VINNY APPICE: RONNIE JAMES DIO Was 'Like Another Brother To Me'

James from That Metal Interview recently conducted an interview with legendary drummer Vinny Appice (BLACK SABBATH, DIO, LAST IN LINE). You can listen to the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether there's any competition with his older brother Carmine, who has drummed for the likes of OZZY OSBOURNE and VANILLA FUDGE:

Vinny: "He's 11 years older than I am. We didn't grow up exactly together, but I got to see him play many, many times and in the early years, when we were both in the same house, I was very young, I would watch him rehearse in the house with all his bands. It was very inspiring. That was my entertainment. I had a full-on band in my house playing. That got the fire going in me. When he became successful, we'd go see him at all the shows. It was a really cool thing. It lit my fire. I saw the drums laying around the house then I started playing and really practicing and then Carmine suggested to my parents that I should go for drum lessons to the same teacher Carmine went to. That's what I did. I went there for three years and learned how to read [music]. From there, I just played in different bands and just kept doing it until it happened."

On what the songwriting process was like in BLACK SABBATH and DIO:

Vinny: "Everyone pitched in on every album since 'Mob Rules'. 'Mob Rules', then we did 'Live Evil', that was the live album, then we did 'Holy Diver'. Everyone pitched in on all these albums. Nobody ever came in with a song. It was just jamming, putting ideas together and that's the way it happened. That's the way we did both LAST IN LINE albums as well."

On his thoughts on DIO DISCIPLES:

Vinny: "They're friends. Craig [Goldy, guitar] is a really good friend of mine. They do what they do and we do what we do. We're the original band, so you can't really compare what we're doing. Craig and Simon [Wright, drums] were playing with Ronnie [James Dio], but the other guys never even played with Ronnie. They're more like a Dio show, where this is the original members that wrote those songs. And now it's turning into a band that's writing their own songs."

On how Ronnie James Dio was as a person:

Vinny: "Ronnie was like family. We got along. We really, really clicked. He was a great human being. Very nice. Loved his music. Loved his fans. He remembered everybody's name. He loved what he did. He was great in the studio and all the things we did. He was fun to be around. We had a really great relationship. He was like another brother to me."

LAST IN LINE's sophomore album, "II", was released February 22 via Frontiers Music Srl.