Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to former BLACK SABBATH, DIO Drummer VINNY APPICE who on October 27 will be releasing the album with his brother Carmine Appice entitled Appice ‘Sinister’.
Watch the interview here:
Vinny Appice spoke about how he joined Black Sabbath the recording of The Mob Rules album, the Live Evil controversy and how he and Ronnie James Dio left, recording Holy Diver, the last in Line, Dream Evil with Dio and his time playing with John Lennon.
When asked about when he was asked to possible join Ozzy Osbourne’s band during the Blizzard of Oz period (10:16)
“Right before Sabbath a couple of months before I got a call from Sharon Osbourne and she was just starting to manage Ozzy and Ozzy wasn’t doing anything except partying.
Sharon asked me if I wanted to go to England, I guess they heard my drumming somewhere and go meet Ozzy. hang out and see how it goes and possibly join the band. But I was like 20 years old. So I asked my brother (Carmine) I knew Ozzy was not the average guy, but Ozzy didn’t have a solo career yet he was the singer they fired from Sabbath. Carmine said that the last time he saw Ozzy was at the Rainbow and Ozzy was eating spaghetti and Carmine turned around to talk to somebody and then he turned back to Ozzy and there was Ozzy sleeping in the spaghetti bowl. Who knows what would have happened if I joined? I always think I might have been on that plane that crashed with Randy Rhodes if I joined Ozzy. Who knows cause I knew Randy before we were friends.”
When asked about the controversy surrounding the departure of Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice during the producing of the Black Sabbath Live album Live Evil (16:20)
“I think the engineer (of Live Evil) liked to party at that time I just remember that me and Ronnie would show up around 2pm that was the call and the rest of the band didn’t show up till later on. I didn’t understand why, I loved the band I loved everybody in the band. Then it came out in the press that Ronnie and I went early into the studio to turn up the drums and vocals, why would we do that?”
When asked his opinion of guitarist Vivian Campbell being fired from Dio (24:40)
“Vivian is a monster guitar player. There were some business problems within the band we were promised to be sharing and things we gave it up for the first album and tour cause it costs a lot of money to launch a band and Ronnie was putting in his money. Then it never happened we were doing tours and arenas back then one of the tours grossed 8 million dollars but we got nothing out of it, just salaries. What was promised never happened and Vivian really called management out on it. So that really became bad blood with Ronnie but we all felt the same way. Ronnie and Vivian did not see eye to eye and then Ronnie said to me I am going to fire Vivian, I’m like WHAT? I was just in shock. I kind of mentioned that was not a great idea cause of the sound of the band. Ronnie decided he could go on without him. When ever you got something that works in a band, magical with the people in it you don’t do that. ”
When asked about him playing on Lennon’s last live performance ever (52:00)
“Our producer friend Jimmy Lovine he loved our band at the time BOMF and wanted to produce us brought us into the studio in New York Mahatten to record some demos the owner heard our band and singed us to a management deal . One night Jimmy called us up and asked if we could come to the studio to do hand claps, we said sure, we go downstairs and their is John Lennon in the room . We ended up doing hand claps for the song ‘Whatever gets you the the Night’. Couple days later Lennon came to our rehearsal room to check us out. We smoked a couple of joints with John, it was very cool. John would come back and hang out with us a lot. He felt safe with us. He asked us to do three videos with him. then we asked us to do a live performance with him at a TV show on ABC. then about three years ago i see a magazine that says big page with that picture in it I am right next to John and it mentions me and Lennon and it says this was John’s last performeance, I’m flattered WOW. I played on John Lennon’s last performance ever.”
The fourteenth album by the immensely influential Canadian prog metal band Voivod! Released back in 2005, after the tragic death of the guitarist, and one of the band’s founding members, Piggy, the album was for the most part composed around Piggy’s guitar parts, which he managed to record before his passing. The album, finished by the remaining trio of Snake, Away, and Jason “Jasonic” Newstead (ex-Metallica) and produced by Glen Robinson, constitutes, arguably, Voivod’s best sounding release up to that point and features 10 compositions recorded in the unique style the band’s fans have come to cherish.
The fifteenth album by the immensely influential Canadian prog metal band Voivod! Released in 2008, “Infini” is based on demo recordings of the guitarist Piggy, one of the band’s founding members, who died of cancer before the recordings of Voivod’s previous album “Katorz” (2005) were concluded. The songs feature Piggy’s original guitar tracks in their unaltered form, and were finished by the remaining trio of Snake, Away, and Jason Newstead (ex-Metallica). A must-have for all the fans of Voivod’s unique style.
A re-issue of an album by the widely acclaimed, dark and unpredictable act from Switzerland. Assaulting the broadly defined metal scene for more than a quarter of a century now, Samael has on more than one occasion proved its wild and innovative nature, winning over the hearts of fans and the esteem of critics alike. Released in 2007, the “Solar Soul” album showed for once more the amazing artistic prowess of Vorph, Xy, Mas, and Makro. A definite must for all Samael fans.
A re-issue of the fourth studio album by the death metal veterans from the Netherlands! Originally released in 1998, this masterpiece of death metal mayhem still holds up as a prime representative of the genre at its absolute best. Brutally concise and uncompromising, full of the devastating drumming of Aad Kloosterwaard (later, the band’s singer), the crushing guitar riffs of Bart van Wallenberg, and crowned with Eric de Windt’s massive and furious growl, Sinister’s ˶Aggressive Measures” must be seen as nothing less than an absolutely timeless death metal classic.
A re-issue of the seventh studio album by the death metal veterans from the Netherlands! An outstanding album marking the reunion of the band, which split up in 2004, their latest album at that point being ˶Savage or Grace” from 2003. Released in 2006, ˶Afterburner” showed the band reborn with an altered line-up, with their drummer Aad Kloosterwaard switching over to vocals, Alex Paul switching from bass to guitar, and introducing a brand new member: Paul Beltman (drums). Recorded at Stage One Studios in Germany with the producer Andy Classen, more diversified musically than ˶Savage or Grace”, though just as dark and brutal, and boasting excellent production, the album showed the band once again firmly stand their ground.
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Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 