HEAVEN AND HELL members Ronnie James Dio (DIO, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW) and Geezer Butler (BLACK SABBATH) were interviewed by radio personality/VH1 Classic VJ Eddie Trunk on his 'Friday Night Rocks' radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM last night (Friday, January 19). According to Joe Siegler of the BLACK SABBATH fan site Black-Sabbath.com, the following topics/points were covered on the show:
* The first U.S. gig for the HEAVEN AND HELL tour will be March 30 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. There will be no opening act for this show; it's just HEAVEN AND HELL. The band is expected to play an extra-long set at this concert. Tickets are priced between $54.00 and $74.00 and go on sale Friday, January 26 at 10:00 a.m.
* There will be other U.S. dates, but not before August. No further information is currently available on which cities they might hit.
* After the Canadian tour and the New York City date, HEAVEN AND HELL will play South America before heading over to Europe for the summer festival run. A full U.S. tour will take place in August, to be followed by U.K., Japan and Australia.
* Both Geezer and Ronnie said that it is pretty likely there will be no Ozzy-era tracks played during the HEAVEN AND HELL shows. The setlist will consist exclusively of material off the 'Heaven And Hell', 'Mob Rules' and 'Dehumanizer' albums, plus the three new songs written and recorded for the upcoming compilation CD, 'Black Sabbath: The Dio Years'.
* Tour rehearsals start roughly two weeks from now.
* 'Black Sabbath: The Dio Years' will be released April 3 through Rhino.
* All three newly recorded tracks ('Shadow of the Wind', 'Devil Cries' and 'Ear in the Wall') will be on the 'Black Sabbath: The Dio Years' album. It was previously reported that only two of the songs would make the final cut, but Geezer confirmed that all three will now be included on the collection.
* There are no keyboards on the newly recorded tracks.
* Keyboards on the HEAVEN AND HELL tour will be handled by Scott Warren from the DIO band.
* Geezer did not contribute to the songwriting for any of the three new songs, and neither did Bill Ward and Vinny Appice; these tracks were written by Tony and Ronnie. Side note: DIO bassist Rudy Sarzo said in a recent interview that two of the three new SABBATH tracks contain ideas Ronnie had put forth for the next DIO album, but which ended up being used for the SABBATH collection instead.
* According to Ronnie, this was never intended to be a full-fledged reunion when it started; it was only supposed to result in a couple of new tracks being written and recorded for the upcoming compilation. He did say, however, that the opportunity to dust off the old Dio-era SABBATH tracks in a live environment was too great to pass up. Finally, he said that history has shown they can't plan too far ahead for this, and that they do not intend at this point to carry on past the tour. However, he left open the possibility for further activity once they have fulfilled their touring obligations.
* Part of the reason this project is being called HEAVEN AND HELL and not BLACK SABBATH is that they all felt that the original SABBATH (with Ozzy Osbourne) has been 'back together' for awhile now, and since they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with that lineup, they wanted to avoid any confusion and decided to call this something else instead.
* Ronnie also said that after the HEAVEN AND HELL touring cycle is finished, he will go back into the studio with DIO to record 'Magica II' and 'III' and then tour 'with a stage show worthy of the story.'
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