Here are all the news from the first half of 2002 - some of these may be outdated already, so please check out the newest news for updates!
Killing The Dragon was released in Europe on May 20th and in the USA on 21st! The album debuted on the US Indie chart at #18. The album will come out in Japan possibly on July 24th on Victor label - no word out yet whether there is something extra on the Japanese release or not.
The band started the US tour a couple of days ago in Las Vegas, NV with Deep Purple and Scorpions. The first gig reviews on the net have been praising the show - so go to see the band when they tour your area! Make sure to be at the venue early enough - Dio opens the show and will usually start playing around 6-6.30pm already!
Dio filmed a video for the song Push in May but no confirmation yet when the video will be released. The video also features a special guest Jack Black from "Tenacious D".
As the last comment for today I'd like to use this opportunity to mention that I got married on May 3rd with the most wonderful girl I know, Elina. The reason why this site was not updated for a while was that we wanted to go far, far away from the Internet for our honeymoon trip! ;)
Killing The Dragon promo copies are out both in Europe and in the USA! Call your radio stations and request them to play the CD!
According to some sources, Universal Germany is going to release a new Dio compilation titled as "Evil Collection - The Best Of Dio. No further information is available at the moment.
The forthcoming album, Killing The Dragon, will apparently be released on May 20th in Europe and on May 21st in the USA on Spitfire Records. The track list for the album is going to be the following:
The May issue of the US Hit Parader magazine has a small ad for the album on page 16.
Dio will hit the road on May 31st with Deep Purple and Scorpions. The tour dates can be found here!.
According to a recent Ronnie James Dio interview, the forthcoming album will be called "Killing The Dragon" - which will be also one of the tracks. The album will have about ten tracks in total and should be out in April-May timeframe on Spitfire Records.
Ronnie also confirmed the tour rumors; the three bands are planning to do US tour together, starting in Las Vegas, NV. Deep Purple and Scorpions are set as headliners, Dio will open. After they've toured the US for some two months, both Dio and Deep Purple will continue touring in Europe with third, yet unnamed band. After they've toured the Europe, Dio might return back to the US to do a tour on their own.
These tour plans haven't yet been finalized, so they may change. Also, no dates have been published yet.
Despite some rumors, the new guitarist Doug Aldrich will play on the tour too, not just on the album. He's also still involved with his old band, Burning Rain, who will release an album later on this year. Burning Rain will go to studios to record the album in February, so it'll be quite busy time for Doug in the near future.
Reasons for Craig's departure are family reasons. Craig was not able to leave on tour with the band and therefore Dio had to get a new guitarist in. Doug actually was considered to replace Craig already in 1988 when Craig left the band for the first time.
According to some rumors, Deep Purple, Scorpions and Dio are planning to do a 8-week tour together in the USA. The rumors say that the tour should start on June 1st, 2002.
The tour hasn't been confirmed yet, so beware, this may be just another rumor again.
Guitarist Craig Goldie is not in Dio any more - the reasons behind his departure are not known. Craig's position is already filled, as Doug Aldrich is already working with the band. The band is now finalizing their forthcoming album guitar tracks with Doug. Doug's own web pages can be found at address http://www.dougaldrich.com/ .
Taken from Tracy's mailing list:
Tracy G will be donating a track from his upcoming solo CD to the Red Cross Project - a tribute CD dedicated to the families and victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center .... it will be released on the Now And Then / Frontiers Record Label ... all profits will be donated to the Red Cross ..
Tracy will be playing the guitar solo on the Jason Becker tribute vol 2 CD ... with Chris Heaven from Italy on vocals. The song is a cover of David Lee Roth's 'Lady Luck'
Tracy is working in his studio on his new solo CD not yet titled ... on a few tracks he will have Leon Randolph, A.K.A. Randy Wilde on bass!!!!
Vinny Appice, former drummer for Dio and Black Sabbath, is the drummer on the forthcoming Lana Lane album. The album is going to be released on January 23rd and will be called Lana Lane - Project Shangri-La.
The line-up will be Lana Lane (vocals), Erik Norlander (keyboards), Neil Citron (lead and rhythm guitars), Mark McCrite (acoustic, rhythm and lead guitars), Don Schiff (N/S Stick) and Vinny Appice (drums). There will be two guest musicians on the album as well, Mark Boals on vocals and Helge Engelke on guitar.
The Japanese release will have one bonus track titled I Believe In You.
This page is maintained by Tapio Keihänen,
E-mail: dio@iki.fi.
URL: http://www.dio.net/news/2002_june.html,
the front page http://www.dio.net/.