learned from Ronnie, Craig told Guitar World magazine in a 2013 interview: "There are so many, but a lot of it is first the music has to feel good. The groove has to be great because a lot of guitar players write for the riff first. The way he wrote songs was special too, because he really toiled. The law of hit songwriting is melody first, lyrics second. A lot of people don't do that; a lot of singers sit around with their notebooks filled with lyrics and they try to cram their lyrics into a song. So the two have already been sitting around collecting dust and they try to call it an original song. That's not the way you do it. You’ve got to start from scratch."

He continued: "[Ronnie] would really toil because it's hard to tell a story and hit people in the heart with the limited amount of syllables you have in a song. It's not an easy task, but I watched him do that and I learned from him."