HEAVEN AND HELL In Talks To Play India, Dubai

Justin Donnelly of Australia's The Metal Forge recently conducted an interview with legendary heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio (BLACK SABBATH, DIO, RAINBOW, HEAVEN AND HELL). A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On the HEAVEN AND HELL tour:

"The tour has been a huge success. We're probably as surprised as much as anyone else is as to just how successful this tour has been from the start, especially given that when this whole thing started, we were still known primarily as HEAVEN AND HELL. There have been great attendances everywhere we've been so far, and there are a lot of people that want to see this lineup of the band play. It's been really surprising to us, although we're quite used to it now. That's becoming a problem! (Laughs) We'll soon be asking why there aren't as many people at tonight's show as there was the night before. But seriously, it's been really phenomenal. This tour has been really important to all of us, and not just as recognition of my contribution to the band. I didn't feel that sort of recognition was necessary for me on a personal level. What was necessary however was for the band to play and secure its own past legacy. So this tour is more about recognition for the band, rather than just me. I'm only as good as the people I play with. We're out there saying 'This is who we are!' regardless of whether people view us as BLACK SABBATH, HEAVEN AND HELL or whatever the hell they're going to call us these days. This is what we are, and I don't see any problem with that. But things have been great so far, and again, we're more surprised than anyone."

On whether there's been drama behind scenes within the band up until now:

“We've never ever had a problem with each other personally. Not ever. This is my third time in the band, so I would never have joined back for a third time if I harboured those thoughts in my mind. We've always enjoyed being around each other, and I'm including Appice at this point too. Ward only played on one album ('Heaven And Hell'),and as great as a person he was, and as brilliant as he played on that album, Appice played on all the rest of our albums together, including the three news songs and all the touring the band undertook following those albums. Ward stopped touring early on into the 'Heaven And Hell' tour. Again, Appice is the perfect person to play in this band. The people within this band simply astound me, both on a professional level and on a personal level. We've always been friends, and this time is no different."

On the upcoming "Live At Radio City Music Hall" DVD:

"That particular show sold out in twenty minutes! We just couldn't believe it. And that's pretty much been the case everywhere. It's been totally unbelievable. I haven't seen the entire show yet, because we've been busy on the road since March. While we've been out there, we've been trying to put this package together. We would get a mix in 5.1 surround sound for the DVD, and trying to listen to that in a hotel room or in a studio where someone didn't know what the hell they were doing, and it just ended up being impossible to do. So the whole thing had to wait until we came off the road, and that's why there's a slight delay. At least that's if we wanted to listen and do this thing properly, and we really wanted it to be right. It's just been really, really difficult to deal with that. But now that we've dealt with it, it sounds really, really great. It was recorded at Radio City Music Hall in New York, which is an absolutely classic venue to play at. The audience was great, and the show was a good one, so it sounds really, really good. Unfortunately, it was only our eleventh show. We all wish that it could have been our twenty-fifth show, because by then we had done quite a few different things, but so far, the footage I've seen looks great. We're all very happy with it. And believe me, if one of us weren't happy with it, that would have been the end of it."

On HEAVEN AND HELL's touring plans:

"This whole HEAVEN AND HELL thing was going to finish in December, but because there's been a couple of lucrative gigs offered to us, there's some dates being added in December I believe. This thing may even extend into February, but we'll have to wait and see what happens. While the lucrative money offers makes a huge difference, our reasoning behind playing some extra shows is because we've been offered to play in places that I have never been before, such as India and Dubai. It just sounds really exotic to me. Those are placed that I have never been to before. I don't think the other guys have been there either. The whole tour was going to finish in December, and we just decided that if something comes up that we wanted to do, we'd do it, and then draw the line around February. Both India and Dubai are very alluring and exotic location, and I think it will be a great experience for us to enjoy together, and a great way to finish things up for us."

Read the entire interview at www.themetalforge.com.