vivian was a huge part of the success of those two dio albums, monster player

Holy Diver and Last In Line are classic metal records. Viv finally got paid with Def Leppard but he hasn't ever shredded like those first 2 records again.

Criminal how all of this talent in music went unpaid.

Vivian Campbell is a class act and an excellent guitar player!!!!

holy diver solo is brilliant and the album is one of the few rock albums with every song is great.

I believe him 100 percent..This goes on very often in the business..

Rediculous being treated like that. Vivian wrote and played brilliantly on the first two albums! Some of the best music of our time. RJD and Wendy are like Ozzy and Sharon. They are only out to get what they can and to hell with anybody else. Jake E Lee being a prime example, same thing happened to him with Ozzy. Millions of dollars going around except to the people who make the music that we all treasure so much. That being said RIP RJD. One of the finest singers and performers of our time!

Never give up your songwriting credits. EVER!

The whole situation between Vivian, Dio, and Wendy reminds me of Jake E Lee, Ozzy, and Sharon

I was the biggest DIO fan as a kid and was distraught when Viv left

Vinny and Jimmy said the same thing. Viv is honest

I believe the girlfriend/wife situation with Wendy running things with Dio was the inspiration for the girlfriend managing the band in the movie Spinal Tap.

The love of money is the root of all evil…

Vivian Campbell is brilliant! I was impressed to hear he’d saved what little money he was receiving. It’s disappointing to hear that Ronnie was not fair to the guys in his band.

I remember pre paying for Holy Diver on cassette at a small record shop in Warwick R.I. I got the call that it was in. By the time I got to the store the clerk told me they had sold out. Good thing I pre paid for mine. I played that cassette non stop.

Say what you want about Vivian but Dio's popularity dropped significantly after Vivian left. The first three albums went gold or platinum. None did after him.

I’m glad Campbell got into Def Leppard and untimely made the RRHOF. He was constantly screwed by other artist bands that he played in. Dio and Whitesnake the 2 most famous examples. 2 bands in name only and really a singers solo project.

The band was never the same after that horrible business decision by Wendy and Ronnie.

You’re narrations are just the best!

Full In Bloom is the number one Rock Authority on the KZfaq platform. Thanks a bunch. Keep up the great work. You have the natural voice for this. Flawless radio rock n roll perfection style cadence and vocal perfection.. Best. Blessings. Keep Rocking. Full In Bloom is the best. -♥️☀️.

One of my fave guitar solos ever is from "Rainbow in the Dark". Vivian was so good at such a young age. A friend of mine told me that he left Whitesnake because of Tawny Kitaen bossing everyone around.if anyone knows it's true, please reply. It seems fitting that Vivian joined Def Leppard. They didn't seem to have egos that we're over the top. Dio knew who he had and he lost him. Viv's solos in Whitesnake are just as good. More power to him.

Wow, That’s just crazy, Vivian Campbell was one of my favorites back in those Dio days, his playing was so spontaneous and rad! I was 14 in 1984, my first concert was Motley Crue in 1985 at Joe Louis arena in Detroit Michigan. I loved the music in the 80s big time. I’m glad Vivian is playing with Def Leopard, I saw them in 2009 with Poison in Tinley Park Illinois, I was 20 rows back, great concert! Vivian Campbell is still badass!

A VERY famous 80s hairband hired me to put down a solo on one of their songs, i had agreed BEFOREHAND to not have any credits and didnt care because i was being WELL paid, THEN they cut the ACTUAL guitarist out of the credits as well. Its a dirty business.

It's a shame Dio couldnt do the right thing. I was a big fan. I guess singing for Sabbath must do something to you morally. Youre not just paying for the rehearsals and performances, youre paying for the 10,000 hours it takes to be that good. Lots of great players. Very few great songwriters.

Vivian was on Dio's first 3 records....nothing after even comes close

Vivian is right, Dio should have had the balls to stand up to his wife and say "hey, we've got something really special going on here, and we're going to pay these guys what they're worth!".

Total betrayal by Ronnie.. Which led to the destruction of the best DIO lineup, period!

Thanks for another interesting and informative video

Man.... this is gold. So much apricated what Full In Bloom does.... BTW. Sacred Heart is a fantastic exit album if the great Mr. Campbell.

Ronnie proved to be a small man in more ways than one.

Great that Vivian has the balls to speak up about the injustice and manipulation. God Bless

all those 80's Dio albums are metal classics in my book(including "Dream Evil")...... I even like some of the later records...... but that Vivian era is truly unmatched...... so many great tunes

I was playing in a band in Montreal, in the 80’s and Dio and his band came to the montreal forum for a concert. The day before the concert some of his band members came to the club where me and my band played. As we were playing the first set, we noticed lots of people at one table, and soon enough we discovered it was jimmy bain and vivian campbell. So after the set we went to talk to them, lots of drinks, lots of women , and we asked if they wanted to play onstage with our band, they declined. As we begin the second set our bass player went to the microphone and asked the crowd if they wanted to see Campbell and Bain play some Dio onstage with us……The crowd went crazy, so they couldn’t refuse, I saw their look and they were not pleased but they did came onstage. In my band we were 2 guitars, and the other guitarist had a marshall and some pedals like randy rhoads, and myself had the same equipment, So vivan got his guitar and started to tweak the sound, and to my surprised it sounded like Van Halen’s brown sound, he just tweak the amp and the mxr distortion + and voila! It was a night to remember , cause when you see a rockstar next to you, it stays in your memory forever. Very nice people, and real cool guys.

When I was 14 (back in 1984), me and a couple of mates skipped school and we heard from a mate that there was a rock star staying in Buncrana (Donegal, Ireland) at his family's summer house...so we made our way over and believe it or not we seen him and we still argue with each other about the songs we heard him play (I still say it was the songs from Sacred Heart)

Sadly, Ronnie never learned from this mistake, and continued to pay his musicians poorly. That's why he's had so many players in his band. A friend of mine was playing guitar for Dio in the early 2000's, but quit because the guitar store he worked at paid him way more money lol.

"Shame on the night" is my favorite song on the holy diver album.

Cool utube Channel. Keep up the great work.

Dio could have been really big in the 80's had he kept the original band together. Instead, he went through a bunch of guitarists and released ok albums. He never did better than his first two albums and I guess he couldn't see the big picture in the beginning and it cost him in the end. The only Dio album I really like apart from the first two is Lock Up The Wolves. He should have kept Rowan because he was the most perfect player for Dio.

Sounds like Dio"s Rainbow was low on color, like black & white! Btw...I deliver stuff to a pretty big business in Cortland NY...and there is a street near this business called "Dio Way" its a VERY SHORT STREET...umm no pun intended 😜

I had a chat with Viv at Heathrow airport before he joined Def Leppard when I was 21 ish and aspiring to be a musician etc... He told me, stop practicing, write songs and own your song publishing. He then said, your a software kid, just do that if you like sleeping and having a family, chances you do well as a musician is so rare and stressful etc... He was such a normal person and I took his life advice!

long live viv those 1st two dio recordings...⚡🔥💥

Viv's accounting is believable. Dio and Wendy pulled A Sharon. Sadly for Ronnie it was downhill the moment he cast Viv off. His resurgence in the late 90's and 2000's was the Heaven and Hell/ Sabbath reunion records. The fact that Vinnie and Bain formed Last in Line with Viv says quite a lot about Viv's character imo.

there was a lot of this, a lot of these guys like ozzy and Dio were paying it forward, of course Ozzy and Darth hideous were the most egregious.

Campbell has always maintained that RJD was a talented artist, bad businessman and terrible human being and that his wife Wendy was a sleazy businesswoman.

This tarnishes the legacy of Dio and I agree that people in general need to honor their word period. I have heard so many simular stories in the music biz and as an artist myself have been exploited and ripped off.

I’m a Dio fan. I loved him in Rainbow, Sabbath and his solo stuff. That said, he badmouths almost everyone he has played with, while playing on this “nice guy” image. I don’t think he was any worse than anyone else in the business, and likely better than many, but I don’t think he was as nice a guy as many fans want to believe he was.

I cannot believe the similarities between this situation and Ozzy all the way to the original 'band' being magical and the greedy wife managing.. Crazy..

guys like viv and jake e. lee were between a rock and a hard place.....ultimately, it was either "sign over your shit or get the fuck out."

I really honestly believe that Vivian and most guitar players that are true musicians feel the same way he does with trust issues! I know that I have never been really screwed financially because I never really made it big like him but I have been screwed over the years by fellow musicians in different ways! For example we jammed with a singer for like 2 years and got to the point where we were going to go from playing class b bars to play in the circuit which was considered class A bars! Well the singer had us do a five song demo to get us into this management to play those nice places we would have played from Canada to Florida! Well I didn't know and the other people didn't know it was all to get the singer in an established band that was already doing that and we got screwed! And I do know Chris Holmes from wasp got screwed to like Vivian did!It must be that we were easy to manipulate when we were. Younger and really just wanted to.play rock-'n'-roll guitar!

Jake E Lee : Bark at the Moon , Rock 'n' Roll Rebel . Vivian Campbell : Don't Talk to Strangers , Hungry for Heaven

Holy diver and last in line are classics,the guitar work on the last in line album is unbelievable...

Poor guy! You could only afford a Ferrari!

I always loved Viv’s solo work on those first 2 albums with Dio and I totally get what Ronnie heard, where the cliche wanking ended and the music began. I remember reading a interview he did in a guitar mag, in these early days, where he pointed out that he knew nothing about guitar theory and that his solo’s were developed by simply playing along with and experimenting with the tracks they were cutting until he pieced together all these different parts. It was all technique and his ear!.. and it was brilliant and unique!!! That is a profound statement in a world where “great” solo work is considered endless, mindless sweep arpeggios *yawn*… Guitars players today would do well to put everything they know aside and try to be like early Vivian… quit playing licks and seek out the music and feel inside of the song. Use your ears, wing it, be free and fuck it up until you catch it!!! In my opinion that’s what made early Vivian great!.. BTW, ditto EVH!..

Vivian rules !!!!

I've heard this story a few times and he never deviates from it which would make me think it's the truth. Campbell is wasted in Def Leppard.

Vivian from my home city 🤘🤘

Vivian you rock !

Love Vivian s playing 😎🤘🎸☝️

Vivian also said in an other interview Ronnie James Dio was mean spirited to him.Which is sad i always had a lot of respect for Ronnie,and he seems like the coolest guy in interviews ive seen him do.

A common problem throughout the creative arts industries: movies, music, gaming, writing, journalism. Always a promise of the land of honey just around the corner, work a little harder now and reap the rewards later. Best advice to younger, upcoming artists. Speak to the journeymen in your industry, not the silver tonged marketing guys. If you choose to avoid shitty deals, you will always enjoy creating as no bad taste will be in your mouth and that can be a reward all in itself.

But, but, but, Dio was supposedly the greatest guy who ever walked the earth.

Seen them in Dayton Ohio in 85 sacred heart tour in my top 5 concert's I've seen, Vivian blew the roof off.....

Viv is the reason why I got the album!! Till this day he’s my #1 guitarist!! Same with Ozzy’s speak of the devil with Brad G and the next albums with Jake e.

Dio talked a load of guff over the years about the revolving door guitarists he had after Campbell. I remember he touted Rowan Robertson as better than Blackmore and Iommi.

Well Def Leppard took care of our boy Viv they treated him like a superstar that he is

I'll always feel bad for Viv, he's a great guitarist and a great guy. The only consolation in all this is that Dio opened the door for the Def Leppard gig and most notably, Whitesnake. He ultimately got the credit he deserved but it sux he had to go through what he did to get there.

Mr. Vivian Patrick Campbell 🔥🔥🎸💪👊😎🤘 Mr. Ronald James Padavona 😢 Mr. James Stewart Bain 😢 Mr. Vinnie Sansom Appice Simply The True Dio Band & The Best Line Up 😎

Dio said after the Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow Album that the whole band contributed. Ritchie said that it was because he was the Name Recognition. On the Second Rainbow Album Ritchie just Billed the Band Rainbow. When Dio started out with his band he just Billed himself.

I was a kid in the 70s and a teenager in the 80s. Holy Diver and Last in Line were two albums that shaped my music taste for the rest of my life. I have both CDs in my car right now. The solo to Invisible is still my favorite of all time. And it was all Vivian and Ronnie. I know Vivian and RJD had a big falling out at the end. I remember when Vivian said that he was moving on and it wasn’t going to be this 🤘🏻and flashed the horns, meaning he was done with Dio

holy diver and The last in line are by far the best Dio albums.

I love the channel, but why do you record everything via long distance telephone?

He was coerced? If he didn't like the deal, he should have negotiated. Also, 400 a week was a lot of money in 1983. My mom made 140 a week and raised two kids on it.

Interesting story and I do believe Viv totally. But what it does bother me is that Dio always said aaah in Rainbow it was not that easy to work with Richie etc…. Bla bla So Dio wasn’t better at all. The white haired witch behind him destroyed it all. As usual Like Yoko Ono and the Beatles or Sharon and Ozzys Band etc……

There had been bad blood between Vivian and Dio, and Dio isn't here to defend himself.

i purchased tickets to see Dio with Campbell. From the time i bought tickets to when the show happened was about the time Vivian got fired and Craig Goldie took over. Craig was a great player but we paid to see Vivian.

Always get it in writing, always

A good band is made up of a human chemistry. If it klicks, and you have the will to make it work, it will. Attitudes, self pride, and what not will undue this formula, and when it’s lost, well that’s what Rock History is. I still enjoy the old albums of my youth as if I just bought them yesterday. Allot of the younger crowd also enjoy the discovery of these Jen’s as we did of days past. It’s refreshing and talented intelligent minded music. Long Live Rock!

Nether one ever had that type of success again

If Cambells story is on point, I can agree that he made the right choice.

It's too bad this comes to light way too late. It's called A band for a reason. Greed is always prevalent with Scumbag managers in the entertainment business. Takes no talent to be a thief Wendy.

One of the greatest songs...

i was hanging sheetrock back then , making 600 a week and laying out at least once a week .So the guys on the radio at the jobsite was making less than the clean up laborers ,plus we wore sweat pants instead of the leather required by the Eighties metal dweebers.....

A gentleman's deal never works out . This is how the greedy preys on good people. Always have it documented

I watched a fan video where Dio swore and cursed Vivian. Why is Dio acting so angry, I thought.

Remember all those rad solos Craig Goldy played? Me neither.

Those Dio records were the shit. Why he fluffed out with Def Lep is disappointing.

Woops, I thought this was about Alvin Lee. Anybody see the resemblance?

Nothing worse, than the singer's wife acting as band manager.

I loved Vivian in Dio. When he left it never was as good. I think Ronnie had everyone fooled into thinking Vivian was a bad person, turns out it was him and his greed.

OK, let's do some ball park calculations. Back in the mid-80s a Ferrari 308 in the UK would have cost about £60,000. Even if it took Viv 3 years to save, that's £20k per year - savings, after what little he does spend. Let's say, he spends (like he claims) zero pounds for 3 years (which is hard to believe), then he's earning £20k p.a. minimum. Now, with the UK retail price index, in today's money (2022) that's up by a factor of 3.56. That means in today's real terms, he was earning £20,000 x 3.56 = £71,000 p.a. MINIMUM! For those in other countries, you are classed as 'wealthy;' here in the the UK if your income is more than £60k. I wouldn't call that 'grim' mate.

The cheapest Ferrari Vivian? It’s still a feckin Ferrari mate 🤣👏👏👏🤘

As much as Ronnie stated in interviews that he was treated badly by Ritchie Blackmore and also by Black Sabbath, Ronnie does the exact same thing when he is in a position of power. I never believed that “Dio” was a band meaning it was an equal partnership. Ronnie always said that Ritchie “ liked to kick people in the teeth when they were down.” Well, I guess that treatment carries over to you as well. I’m not saying that I totally disliked Ronnie but, he and Wendy were no better than Sharon and Ozzy.

Wendy is no different than Sharon

$400 a week (in what 1984,1985?) Was very good money - especially with little overhead. In addition you're playing guitar; and not working in construction or something similar

i agree Steven he's been held back

So did I understand right that Ronnie actual wrote the main guitar riffs in holy Diver? So Ronnie played guitar? I had always assumed Vivian had composed all the guitar parts.

I can't believe Mtv missed the opportunity of having Sharron Osbourne and Wendy Dio on Celebrity Death Match.

I dont have any reason not to believe Viv, as it all sounds like a reasonable and common explanation of what went down. BUT.... I've always wondered if anyone else in the band at that time (Bain and Appice, Snell) have also corroborated it. Anyone know ?

And Dio seemed like a great honorable guy. Bummer.

what's wrong with Chuck Berry riffs?