yeah I saw that. Its funny I watched the heavy metal doco 2 days ago that he's in allot .Me and a buddy were saying that its cool he's still around and rocking

Another Metal-God lost today. Very sad day indeed....

RIP Ronnie.

Chris

I didn't even know he was sick, but apparently he's been battling stomach cancer for some time. It's a shame, sounds like a horrible way to die. You will be missed, Ronnie.

That is a real shame. Its sad to hear of anyone succumbing to cancer.

It should be a pretty star-studded funeral.

I heard last night that he was entering his 7th or 8th time for Chemo. They did a nice tribute to RJD on KLOS radio last night on Jim Ladd's show.

I was not aware that he was 67.

There is an interesting article on him on Wikipedia. He played bass for a while, and also attended college - pharmacy school. According to Wiki, it was verified that he attended the college. Getting into that program was a bit of an accomplishment in itself.

That is fascinating. For some reason I may have read that along time ago. My first encounter with Dio was with Rainbow and my fascination in his voice. I looked for "Elf" recordings but could never find any - his band prior to Rainbow. I was fortunate to see Dio with "Rainbow", Black Sabbath - "Heaven and Hell" tour and as a solo artists. I don't remember if they opened for Judas Priest or The Scorpians. Either way it was a great show!

You might find something by Elf if you look around again - its surprising what is out there now.

From what I read, most of the guys from Elf joined Ritchie Blackmore to play in Rainbow. Based on that, you would probably like to hear Elf.

Not so much anymore. My interest was 25+ years ago when I loved early Rainbow. I enjoy a song or two but don't listen to them like I used to as my current listening genre has changed. Even my Deep Purple collection has been weened to just Machine Head and Made in Japan. I finally found a Mark Bonilla's Matador and can't wait to get it next week. Awesome guitar player!

WHADD'YA MEAN, YOU DON'T LISTEN TO RONNIE JAMES DIO MUCH ANYMORE?????????

tsk-tsk-tsk

;)

Chris

When I get some more free time I will look into Elf and some other older RJ Dio stuff... they had some interesting album art.

First four Rainbow albums has Dio as the vocalist. The solo albums had that demonic figure on all the cover art like Iron Maiden had Eddie.

I found a few tunes online of RJD. Some of it is RnB stuff like "What'd I Say", some is rock covers in the very early 70s.

Brother, what was the last RJD you heard and what do you own with his name on it? lol

I own Rainbow's Greatest Hits and that is it for now.

My Dio/Sabbath records were sold eons ago and I never replaced them as I don't listen to either anymore as that phase is gone.

Rainbow is another story as I still love Ritchie Blackmore.

HA HA HA! LOL

Yo Brutha' Randy,

I'm STILL stuck in the 80's, man!

I have STILL HAVE Dream Evil, Last In Line & Holy Diver...I have almost EVERY Rainbow CD (Including Joe Lynn Turner), and all of Deep Purple Albums! I STILL have every CD & EVERY album I've ever purchased....right down to my original Iron Maiden & Judas Priest picture discs.

To be honest, I have close to 3000 CD's at home! I have to keep them all in special cabinets I get from www.can-am.ca

They make CD storage cabinets for Radio Stations & Home use. Come to think of it, I need to buy another one. LOL

I used to be a DJ for Car Shows in the NY, CT, NJ area (for many years). Not to mention, just being a musician, I CAN'T get rid of ANY of my music. I still listen to all of them. hehehe

So..... hehehe

Chris

No worries as the 80's were great time. You and I are from that era bro. As for me, I went back and purchased some of the gems of the past such as JP's Unleashed in the East, Dokken's first two, UFO, Pat Travers, yada-yada-yada. My collection is not as large as yours somewhere around 1500. Lots blues, jazz, classic rock, fusion, some classical and modern country. You can even find a few pieces of bluegrass, rockabilly, and other eclectic items.

O...M...G!

Unleashed in the East.....BEST PRIEST ALBUM!

PS: Randy,
Wanna hear something cool.....Check out the band "Iron Horse". They have an Ozzy Tribute album. ALL BLUEGRASS, and it ROCKS!!!

Awesome vocals & playing!!!!

Chris

That is just like Hayseed Dixie! I have three of their CD's doing tribute bluegrass style.

http://www.hayseed-dixie.com/Home.html

The first disc is AC/DC music.
Number two is just classic rock tunes including "Cat Scratch Fever"
Number three is "KISS my Grass" you can figure that one out.

Looking at the site they have 5 other disc's that I will have to buy - Just great stuff.

Here is a couple for ya!

This Hayseed Dixie stuff is pretty unique!

Did you ever listen to NewGrass Revival? They take off on a rock or pop tune from time to time.

Unleashed in the East.....BEST PRIEST ALBUM!

You have to own the Japanese release!!! That disc has 4 additional songs: 1) Rock Forever; 2) Delivering the Goods; 3) Hell Bent for Leather; 4) Starbreaker. Thinking back the Japanese record had an EP that came along with the LP with the additional songs.

I have to say I was really shocked to hear of his death.

"Staaaaaaaaaaar-brrrrAYKAAAA! Take me up so HIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH!!!!

THAT SONG ROCKS!

Chris

Wasn't the group originally called "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow"? Anyway I saw them on their first tour way back in the 70's. That 1st album was great.......RIP.

I believe that was just on the first album. All following albums's were as such: Rainbow Rising, Rainbow Long Live Rock and Roll, etc.

Funny,

I watched a video clip of Blackmore (many years ago), and he was asked the following question:

Interviwer:
"Ritchie, I'm curious, will you ever release your very own solo album?"

Ritchie:
"ALL of my albums are solo albums!"

LOL!!!

Chris

That is so cool and very true!

I've gotten over the initial shock of hearing this, but still, man, what a colossal loss.

:-(

RIP Ronnie, you will be sorely missed.

I hear ya', Ryan...

Well, hopefully, he's up there playing with Randy Rhoads, Eric Carr, and all the other rock musicians who have passed away.

Chris

Heaven's all-star rock band!

I was really shocked when I heard of this. I mean, I watched him in an interview 2-3 weeks ago on the news, and he was actually looking pretty good under the circumstances....

Doctors had a promising outlook....I don't get it.

Chris

You tend to wonder if Bret Michaels will follow as well. Granted Bret is no where near RJD's vocals but he did offer up nice T&A on his VH1 shows.

LOL

Bret seems like an OK guy as far as I know. I have heard some unflattering stories about a certain lead guitarist , however!

Actually Bret's cool! If you are speaking of CC, weeeeeeeelllllllll - that's another story.

I used to know ONE of Bret's G/F's....Used to work on her car

Chris

thats interesting... he was from PA if I recall...

but more importantly.. is she hot???

eh'????

She was OK, but, not like a "10" or anything.

All she did was talk about him....

Bret this, Bret that, do you know he's in Poison?...blah blah blah...

Chris

Him and Rick both lived here in Mechanicsburg, PA. I always thought Rick was a closet homosexual. He cut hair right below my drummers apartment. I used to run into Brett here and there. He just drove me insane!

"ME...ME...ME...ME.... THE BAND....ME...ME...ME... THE BAND

I just tried to avoid him when possible. They're band was just horrible! Brett couldn't sing, none of them could really play. One club owner put it best when he said "They're not very good but they try really hard so I keep booking them". They were a promotion machine I will give them that. If they wouldn't have left Mechanicsburg and went to California they would have had no success, not even a chance at any. The bands in the area were far too talented. They were bottom of the barrel. Brett was annoying the Hell out of me one night at a club called The Metron in Harrisburg. He told me they were leaving for California and I was thinking GOOD!!! I'LL HELP YOU PACK! Some time later I see the Poison video for Talk Dirty To Me on MTV. A ripped off Cheap Trick lick just made me shake my head and realize that talent isn't very important to most people when it comes to music. I gotta give them props though. They had a dream and never gave up on it. They worked very hard promoting themselves and lived in squalor, but never threw in the towel.

Dave

Promotion is the key to it all! KISS is one giant promotion machine. If you look back at it all - Motley Crue never had much talent either. A Studio musician played the bass lines on that first album and I am sure it was that way with Poison too.

From time to time I do wonder about the bands and artists that make it. Many of them these days seem to me like someone said " we can sell this artist/image, so we need to sign them" rather than being a notable musical talent.


I enjoyed Poison back in those days. I got that first album, it was just fun music.
Its still fun to hear some of their stuff.

Poison's first album was just pure party music.

As for your comment on saleable, that is totally true. While talent helps push an artist, marketability is the key to the fine arts. As you know word of mouth is the best way as it comes from credibility. But buzzes come from having that celebrity or name person accidently stumbling on that artists. Hence the being in the right place at the right time. The rest is marketing and promotion.

Take Shawn Lane who has had a big buzz floating in the 80's. He came out with a few recording but disappeared. While Satriani had a buzz on his second album "Not of this Earth" and buzz blossomed with "Surfing with the Alien". All of a sudden Satch is everywhere but where is Shawn Lane?

People talk about that dude on You Tube doing the record breaking "Flight of the Bumblebee", but will the general public care. It is not marketable to the general public who will make or break you.

Someone once told me that people who get lucky at something very often were out there trying their best, trying to get interviews or whatever, generally meeting people and honing their skills, so that in a way they "made their luck" by being out there in their chosen field working and making contacts.

Some of the newer singers I hear strike me as someone that was deemed a saleable image, rather than being someone with a lot of talent, depth, etc.

Like David Lee Roth once said: "We play the game of life and we play it for all it is worth. It is not whether you win or lose, it is how good you looked".

Hanging in clubs and meeting everyone is one of the ways to get your name out there. Motley Crue used to invite people back to their apartment to build their fan base, eat and party.

Making contacts and networking is your best way of putting you out there. With the internet you have an abundance of mediums to introduce yourself to the world. Talent is just the vehicle to get you audibly recognized but the saleable image is what people see. Take Lady Gaga, everyone has heard of her. She keeps changing her look so it intrigues people to want to see what she does next.

Kiss was the same way. The show sold them and not so much the music. Granted there are some gems from that band. When I was introduced to them, I said: "What sort of prat where's this type of makeup?", this was 1975 - I became a fan in 1976. I liked the music and thought that the look was cool.

Remember - it is better to have a bad image than no image at all. After all, recognition is the biggest key.

I think the Rolling Stones got a lot of mileage out of bad press in the 60s... just made them seem more like rebels.

You got it bro! All the bad boy press made them more desirable in the news. Just like our local and national news. How many of the bad events are covered vs. the good events. Our own congress bash each other on the bad things rather than focus on the good things or things needing real change.

Not all the Stones run ins with the law were drug related.

I think one of them got busted for urinating on a wall at a gas station late at night! They were travelling and stopped there to go.

Back to Bret - I was at my girlfriends place last night and she had American Idol on, and Bret steps out singing with one of the contestants.

Talk about never giving up! He had some health issues and managed to make that show.

I watched 5 minutes at the start of the show and couldn't take it anymore. Alice Cooper's "School's Out" IMHO was destroyed - however it was nice to see Orianthi jamming though.

I missed Orianthi on there.... saw Hall and Oates and Michael Mc Donald, as well as Bret. I usually don't watch it, but we were doing things around the house and had it on.

I know she played in School Out. There were cut shots during that performance on her. That is the only performance I saw on Idol. I couldn't watch it after that song.

I got nostalgic and pulled out a greatest hits CD by the Bangles ( I got it at Walmart) I still like listening to them too.
This CD pulled up some stuff from their first album, which was a little more 60s-ish in some ways but had some neat tunes like "Dover Beach" as well. Not a lot of fancy guitar, more like Brit-pop meets Mamas and Papas ( without papas!) and good harmonies.

Susanna Hoffs was freakin' hot in those days!!! I can hear her singin' Manic Monday in my head with that sexy voice.

BOTH guitarists were really nice to look at! Last time I saw them on TV they were still hot too.

I was a big fan of them back then. I got the big hit album, then got an earlier one that was really good.

I believe the other girl was Debra Peterson IIRC. They were all good looking girls but Ms. Hoffs had that extra special Je na se qua (sp) - lol.

2 of those gals were sisters, I think.

Vicki and Debbi Peterson, I forget who played guitar.

Oui, Mssr. Hano - Susanna does have something special going on!

"Motley Crue never had much talent either"

Amen!

Promotion is very important. That's why when you cut a CD you need a Promotion Plan and cash set aside to do it. I see local bands cut CD's and put nothing into promoting it other than at gigs. It just makes no sense to me. We put a boat load of cash into promoting ours. We had a plan and money budgeted to do it.

Dave

We had a plan and money budgeted to do it.

Completely true. And the first thing you want to do is sell them all just to recover your costs. If you do, next step is to print more depending on the demand to your supply needs. Overhead you made goes to the restock of the original product and possibly the reinvestment in the next project to keep your customer awaiting the possible next release.



Business 101

I enjoy listening to the Crue sometimes, but I recall Mick Mars getting Best Guitarist in a poll one year back in the late 80s or early 90s. At the time seemed to me there were a lot of guys just as good or better. Then again... he has done something right to make a career of it!

Career wise, I agree. He also had control of the marketing machine from what I remember reading. His relative helped the Crue get the start with management and the first album. Because of the initial sales, Elektra had to look at them, signed them and rereleased the first album less one song and others remixed. The original LP was released on Leather records. My buddy bought that album when it was first released.

Warren DiMartini (Ratt) was asked to join but Mick was going to pull the sponser ship if he joined. Now that is control. Great business decision for Mick because the Crue became larger than Ratt ever did.

MARKETING!!!