TOBY JEPSON Discusses DIO DISCIPLES In New Video Interview

October 12, 2011

Sonic Shocks conducted an interview with Toby Jepson (DIO DISCIPLES, LITTLE ANGELS, GUN) on October 8, 2011 at the South Texas Rock Fest in San Antonio, Texas. You can now watch the chat below.

DIO DISCIPLES is the new project featuring former DIO members Simon Wright (drums),Craig Goldy (guitar),Scott Warren (keyboards) and Rudy Sarzo alongside singers Tim "Ripper" Owens (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, BEYOND FEAR, JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH) and Toby Jepson (LITTLE ANGELS, GUN). The band pays tribute to the legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio and is fully supported by Dio's widow/manager, Wendy, who recently posted that "there will never be another Ronnie, but we want to keep his music alive and hope you will support the band and become one of the DIO DISCIPLES."

Sarzo was unable to take part in DIO DISCIPLES' recent European tour and was temporarily replaced by James Lomenzo (MEGADETH, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, WHITE LION).

In an interview with Metal Assault, Simon stated about how DIO DISCIPLES was conceived, "I think it was a combination of all of us. We talked long and hard and discussed 'Should we or shouldn't we? Is it right? How do we really feel about all this?' And it just became apparent that we just couldn't let it go. We've been in Ronnie's band for such a long time and he taught us so much, he was an inspiration and we learned so much from him about being on the road, being in the studio We just came to the conclusion that we just couldn't let it go and we needed to keep the songs going for the fans; that's the most important thing we're doing here. We're not trying to kid anybody here; we're just doing it from the heart and continuing his legacy. It's really as simple as that."

On the topic of DIO DISCIPLES setlist, Simon said, "The problem that a lot of bands have is that they've got a strong batch of hits, so we still have to do songs that are like that we have to do 'Heaven And Hell', 'Rainbow In The Dark', 'Holy Diver', 'We Rock' So we're doing those, but we're trying to throw in as many curveballs as we can at the moment. As we progress, I think we'll be throwing in more songs from Ronnie's catalog, which should be a couple of surprises songs that maybe were never played live, or that were played live but a long, long time ago. Because, like I said before, we wanna make it something special for the fans and they all have everything different songs that they love. We can't do them all, but we're gonna try and fit as many of them in as we can."

Video footage of DIO DISCIPLES performing the DIO classic "We Rock" on October 8, 2011 at South Texas Rock Fest in San Antonio, Texas can be seen below.

Interview:

Performance:

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