Jimmy Kay from Canada's The Metal Voice spoke to The Rods guitarist vocalist David "Rock" Feinstein, who is also the cousin former Elf bandmate of Ronnie James Dio. In the clip below, Feinstein tells stories about Ronnie in his musical journey in the early years, his voice, and writing lyrics. 

On Ronnie James Dio's lyrics

David: "When I hear Ronnie's lyrics, I hear things that really relate to his life and experiences that I know about. Almost every lyric and every song is that way. Ronnie was a genius when it came to words, he had an incredible mind he had a way of saying things that was totally different. Off the subject, I would go visit him and we would watch TV and we would watch reruns of Family Feud. I would be bored out of my mind but Ronnie loved it because the show was asking questions. It would challenge Ronnie to see if he knew the answers to these questions. I know when one of the contestants would get it wrong he would start swearing at them. Another thing was with his vocabulary; when I would go visit him, he would do crossword puzzles every day. Ronnie would get the newspaper and it was a ritual and we didn't do anything until the crossword puzzles were done. As the week went on the crossword puzzles got harder and harder and bigger and bigger. It was a challenge so that's why I think his vocabulary and his way with words he was such a genius, so interested and so smart about things. "

On Ronnie's voice, and whether he was a trained singer

David: "In recording sessions when singers are told to do it again multiple times, it wasn't that way with Ronnie. Ronnie would go in and sing perfectly the first time. The only time he would do it another take is if he wanted to do another take and try something different. The engineer didn't tell Ronnie when they were going to do another one, Ronnie told the engineer. Ronnie could have been another Tom Jones or Engelbert Humperdinck, his voice was capable of singing those songs. Ronnie could have gone the crooner route, could have been a solo singer, and he chose to go the rock and roll way. His voice was so versatile he could have gone any route he wanted."

On how the album artwork was created on the first Elf album 

David: "Ronnie and I did all the photographs for that album and I said one of us has to dress like an elf. At the time photography was my hobby, so I said I am going to take the pictures and you are going to dress you up like an elf.  So we went to Syracuse Stage and bought face putty and make-up. Then we came back and made cardboard ears, a pointed nose and sprayed Ronnie's hair with white stuff. It was a hot summer day and we went out to the country and I just took a ton of pictures. The picture for the cover was going to be there but we had another one, where we took some in the woods and I had Ronnie take all his clothes off and he was in the shadows of the woods, those were great photographs but the label never used them."