This past June, DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – a type of cancer originating from white blood cells – and had since undergone numerous chemotherapy treatments throughout the summer.
Campbell has just checked in with the following health update:
“For anyone who gives a toss, after doing another PET scan and all the other follow up tests, then getting a second opinion etc., I’m officially in remission from Hodgies. That’s the good news. The bad news is: I no longer have an excuse to not go to the gym.”
Fan-filmed video footage of LAST IN LINE — the band featuring DEF LEPPARD/ex-DIO guitarist Vivian Campbell alongside fellow founding DIO members Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Claude Schnell, plus singer Andrew Freeman, who has previously fronted HURRICANE and LYNCH MOB — performing the song “Holy Diver” on August 10 at the Bloodstock Open Air festival at Catton Park, Derbyshire, United Kingdom, can be seen below.
LAST IN LINE played its first-ever show (a warm-up to the band’s U.K. tour) on August 3 at Slidebar in Fullerton, California.
The band’s setlist was as follows:
01. Stand Up And Shout
02. Straight Through The Heart
03. King Of Rock And Roll
04. Don’t Talk To Strangers
05. Sacred Heart
06. Evil Eyes
07. Holy Diver
08. Caught In The Middle
09. Egypt (The Chains Are On)
10. I Speed At Night
11. The Last In Line
12. Invisible
13. Shame On The Night
14. Rainbow In The Dark
Encore:
15. Gypsy
16. We Rock
LAST IN LINE performs material from the early DIO records that Campbell appeared on.
Speaking to David “Gus” Griesinger of BackstageAxxess.com at this past January’s NAMM (National Association Of Music Merchants) show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, Campbell stated about reuniting with the original DIO band: “I’m excited about that. We’re calling it LAST IN LINE after the second [DIO] album. It’s the original DIO band — myself, Vinny Appice on drums, Jimmy Bain on bass, Claude Schnell on keyboards, and we found a terrific singer called Andy Freeman, who can totally do justice to the songs. Actually, he doesn’t sound anything like Ronnie [James Dio], which is great, [because] I don’t wanna draw that comaprison. Ronnie was a very unique singer, but Andy is a great singer in his own right, and he certainly sings the songs very respectfully.
“The original band, we actually wrote the majority of that material as a band, so I feel like we’re entitled to go out and play it. I don’t think we’re a tribute band or a cover band or anything like that.
“There’s obviously a big legacy of DIO music, and I think I’m right in saying that most people would think that those early DIO albums are the strongest, so we are just chuffed to play it.”
Campbell and Ronnie James Dio worked together on the first three DIO albums 1983’s “Holy Diver”, 1984’s “The Last in Line” and 1985’s “Sacred Heart” — before Irishman Campbell left to join WHITESNAKE in 1987.
LAST IN LINE — the band featuring DEF LEPPARD/ex-DIO guitarist Vivian Campbell alongside fellow founding DIO members Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Claude Schnell, plus singer Andrew Freeman, who has previously fronted HURRICANE and LYNCH MOB — played its first-ever show (a warm-up to the band’s U.K. tour) last night (Saturday, August 3) at Slidebar in Fullerton, California.
Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below.
LAST IN LINE performs material from the early DIO records that Campbell appeared on.
Speaking to David “Gus” Griesinger of BackstageAxxess.com at this past January’s NAMM (National Association Of Music Merchants) show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, Campbell stated about reuniting with the original DIO band: “I’m excited about that. We’re calling it LAST IN LINE after the second [DIO] album. It’s the original DIO band — myself, Vinny Appice on drums, Jimmy Bain on bass, Claude Schnell on keyboards, and we found a terrific singer called Andy Freeman, who can totally do justice to the songs. Actually, he doesn’t sound anything like Ronnie [James Dio], which is great, [because] I don’t wanna draw that comaprison. Ronnie was a very unique singer, but Andy is a great singer in his own right, and he certainly sings the songs very respectfully.
“The original band, we actually wrote the majority of that material as a band, so I feel like we’re entitled to go out and play it. I don’t think we’re a tribute band or a cover band or anything like that.
“There’s obviously a big legacy of DIO music, and I think I’m right in saying that most people would think that those early DIO albums are the strongest, so we are just chuffed to play it.”
In a recent interview with Rock Guitar Daily, Vivian stated about people who are critical of his decision to perform the DIO material again after so many unpleasantries were exchanged between him and Ronnie James Dio over the years: “Why would anyone be against the LAST IN LINE idea? We wrote and recorded those songs, and we’d like to play them! That’s what it comes down to — the only issue being that Ronnie and I had a public spat.”
He continued: “I can hold my hand up and admit being wrong about saying some mean things about Ronnie, and I was also derogatory about the genre of music.
“Ronnie was a very difficult person to work with. He was a lovely human being to his fans, but he didn’t always share that wonderful personality with those closest to him.
“I had a very difficult relationship with Ronnie, and he had a very difficult relationship with me, and it really hurt me that he not only fired me, but he went on to portray it as if I had left the band. So that’s what got me so riled up, and I really turned my back on him and the genre of music because I was very, very hurt by what it was he had done to me. I admit that it was childish, but a lot of water has gone under the bridge, and for me, I’ve taken all that out of the equation.
“Ronnie and Wendy Dio went out of their way to portray me as someone who had turned my back on the band in the middle of a tour and quit, which was absolutely, 100 percent untrue — I was fired from that band, I never intended to leave that band, and I never wanted to leave the band. Those are my songs as much as they are Ronnie‘s songs. Jimmy, Vinny, Claude, and myself got fuck-all for those records. We got nothing from the record sales, none of the t-shirt money — we were salaried musicians earning less than our road crew! Because we believed in the music, and we believed as Ronnie had told us that we were going to have an equal cut by the third album. And that’s all I asked for!
“The third album came along and I said, ‘Ronnie, do you remember that first time we met in London when we jammed and this band was put together, and you had promised us that by the third album it would be an equity cut, which was why we got fuck-all for all those years?’ We put our blood, sweat, and tears into doing that and it hurt the fuck out of me, as it would anyone. So then he goes and fires me, and portrays me as being the one who quit. So for thirty years, I didn’t listen to those records. I wanted nothing to do with DIO, I wanted nothing to do with that genre of music — I just removed it all from my life. After thirty years, and maybe it is because Ronnie‘s dead, maybe that does make it easier, I don’t know — I haven’t sat down and analyzed it, but the fact is, that’s my music, I’m the one who’s entitled to play it, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“I’m not doing this for the money; believe me, I’ve got plenty of money. It’s about the love, the passion for the guitar playing.
“When I did it in the first place, I didn’t do it for the fucking money — $100 a week, I don’t think that’s a lot of money, and that’s what I got for doing ‘Holy Diver’. And that’s pretty much what I’ll get for doing it again, thirty years later. [laughs]…
“Right up until the ‘Sacred Heart’ tour, and when I got fired, we were still getting paid less than guys in the crew. It’s one thing to get less than the principal artist — yes, I get that — but to earn less than the crew? Especially when you are the ones writing the songs. It’s not like we were hired to play the parts. We wrote those fucking songs, we were part of the band, and we were totally gypped over.”
Campbell and Ronnie James Dio worked together on the first three DIO albums 1983’s “Holy Diver”, 1984’s “The Last in Line” and 1985’s “Sacred Heart” — before Irishman Campbell left to join WHITESNAKE in 1987.
Rock Guitar Daily recently conducted an interview with former DIO and current DEF LEPPARD/LAST IN LINE guitarist Vivian Campbell. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
On how it felt to revisit the early DIO material with LAST IN LINE during the band’s first rehearsal:
Vivian Campbell: “It was very, very, very exciting, and it actually sounded incredible! We probably could have done a bit of a gig that night. It was so tight, and it all came back so quickly for us. It was a very unique chemistry that happens with any group of players, especially when you write the songs together. I firmly believe that no two people play alike — no two guitar players are quite the same, no two drummers are the same. There’s all sorts of difference between the notes, and little grace notes that are very unique to individuals. You know, Vinny [Appice, drums], Jimmy [Bain, bass] and I, we wrote those songs together, so nobody is ever going to play them like us — and as soon as we started playing, it all came right back.”
On people who are critical of his decision to perform the DIO material again after so many unpleasantries were exchanged between him and Ronnie James Dio over the years:
Vivian Campbell: “Why would anyone be against the LAST IN LINE idea? We wrote and recorded those songs, and we’d like to play them! That’s what it comes down to — the only issue being that Ronnie and I had a public spat. I can hold my hand up and admit being wrong about saying some mean things about Ronnie, and I was also derogatory about the genre of music. The thing that DIO fans may not completely understand is that they weren’t there when we wrote and recorded those records. Ronnie was a very difficult person to work with. He was a lovely human being to his fans, but he didn’t always share that wonderful personality with those closest to him. Every human being is complex; there’s no black-and-white, no cut-and-dried. I had a very difficult relationship with Ronnie, and he had a very difficult relationship with me, and it really hurt me that he not only fired me, but he went on to portray it as if I had left the band. So that’s what got me so riled up, and I really turned my back on him and the genre of music because I was very, very hurt by what it was he had done to me. I admit that it was childish, but a lot of water has gone under the bridge, and for me, I’ve taken all that out of the equation. When I think about the music, I didn’t listen to it for almost thirty years — that’s how caught up I was about that shit. Ronnie and Wendy Dio went out of their way to portray me as someone who had turned my back on the band in the middle of a tour and quit, which was absolutely, 100 percent untrue — I was fired from that band, I never intended to leave that band, and I never wanted to leave the band. Those are my songs as much as they are Ronnie‘s songs. Jimmy, Vinny, Claude [Schnell, keyboards], and myself got fuck-all for those records. We got nothing from the record sales, none of the t-shirt money — we were salaried musicians earning less than our road crew! Because we believed in the music, and we believed as Ronnie had told us that we were going to have an equal cut by the third album. And that’s all I asked for! The third album came along and I said, ‘Ronnie, do you remember that first time we met in London when we jammed and this band was put together, and you had promised us that by the third album it would be an equity cut, which was why we got fuck-all for all those years?’ We put our blood, sweat, and tears into doing that and it hurt the fuck out of me, as it would anyone. So then he goes and fires me, and portrays me as being the one who quit. So for thirty years, I didn’t listen to those records. I wanted nothing to do with DIO, I wanted nothing to do with that genre of music — I just removed it all from my life. After thirty years, and maybe it is because Ronnie‘s dead, maybe that does make it easier, I don’t know — I haven’t sat down and analyzed it, but the fact is, that’s my music, I’m the one who’s entitled to play it, and that’s what I’m going to do. What really makes me laugh is when people think I’m doing it for the money! We’ve got four shows booked in the U.K., and I can’t even begin to tell you how much money it’s costing to do that. It’s all for the love of guitar playing, the only reason I did it in the first place! The only thing that I would ask is that people come with an open mind.There’s been a lot of shit said in the press, a lot of it untrue, some of it is true, but it’s truly about the music. I’m not doing this for the money, believe me, I’ve got plenty of money. It’s about the love, the passion for the guitar playing. When I did it in the first place, I didn’t do it for the fucking money — $100 a week, I don’t think that’s a lot of money, and that’s what I got for doing ‘Holy Diver’. And that’s pretty much what I’ll get for doing it again, thirty years later. [laughs]… Right up until the ‘Sacred Heart’ tour, and when I got fired, we were still getting paid less than guys in the crew. It’s one thing to get less than the principal artist — yes, I get that — but to earn less than the crew? Especially when you are the ones writing the songs. It’s not like we were hired to play the parts. We wrote those fucking songs, we were part of the band, and we were totally gipped over. But in hindsight? I said all those things about Ronnie, and well yeah, part of it was true about Ronnie being the one who ultimately made the decision, but it was really all Wendy Dio. Jimmy Bain, Vinny Appice, Claude Schnell, they still haven’t made a fucking dime, nor have I. I have been very fortunate to have twenty years of work, so I’m doing fine, thank you. Rock ‘n’ roll is full of these kinds of stories though, y’know? But it’s all just very much a labor of love.”
DEF LEPPARD and LAST IN LINE guitarist Vivian Campbell, who revealed earlier in the month that he is currently undergoing treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, debuted his new look when DEF LEPPARD kicked off its short run of summer festival dates this past Friday, June 21 at Hellfest in Clisson, France. You can see fan-filmed video footage of the performance below.
During a June 14 interviewed on Eddie Trunk‘s “Friday Night Rocks” radio show on New York’s Q104.3 FM, Vivian stated about his cancer battle: “I have Hodgkin’s lymphoma; it’s a kind of blood cancer. And what alerted me to the fact that something was amiss was, pretty much exactly a year ago, we were in rehearsals for the DEF LEPPARD summer tour and I developed this cough and it just wouldn’t go away. Some days it was more pleasant than others, but for the most part, I was coughing 24/7, and I just went to a few doctors and they couldn’t diagnose what was going on until they actually had a look at my chest and realized that I had enlarged lymph nodes. So I got my diagnosis, actually, just before we started, when we were in rehearsal for the Vegas shows this past March and April. And as soon as those shows were finished, I started my chemotherapy treatment, so I’m just over two months into the chemo and is going remarkably well. I’ve got to say I feel so much better, actually, since the first chemo treatment. I stopped coughing and I definitely feel like I have a lot more energy as a result of that. So obviously, there’s a lot of side effects from doing chemo, as I’m sure a lot of your listeners know. Which is one thing that’s actually really resonated with me as a result of going public with this is how many other people suffer from cancer of different shapes and forms, you know. It’s, unfortunately, a very prevalent disease.”
He added: “For me, I did kind of want to not go public with it at first, because it is a weird kind of thing. You’ve got to kind of learn to deal with it on your own terms before you can address the rest of the world about it. So, you know, I feel very comfortable going public about it. For the first couple months, I even tried to keep it from my children, because they were still in school and doing exams and stuff and I didn’t want to add to their concerns. But after a while, it’s inevitable that you, you know, something’s going on and you have to kind of come out with it and kind of explain what the situation is. But I’m very comfortable with it. I’m very comfortable with the treatment. I’m very comfortable with how my body is reacting to it. Obviously, it’s done a number on my hair so I’m a bit more Joe Satriani these days. I’m hoping that means I’m going to play even more notes like Joe.”
Former DIO and current DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell revealed in April 2012 that he is planning to join forces with three other original DIO members to play “some gigs” that will see the musicians performing material from the early DIO records that Campbell appeared on. Dubbed LAST IN LINE, Campbell, Vinny Appice (drums), Jimmy Bain (bass) and Claude Schnell (keyboards) will be accompanied by singer Andrew Freeman, who has previously fronted HURRICANE and LYNCH MOB.
Speaking to Artisan News on the “red carpet” of the Los Angeles premiere of “Sound City”, the new feature-length documentary directed and produced by FOO FIGHTERS frontman Dave Grohl, Appice stated about how the idea for LAST IN LINE came about: “We just jammed one night. Viv [Campbell] called up and said, ‘You wanna jam?’ He was playing with STEEL PANTHER and they played ‘Rainbow In The Dark’ and he had such a good time playing it that he went, ‘You know what?! This is cool.’ He called me up [and said], ‘Yeah, let’s jam.’ So we all got together and we played. And we hadn’t played those songs in thirty-something years, and it was tight. So he said, ‘You wanna do some dates?’ I said, ‘Let’s schedule it and it’ll be fun.'”
On the topic of what Freeman adds to the LAST IN LINE project, Vinny said: “I’d played with [Andy] before. He’s a really good singer. Real passionate. We’re not trying to have somebody look like Ron [Ronnie James Dio] or sing exactly like him — just somebody that will sing it with passion like Ronnie did, with his heart.”
LAST IN LINE will embark on a European tour this summer, to be preceded by regional U.S. warm-up shows.
Campbell and Ronnie James Dio worked together on the first three DIO albums 1983’s “Holy Diver”, 1984’s “The Last in Line” and 1985’s “Sacred Heart” — before Irishman Campbell left to join WHITESNAKE in 1987.