Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Wendy Dio for the upcoming Deluxe DVD, Blu-Ray release of ‘Dreamers never Die’ the Dio documentary.
She also spoke about upcoming Dio’s, box set, his legacy and about Ronnie thinking of doing an animation movie in the 80’s using David lee Roth as main character.
In the interview The Metal Voice asked Wendy Dio to confirm whether it was true or not that Ronnie James Dio in the 80’s was thinking about doing an animated musical using David Lee Roth’s voice as the main character she said, “yeah, (laughs), it was true. It was very true. We wanted a cartoon, (laughs) the story of Murray (bands mascot). Then the Metal Voice asked if it was middle-earth themed and how far did Ronnie get she said, “yep it was middle earth, it was a musical. I don’t think it got to paper (to be written down). Ronnie was very much doing one thing at a time. If he was home writing songs he was only doing that. So he did not multi-task very well. It was going to be (animated movie) the story of Murray. Murray is the name Ronnie gave to that monster (album of Holy Diver).
The acclaimed film, which world premiered at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, enjoyed a special event theatrical release in more than 600 cinemas worldwide last fall and is streaming on SHOWTIME, will be released worldwide by Mercury Studios on September 29, 2023 on DVD and Blu-Ray+4K and as a special Deluxe Edition featuring the DVD and Blu-Ray packaged with exclusive merchandise.
Canada’s The Metal Voicerecently spoke to Wendy Dio about the new Ronnie James Dio Book‘ ‘Rainbow in the Dark’, the upcoming Dio Documentary and refuted claims made by former Dio Guitarist Vivian Campbell in regards his financial compensation when in the band.
When asked about the writing of the Autobiography “Ronnie wrote up to about almost the end of Rainbow (the band). Then when he was sick he scribbled a lot of notes and then Mick Walls who was a journalist and good friend of ours and who knew Ronnie for a long time said, common Wendy let’s get the book out. And I said I would really like to continue it in Ronnie’s words. So what we did is we took all the scribbled notes that Ronnie had left and then we went back into the archives and found press clippings of what Ronnie said at that particular time and we kind of all put it together that way. Then I added a few things I remembered that were going on at that time as well.”
When asked what was the biggest misconception of Ronnie James Dio “I know Vivian Campbell said he was cheap. Ronnie was never cheap with anyone or anything, ever, ever, ever. So I don’t know how many people believe those things. I normally don’t do those things but I wanted to put in the book about how much was earned because of the fact that I am sick to death of hearing that Ronnie was cheap and paid him 100 dollars a week (Vivian). How did he buy a Ferrari at 100 dollars a week? How does Vinny Appice and Jimmy Bain buy a house at 100 dollars a week.? And (today) that is something Ronnie can’t defend himself with.”
When asked about Vivian Campbell’s Claim that he was paid less than the road crew at the time ” I will explain that, so they were on retainer (the band) so that means they got paid whether they worked or not. We may do a 6 week tour and the sound man probably got $2000 a week (only for 6 weeks) and he (Vivian Campbell) got $1700 (whether they worked or not). “
When asked about seeing the first cut on the upcoming Dio Documentary “I did, I did, it was amazing, they did a great job I cried my eyes out. We were all crying. It was very emotional. We moved a few things around, added a few things. It was done really well. Mick Walls is excellent in it, him and Eddie Trunk are excellent. They are both going back and forth. They did an excellent job. Lita Ford does a great job, Rob Halford does an amazing job, Glenn Hughes…It’s different from the book, totally different from the book. So interesting and so touching .”
Dio’s long-awaited autobiography, titled “Rainbow In The Dark: The Autobiography”, was released on July 27 via Permuted Press. It was written with longtime friend of 30 years and esteemed music writer Mick Wall, who took up the mantle after Ronnie’s passing.
Ronnie James Dio passed away of stomach cancer on May 16, 2010 at the age of 67.
Jimmy Kay from The Metal Voice spoke to Wendy Dio at this years Metal Hall of Fame 2020 on January 15. Wendy Dio confirmed that the Dio hologram tour will restart in May 2020. She also gave an update on the Dio documentary saying that, Eddie Trunk, Lizzy Hale, Tony Iommi, Deep Purple and The Scorpions members will take part in the filming as guests.
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Wendy Dio about the upcoming Holgram tour, upcoming Dio documentary, Dio book as well as unreleased material.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about the upcoming Dio Hologram tour
“It’s a brand new tour, no one’s ever seen this one before, its new and improved technology and has come a long way in the last two years. This time Ronnie looks much better than he did before. I’m a perfectionist, last time his eyebrows and his hair were not quite right for me, so we’ve corrected them. And of course the technology has come a long way and we have all kinds of effects going on which we didn’t have on the last one. Amazing effects! We’re playing Ronnie’s isolated tracks from various shows that he did live and then of course the band is playing live on the stage with them. Craig Goldy, Simon Wright, Scott Warren, we have two guest singers which is Tim Ripper Owens from Judas Priest Fame and also Oni Logan from Lynch Mob. They sing some songs by themselves, some songs together and some songs with Ronnie. Plus we have a lot of special effects going on, we have Fire Dragons, it’s an amazing show it’s going to blow your mind.”
When asked about the Hologram critics
“Everybody’s entitled to their own opinion I think you’d have to see it before you criticize it. Ronnie I’m sure would give his stamp of approval on this because in 1986 anyone who saw the Sacred Heart tour saw that we tried to make a hologram by rear projection and we hung a crystal ball and it had film of Ronnie’s head in there talking about walking over the Rainbow Bridge. I mean we tried everything and Ronnie was always an innovator. This is this is done to keep the music and his memory alive and for people that didn’t get chance to see Ronnie can see this show and also the ones that would love to see him back up and stage again. This show is done with love from the band to everybody that’s involved and we were very excited about it’s a great great show.”
When asked about an update on the Dio Documentary
“We just started shooting, we did interviews last week with a few people, with me, with some technical people and with Geezer Butler and we will continue to shoot in between the tour. Hopefully that should be out by next year, We started with Geezer Butler who was obviously Ronnie’s best friend from Black Sabbath and we will probably do some interviews with the band while we are on tour and all the people that were close to Ronnie. People that played with Ronnie or influenced by Ronnie and also his childhood years and then going right away through his time with Elf, with Rainbow and with Black Sabbath. I have so much footage people have never seen. I got unseen super 8 stuff. I found a whole huge box with stuff from his childhood, from the Rainbow days, behind the scenes stuff, all in a big box which I’m getting it now transferred so that we can actually view it. A lot of these are super 8’s were at Ronnie’s parents house and when they passed away Ronnie and I went there and took it. I also found a whole bunch of tapes of Ronnie, demos of his songs, in his own studio and we had all these tapes which I had no idea what they were there. Demo stuff that probably no one has never heard before or it’s the beginnings of songs or it’s songs you know that haven’t been finished or I have been finished, this is a treasure trove. So we will go through songs and hopefully put some of those out on bonus material on the summer releases that BMG’s putting out of Ronnie which starts actually later this year. For the documentary we’re hoping for theater release.”
When asked if she would be interested in doing a Biopic movie on Ronnie James Dio
“I don’t want to do one, nobody could play Ronnie. I would like a straightforward documentary of Ronnie’s life and with lots of footage of Ronnie. I’ve got so many interviews that Ronnie did and so much stuff that I’d really like to just keep it very very very natural.”
When asked about re-releasing Hear n ‘Aid
“We will do that for the charity but it’s a lot of work and it will probably take a year to do so. I have to put that aside until we’ve finished these other projects, so many projects going on at once. But yes I’ve talked with my board of directors for charity which we have 14 board members and our five advisory people so we have discussed that and we will all all start working on that why when the Hologram tour is over.”
When asked about a letter where George Harrison asking for Ronnie’s autograph
“I was actually going through a bunch of old stuff in boxes and there was this letter from George Harrison asking for his autograph for a maid of his.”
When asked about unreleased Live recordings
“There is so much live music that I have from so many different shows, yeah we probably go through it all and find the best of what we’ve got there because Ronnie obviously wouldn’t put out something out that he felt was inferior.”
When asked about his autobiography
” I’m working with Mick Wall, who’s a famous journalist from England, he knows Ronnie very well and has interviewed his million times. I’m actually meeting with him in July. “
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke to Wendy Dio at this years annual Hall of Heavy Metal History on January 23 2019. Wendy spoke about the last stages of the new Dio Hologram, a Dio documentary in the works and gave an update on the Dio autobiography book.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about the update version of the Dio Hologram
“We have a new one that we are developing and it’s going to be fantastic I am actually seeing the finished version on the 4th of February and we are hoping to tour from May 2019 and on wards.”
When asked about the new Dio Documentary
“We are doing a Dio documentary, we are not sure yet who will be producing it yet, we are still interviewing candidates. The documentary will be distributed on the BMG label. The documentary will go back to Ronnie’s childhood, I have many photos and videos that people have never seen before. “
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke to late wife and manager of Ronnie James,Wendy Dio. She spoke about the 4th annual Ride for Ronnie on May 6 2018, Unreleased Dio material, The hologram tour and the long awaited Ronnie James Dio Autobiography/Biography.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about the details on this years RIDE FOR RONNIE on Sunday May 6, 2018 hosted by Eddie Trunk for the Stand up and Shout Cancer fund in California
“We started it off on the 5th memorial of Ronnie’s passing and a lot of people were coming from different countries and different States. So we thought maybe we should do something where there would be other things for the fans to do while they are in town. So we arranged for the memorial and they day before we did the bowling and then we did the ride for Ronnie. It caught on and it was so good that we decided that we would keep the Ride for Ronnie around the passing day every year and we would do Bowl for Ronnie in October every year, so we would have two fundraisers to keep his memory and music alive and raise money for research and education for the terrible disease that took him and many other people.”
“Harley Davidson in Glendale (California) sponsors us, so the ride starts there and they ride to Los Encinos park in Encino and then we have a concert there. The line-up so far includes Steve Adler’s (ex Guns and roses) All star band ( to be announced), Dio Disciples and others.”
When asked if the Ride for Ronnie will be coming to the East Coast
“We are in the midst right now of trying to set up with Ronnie’s cousins an East Coast ride and an East Coast Bowling. it won’t happen this year but we are hoping next year.”
When asked about the long anticipated Ronnie James Dio Autobiography/ Biography
“When I was in London last week I met with publishers, it’s on the way now, it think it should be out by late 2019. Ronnie wrote the book up until the middle of Rainbow years. What I would like to do is continue it by taking interviews he has done with several people so it is still in his own words all the way through. Also interview people that have been on the road with him, band mates, bands that have supported Ronnie or bands that feel that Ronnie has influenced their lives. The book will include explanations of lyrics and I also have another thought in mind and I haven’t approached it yet I thought of doing an illustrative book of lyrics, in a medieval theme.”
When asked if there was any unreleased original material of Ronnie James Dio
“There are a few that I know of. One he was writing with Doug Aldrich before he passed away. There is one I have that was written in the Holy Diver days which Ronnie decided that we wasn’t going to put on the album. And then there was two maybe three songs that he was writing with Craig Goldy on the Magica 2.”
When asked if the Hologram Tour and if it continue into to USA and Canada
“We took the Hologram tour out in Europe to see if there was a market for it because this is all very new, it’s a new technology and a lot of people are Nay Sayers. Some people say it’s good, some people say it’s bad. The Hologram tour was very well received, kids were crying to me and saying to me thank you so much from bringing Ronnie back to us. I think it was great for people who had been there who have seen Ronnie before back on stage and for kids who have never gotten the chance to see Ronnie before. It was a good test, we did very well but there are things I need to perfect as I am really very critical I need to perfect his face a little but more his eyes and his eyebrows are not quite right for me. So we are back to the drawing board and it takes a lot of time. We are hoping the Hologram tour will go out again probably beginning of next year and we will hit Canada and USA.”
When asked about the Naysayers of the Hologram tour
“For the naysayers, look at it and see it first because most of the people who criticizes it haven’t seen it and they don’t even know what to expect, it’s a whole experience. Ronnie comes in and out, you don’t know when he is going to come in and out. Ronnie does about 6-8 songs the rest of the time it’s with Ripper Owens and Oni Logan singing the songs. And what we are developing now is for Ronnie to sing together with them. ”
“How it is done, we isolate Ronnie’s voice and the band plays live together with Ronnie’s voice. It is something that is done with Love and hopefully the fans will enjoy and want to see it. It costs a lot of money, it’s not like something we are making a bunch of money with. It costs a fortune right now we are into 2 million dollars developing it. We want to keep Ronnie’s memory and legacy alive.”
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