Drumming legend Vinny Appice recently joined me on my Talkin’ Rock Podcast. We talked about various things, but something that stood out as really special to me was a story he told me about the first and last song he played with the great Ronnie James Dio.
“The first song I ever played with Ronnie was ‘Neon Knights,'” he said. He went onto explain that he’d heard it on the radio, and when the band, Black Sabbath, asked him what song he wanted to play during his first rehearsal, he said that one. “I knew it was fast, and there weren’t many stops in it,” he said. He didn’t really know the song, but with its fast tempo, he thought he could get through it. Fast-forward to 2009, which was their last tour with Ronnie, and at a show in Atlantic City, Vinny explained that the last song he ever played with the legendary front man was, in fact, “Neon Knights.” Wow!
