{"id":502078,"date":"2026-06-20T06:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/502078\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T06:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:17:19","slug":"i-always-felt-like-i-was-the-weak-link-in-the-band-i-felt-that-my-guitar-playing-was-was-too-raw-and-unpolished-how-guitar-hero-vivian-campbell-overcame-self-doubt-to-create-a-heav","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/502078\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI always felt like I was the weak link in the band. I felt that my guitar playing was was too raw and unpolished\u201d: How guitar hero Vivian Campbell overcame self-doubt to create a heavy metal masterpiece with legendary singer Ronnie James Dio"},"content":{"rendered":"

It takes a brave guitarist to step into a role previously played by Ritchie Blackmore and Tony Iommi<\/a> \u2013 but that\u2019s exactly what Vivian Campbell did when he joined Dio in 1982.<\/p>\n

At that time, he was just 20 years old.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now, at 63, a member of Def Leppard since 1992, Campbell tells MusicRadar: \u201cDio was a great band, you know? It really was. And maybe I didn\u2019t even realise it at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The leader of that band, Ronnie James Dio, had made his reputation as one of heavy metal\u2019s greatest vocalists in the late \u201970s alongside Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow and in the early \u201980s alongside Tony Iommi in Black Sabbath<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The original line-up of Dio featured two of the singer\u2019s old bandmates, ex-Rainbow bassist Jimmy Bain and ex-Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice, plus guitarist Jake E. Lee. But after a short period of rehearsals Lee jumped ship to join Ozzy Osbourne<\/a>\u2019s band as the replacement for the recently deceased Randy Rhoads.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s defection heightened the sense of rivalry between Osbourne and Dio \u2013 a rivalry born when Dio replaced Osbourne in Sabbath.<\/p>\n

But Dio\u2019s frustration didn\u2019t last for long. What he found in Vivian Campbell was a perfect foil.<\/p>\n

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Campbell had made a name for himself in the Belfast-based band Sweet Savage during the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Sweet Savage\u2019s 1981 song Killing Time would later be covered by Metallica<\/a> as the b-side for 1991 single The Unforgiven.<\/p>\n

Sweet Savage “Killing time” live in Dublin – YouTube
\n\"Sweet<\/p>\n

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Campbell\u2019s audition for Dio happened in London at the famed rehearsal studio John Henry\u2019s. Jimmy Bain was absent, so Dio played bass as he and Appice jammed with Campbell. And the first piece of music they played together was a rough draft of a song that would be pivotal to the band\u2019s career \u2013 the title track of the debut album Holy Diver.<\/p>\n

Campbell recalls: \u201cThat night at John Henry\u2019s, my audition, when I first met Ronnie and Vinny, that\u2019s what we played \u2013 Holy Diver. Ronnie didn\u2019t play guitar, but he played bass, and he picked up Jimmy\u2019s bass and showed me the arrangement of it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a completed song at that point, but it was pretty much there, and that\u2019s what we played. We just played it over and over a bunch of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Campbell, it was immediately after this audition that Ronnie James Dio made a promise that he failed to keep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t smoke dope,\u201d Campbell says, \u201cbut they all got stoned, and that\u2019s when Ronnie talked about the band \u2013 how we were going to do three albums, and then we\u2019d have equity after album three.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I was the only one that remembers it, because I was the only sober man in the room, but that\u2019s what I remembered from that night, and that\u2019s what got me fired in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell was dismissed by Dio after the band\u2019s third album, 1985\u2019s Sacred Heart.<\/p>\n

Back in 1982, however, Campbell was thrilled to be working with such a famous and hugely talented singer.<\/p>\n

Having passed his audition, he travelled to Los Angeles to work on material for the Holy Diver album.<\/p>\n

\u201cRonnie had the Holy Diver song, and he had most of Don\u2019t Talk To Strangers, he was finishing that. And then everything else we knocked together at Sound City rehearsal rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don’t Talk To Strangers – YouTube
\n\"Don't<\/p>\n

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The album was recorded in early 1983 at Sound City studios in Van Nuys, California. It was produced by Ronnie James Dio and engineered by Angelo Arcuri.<\/p>\n

Campbell co-wrote five of the nine tracks on the album \u2013 Gypsy, Caught In The Middle, Invisible, Shame On The Night and the anthem that would become Dio\u2019s most celebrated song, Rainbow In The Dark.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, his solo in Rainbow In The Dark was a first take.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a very, very nervous performer,\u201d he says. \u201cOr I was at that stage a very nervous performer. Certainly, I didn\u2019t want people being in the room with me when I was doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I didn\u2019t plan out my solos then. So it\u2019s not like I went into the studio knowing what I was going to play. I was leaning heavily on inspiration just coming at the right time, and it was weird, because Rainbow In The Dark was the very first solo we did, the solo that\u2019s on the record is the very first take, and I had no idea what I was doing!<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d been playing all day, and I was going to record Rainbow In The Dark that night, and it\u2019s in A minor, so I just I played in A minor all day. And I used to smoke Marlboros back then, so I was smoking, drinking coffee\u2026 I was so hyped up!<\/p>\n

\u201cSometime in the evening Ronnie and Angelo [Arcuri] came in and we got a guitar sound and we spent an hour or so faffing around, getting a sound and mic placement and all that, and then it\u2019s like, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s try one.\u2019 And that\u2019s what came out.<\/p>\n

Dio – Rainbow In The Dark (Official Music Video) [HD] – YouTube
\n\"Dio<\/p>\n

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\u201cRonnie immediately said, \u2018Wow, said that\u2019s brilliant! Do you want to try another?\u2019 And my immediate thought was, \u2018Fuck, what\u2019s wrong with that one?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when they roll for the second one I\u2019m thinking, \u2018Well, first time I started up there, I can\u2019t do that.\u2019 So then it becomes a mental thing, and I\u2019m starting to think, \u2018Okay, I got to do something completely different\u2019 \u2013 and it was shit!<\/p>\n

\u201cI did the second one and it was shit, and Ronnie said, \u2018Okay, we\u2019ll just keep the first one, let\u2019s move on to the next song.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I got the first one in the first take it was a false sense of security, because then, moving forward, it wasn\u2019t always like that. I\u2019d go in there and think, \u2018Well, as long as I\u2019m warmed up and I\u2019m up to speed, I\u2019ll hit something in the first two or three passes.\u2019 And it didn\u2019t always work.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Campbell nailed another great solo in the album\u2019s title track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pleased with it,\u201d he says now. \u201cI really like the structure of it, and I think Ronnie did too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe note that I end on is like the minor third. I\u2019m sounding clever here, I think it\u2019s a minor third, and it\u2019s a bendy bit, like I\u2019m bending into it. And Ronnie asked me, \u2018Did you mean to end on that note?\u2019 I said, \u2018Why, don\u2019t you like it? Is there something wrong?\u2019 And he says, \u2018No, no! That\u2019s really interesting. I just didn’t expect that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I felt very pleased about that \u2013 in terms of the structure of the solo. I\u2019m never happy with the performance, but I\u2019m happy with the structure of it. Like, I listen to it now and it sounds like a 20 year-old kid playing guitar, which it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dio – Holy Diver (Official Music Video) [HD] – YouTube
\n\"Dio<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Campbell admits that his nerves got the better of him during the recording of the second Dio album, The Last In Line, at Caribou Ranch studios in Colorado.<\/p>\n

He recalls: \u201cBy the second album I was so feeling so much pressure about Ronnie and Angelo being in the room that I literally had them set me up so I could hit \u2018play\u2019 and \u2018record\u2019 \u2013 this was still on two-inch tape \u2013 and I would say, \u2018You guys go play pinball, go have a drink, come back in like 30 or 45 minutes or something.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the smart thing would be to figure it out beforehand, but I was never accused of being smart! Nowadays, if somebody called me tomorrow and said, \u2018Hey, can you come into recording studio and put a guitar solo on a song for blah blah\u2019, I would absolutely map it out and go and prepare it and just try and capture the performance and not go into that situation expecting that inspiration is going to walk into the room with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explains: \u201cA lot of it comes from experience. That\u2019s how you know how you want to structure a solo. You can imagine where it\u2019s going to go and how it\u2019s going to flow and where it\u2019s going to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his three-album run with Dio, Vivian Campbell went on to play with Whitesnake and with ex-Foreigner singer Lou Gramm in the band Shadow King before finally finding a permanent home in Def Leppard.<\/p>\n

He never reconciled with Ronnie James Dio, who died in 2010. But in 2012 Campbell reunited with Jimmy Bain and Vinny Appice to perform classic Dio songs with singer Andrew Freeman under the name Last In Line. This band also went on to make three albums of original material.<\/p>\n

Dio – The Last in Line [Live at The Spectrum 1984] – YouTube
\n\"Dio<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

40 years since he was fired from Dio, Campbell is proud of what he achieved with the band.<\/p>\n

He recalls: \u201cI knew we we were strong, obviously, but I always felt like I was the weak link in the band. I always felt that my guitar playing was was too raw and too unpolished, so I always listened to it with that hyper critical ear.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was great, you know? I feel very privileged to have been a part of that, even though in the moment I didn\u2019t realise just how great it was.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It takes a brave guitarist to step into a role previously played by Ritchie Blackmore and Tony Iommi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-502078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}