Rumor: HEAVEN AND HELL And JUDAS PRIEST To Join Forces For Summer Tour

January 17, 2008

HEAVEN AND HELL — the band featuring BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler, singer Ronnie James Dio, and drummer Vinny Appice (BLACK SABBATH, DIO) — and JUDAS PRIEST are rumored to joining forces for a summer tour. It should be noted, however, that this information has not yet been corrobated by an official source and should be considered a rumor only at this point.

Artisan News Service recently posted a short video interview with Vinny Appice in which he confirmed that the songwriting sessions for the new album from HEAVEN AND HELL will begin in April. Watch the footage in three parts at this location.

"We're doing another HEAVEN AND HELL, we're going to do a CD album, so we're going to start writing in April-May and I also have a little thing going on with my original band DERRINGER, the first band I played with in 1976," he said. "We're doing a little reunion tour. We got all these great offers and we thought we'd do it. So, it'll be a busy year."

Vinny even went on to say that the initial songwriting with HEAVEN AND HELL is going smooth as well.

"It was cool," he said. "Actually it's been over a year now. I went over there, to England in November and we got together and did three songs and it was great. After like five minutes it was like nothing, we were never apart after that, you know. It just went smooth as silk."

So what's it like playing with the legendary guitarist Tony Iommi on one side and the legendary bassist Geezer Butler on the other side?

"Those guys are, like, I mean it doesn't get much heavier than playing with Tony and Geezer," he said. "Tony on this side and Geezer on this side, it's just a wall of sound. And then you got Dio, who manages to sing over all that, it's just totally incredible. I'm in heaven...and hell."

HEAVEN AND HELL played the final show of its U.S. tour with ALICE COOPER and QUEENSRŸCHE on October 6, 2007 at the Verizon Wireless in Irvine, California. Before the encore, Indie 103.1's Full Metal Jackie presented the band with gold plaques on stage to honor U.S. sales in excess of 25,000 copies of the group's "Live at Radio City Music Hall" DVD. Vocalist Ronnie James Dio thanked the fans for their support, then dedicated the encore song ("Neon Knights") to veteran KNAC DJ Tawn Mastrey, who died in early October of liver failure brought on by hepatitis C.

Watch HEAVEN AND HELL performing "Neon Knights" in Tampa, Florida, September 2007:

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).