DIO - It Lives... Again!
by Martin Popoff

Metal's elder statesman Ronnie James Dio spoke to us recently with respect to Evil Or Divine: Live In New York City, the CD version of the '02 DVD of the same name, recorded at The Roseland in New York City (for more on the situation, see BW&BK Magazine #87).

Same lay of the land as the DVD? "I think the only change is that there are some omissions," explains Ronnie, "for time consideration. I think the drum solo got axed, and I think they took a lot of the repartee out. So you get song, song, song, rather than me waffling on. I think those are the only omissions. None of the songs have been taken out, I don't think (ed. actually 'Lord Of The Last Day' has been cut). I'm really not sure. I hate to plead such ignorance on this one but it wasn't my project."

"We never really had a problem with having to go in and do that," says Ronnie with respect to polishing up live tracks so they'd be fit for metal consumption (see HALFORD). "Because the band has always been so good; not only good players, but we've always been so well-rehearsed with a real high ethic, so it didn't matter if it was being recorded or not. You got the same show all the time, which is one of the reasons why when we did the DVD, we only filmed it once. I mean, most bands film five or six shows and intersperse it with this or that because it makes life easier for them. But I've never had a problem. Right from the very first live album I ever did, which was RAINBOW On Stage, which was also... we went into the studio, Martin Birch and I, and we mixed it. Ritchie came in once, in the ten days we were mixing it, and said 'How's it going?' 'Good.' 'OK, bye.' And he left."

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