Interviews

Interview with Vinnie Appice

Published

4 years ago

May 26, 2020

Ron

It’s been 10 years since Ronnie James Dio passed away and it’s still such a loss to the metal community. May 16^thwas the anniversary and brothers Vinnie and Carmine Appice made a special video during the quarantine for it. Empire Extreme got to talk to Vinnie Appice on the phone about the project and working with the icon Dio.

EE: How was it like making that killer tribute video for Dio?

VA: That was cool, we picked a song off of an album that Carmine and I did together a few years ago, and we had about Dio. Being that it was his anniversary of his passing and thought it would be cool to make a quarantine video. It came out really good.

EE: Was it different making a video and being separated?

VA: Yeah I’ve never done anything lie that before. We had the parts sorted out. Carmine and I have played it live before so we knew the parts that we needed to do.

EE: Hows it like working with your brother, since your boy drummers do you get into any sibling spat’s about stuff like that?

VA: we get along really well and when we play together we go for it but it’s all in fun.

EE: How was it like meeting Dio for the first time?

VA: it was like in 1980. I got a call that Sabbath was looking for a drummer. I went down to meet Tony Iommi and then when down and met the rest of the band. That’s when I met Ronnie and we hit it off right away. We both Italian and from NY. We became really good friends from there.

EE: How was it like going into Sabbath when already have been a big band?

VA: it was quite a trip going into this big band. I had fun I had to learn a lot in the beginning to learn the songs. The first gig was in Hawaii and only had 4 days to rehearse and Everyone had down time but I stayed in my room to keep learning the songs.

EE: Then you go to doing the Sabbath stuff to doing the Dio Solo albums, how’s was doing and being on those iconic albums?

VA: Dio wanted to leave Sabbath and do his own band and wanted to know if I joined him. We didn’t think we were making a great classic album, we just thought we were doing a good album.

EE: Yeah a lot of younger fans are getting into the bands of that era and wearing Dio Patches. I was fortunate enough to seen Dio play Live.

VA: Yeah he was amazing person and an amazing singer I’m glad that you got to see him.

EE: I interviewed a little back the Band Liliac who do two amazing covers of Dio.

VA: I love those guys, she’s an amazing singer. She sounds like Ronnie. When they came out with that, everybody was sending me that link and I was blown away. It’s the best version I heard anyone do before. Ronnie would have loved her. I got to meet them at NAMM last year.

EE: I seen you in Maryland at the MONSTER-MANIA horror convention, how was that like doing stuff like that?

VA: I love doing those. It’s so much fun and different from what I’m doing. I got to meet Elvira and Freddy Krueger. The best one is I got to meet Leave it to Beaver Jerry Mathers and Eddie Munster. I’m suppose to do one in August I hope that we still can.

EE: Since it’s the anniversary of Dio. Is there a funny story you like to tell about Ronnie?

VA: There’s so many good ones. This one time in the studio Ronnie would change the lyrics and we filmed it. The song was called Breathless but he changed it to Breakfast, scrambled eggs and cheese and change the lyrics about it.

It was great being able to talk to a rock icon like Vinnie Appice, who for years everyone has said that he’s such a great person to talk to and really enjoys the fans. When this quarantine is over I hope to get to see Vinnie behind the kit once again.

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST

Published

1 week ago

April 23, 2024

Ron

Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.

The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.

Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must

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Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

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Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

3 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.