Drummer Vinny Appice has responded to rumours that there was a feud between Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio.
The claims of the bad blood between the two iconic metal singers relate to how Dio replaced the Prince Of Darkness as the frontman for Black Sabbath during the ‘80s.
Dio made his debut with the Birmingham metal pioneers on the 1980 album ‘Heaven And Hell’ after Ozzy was kicked out of the group, and remained for ‘Mob Rules’, which arrived the following year. He then left the line-up shortly afterwards and took Appice with him to start the band Dio.
Now, despite years of speculation that the two singers disliked each other, Appice has said that Ozzy Osbourne actually “really liked” the Rainbow singer, despite being temporarily upset about him replacing him in Sabbath.
Speaking on a new episode of Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, the drummer shared: “Ozzy would always tell me how he loved Ronnie. Everybody created this thing that they hate each other, but Ozzy used to talk about him all the time.
He continued: “He used to talk about my brother [Carmine], saying, ‘You know, I really like your brother’. He would tell me the same things the next day, too, [and] tell me about Ronnie.”
“He really liked Ronnie… and there are some pictures on the internet where they’re hanging out, actually,” Appice added. “You know, things get blown up on the internet. You don’t know the truth – really – of what’s going on.”
Back in 2022, Osbourne opened up about his thoughts on Dio joining Sabbath during an interview with SiriusXM, and said that he eventually overcame his upset at the situation and realised that the singer “did a good job” fronting the group alongside Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi.
“At the time, I was fucking sad because they were the only thing that ever happened to me,” he said via Ultimate Classic Rock, adding that he was pleased to see that his former bandmates went for “somebody completely different” instead of an “Ozzy sound-alike.”
He also admitted that he didn’t listen to any of the albums with Dio, saying: “It’s like my ex-wife. [When] you leave a band like that, it’s just like getting divorced. You don’t go, ‘How’s your new bloke? Is he better than me?’”
He then said: “Looking back, [hiring Dio] was the best thing that ever happened”, as it gave the band the opportunity to have a “good start again.”
Ozzy returned to Sabbath for Live Aid in 1985, then did a one-off show with the group in 1992, before returning to the line-up properly in 1997. A ‘Reunion’ album arrived in 1998, and after a hiatus in 2006, Sabbath returned in 2011. Follow-up releases included the ‘13’ album in 2013 and ‘The End’ EP in 2016.
Ronnie James Dio died after losing his battle with stomach cancer in 2010. He was aged 67.
His diagnosis was shared in November 2009, and ahead of his death, it initially appeared that he was making good progress. When announcing his passing, his wife and manager Wendy said that “many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes” to him, and the singer “knew how much he was loved by all”.
Dio spoke to NME in 2009 about his stint with Black Sabbath and shared how he was invited by Tony Iommi to join the group in 1979.
“The first show I played with them was in front of 105,000 at the Coliseum in LA,” he shared. “I didn’t feel any pressure to replace Ozzy because I’m sensible enough to know that I’m not Ozzy, but I think Ozzy was very, very hurt at being turfed out like that.”
“I actually saw him at the same bar a month later, and he was very civil – but somebody told me he was looking for a knife to kill me! He always seemed to like me more when I was out of the band,” he quipped.
In other Ronnie James Dio news, in 2021 Geezer Butler recalled how he first showed the singer the ‘devil horns’ hand sign before the gesture became globally associated with him.
“On the first couple of ‘Heaven And Hell’ tour shows, Ronnie was saying, ‘When I’m going on stage everybody is doing the peace sign to me, and that’s an Ozzy [Osbourne] thing. I feel like I should be doing something back to them’,” Butler recalled.
“I showed him the ‘devil horns’ sign. And he started doing it from there and made it famous.”
When asked why he’d never spoken publicly about this before, Butler said that he “didn’t really think much of it”.
As for Osbourne, the heavy metal pioneer and iconic Black Sabbath frontman sadly died last Tuesday (July 22), aged 76. His family said in a statement that he was “surrounded by love” at the time of his passing.
The news came shortly after the music icon took to the stage for the huge ‘Back To The Beginning’ gig in Birmingham on July 5 – marking his final show both as a solo artist and with Black Sabbath. While a cause of death has not been revealed, Ozzy had been dealing with a myriad of health issues for numerous years, including being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
Countless fans have shared tributes to the ‘Crazy Train’ singer – including Zak Starkey, Adam Sandler, Ghost’s Tobias Forge, Alice Cooper, Elton John, Yungblud, Billie Joe Armstrong, Jack White, Coldplay, Gojira and his former guitarist Jake E Lee.
His final show has brought in “a ton” for charities Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorns Children’s Hospice, and a film documenting the gig is currently in production from Mercury Studios and is set to arrive in cinemas in 2026.
