By Mitch Lafon

Drummer Vinny Appice has plied his trade with many different outfits over the years, but he’s best known for pounding out the beat with BLACK SABBATH, DIO and eventually HEAVEN AND HELL. Bravewords.com recently sat down with Appice to find out more about his past, but mostly about his future and that of Heaven And Hell.

Bravewords.com: What are you currently up to?

Vinny Appice: “Right now, I’ve been working on a new band, KILL DEVIL HILL, with Rex Brown (DOWN, ex-PANTERA) on bass, Mark Zavon (ex-STEPHEN PEARCY band) on guitars and Dewey Bragg on vocals. We just signing with management and we hope to get stuff flowing and record a CD.”

Bravewords.com: Do you have any songs written for it at this time?

Appice: "Yeah, we actually have about ten songs written. We just demo-ed them in my house and again in Mark’s house. He’s got Protools all set up. They really sound good, but they’re not studio quality. We played it for different people (manager’s and stuff) and got a great response. I just want to wait to get a deal and get a record label involved then we’ll go in a record the stuff for real.”

Bravewords.com: What’s your time line on this? Will in be out later this year?

Appice: "It’ll come out in 2011. I’m sure of that.”

Bravewords.com: Musically, what will it sound like?

Appice: "We’re not looking at pop. I don’t play that stuff. It sounds like a cross between Black Sabbath, ALICE IN CHAINS and a little bit of LED ZEPPELIN thrown in. It’s heavy, but with a lot of cool hooks and melodic overtones too.”

Bravewords.com: Will you take this band out on the road or is this a studio only project?

Appice: "Right now, I’m planning to work this and make this happen. I want this to become my main band. That’s what I would like and then everything else could be around that. You know – Heaven And Hell we talked about doing something this year too so…”

Bravewords.com: That’s interesting that you should mention that. Obviously, with the passing of Ronnie James Dio, people assume that Heaven And Hell are done. Is that reasonably true? Might you continue with guest singers or rename the band and get a new singer?

Appice: "If it’s going to happen we would re-name the band. The Heaven And Hell named signified a lot of Ronnie. It’s Ronnie’s era of Sabbath not Ozzy’s and that’s why we didn’t call it Black Sabbath, so people wouldn’t get confused about it. It would be funny to keep the name Heaven And Hell and for Ronnie not to be there.”

Bravewords.com: Plus, there probably would be a backlash from the fans.

Appice: "Yeah, that too.”

Bravewords.com: When do you think the band might continue?

Appice: "I’m not sure what they have it mind. It was mentioned, but no action has been taken yet. I would imagine that IF something happens – it would be this year. Tony loves playing. Even though, he’s accomplished so much in his career, he’s a musician and he loves to play. He was happy playing and being on stage (with H&H;). Geezer is the same way. We toured so much that we built ourselves up both musically and physically.”

Bravewords.com: Where you surprised at the reaction of fans when you announced Heaven And Hell. Some fans had been screaming for Ozzy and Sabbath to reunite. Then with Heaven And Hell, you decided to only play songs from that line-up’s era, which meant no Paranoid or War Pigs, but the thing took off.

Appice: "I think everybody was a little surprised how it was accepted. Obviously, we knew it would do good to a certain point just because of who was in the band. We did Radio City Music Hall and it sold out in fifteen minutes. It was just a lot of excitement… More than anybody anticipated. So yes, we were surprised by the reaction and obviously everybody was happy by it. The nice thing was that it was building. We started headlining some of the festivals. The buzz was around and it was becoming really cool. You could see it building and then Ronnie got sick. It’s really a shame. There was definitely another album coming.”

Bravewords.com: Was anything done for the second album? Were there any demos?

Appice: "No.”

Bravewords.com: So, everything that Heaven And Hell ever recorded has been released?

Appice: "There’s nothing lying around and that’s the way it was with Dio too. We never really recorded extra material. It’s just the way it was. It was the way we wrote. We didn’t write very fast, but we just worked on the songs one song at a time. So, we just never had any extra stuff ever.”

Bravewords.com: The Dio years. Ronnie comes out of RAINBOW takes over for Ozzy in Black Sabbath. They do two fantastic albums with Mob Rules and Heaven & Hell. Then he decides to go out on his own with Dio. Did he consider you a session guy at that point or was Dio your band as well?

Appice: "It was kind of my band too. It had Ronnie’s name on it, but we started it from the beginning. It was never a session thing. I always had an involvement in the band and stuff… Which was cool and made it more like your own.”

Bravewords.com: Was there a noticeable difference for you playing under the Black Sabbath name as opposed to the Dio name?

Appice: "There’s a big difference. Sabbath is Sabbath. They have such a long history and Sabbath should sound like Black Sabbath. You have Tony and Geezer. Playing to them is a lot different than playing to Vivian Campbell and Jimmy Bain. Tony has a monster sound, so there’s a different approach to how you play and you have to stay on that Black Sabbath path. When we do albums, it’s just… What’s the word? Evil or dark? Dark is a good word and you have to play accordingly to that. Not play ahead of the beat and pull it back a little bit more… Things like that.”

Bravewords.com: When you go in and record an album like you did with Heaven And Hell. Do you go back and listen to what Bill Ward did with early Sabbath and try to get into that groove or do you bring your own approach to it?

Appice: "When I first joined the band, I listened to all the old stuff because I thought that it was important to carry on where they left off and see how Bill played and approached it. I was a fan of Bill. He’s a great drummer and I was a huge fan of how Bill played so in the beginning there was a lot of ‘hmmm, what would Bill play? How would this work?’ But in the later years, we established this version of the band that was pretty good too with Mob Rules, Live Evil and Dehumanizer. We became our own sound too, so I didn’t worry about it so much.”

Bravewords.com: Let me ask you about Dehumanizer. That album took a beating over the years with critics. Do you think that was justified? Do you think that album was misunderstood and has stood the test of time?

Appice: "Oh, yeah. Absolutely. That album was made when grunge started to become big and we did the album, put it out and people didn’t notice it as much as the Mob Rules, because it was a different time in the world for music. Grunge was coming in and we were considered dinosaurs, but we love the album and since Heaven And Hell has started people have rediscovered that album and are like ‘wow, this album sounds really good. It’s a cool album.’ And it is. It’s really heavy.”

Bravewords.com: And the ‘deluxe edition’ of it comes out this month (in the UK and Japan). Are you happy to hear that it’s been remastered?

Appice: "I know it’s coming out, but I don’t know anything about it. The thing about it was that album sounded good when it wasn’t remastered, so it must sound amazing now.”

Bravewords.com: Recently, you played at the Phil Kennemore (Y&T;) benefit concert. Since then, Phil has passed away.

Appice: "I’m so sorry about that.”

Bravewords.com: What are your best memories of Phil?

Appice: "Phil and Dave (Meniketti) always came down when we played (in the early years with Dio up to Heaven And Hell). They were always friends and really really cool people. When Heaven And Hell started in 2007, the whole band came down and hung out. Ronnie loved those guys. He really loved how Dave Meniketti sang and the way he played… He’s just a monster, Dave. I know Ronnie loved the band and loved Phil, so when I heard about this concert… Immediately, I said ‘yeah, I’m there’. Phil was a wonderful guy and a really good good bass player. I had just seen them play at the Canyon Club here in L.A. in the summer and I went back in the dressing room to hang out and I wound up on the side of the room where Phil was and we talked a lot. Everything was normal. We talked for probably an hour or two and then the next day I hear he’s sick. It was like Ronnie… ‘sick, but ok they caught it in time.’ Then next thing I hear, it’s that it’s stage four which is what Ronnie had, so now I know it’s pretty severe stuff. I’m really sorry to hear what happened and I’m glad we got to do it (the concert) before… He knew we were doing the show and he was aware of everybody being there for him and sending their love to him… I’m just really sad about it (his passing) you know.”

Bravewords.com: Let’s get back to Heaven And Hell. If the band continues, like you suggested it might, would you consider playing a couple of the Dio songs as a dedication to Ronnie?

Appice: "I don’t see that happening. Tony and Geezer don’t do other people’s music. It’s always Black Sabbath. They didn’t consider doing it when we did Dehumanizer and Dio had all our albums out. We didn’t even talk about doing something like that. Ronnie thought it would be funny to do something like that. So, no, that wouldn’t happen.”

Bravewords.com: When you look back at your time with Ronnie. What are some of your fondest memories? I had interviewed and met him on several occasions and it always struck me at how exceptionally kind he was.

Appice: "What was amazing and outstanding about Ronnie was the way he loved the fans. He would take the time for the fans. He would know your name basically. He would meet somebody and the next year if we toured, he’d know your name... ‘hey, Mitch how you doing?’ It was pretty amazing the way he was able to do that and that’s because he loved his fans and he took the time. When I first joined the band on the Heaven And Hell tour, we didn’t have tour busses. We did airplane rides and limos. We had two limos at the airport to pick us up and two limos to bring us the to hotel and two limos to get us around. When the show was over, Tony and Geezer would usually leave, but Ronnie and I would hang out and when it got time to go and the limo pulled out of the arenas; there would be fans waiting and Ronnie would tell the driver to stop and he’d get out and he’d go sign autographs. I was like ‘wow, he’s a pretty cool guy for doing that,’ and he always did that. When we did Dio, in the beginning in 1983, we did a tour of Europe in the winter and the gigs were sold out. There would be fifty, sixty or more people waiting outside in the cold for autographs and Ronnie would tell the road crew to bring those people in, so they could wait for us inside. Then the whole band would come down and sign stuff for these guys. He was just really dedicated to his fans. He loved his fans. He loved music. He loved sports and that was Ronnie.”

Stay tuned to Bravewords.com for Part II of our exclusive interview with Vinny Appice in which he reveals his thoughts about Tony Martin and who he'd like to have sing for a newly renamed Heaven And Hell.