Vinny Appice - "When We Were Making Holy Diver

Drummer Vinny Appice - "When We Were Making Holy Diver We Didn’t Think We Were Making A Classic Album"

Jeb Wright from Classic Rock Revisited spoke to HEAVEN AND HELL drummer Vinny Appice (ex-Black Sabbath/Dio) recently about a number of topics. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Classic Rock Revisited: Holy Diver is perhaps the best metal album of the 80's. Did you know it was that good at the time?
Vinny: "When we were making Holy Diver we just went about our business of putting some ideas down. We had a lot of fun making that album. We were all crazy. We didn’t think we were making a classic album. We were just making what we felt. Everything came from the heart. We had no preconceived notions of anything. I remember one of my roadies coming up to me and saying, "This is going to go platinum." I told him that we would keep our fingers crossed. Who would have known that twenty-five years later the thing is still selling. You just don’t know that at the time."

Classic Rock Revisited: What is your take on why Vivian Campbell got fired by Ronnie?
Vinny: "After a while Viv wanted to go out and play his own music – a different kind of music than Dio made. I don’t think Ronnie was really keen on that and neither was the rest of the band. It caused a lot of friction so Ronnie decided he was going to get rid of Viv. That is what happened with that."

Classic Rock Revisited: Do you feel that original line up was the strongest he has ever had?
Vinny: "That is the classic lineup. There are certain lineups of bands that are magical. When you replace one of those members then it can still sound good but the magic is just not there. In Black Sabbath they had chemistry with Ozzy and with Dio. I did think that was the best lineup for Dio. All the success and all the biggest songs came from that initial line up."

To read the entire interview head to this location.

You can watch the 'Holy Diver' video here.