DIO Guitarist Helping Musicians Break Into The Industry

Full In Bloom Music recently conducted an interview with DIO guitarist Craig Goldy. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Full In Bloom Music: When Ronnie James Dio comes to you with a song are the parts already recorded? Does he play all the parts himself, or does he just strum on a guitar and sing a melody?

Craig: He is very accomplished in his studio, especially nowadays with ProTools. Ronnie and I did the entire album, "Master of the Moon", on different ProTools for the PC. He runs ProTools himself. You know, Ronnie used to be a bass player in ELF and then as a bass player, he can also play guitar and he can also play keyboards. So, he can program the drums, play bass, play guitar, put some keyboard parts down and then sing and do all the background vocals. Most of the time he doesn't sing, he just puts the track together and you listen to it and it's great. So, we have all come to that point where me, Rudy (Sarzo) and Ronnie can program drums, play bass, play guitar, play keyboards and put some ideas together, so we can all take a listen to them and decide what we should use. A lot of times, just by sitting around and listening to the ideas, we can prioritize... we've got to work on that right away.... we'll put that one off for a bit and then progresses from there. But that is what is in the future for the next DIO record. So, obviously Ronnie is doing the BLACK SABBATH tour, so I am doing some songwriting for Doogie White, who was the last vocalist for RAINBOW, before Ritchie (Blackmore) did BLACKMORE'S NIGHT. Doogie is doing a solo project, but he is going to do some touring in Europe with a band he works with called CORNERSTONE. He's got a two-album solo deal, so I have been sending him some stuff and he seems to really dig it. Then he puts a vocal on it and sends it back to me; he's in London and we do stuff via iTunes. Other than that, I am just doing some songwriting, there are a couple of record companies that want to do a solo project... there may even be a GIUFFRIA reunion.

Full In Bloom Music: Wow, you're kidding...with all the original members?

Craig: Yes, with all of the original members. That would be great. With Ronnie doing the BLACK SABBATH thing, it would be an ideal time to do it.

Full In Bloom Music: I thought Greg Giuffria was out of the loop now.

Craig: He has been. There really hasn't been anything that would inspire him to do it. But now, it seems like he really wants to do it, but we'll see how it goes.

Full In Bloom Music: What else have you been up to?

Craig: There's a band called VIRUS I have been working with. Through my program, there's a band called BENEDICTUM that has been doing really well in Europe...Germany. My program [Destiny Bridge] is directly responsible for them getting signed.

Full In Bloom Music: Yeah, I have seen their name around. Who did they sign with?

Craig: Locomotive.

Full In Bloom Music: Can you tell us a little more about your program and how it works?

Craig: Yeah. Actually, it started off as a class as the Musician's Institute. The educators approved it to be part of the bachelor's degree program. But then the college was sold and the new owners did not want to have any programs under two years old and my program was at about a year and half, so they dumped me. (laughs) So, I started doing it on my own. While I was at the college, there were kids lined up down the hallway trying to get into the class. This program is designed to give unknown musicians the equivalency as if they had been in the music industry's top level for twenty years, before they even start. The reason for that is very, very simple. For one thing there is nowhere to go. These musicians have nowhere to go to get their careers started. Especially rock n roll musicians. There are books and there are colleges, but they really don't teach people how to go from nowhere to getting a major gig with a famous musician, or getting a record deal and getting worldwide distribution and becoming famous. That's what this program does. I was sleeping in a car on the streets and then five years later I was headlining Madison Square Garden with my favorite singer, Ronnie James Dio. I teach people how to do that. There is a thing in the book that shows people how to be unique and how to have your own style... nobody teaches that... this program teaches them how. I have developed a method that guarantees them 100% if they follow that method, that they will develop their own style and will become unique. It teaches them what a hit song is made of... what a hit band is made of... I had a hit song with DIO and a hit song with GIUFFRIA, we had a hit album, hit tour. We were #9 in the MTV top twenty countdown.... gold records, as a songwriter... and I have met people who have seen shit behind the scenes....it changes how you write songs. David Coverdale, when he was lead singer for DEEP PURPLE in 1974, they hardly sold a hundred thousand records, but it was still under the name DEEP PURPLE. It wasn't because he wasn't a good vocalist, or a good songwriter, it's just that he....you know, the machine, the music industry is a machine and it has a certain type of fuel it runs off of. It took him eleven years on the learn as you go program that has been in full force, until now. It took him eleven years before he started selling millions of records with WHITESNAKE....and it wasn't because he wasn't any good.

Full In Bloom Music: Sure and even a few early WHITESNAKE songs that weren't hits when they were released, became hits for him after WHITESNAKE made it big.

Craig: Yeah. A lot of it is, you start meeting managers of other bands and record company executives and you sit in on meetings. You get to see what program directors and music directors of radio stations and what kind of criteria they use to get an unknown band on heavy rotation. What a record company thinks is a hit song and what a radio programmer thinks is a hit song, what the kids thinks is a hit song and what you think is a hit song. But before that, you really only have what you think is a hit song. Then, when you find out what managers and record company executives and radio programmers and music programmers think....when you see the machine first-hand, you start changing the way you write songs and it's not really compromising, so much as it is, just trying to fit in. Then once you fit in, then you become the fuel that the machine needs to run on and depending on how you design yourself, you can have a successful career. It teaches people what goes on behind closed doors. The kind of things they need to know, before they start.

Full In Bloom Music: What do you get for the $200.00?

Craig: It gives them a legitimate opportunity to make their dreams come true; it gives them a place to start. First thing is, there's a thing called unsolicited material, it bypasses all that. That could be anywhere from five to ten years worth of struggling, completely gone....just trying to make contact. These are all people waiting to hear their songs. People that are working with me specifically and they are waiting for material. The reason they are so excited about it; number one, I've known them a long time, but they agree with me, it's about time something changes in the music industry. Their motivation is, that once they read the book, they thought, "Whoa, I never thought about it that way"...their motivation is that they think they will be able to pick from the cream of the crop. Because once the musicians read the book, these guys will know what they're doing. So when they start writing and recording their new material for their demo, they will submit to us, it's going to be fucking-dead-on-balls-accurate. So, they, the industry contacts, think they are going to gain an edge against their competition.

Full In Bloom Music: Can they buy the book first and then later purchase the contact program?

Craig: Sure, either way. I suggest that people read through it five times to really soak it all in, because it is twenty years' worth of information... and then write their demo and send it in... or some people are already... their music is really right on and just need to make a few changes... they don't have to start all over again... those people may want to buy the program all at once. Some people have to start all over again... some people are going to have to be brutally honest with themselves.... does my existing demo really have what it takes?... after reading that book?... and it's not rewriting the songs, we're only talking about five songs, how hard can it be to write five new songs. Record them in a decent studio, doesn't have to be state-of-the-art, just as long as it sounds good and represents the band and send with lyrics and pictures and send five copies of each. These guys that will be listening to the music are heavy hitters.

Read the entire interview at www.fullinbloommusic.com.