VINNY APPICE Says It Was A 'Great Thrill' To Play In 'Both Important Versions' Of BLACK SABBATH

Legendary drummer Vinny Appice (BLACK SABBATH, HEAVEN & HELL, DIO) recently spoke with Mark Strigl of the "Talking Metal" podcast about APPICE, his new band with his brother Carmine (VANILLA FUDGE, BLUE MURDER, KING KOBRA). The complete chat can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):

On how comedian Carrot Top ended up appearing in APPICE's music video for the song "Monsters & Heroes":

Vinny: "We're very good friends. Over the years, he's come to see a lot of our shows when we play in Vegas. He's just a great friend. I think he played some drums in his life. We invited him down, and then we said, 'Do you want to be in the video?' So, we put him in there. When he came off, he told me, 'Man, that was so loud!' He was sitting in front of my drums, and I had the monitors on with that song just blasting."

On how to pronounce the name of the APPICE project, given that he and his brother pronounce their last names differently:

Vinny: "It's 'Sinister' by A-P-P-I-C-E. That's what we say now. [Laughs] Kind of in the middle, you know? Carmine used to say 'App-uh-see.' That's what I say. Then he started playing with Rod Stewart, and Rod called him 'Uh-piece,' so he changed it. I stayed with 'App-uh-see.' Ever since then, it's been totally a mix-up. People ask all the time, for years and years and years. It's unbelievable how long this has been going on. But it's cool — people talk about it."

On how his and his brother's drum performances are captured on new APPICE album "Sinister":

Vinny: "If you've got the headphones on correctly, I'm the left, he's the right. We don't play every song together, but sometimes we play the whole song all the way through, both of us, and then sometimes I'll play part of the song, he'll play the other parts, verse, chorus, mix it up. Some of them, there's a couple of songs where we play individual. It's all mixed up; it's not the same mix all the time."

On the status of LAST IN LINE's sophomore album:

Vinny: "We're working on that now. We have five songs recorded, and we wrote a whole bunch of stuff. Five are in the can, but they're not finished — they need solos and different things. We just did some writing about 10 days ago, so we're going to continue in December and at the beginning of the year also."

On his memories of filling in for Bill Ward with BLACK SABBATH in 1998:

Vinny: "Bill couldn't do it, so they called me. I did about two weeks in Europe with the original SABS, and it was great. Ozzy [Osbourne] was great — he's just a great guy and a lot of fun and craziness playing with him. That was a great thrill for me to play with the original band. It was a great thrill to play with Ronnie [James Dio], but it was also a great thrill to play with the original band. I got to play in both versions — both important versions."

"Sinister", the first joint studio album by Vinny and his brother Carmine, was released on October 27 through SPV/Steamhammer as CD digipack, double gatefold vinyl, download and stream.