DIO Calls Fan That Shot 'I Hope VIVIAN Dies' Video 'Lowly Vermin', Apologizes To DEF LEPPARD

Komodo Rock recently conducted an interview with legendary heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio (DIO, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW, HEAVEN AND HELL). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Komodo Rock: So with it having gone gold there has been talk of maybe a new studio album from HEAVEN AND HELL next year. Is that something that could happen?

Dio: Yes, we have decided to do that. When it would be, I couldn't tell you. This is the last part of the tour after about 9 months on the road. It's time for us to take a little breather. When the time is right we will get together and start writing for the next album, but as far as the release date goes it will probably be later next year.

Komodo Rock: Does that mean that you won't be going back to the solo DIO stuff for a while then?

Dio: I will. I plan on doing some touring around March or April. Sometime like that. I want to keep a hand in on that one. I love this band that I play with as well, and it's another career, another career with a lot of great music as well. You will see that a lot in the shows that we do play. When people ask if we are going to be doing any DIO material. That's always a nice compliment. But of course we don't. It would be wrong to do that. It's nice to know though that people don't forget and it's something that they want to hear again so much like we are doing with SABBATH now those songs live forever and they become kinda classics of their own. There is always that path to go down and I will.

Komodo Rock: With touring with DIO, the band, and recording another album next year does that mean there is unlikely to be another HEAVEN AND HELL tour next year?

Dio: I don't know if there will be one next year. It depends on how long it takes us to do what we do. When you do an album you have to tour with it. When it is I don't know but I'm sure we will.

Komodo Rock: So it will be a tour when the album is ready?

Dio: Yeah. When we have that all finished and we can take our time and do a proper job of it then touring will certainly be in the offing.

Komodo Rock: Taking time and getting things just right is obviously important to you?

Dio: Oh, yeah. We are always on top of that anyway. We refuse to play badly in concert and we refuse to put out a bad album as well. What we write will be what makes us happy, and usually what makes us happy is what people want to hear from us. I don't know how much time we will need. Sometimes you can take too much time. You can just wallow around and all of this should be perfect and that should be perfect. You have to have the ability to know when naturalness has to take over because everything isn't perfect, because if it's too perfect then that is what it sounds like. It has no heart. It has no soul. So we know very well how long it will take us and how long it should take us to do it. We are not going to go for the perfectionist, but we do have enough time certainly to give ourselves some choices.

Komodo Rock: You've had press recently regarding Vivian Campbell [referring to a video tape (see below) that surfaced of Ronnie telling a fan that he hoped Vivian "fucking dies" and calling Vivian's current group DEF LEPPARD "a fucking rock band for you to fucking have diarrhea with."]. Is that something that you are quite passionate about?

Dio: No, I'm not passionate about it. I think that the lowly vermin that captured that on his cell phone at a moment when you are saying something that perhaps you would never say to the press, or something that you didn't really mean that much, but you know, sometimes situations dictate what you say. And once again, that was something that was completely off the record. Apparently I said something bad about the band as well, about DEF LEPPARD, and once again, all of things that were said were said in the heat of the moment. No deference to them at all, and I would like to apologize to those guys. I like them. It wasn't fair to them, but as far as Vivian goes, all I can say is check out the source, and then see what that source has been saying and sometimes you reply. Most of the time I have been taking the high road on all of it and I have not said anything on it. I have praised Vivian so much and I think that he deserves praise for as great as he played, but you know, that was just a retort to the things that he had said about me first, and once again, in an unguarded moment, I feel that I was very unfair, but I said what I said. But I am not passionate about hating him, no. I have better things to do with my life than to think about revenge or being a horrible person. Of course I don't want him to die! What I said was, once again, a heat-of-the-moment thing. Those things cannot be explained unless you speak to the source, which is me, I guess, like you are doing. So no, I have no passion about that whatsoever.

Read the entire interview at Komodo Rock.