Viv Campbell To Reform Original Dio Line-up?
This doesn't sound like a particularly good idea
Despite their being no love lost between Campbell and Dio (in 2003 Campbell described Ronnie as "One of the vilest people in the music industry", while Ronnie said of Campbell in 2007 "I hope he fing dies. He's a fing asshole") it seems that we could be seeing a reunion of the original line-up of Dio, with a singer called Andy Freeman taking on Ronnie's vocals.
Classic Rock Magazine reports that Campbell has reunited with Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Claude Schnell two months after they jammed together for the first time in many years.
He says: "I met up with the original Dio band guys again. Now that I’ve brushed up on how to play those solos again, we’re planning to jam some more and plan to do some gigs too.
Campbell describes new frontman Freeman (ex-Bulletboys) as "a great singer who can really do justice to Ronnie’s parts.”
Bain says: "We’ve had a couple of rehearsals and it sounds great. Listening to Vivian playing those songs again has been amazing. He’s just so into doing this and his enthusiasm has rubbed off on the rest of us.
"Andy isn’t Ronnie. How could he be? But what he does bring is his own twist on the vocals.
"Our aim is to do some shows around November, concentrating on the first two albums. It’s gonna be great getting back onstage with these guys for the first time in so long.”