During a conversation with Ultimate Guitar's David Slavković, original Dio drummer Vinny Appice looked back on meeting Ronnie James Dio when he joined Black Sabbath in 1980, ahead of 1981's Mob Rules. Following is an excerpt from the chat.

UG: This year marks the 10th anniversary of Ronnie James Dio's passing, and I'd like to ask you about the very beginning: How did you first meet Ronnie, and do you remember your first impression of him?

Vinny: "I met Ronnie at the first Sabbath rehearsal. I never encountered or met him before, but I got a call from the tour manager, and he said, 'Sabbath's looking for a drummer; they're in LA, wanna come down and meet Tony at the hotel tonight?' And I said 'Sure!' I met Tony (Iommi / guitar) that night, we hit it off well and he invited me to come down to the rehearsal the next day which was in California, in LA. And when I went down, I met Ronnie for the first time, and Geezer (Butler / bass) and Geoff Nichols (keyboards). We all got along great and then talking to Ronnie, we had a lot of things in common, you know, we're both Italian, we're both from New York - he's from upstate and I'm from Brooklyn. He just seemed like such a really down-to-earth guy and nice person. And when he started singing, it was amazing, you know, totally amazing, blew me away."

UG: Do you remember this first rehearsal with Dio and Sabbath? What was your first impression like when you sat down to play with the band and how did you fit in?

Vinny: "It was pretty loose, and then they said, 'What do you want to play?' And I wasn't a huge Sabbath fan. Obviously, I liked Sabbath and I listened to some of the songs, but not enough to really know all the parts. But it just so happened two weeks before this that I heard 'Neon Knights' on the radio. I'm driving and I hear 'Neon Knights' come on and I went, 'Wow, that's really good!' I wasn't familiar with Ronnie at that point, and I thought, 'The new singer for Black Sabbath sounds great! Wow, what a voice!' And two weeks later, I wind up going down and meeting everyone and Ronnie, and they said, 'What do you want to play?' And I said 'Well, let's play 'Neon Knights.' I kinda know it's a fast song and there wasn't a lot of changes in it, so that's the first song we ever played. And it was actually the last song we ever played together also, 35 years later."

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