As a 61 year old metal head who saw all these performers live in their prime it makes me very happy to see this young man rocking out to these legends. Dio , for me will always be he greatest ever and I miss him every day.

One thing I’ve constantly heard is that the recording sessions went COMPLETELY smooth. No egos, no arguments, etc…everyone had a good time and brought their A game to make a positive difference in helping those in need. With this type of legendary lineup and various people, that’s the equivalent of a modern day miracle. Quite possibly the greatest guitar solo(s) of all time! Crazy how you can hear halford belting out those notes a HUGE amount above the others. I also love how everyone was burning the fretboard with intricate solos and then you had Buck burning the fretboard with killer rhythm. Truly unbelievable

This is so incredibly underrated. Ronnie James Dio put this together. I love it. Sad that several of these guys have passed away including RJD. I have never seen anyone react to this until now. Thank you!!!

That was outstanding! The amount of talent in that room is crazy. You could really hear Halfords vocals in the chorus. I wanna go back to the 80's and stay there. Even Micheal Mckean from Spinal Tap was rocking out. Thanks for waking me up today.🤘

Hey there. Never heard this song before and I'm glad you found it. Thanks for sharing this lost treasure.

The Stars ⭐️ Have Finally Aligned!!!! The more you listen to this song the more it goes straight to your heart & straight to your Head !

Larry, this is on the Wiki entry for the song: "The single "Stars" peaked at No. 26 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1986. The music video for "Stars" received moderate airplay on MTV's Heavy Metal Mania and afterward on MTV's replacement program Headbangers Ball." "On 31 May 2004, VH1 premiered a five-night documentary special titled "100 Most Metal Moments", narrated by Dee Snider. At the conclusion, Hear 'n Aid was ranked as the "No. 1 Most Metal Moment"."

Personal: Lead vocals Eric Bloom (Blue Öyster Cult) Ronnie James Dio (Dio) Don Dokken (Dokken) Kevin DuBrow (Quiet Riot) Rob Halford (Judas Priest) Dave Meniketti (Y&T) Paul Shortino (Rough Cutt) Geoff Tate (Queensrÿche) Backing vocals Tommy Aldridge (Ozzy Osbourne) Dave Alford (Rough Cutt) Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge/King Kobra) Vinny Appice (Dio) Jimmy Bain (Dio) Frankie Banali (Quiet Riot) Mick Brown (Dokken) Vivian Campbell (Dio) Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot) Amir Derakh (Rough Cutt) Buck Dharma (Blue Öyster Cult) Brad Gillis (Night Ranger) Craig Goldy (Giuffria) Chris Hager (Rough Cutt) Chris Holmes (W.A.S.P.) Blackie Lawless (W.A.S.P.) George Lynch (Dokken) Yngwie Malmsteen Mick Mars (Mötley Crüe) Michael McKean (in character, and credited as David St. Hubbins of Spinal Tap) Vince Neil (Mötley Crüe) Ted Nugent Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister) Jeff Pilson (Dokken) Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot) Claude Schnell (Dio) Neal Schon (Journey) Harry Shearer (in character, and credited as Derek Smalls of Spinal Tap) Mark Stein (Vanilla Fudge) Matt Thorr (Rough Cutt) Lead guitar solos 1st solo: Craig Goldy (Giuffria) Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister) 2nd solo: Vivian Campbell (Dio) Brad Gillis (Night Ranger) 3rd solo: Neal Schon (Journey) George Lynch (Dokken) 4th solo: Yngwie Malmsteen Vivian Campbell (Dio) 5th solo: George Lynch (Dokken) Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot) 6th solo: Brad Gillis (Night Ranger) Buck Dharma (Blue Öyster Cult) Rhythm guitar melody lines Dave Murray (Iron Maiden) Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden) Bass Jimmy Bain (Dio) Drums Vinny Appice (Dio) Frankie Banali (Quiet Riot) Keyboards Claude Schnell (Dio)

USA for Africa led by Michael Jackson. One of my heroes. And Were stars hear n aid. Led by if course.. Ronnie James Dio. The grand wizard master of rock n metal. Love u Ronnie. Forever.

I was such a HUGE Dio fan back in the day. Veritable who's who of the rock and metal genre at the time. Great stuff R. I. P. Ronnie You are missed

OMFG! I can’t believe you guys did this song. One of my fav songs of all time, from when I was Ethan’s age when this came out. I love it til this day. The outro solos are done by Iron Maiden. Great!

I absolutely love this, it’s a Metal guitarist’s wet dream, solo, after solo, after solo, after solo. This didn’t get a heavy rotation on MTV, Metal didn’t get as much rotation as the mainstream music, until Headbangers Ball came on, and that didn’t start until the late 80’s when Metal was starting to fade and get squeezed out by Grunge. Unfortunately it didn’t get the recognition it deserved. Stay Cool 😎 and… \m/ Stay Metal \m/

I bought the single as soon as it came out and all the metal bands singles in the 80s great times and their still going most of them

I remember this song when I was 16 I loved metal then and still do.

So true. This song should be more known. Ethan is right, this song is better than We are the world and Do they know it's christmas.

Never heard this before. It’s great. Much more power than live aid.

Great song and great reaction! Ethan - loved the mention of Geoff Tate! To your point Larry, I never heard of this song and it is a shame because this is my era and my genre. The vocals and guitar were unreal. Epic Poll Thursday Larry! Love the change in venue as well - great job with that! Hope Larry, Ethan and the family are well!

Yes!!! 🤘🤘🤘

To the Dad , you and I are probably around same age. I grew up in Dallas with concert promoters in my household and was friends with an on air metal radio station announcer/DJ. That's how I was able to find this. I later bought a cassette tape that had not only this song but some of the bands involved with this donated a previously unreleased track to help make fans want to buy it. I was huge Twisted Sister Phreak-a-saurus kind of fan . Still am for that matter.

Members of Quiet Riot , Motley Crue , Judas Priest , WASP A truly amazing line up. And the industry hated that Metal was overtaking the world. I owned a documentary on VHS about Dio getting everyone to agree to the song , written spur of the moment , and was the BRILLIANCE of Dio

I can't believe I've never even thought to look this up on here. Thanks for this one! Whew!

Thus project, is like the all star game of 80's guitar players! So awesome!

Gosh this takes me back..loved this when it came out and I remember watching the Making of.which is awesome in itself! I was a definitely a rocker back as a teen so I know all of the greats in this video :) Keep On Rockin'

..greetings from Germany. I missed two in the name list..Adrian Smith & Dave Murray from Maiden, my number one, were also a part of Hear'n Aid 🐾🤘✌🎸🌈

Young’un you just witnessed one of the greatest collabs of all time. I was around 16 when this first came out. To be present among those kings I’da given my left foot. R.I.P. Dio!

I'm surprised dad never said anything when blackie lawless was up on the screen

Father knows best... metal did save the 80s..such a awesome time..

Hail metal Hail Dio...this tune still kicks ass...its magic

I caught this video last night. I remember when this song came out. It DID get some airplay on MTV but was never in heavy rotation. It was played like once or twice a week for a couple months then just sort of disappeared. While Metal was very popular at the time, it still did not get a lot of airplay in most markets. Bands like Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Quiet Riot did get played heavily on MTV they were the exception, not the rule. Metal was often overlooked. Even MTV only had a weekly show dedicated to it, The Headbangers Ball. Most Radio stations avoided a lot of the bands except in specialty shows usually played once a week, late at night. This was the norm even in the Los Angeles area where I grew up. You might hear some of the so called Hair Bands who crossed over to the pop charts...Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison, etc, but you would hardly hear Ozzy, Iron Maiden, or Dio unless you were lucky. Forget about hearing heavier bands like Metallica and Anthrax. Most of those great, legendary bands got by on word of mouth...or you read about them in magazines like Circus and Hit Parader. You read about them, then sought out their cassettes and CDs at the music store. Your friends would introduce you to new bands via owning a cassette the picked up. You would go to the music store and pick up new albums of bands you never heard of on the recommendation of someone there or because they looked cool on the album cover.

Never knew about this! A mighty nice cast of voices there. I like how it started soft as if a teaser. Guitar work is wicked good! Hear N Aid was deafening fantastic!👍

This was played back in the day, but not in big MTV rotation. Larry's right, and I share it on social media as much as possible without spamming it to infinity. The solos - it's amazing that they could put those solos together without giving the listener noodling fatigue. Especially, Neil Schon, George Lynch, VIvian Campbell and Yngwie were on fire !!! Glad you chose to react to this masterpiece of history and music

Great tune for sure. Metal's answer to the famine in Ethiopia. I think there's a longer video documenting the whole process of this song. These guys were my music world back in the 80s and they still are. Glad you liked it.

Wow what a song. Kickass guitar. I rocked right with you. 👀👍

You guys should have killed this in views, such a great production. Glad you watched it.

You guys haven't done Dokken yet, need some George Lynch solos Dokken -Heaven sent Dokken Tooth and nail Dokken- IN my dreams

You guys kick ass for reacting to this bad ass tune.The live version is even better.Because RJD sings it himself.Hail Metal HailDIO.hornsup🤘

Wow never heard this before great song great guitarists that was increadable Lary&Ethan 😄😂

I still have the VHS Behind the Scenes video that I bought about a hunnert years ago - you guys should check it out sometime (you can find it on YT). It's cool to see the guys in the studio and it's got the dude from Spinal Tap in it with some pretty funny bits. I think it missed airplay because it was longer than 4 minutes. Back in the day it was almost impossible to get longer songs played. Love it man!

I don't remember hearing this back in the day...it's possible that I did but my memory is shot haha! This was really good...especially the guitar solos! The fact that they did this for a good cause makes it all that much more great. MTV and mainstream media in general never gave metal any respect...they played some of the songs but never really took the genre as a whole seriously. Metal still doesn't get any mainstream support, but the genre is alive and well with millions of fans around the world. A great reaction and I would like to thank you for playing this song...I see in the comments that a lot of people hadn't seen it before so it's great that you've shown it to us. My suggestion this time is for an underrated classic metal band, Warlock (featuring the godmother of metal, Doro Pesch) with Burning The Witches (Live 1985) (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aZmElbWQlrPcZ5s.html). Cheers!

I have this on vinyl since the 80´s, the project was managed by Ronnie James Dio, Vivian Campbell and Jimmy Bain from Dio, i think its a great song. Rock In Peace Ronnie and Jimmy 🤘🤘

I'm glad that you guys did this reaction.

i'm with Larry.. i grew up in the 80s and wouldn't have known about this except for a friend having the vinyl. I don't recall seeing the video on our equivalent of ''headbanger's ball''. What a great cast of singers and musicians on there.

Dio, all that power packed into that tiny body. I always told my youngest son that Dio was life sized in his videos, and the kid actually believed me for a very long time. But, it has always amazed me that the powerhouse voice came from that body, kind of like Klaus Meine from The Scorpions. Just amazing....

Man, I so miss those days

I bought this vynil in Lisbon the year it was released when i wasn't even looking for it. But i just had to have it! I'm happy!

This was played a lot on MTV during Headbangers Ball!!

Larry it was never main stream, it’s just that WE you & I thought it was, Why because it was NEW British Heavy Metal Wave ! Head Bangers ball didn’t come on until 11 or 12 o’clock at night ! It was kind of like the few , The Few The Proud the Metal Militia ! We sure loved it didn’t we ! Without question a better time in life to grow up , more freedom & better music 🎶!!!!! I often wonder why the rest of the world didn’t here we we could hear , perhaps they needed Hearing AIDS !

This is great. I have this on vinyl as well.

One of the greatest collaborations of all time. A time when all hotheads were put aside for something that mattered. A great great classic that cannot be out done PERIOD.

Yeah ok I caught a glimpse of Klaus Miene , George Lynch, Malmsten, Neil Schon, Rob Halford look so young.. Was Steve Vai there, I didn’t pick him out through all the hair. I remember this collaboration. Been so long ago. Oh and I almost forgot, Brad Gillis was shredding with his wa wa bar as usual.

Great tune! I like your new set-up and love the chairs :)

Ethan nailed why this didn't get more airplay....almost like HE was the one who was around then. You pretty much had to navigate to Headbangers Ball to see this.

Still have it on VHS

This was an awesome reaction guys! I’m like you Larry grew up in the 80s and was into metal and don’t ever recall seeing this. I’m sharing the heck out this guys! 👍🏻👍🏻

You can watch the entire feature on youtube....its about 50 minutes long and shows the entire recording...really cool....BTW, this song did play on MTV quite a bit, especially on Headbangers Ball....

Larry is right..partially...metal was played on MTV in heavy rotation in the mid to late 80's but it was 99% from the hair metal genre...Bon Jovi, Poison, Quiet Riot, Twisted Sister, Dokken, Skid Row, Def Leppard, Van Halen etc...that's why many bands from the 70s and early 80s who wanted to stay relevant on MTV started wearing eyeliner, some blush, and pink frilly clothes. (Kiss for example, and even Judas Priest and Ozzy to a degree) and other bands who weren't hair metal per se like Cinderella, (who sounded like AC-DC), Quiet Riot, Queensryche and Twisted Sister had to submit to the glam look even though they were a heavy metal band or a great hard rock band. The only true heavy metal song that was played in heavy rotation was Metallica's video for the song One in 1988. The bands like Dio, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Megadeth, etc were all pushed to Saturday nights at like midnight on a show called Head bangers ball.

This song pretty much summed up the big 80's for me, then came rap.....

Great reaction guys subscribed to you great attitudes towards metal keep rokin guys

Great stuff guys! Also, please don’t change your intro song. I love that song!

Great tune, one of the best charity songs ever. Great pick guys!

I've not heard of this before - it's good ! And yes, this effort should have been given more praise when it came out. The whole purpose of the album was to raise money for those suffering from famine in Africa. What a fantastic premise and such a great thing to do ! I took note of the Hendrix track on the album (according to Wikipedia) by the Jimi Hendrix Experience - too cool ! Nice reaction, Ethan and Larry ! 👍

Don't forget spinal tap was in there

Great reaction guys.

YALL have an Echo Chamber there ! Just to let y’all know ,

The kid is right, yes MTV played metal in the 89's but they shunned this for some unknown reason...BTW, did you notice Def Leppard was NOT there?

Subscribed!

I think overall I thought the music was fine and the guitar solos were truly awesome. The lyrics, I wasn't so keen on. I think "We're stars" is a little self-serving. There was thought to be an element of that in the UK with the Band-Aid project. Once a few big names signed up to the project it started to expand exponentially because nobody wanted to be left out - it became an ego trip.

Finally someone reacted to this. Did you catch actor Michael McKeon in his This is Spinal Tap character? There’s a 45 minute “making of” video ad well. You’ll get introduced to the ones you don’t recognize. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i66Ea7lmtK_PnGg.html

Hi guys, ready for Hear N Aid!

🎸🎸🎶🎼

I`m surprised you didn`t recognize DIO doing his vocal parts.

Y&T

Uhm, you never heard of Headbanger's Ball on MTV? That was all metal. I'm sure there's a KZfaq video of it.

Can u react to a couple or more of dokken songs thank you

Hah! This was cool. I loved it a little more than normal because the video you used was the one I made and uploaded to KZfaq (putting all the names and lyrics!) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rtJhaLqbl7Pbhas.html Loved the reaction - as others said - this was so incredible - and so underrated, due to the neglect by the music community at the time, and their feelings about Heavy Metal. Dio was a master mind and taken too soon.

there's a behind the scenes / documentary of the recording sessions: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i66Ea7lmtK_PnGg.html