LOUDNESS Frontman Minoru Niihara On RONNIE JAMES DIO - "There Is No Word To Describe The Shock Of Losing The Rock World's Treasure"
June 23, 2010, 14 years ago
During a recent interview with BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai, LOUDNESS frontman Minoru Niihara commented on the passing of metal legend Ronnie James Dio, who died on May 16th following a battle with cancer:
Niihara: "There may be likes and dislikes but if you are a metal singer, you've got to respect him as the legend. I was a huge fan of him since I first heard him singing in RAINBOW when I was in high school. I used to sing a lot of his songs. I learned a lot from him, from vocal techniques to stage performance. I was given the privilege of meeting him couple of times in interviews and during recordings. A very friendly man who liked to talk. There is no word to describe the shock of losing the rock world's treasure but I believe that his rock spirit will live in all of us forever."
As previously reported, the HEAVEN & HELL one-off show - A Tribute to Ronnie James Dio, will be held at the High Voltage Festival on Saturday, July 24th. All proceeds to be donated to the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund.
The band will be completed by Glenn Hughes (ex-DEEP PURPLE, Black Sabbath) and Jorn Lande (MASTERPLAN) who will both contribute vocals. It promises to be a fitting celebration to a man that the metal scene owes so much.
In a video interview with High Voltage recently, Iommi talked about the upcoming tribute.
"This will be the first and only tribute we're doing to Ronnie," the guitarist says. "We feel that it would be really nice to do this and he'd really like it. Glenn Hughes has also been part of the family for many years and he's a very good friend of Ronnie's, they were very close. So we think it would be apt to use Glenn, and Glenn is a great vocalist. And Jorn Lande is also a big fan of Ronnie and a great singer. We're going to start rehearsals a week before and see what happens. It's difficult because it's something we want to do for Ronnie, focus on him. We just want to do it for him and the fans. He'd love his music to be played. This is a closure for us as well."Check out the entire chat below:
