Jimmy Kay from Canada's The Metal Voice recently spoke to The Rods guitarist Vocalist David 'Rock' Feinstein, who is also the cousin of Ronnie James Dio and former band member with Dio in Elf. In Part One of this two part interview, Feinstein talks about The Rods new album, The Brotherhood Of Metal, his relationship with Ronnie James Dio, and his experience playing on stage with the Dio Hologram recently.

On the difference between the last Rods album, Vengeance, and the new album, The Brotherhood Of Metal

Feinstein: "The Vengeance album was something of a reunion. We hadn't done any recorded in like over 20 years at that point. So it was the first attempt to do something again and to write songs. On the Vengeance album we were still just getting back into it, so I just think that the Brotherhood album is much better because the last 10 years of being back together we have more experience in getting great people, playing together and having great engineers working on this album. In terms of songwriting, I'm a major part of the songwriting team, so I was under some pressure this time because I knew we had to get at least 10 songs done. I basically try to write songs that I know we can perform well live and those are the type of songs that when you have a crowd of headbangers in front of you, they want to really react to you. Songs that they can sing along with the chorus and a good beat that's what I aim for."

On his relationship growing up with Ronnie James Dio and over the years

Feinstein: "Ronnie was five years older than me and he hung around with a different crowd of people, but I looked up to him. Ronnie played trumpet when he was younger, and when I turned seven years old I wanted to play trumpet, too. Ronnie started a band and, of course, I wanted to start a band. I always looked up to him he was kind of like an older brother, that was what the relationship was like and for a while.

In the last 10 years of his life, Ronnie and I became very close again because during the days of Rainbow and Sabbath, Ronnie was on the road and constantly lived in LA., and I was living on the East Coast. We might talk on the phone or something like that, but there wasn't a lot going on in terms of visiting. In the last 10 years of his life he would visit his parents in Cortland and I would see him. I also started to go to LA and visit him at his house. I would stay out there for a week and we talked about doing an Elf reunion album and how great it would be. We even worked on some material while I was there. Ronnie was looking forward to even playing bass on the Elf album because he was originally the bass player and singer in the band, and he thought it would be cool. We were making plans for the future while he was doing the Heaven And Hell thing. So, our relationship was really close in the last 10 years, and when he died it really affected me heavily. I really felt the loss."

On performing with the Dio hologram on stage recently

Feinstein: "The hologram performance was such a such a great idea because it's kind of technology thing, and Ronnie was always into. Ronnie had a brilliant mind and I think that he would have really dug the idea of this whole hologram thing."

The Dio Returns 2019 Tour, which features a hologram of late metal legend, Ronnie James Dio, touched down in Huntington, New York on June 9th. During the show, Feinstein hit the stage for "Neon Knights". Check out the fan-filmed video below.

Upcoming Dio Returns dates are listed below.

Tour dates:

June
21 - Dallas, TX - Bomb Factory
28 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
29 - Las Vegas, NV - Brooklyn Bowl