In a recent interview on ‘Wired In The Empire’ with Radioactive MikeZ of 96.7 KCAL-FM, Doug Aldrich, former guitarist for DIO and WHITESNAKE, was asked about whether he was involved in the DIO lineup that supported IRON MAIDEN during a U.S. tour over two decades ago.
“No. Actually, that tour was in 2003,” he responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “And so what happened is, originally WHITESNAKE asked me to play [with them], and I asked Ronnie [James Dio if he was okay with it], and he said, ‘Yeah.’ And it was gonna be a two-month tour. And we just had a blast. I mean, the WHITESNAKE band was on fire, just like the DIO band. And [David] Coverdale said, ‘Do you wanna carry on? I’ve got dates. I’m gonna finish out the year.’ I’m, like, ‘Hell yeah. Let’s do it.’ And in the breaks, I was going up to Ronnie‘s. We were writing — starting to write for what turned out to be Master Of The Moon, which I actually in the end didn’t contribute anything to. But we started writing.
“And one day he goes, ‘Oh, we’ve got this tour with IRON MAIDEN coming up in the summertime.’ And I was, like, ‘Oh, Ronnie. Are you serious? Are you sure?’ He’s, like, ‘Yeah.’ I go. ”Cause I just committed to David Coverdale about the summer run.’ And he was pissed, man. He was, like, ‘What the f**k?’ I was really upset. He kind of booted me out of the house. It was, like, ‘The writing session’s over. Get the f**k out,’ kind of thing. He was pissed. And I felt horrible. But I had a great opportunity to work with Coverdale, and in the end it paid off with a lot of new music for WHITESNAKE.
“And I went back to Ronnie a couple of times,” Doug continued. “In 2005, he asked me to come back and fill in on a tour in Europe. And then I ended up doing another tour in Europe with him in 2005, which ended up being the Holy Diver Live DVD. And that’s when Coverdale was, like, ‘Hey, I hear you’re back with Ronnie. And some people are saying it’s full time.’ And I just said, ‘Look, if you wanna keep WHITESNAKE going, we’ve gotta do some new music.’ And he agreed. And that’s when we started writing together. But it’s all kind of intertwined. But the bottom line is that I missed that tour, and I heard it was a great tour.”
Ronnie James Dio, best known for his work with BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW and DIO, died of stomach cancer in May 2010 at the age of 67.
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