By Martin Popoff
I asked DiMeo if Bobby's leaving had tested his friendship with him at all. "No, not at all. I mean Bobby... there really was no reason for him not to leave and take that gig; that was a great gig for him. If you know Bobby Jarzombek, there's no one that can be mad at him (laughs). He's too good of a guy. There's nothing you can say that's bad about him. He's just genuinely a good person and I mean, I wish the best for him."
"I like a lot of the stuff that we've done," explains DiMeo when asked to pick a highlight from the catalogue he's been part of, essentially the Riot albums of the '90s. "My personal opinion is that some of the mixes on the songs are really hard for me to swallow. Like working with the guys at Greene Street in Manhattan, some of the mixes they came up with, none of the band members were really happy with. And before we even had a chance to complain, it was tracked. So looking back, a lot of songs like, take Brethren Of The Long House, the song Glory Calling, when Mark Reale and myself first heard the song, both us looked at each other and like, the vocals on that song are so buried; they are really, really low in the mix (ed. He's right! It's bloody awful!). It's just so outstanding; it's like the first thing that hits you, just being a listener. Because I'm a fan of music before anything. You know, a mix can ruin a song if it's not right. And I'm not saying it ruined the song, but when listening back to the catalogue, it's hard to separate yourself from it. I think Sons Of Society was a really good record. I think probably, in my opinion, it was the best we were ever going to do with that line-up. Because when you have guys like Bobby Jarzombek, and Pete and Mike Flyntz, who really, when they get together, the music they write is really progressive, like On The Wings Of Life, that song? I mean the stuff is really intricate. And sometimes... you see, my background is basically blues, more like a David Coverdale, Paul Rodgers-type style. And it was always hard for me to settle into a groove with that. So I think Sons Of Society was pretty much the pinnacle of what we were going to achieve with that line-up."
RIOT - America's Original Power Generators Page 3