Legendary Drummers Carmine and Vinny Appice Honor Ronnie James Dio with New Video(Interview)

It has been a decade since the world lost Ronnie James Dio to cancer, and this Monday (May 16), he will be honored in musical tribute by those who knew him best–drummers Carmine and Vinny Appice.

The brothers Appice had a close musical and personal bond with the late singer– Vinny performed alongside Dio in the bands Black Sabbath and Heaven and Carmine’s bachelor surprise party was planned by Dio–and wanted to do something special so their friend is always remembered.

The song–“Monster’s and Heroes”–is labor of love, said Carmine, whose playing credits include Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart (Appice co-wrote two of Sir Rod’s biggest hits, “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and “Young Turks) , Ozzy Osbourne, King Cobra, and Blue Murder.

It was a 2012 session with King Kobra and writer Paul Shortino where the song first came to life.

“It was going to be a Halloween kind of song, and then Paul said why don’t I write this about Ronnie, because I got a perfect lyric for it…so he wrote the song about Ronnie, and we recorded it with King Cobra,” he said.

A year later, Carmine decided to add Vinny to the track so the song would have a “three way connection” honoring their friend, with lyrics that reference classic Dio songs “Rainbow in the Dark” and “Holy Diver.” The track features Jim Cream on vocals, Artie Dillon on guitar and James Caputo on bass.

Recently, Vinny had another idea to do a “lockdown video” of the song for release on the 16th in tribute.

Appice called in to to 1071 The Boss to talk to Michele Amabile about the video premiere, a new band, Kodiak from Toms River that he is managing, his love for Asbury Park and remembering Ronnie.

Listen to the interview and watch the video below!