Drummer Vinny Appice recalls how band Last In Line started off as a jam

Drummer Vinny Appice recalls how band Last In Line started off as a jam

Former Black Sabbath and Di0, and current Last In Line, drummer Vinny Appice was recently interviewed by media journalist Mark Dean for Antihero Magazine.

Appice was asked about the band Last In Line, which ended up revisiting early Dio albums like Holy Diver (1983) and Last In Line (1984). The band Last In Line initially was comprised of Appice, guitarist Vivian Campbell, bassist Jimmy Bain and lead vocalist Andrew Freeman before bassist Phil Soussan ended up replacing Bain who passed away in January 2016.

Appice indicated (with slight edits): “Well, the funny thing was, we just started as a jam. Vivian called me and said that he spoke to Jimmy Bain, am I up for a jam, because everybody was in town. I said, yeah. So, the three of us got together. We didn’t listen to the songs, really. Let’s play Holy Diver and see what happens. And we’d mess it up and start over and have a laugh. Vivian’s trying to remember the solos and all that stuff. And that’s the way we did it. And we just had a great couple of hours at a rehearsal place, having a good time.

Then we decided to do it the following week, and my friend, Andy Freeman was in town. I said, “Hey dude, you know some Dio stuff, right?” “Yeah, yeah.” “Can you come down and sing?” He said, “Sure.” And then when we heard him sing that stuff, we were blown away, like “Holy shit, sounds great.” So, we decided maybe we should do some gigs. And our managers, Steve Strange booked a whole bunch of gigs, about five or six gigs in Europe. So, we went over, and we played Europe and the response was incredible. We played at one or two shows out in California first, and we’ve got such a great response. I’m sitting there playing, go, “Man, these songs are 35 years old. People are still screaming and yelling and jumping.” Said, “This is amazing.” It was great to revisit all the old stuff. And the first tour, we just did basically all old Dio stuff. We didn’t have our own album out. It was fun.”

You can read the rest of the interview with Vinny Appice by media journalist Mark Dean at Antihero Magazine‘s website.