Appice Explains Campbell / Dio Hostility
The drummer suggests that the animosity was business related
In a new interview former Dio / Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice was asked about the extremely hostile relationship between current Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell and Ronnie James Dio.
"Well, it was chalked down to business. There was a lot of business decisions that weren't the best for the band, and as far as the way things were cut up and stuff, so Viv had a problem with that, and Viv was more hostile toward fighting and getting what he wanted. So, he didn't see eye to with Ronnie.
"Eventually, that got worse and worse and worse until Ronnie said, "I'm gonna get rid of Viv. I'm gonna get somebody else." I didn't think it was a great decision, because Viv was part of that band, part of the magic, and a great guitar player, but it was Ronnie's band. So, yeah, it just got worse and worse and worse until one day, it was the bubble burst, boop, Viv's out. So that was crazy. But they didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, and didn't work together. It was more down to business. It wasn't a musical thing. It wasn't like DIO was gonna start playing disco songs, you know?"
Campbell is currently putting together a band called Last In Line, which features the original Dio line-up and singer Andrew Freeman.