Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Drummer Simon Wright is best known for his work with the bands AC/DC and DIO. He currently plays with DIO DISCIPLES and has also recently joined Geoff Tate’s QUEENSRYCHE.

Simon joined AC/DC in 1983 and recorded three of their classic albums – Fly On The Wall, Who Made Who and Blow Up Your Video. Simon left in 1989 to join DIO. He was with the band twice, the first for a short period; 1990-1991, the second stint from 1998-2010. Simon recorded four studio albums – Lock Up The Wolves, Magica, Killing The Dragon and Master Of The Moon, as well as two live albums – Evil Or Divine – Live In New York City and Holy Diver Live.

Metal Shock Finland‘s Blackdiamond recently had a chat with Simon and of course as it is nearing the anniversary of the death of the legendary Ronnie James Dio, there were some lovely memories shared by Simon.

You can read some excerpts from the interview below and listen to it in full on the player:

Memories of Ronnie:

“I always found him to be a real gentleman, really smart, a really funny guy. When I got the opportunity to join his band I jumped at the chance. I was in AC/DC at the time and on the verge of leaving.

He was a fantastic person, not only a brilliant singer and songwriter, but just as a person as well; very considerate and humble. He was the boss as well and could crack the whip when he wanted to!

It just got better every year, making albums together, we were very tight. It was some of the best years of my career. I’ll never forget him, I think about him every day.”

Discussing the classic DIO album, Holy Diver, Simon expressed the following:

“I think I heard some of it on Tommy Vance’s radio show and it just threw me to the wall! I was like ‘Good God what’s this?!’ Every song is killer, it just blew my mind, what a brilliant album. Great songs, great playing, great lyrics, incredible album.

I always like the song Invisible; I thought that was a great song, a great intro and lyric at the beginning and the riff was a bit different to the norm too.”

Simon spoke of his thoughts on joining QUEENSRYCHE and the current situation:

“It’s going really well – I wasn’t sure I must admit, ‘cos there’s a lot of controversy going on at the moment, ‘that name.’ We make a pretty good team, we were on the road for about a month in America , doing the whole Operation Mindcrime album and our interpretation of it. Everybody seemed to like it, it went well.

When asked about there being two versions of QUEENSRYCHE, Simon continued:

It’s about the music for us – we’re not really involved in the politics, we’re just there to play the music. I guess the legal wranglings of it all will be sorted out in November, so it’ll become a bit clearer.”