Vinny Appice Discusses Heaven and Hell - BREAKING OUT OF HEAVEN 2007-2009 – PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you have done to censure? Wow for you? Your's who are you? Who are me? I just don't. This is a tip in here on the Adventures tight n W PORC Y Radio. And I'm very excited about this episode because we have one of the most legendary drummers there is and some exciting news. So let's welcome to show VIDI a pissy. How are you?

0:48 I'm good? How are you good? Good to be here? Legendary? Oh my god. Well, listen, you've played with just pretty much everybody. I couldn't even we wouldn't even have time for me to list off all the people you've played with for sure. Sorry, I'm sorry. I won't play with that many people from now on anyway. And I gotta tell you that the first I used to play. Drums for like nine years when I was a kid, and I kind of sucked. So my hat's off to you for being such a great drummer, because it takes a lot of people. I don't think realize that. And then I switched to guitar, and the first song I learned on guitar was not Smoke under Water, it was Evan and hell.

1:34 There you go. It was meant to be some sort of connection. There, I know, right right, And so here we are. We have some great news about you know, kind of giving me like flashbacks and resurrecting the heaven had held a final you know, Sabbath version before Doo left this earth, but left us here with a lot of great memories. Yeah, and what's good about this package that's coming out is, you know, we were scheduled to go on tour again in twenty ten with Ronnie, and then he got ill, and then he got worse, and then he got really sick and he couldn't do it, and the tour wasn't going to happen. So it was not a happy ending.

2:27 You know, it's kind of sad. So now this is years later and then putting this great package together. It's a beautiful package this, you know, the albums that are in it, and there's a posters and tour books and photo album. It's beautiful. And at least this is kind of some closure to that era of Black Sabbath, you know and Ronnie, So it's more of a celebration now than just the sad way that the band ended, you know exactly. And you know, I love that you have like there's some things on this here that have never been on vinyl before, so that's really cool. Yeah, and you know all the Radio City live performances that are on there.

3:21 I mean, to me, this is like amazing way to pay tribute and to all the greatness of that version of Black Sabbath. Yeah, that's what I'm kind of saying as well. You know, it's it's a beautiful package and I just got it in the mail last week and I was blown away. Some of the photos in the photo book are so clear and colorful, and oh it's just great. So it's a nice collective's item for who who, whoever's having a hell fan Black Sabbath fan, Ronnie, this is a great package.

4:02 Yeah. And you know, back then you got an album, it was a full sensory experience, which is what you're having here, you know, like pictures, reading the lyrics, all the things that came with an album that I think we're having somewhat of a resurgence because my grandkids asked me for the holidays that order their birthdays. For Vinyl records. So it's kind of cool because I think that's what a lot of kids were missing, is that full experience yeah. You know, when I was a kid growing up, it was only vinyl, and you used to go buy the record when it came out, and then you had to cover you could see everything, and then you turned it towards the back. The back of the album usually had all the details of recording, and sometimes it listed the microphone and the amplifiers, the drums, and that was really cool. Wow, use Ludwig drums on this and the these microphones and amplifiers, because it was a great cool thing. And while you're listening to the record, you know, you're going through all this information. So it was a very cool thing. So now, yeah, CDs, it's hard to see on the it's only that big.

5:28 And then downloads you don't get anything. Yeah, unless you download the they bring the artwork forward. I don't know, but it's great on the album on the full on. Vinyl, even like in the you know. I remember I was a Beatles fanatic as a kid, and I would buy all the albums, you know, before I was even teenager, just for the clues of that nineteen sixty nine radio show where they were saying Paul was dead. It was such a fun experience to go get these albums, look for these clues and do things that you wouldn't be able to do today with downloads. Yeah, and that's the thing. It was such a great package that it made it more exciting. You know, you're listening to the rep while you listen to the record, you know, Yeah, and then you know Paul is dead, But how come he's on the album?

6:25 Right? I remember that? Yeah. And then I'll tell you one of my favorite ever experiences at concert, which there's been thousands of concerts I've been to. I remember when I was at the mob Rules tour. Oh wow, and I it was in La and I could have I could have sworn when Dio started talking that it was God talking way. It came over, well were you smoking? Well that's the thing, you know. So it's back when you had to hang out, you know, and camp out to get your tickets. So I got there like early. I was sleeping my sleeping bag to get the tickets, and some dude goes to me, he goes, hey, can you buy my tickets for me?

7:14 I'll smoke you out at the concert. Sure you know you're a teenager, Like that's good enough for me, And then yes he did. He did smoke me out right before you guys came on, and it was it was a trip though. Coming over to loud speaker, I was like, whoa, this is the best experience ever. And I still remember it to this day like that way. So that's the impact right there. Yeah, And so I'm glad that, you know, we're keeping this alive. And you know, Ronnie was such a influence to so many people and such a great person that he just you know, I did, like I do press coverage at the Bowl for Ronnie and it's like amazing how every year just people so much support. And I've never heard anybody ever say anything bad about Ronnie, and that's unheard of in this industry.

8:15 Yeah. No, Ronnie was such a well besides being one of the greatest singers in rock, if not the he was such a nice person and he loved his music and he loved his fans. His fans were really important to him, and he took time to sign autographs, take pictures. He never really brushed anybody off. You know. When I first joined Sabbath in nineteen eighty, we played some arena and I'm the new guy in the block back then, and the show, you know, concert's over, and we hung out a bit, and then we left the arena and got in a limo, me and Ronnie and go up the hill get out of the arena. And it was January, like upstate New York, I think we were. And we pull out and get to the gate. They were going to open the gate and we go back to the hotel, but there were a whole bunch of fans at the gate.

9:09 Ronnie said, stop the car, stop the car, and I'm like, wow, the driver stopped the car. Ronnie got out, started saying autographs, some taking pictures because it was cold. Yeah, you know, they waited, you know, they deserved something. And so I got out too, and you know, did that as well. And I was always remember that how Ronnie was just totally such a gentleman and loved the fans, you know. Yeah, and that was amazing. I remember I was a teenager and he lived in that house in Tarzana and we got like invited over and we were we were hanging out with him and Vivian at the house. I don't know if I was aim more than sixteen at the time. Oh, it was me a couple of my friends, and again, like who does that like it was. It was just like you would never experience that from anybody usually, and he was just so gracious and so you know, he realized what it was all about and what he did it again.

10:20 He did that again later on a couple of years later when we did Holy Dive a tour. We were in England and playing London, and you know, we finished the show upstairs and Ronnie relaxed. He doesn't leave right away, like to hang out and have a beer or two, and they we were getting ready to leave. Somebody said, well, the cars are downstairs, we can go soon. And then they came up and said, well, there's a bunch of punters they call him Punters. The fans are out down waiting for autographs and stuff, and it's kind of cold out. So Ronnie said, bring him in. So they brought him into the Hammersmith Odeon, such a famous place, and they were about probably forty forty kids fans and sat him in the front rows and then we came down and we all signed autographs. And that's what Ronnie didd he that's the kind of guy he was.

11:16 I love it. No VIPs, no VIP stuff back. Then, Yeah, no meet and greets or any no. Now, what's your favorite memory of the Heaven and Hell days? Well, you know, it's it was so many great times, highlights and this and that. It was just nice to get when they got back together and we called it Heaven and Hell. That we're playing big places again, you know, big festivals in Europe and I don't know if we played the Garden, I'm from New York. We played Radio City Music Hall, So there's just a lot of highlights for me, you know, and playing with them and just playing with Tony Gays and Ronnie again was just doesn't get much better than that, you know, I know, right, pretty amazing.

12:11 And how was their chemistry altogether with Ronnie you know, you know. At that point, we're all a little older at that point, and it was it was a really good vibe in the band during Heaven and Hell and we would have fun musically. It was fantastic, and it was talk of you know, let's do another album and then let's do another tour, let's keep going for a while, you know, and it was great, whereas years before that there was always it lasted like two years, a year and a half, and then there was problems and it didn't work out. So at the end it was great. It's just a shame what happened, you know, how Ronnie got ill.

12:56 So yeah, big shame, you know. And and I think everybody needs to reach out and uh, you know, contribute to the foundation. Uh you know that so other people can get the help that you know, through through this because cancer it's a bitch. Yeah, I mean, it's an awful thing. And people, you know, it's pretty popular right now, let's put it that way. Probably all the junk in the air and the food and the water and all that stuff. So who knows. Yeah, I'm with you there. You know. It's funny when we were younger, like you didn't think about that stuff, and now we get this stage and it's like, oh, look at the poison they've been putting in our bodies.

13:43 Yeah. The latest thing is like, I don't know, I'm in California and some days you look up at the sky and it's like across uh playing tic tac toe with the chemtrails. Oh, that's so funny you're saying that, because I just got back from LA and I was saying we were around walked on saying my friend like I've never seen this many chemtrails. Like that everywhere. They're everywhere. I spoke to a friend in North Carolina because you had to hear too, and a friend in England, same thing there. So I don't know what they're trying to do, but nobody's saying anything like why are you doing this? And what is it for exactly? You know, it used to be like trying to make it rain and stuff, but I don't think it hasn't rained here, never rained, right, Who knows?

14:33 So what else would you like to let people know about the release of the these packages for Heaven and Hell and and anything else you have coming up that you want to talk about. Yeah, well, the package is great, like I said, it's just a fantastic package. The pictures, photos, everything is amazing. But it only works if you play it. Really loud when you get there right. Then it works. Yeah, and I'm doing I started something. It just kind of a fluke. I started doing a band call put together a band called Sabbath Nights. And this started a couple of years before where somebody invited me to go play you know, we're gonna play all Sabbath stuff and blah blah, blah. I said okay, and uh, I did it and it was a lot of fun.

15:24 Then I noticed how the audience was eating it up. You know. We played a lot of Dio Sabbath, some Azzie Sabbath, some Dio songs, and the audience loved it. So so I put something together. I got to kill a band. My vocalist is Jim Queen who's from Buffalo, New York, and he could sing Ronnie. He loves Ronnie. He could sing this stuff without tuning down. It's just amazing. So we got to kill a band, and we just we're doing gigs, like not a lot of touring, but we're doing as many gigs as we can. We got some coming up the Akata Theater in May in Chicago, and then we go to Ohio Picktown Palooza, it's like a little festival, and then we do upstate New York Buffalo.

16:12 Area and nice. That's a lot of fun. You know, people love it. What playing get to his Sign of the Southern Cross and Neon Knights all that shit, and then we play some Ozzie song, a couple sabatoons, war Pigs and Ozzie song. I don't know, we do that and then some dio stuff. So it's a great show, you know. So it's a lot of fun. We're not trying to break the band, you know, it's just a lot of fun and people enjoying it. That's the key. It's fun. You know, Like what why be in this industry if you're not having fun. When we made Holy Diver, we were having a ball, a new band and we're all youngsters, and and uh went to Sound City Studio. There was like a club hanging out every night. We destroyed that place, this crazy stuff that went on, and we were having fun. And fun makes good music, it does music. And then we did Holy Diver. If you did the whole album, wrote the whole album.

17:18 So I love it. I see. I love hearing stuff like that from musicians have been musicians for a long time, you know, because there's a lot of complaining that goes on. So I love the freshness of hearing how much fun things are. Yeah, you know, and we're having fun, we're doing this and then you don't realize how it affects people. And you know, then you go on the road and you meet somebody goes man, I was going through a really bad time and then you guys came out with that album and that song whatever, Rainbow in the Dark or whatever. It really helped me get through life. And you know, it got me through the whole thing. And you know, we don't write songs to try to purposely get people feeling better. Obviously we don't know what's going on with them anyway. But when you hear those stories, you go, wow, we're just doing an odd job, right, you know, stuff we love to do. It's inside of us. And then you meet people who are so affected by it. You don't realize that.

18:22 You know, it's a great feeling, right, Yeah, it's fantastic. Well, it's fantastic that you've given us a great feeling for all these decades. Here, thank you, and again, hats off to you for being such a legendary drummer, because it's a lot harder than people think. You're right, and right now, the traveling is harder than anything. Then. Yeah, if you got to fly and stuff, oh god, what. A pain I know. Right, Yeah, Well, thanks for keep giving us great music. Everybody needs to go and check out all your new stuff that's going on. Yeah, go to my website. Yeah, and Sabbath Nights with a K like nights neon nights dot com. There's some stuff up there and then heaven in hell and keep it up, keep it going.

19:12 Yeah, funny, funny. I interviewed Jack Black at one of the bowl for Ronnie's Yeah, and he started singing neon Nights in the interview and he was handing me to Mike try and get me to sing, and I'm like, nope, it's your job. I can't. Heat School of Rock movie movie. It was on the other night and I watched the whole thing. I love that. Movie, Yeah, totally. And he's he's just he's so versatile, like he was singing it like right off the cuff, like and just having a good time. Again, that's the key here. We all just need to have a good time and music is the best way to escape all the other bullshit. That's right, exactly. Well, music, you know, that's it. Heals it.

19:57 It does a lot of things. When you listen to music. If you're not feeling oh you're not feeling great, you know, you put on your favorite album or song and feel better, you know a little bit better. Best therapy there is. Yeah, Well, thanks a lot for your time and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. All right, thank you pipe Man, and see you guys on the road somewhere. Letka do it. Hey, this is Vinnie Appassy for Black Sabbath, Deal, Heaven and Hell. There's a lot of bands and you're listening to the adventures of pipe Man on W for cy Radio. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man.

20:41 I'm W for CUI Radio.