A few days before his concert in Kavarna on New Year's Eve, Ronnie James Dio gave an interview for Tangra Mega Rock.

V. V: Hello, Ronnie, how are you doing?

R. J. D.: I’m doing great, man, really good.

V. V: Where are you at the moment?

R. J. D.: I’m at home.

V. V: OK, so let’s start with this – This will be your third time in Bulgaria. What are your feelings about this?

R. J. D.: I loved it the both times before, especially the last time we were there. That was in Kavarna where we are gonna play this time and I have great memories of the last time we were there and I really look forward to it now.

V. V: Do you have a special surprise for the crowd this time?

R. J. D.: I don’t think there will be any surprises. I know we won’t do all the same songs we did the last time, so if there are any surprises, it would be with songs the people haven’t heard for a while.
Other than that, I know that a surprise is not much of a surprise because we know it’s a great celebration on New Year’s Eve.

V. V: OK, so how come you compose music and at the same time you’re not known for playing any instrument?

R. J. D.: I’ve always played an instrument. I’ve started playing the trumpet when I was five and then I played in my own band, called Elf – I was the bass player until the time I decided that I will be better just as a singer. But I’ve always played and I think this is very important for being a composer.

V. V: So you are coming to Bulgaria for the concert on New Year’s Eve, but besides this, what are you up to now?

R. J. D.: I’m doing a lot of things, actually. I did a movie with Jack Black “Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny” and that took a while to do. I’ve just written three songs with the Black Sabbath and that also took a bit of time. So mainly I’ve been writing and doing that film work.

V. V: You said Black Sabbath – this has been the great news about you, guys, getting together but using the name Heaven and Hell, not Black Sabbath. So how was it to be back together – it’s been quite a while?

R. J. D.: It’s been 12 years.

V. V: Yeah, 12 years. So has it been like remembering the good old days or has it been like a new fresh push?

R. J. D.: Because we haven’t written together, especially Tony and I, we’ve forgotten how good we are. And writing the songs was very easy, very pleasant and the idea of being together on tour was fun and it was very easy and a great joy.

V. V: So, is it going to be an album or just the tour?

R. J. D.: It’s actually an album, a best-of album, an anthology called “Black Sabbath: The Dio Years” and we wanted to write some extra songs. Otherwise you will get the live performances of the songs we had written before, but we wanted to make it a bit special and we wanted to do two and then ended up doing three new songs. So, they will be on an album, but it is going to be an anthology album.

V. V: The funny thing is that by coincidence, this week’s Jack Daniel’s band of the week is Ritchie Blackmore’s orchestra, Blackmore’s Night. So, what has been your experience with Mr. Blackmore’s talent and do you still find him to be one of the greatest guitarists of all time?

R. J. D.: Oh, absolutely. Ritchie is a genius, an absolute genius. When you work with him you find out how clever he is and what a great musician he is. I think at the moment he is not playing a lot of rock and roll, because this is something he always wanted to do – he loves Renaissance music and I think that eventually he’ll come back to rock and roll. But it is absolutely true that Ritchie is a great musician and he’s a great person to write music with and just like with the combination of Tony Iommi – something special always comes out. 
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V. V: Was there a difference working with these guys you worked with – that they are Brits and you are American?

R. J. D.: No, this was never a problem. I always thought that the British music like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd is the greatest music – the kind of music I wanted to play and when it came to guitar players I felt that the British guitar players are much better than the American ones, though, of course, there are great American guitar players too. But I just felt that the British have a special way of doing it and the British bands had a special way of presenting themselves that we never saw here in America. So I was immediately attracted to what the British musicians were doing. So growing up as a musician, I modelled myself more after British musicians, so working with them was not difficult for me, because we have the same ideas.
And it all comes down to the talent you have. It doesn’t matter whether you are American or Bulgarian or from Iceland – if you’re a good musician and you’re respected, the people will accept you. But I think it doesn’t make a difference that I was brought up on British music and I really loved it so much.