Guitarist Craig Goldy will one day reveal why he was out of Dio following the ‘Dream Evil Tour’
Photo by Christopher Lee Helton
Guitarist Craig Goldy will one day reveal why he was out of Dio following the ‘Dream Evil Tour’
Former Dio and current Dio Disciples and Resurrection Kings guitarist Craig Goldy was recently interviewed by Metal Mike for the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast. Goldy was in Dio from 1986 to 1988, 1999 to 2002 and from 2003 to 2010, and he played on the Dio studio albums Dream Evil (1987), Magica (2000) and Master of The Moon (2004).
Photo by Christopher Lee Helton
In terms of how he got into Dio, Goldy explained (as transcribed by the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast with slight edits): “That was birthed during the demo recordings for Rough Cutt that Ronnie [James Dio] was producing. The two of us just liked hanging out together. There were so many times it was just the two of us at his home watching old Rainbow videos. It would get too late, and he would bring out a mattress, pillows, blankets and tuck me in like a father to a child. Then he would bring me headphones so I could listen to the Holy Diver album before it was even released. We would work late at Sound City Studio. One thing that happened there is Ronnie made a promise to me that if things didn’t work out with Vivian [Campbell], that I would be his first choice. He was impressed how easy and wonderful it was to work together.
Once I was in, we only had six rehearsals before my first gig with the band. He knew that I knew the songs. I just needed to learn all the little changes they would make to the songs live. The whole thing was surreal from top to bottom. Headlining stage, 20,000 seat arenas… I didn’t know what to do with myself at first. I was used to being an opening act, now it was like I had a city block to run around in. When it came to playing Vivian’s solos, I wanted people to know that I could play his solos. They were basically note for note, but I would fudge them a bit to be respectful and so I could move around on stage while I was playing them.
With respect to the writing of the Dream Evil album, Goldy indicated: “We knew we could write together, because we had to rewrite some parts for Rough Cutt that weren’t working. Jimmy [Bain] and Ronnie would usually start the writing process together, but Jimmy was pretty bummed out because he was so close with Vivian. Ronnie called me and said, “Jimmy isn’t really into this right now, so you’re up kid”. So him and I just went through our cassettes and 
picked out all the song ideas we liked. The Rainbow vibes on this one were coming from both of us. I just come from the [Ritchie] Blackmore school of guitar. Ronnie was onboard because it was part of his history. He could have said no, but he liked it because it was reminiscent of, not a copy. I thought the riff for “Man On The Silver Mountain” was so cool, that I wanted to surprise Ronnie with one of my own for the song “Dream Evil”. He was like “That’s a riff”! He said he always wanted one like that for his own. The whole album has a Blackmore vibe, that’s why I wanted a keyboard solo on “All The Fools Sailed Away”. Ronnie was like, “Are you sure about this Goldy?” That one was the first epic we wrote together.”
On why he was out of the band after the Dream Evil Tour, Goldy stated: “Someday I’ll tell that story. I’ll tell you what it wasn’t. It wasn’t like “Thanks Ronnie”, I’m going off to have a solo career. I had no intention of leaving whatsoever. Something happened that we eventually got over and that’s why he asked me back. I know what I did wrong and what I did right. I know what he did wrong and what he did right. I will tell it someday and it will be just answering the question, not taking potshots at a deadman. It ran deep. It’s still a mystery to most fans.”
You can listen to the interview with Craig Goldy on the 80’s Glam Metalcast podcast below:
Dio‘s “All The Fools Sailed Away” video (from the Dream Evil album):