DEF LEPPARD / ex-DIO guitarist Vivian Campbell announced last year that he was reuniting with his former Dio bandmates, with whom he formed the new group, LAST IN LINE. In a recent interview with Rock Guitar Daily, Campbell discussed Last In Line and shot down suggestions he was doing the project for the money:

Campbell: "Why would anyone be against the Last In Line idea? We wrote and recorded those songs, and we'd like to play them! That's what it comes down to - the only issue being that Ronnie and I had a public spat.

"I can hold my hand up and admit being wrong about saying some mean things about Ronnie, and I was also derogatory about the genre of music. The thing that Dio fans may not completely understand is that they weren't there when we wrote and recorded those records - Ronnie was a very difficult person to work with. He was a lovely human being to his fans, but he didn't always share that wonderful personality with those closest to him. Every human being is complex, there's no back and white, no cut and dry.

I had a very difficult relationship with Ronnie, and he had a very difficult relationship with me, and it really hurt me that he not only fired me, but he went on to betray it as if I had left the band. So that's what got me so riled up, and I really turned my back on him and the genre of music because I was very, very hurt by what it was he had done to me. I admit that it was childish, but a lot of water has gone under the bridge, and for me, I've taken all that out of the equation. When I think about the music, I didn't listen to it for almost thirty years - that's how caught up I was about that shit.

Ronnie and Wendy Dio went out of their way to betray me as someone who had turned my back on the band in the middle of a tour and quit, which was absolutely, 100% untrue - I was fired from that band, I never intended to leave that band, and I never wanted to leave the band. Those are my songs as much as they are Ronnie's songs. Jimmy, Vinnie, Claude, and myself got fuck all for those records. We got nothing from the record sales, none of the t-shirt money - we were salaried musicians earning less than our road crew! Because we believed in the music, and we believed as Ronnie had told us that we were going to have an equal cut by the third album. And that's all I asked for! The third album came along and I said Ronnie, do you remember that first time we met in London when we jammed and this band was put together, and you had promised us that by the third album it would be an equity cut, which was why we got fuck all for all those years? We put our blood, sweat, and tears into doing that and it hurt the fuck out of me, as it would anyone. So then he goes and fires me, and betrays me as being the one who quit.

So for thirty years, I didn't listen to those records. I wanted nothing to do with Dio, I wanted nothing to do with that genre of music - I just removed it all from my life. After thirty years, and maybe it is because Ronnie's dead, maybe that does make it easier, I don't know - I haven't sat down and analyzed it, but the fact is, that's my music, I'm the one who's entitled to play it, and that's what I'm going to do.

What really makes me laugh is when people think I'm doing it for the money! We've got four shows booked in the UK, and I can't even begin to tell you how much money it's costing to do that. It's all for the love of guitar playing, the only reason I did it in the first place!

The only thing that I would ask is that people come with an open mind.There's been a lot of shit said in the press, a lot of it untrue, some of it is true, but it's truly about the music. I'm not doing this for the money, believe me, I've got plenty of money. It's about the love, the passion for the guitar playing. When I did it in the first place, I didn't do it for the fucking money - $100 a week, I don't think that's a lot of money, and that's what I got for doing Holy Diver. And that's pretty much what I'll get for doing it again, thirty years later, hahaha!

Click here for the complete interview.

Campbell, along with Vinny Appice (drums), Jimmy Bain (bass), Claude Schnell (keyboards), and singer Andrew Freeman (HURRICANE, LYNCH MOB), have announced the first Last In Line tour dates.

Confirmed dates include:

August

2 - Wacken, Germany - Wacken Open Air
8 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Limelight
9 - Glasgow, Scotland - Cat House
10 - Derbyshire, England - Catton Park - Bloodstock Open Air
11 - London, England - O2 Academy Islington

More dates to be announced.