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Rather get screwed by you
Wendy Dio was a guest on The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan podcast (and Billy is a huge fan of Deep Purple, Rainbow, and Dio himself). Here is their long and interesting conversation.
In this powerful and emotional conversation, Wendy Dio joins Billy Corgan to share the brilliance of her late husband, Ronnie James Dio — from their first meeting at the Rainbow to the creation of Blackmore’s Rainbow, following Ozzy in Black Sabbath, and his breakthrough with his own band, Dio. Wendy reveals how Ronnie stayed true to his vision, refusing to chase hits, and how his humility, brilliance, and devotion to fans made him a legend. She and Billy discuss the origins of the devil horns, the making of “Holy Diver” and “Rainbow in the Dark,” and the enduring legacy Wendy continues through the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund.
Thanks to BraveWords, Uwe, and CN for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Wendy is an impressive woman and Billy an extremely gifted interviewer. And I like how she talks about her late husband, not as a deity (no pun intended), but as someone she knew oh so well, yet loved through thick and thin.
She talks about the Moody Blues and her time working for Decca in the late 60s. The Moody Blues would form their own record label – Threshold , distributed by Decca – and Trapeze was one of the first bands on that label. Likely that she got to know Glenn already then (he was invited to sing at Ronnie’s funeral) and not later via her husband and his connection to Purple.
There is a cute moment where she says that Ronnie never wrote love songs, yet a few minutes before she mentions how Rainbow Eyes was about her eyes which according to Ronnie’s impression would appear a different color depending on the light. Now if Rainbow Eyes isn’t a love song and an extremely beautiful one at that! One of the highlights of the Rainbow oeuvre for me, both musically and lyrically.
November 14th, 2025 at 05:18A beautiful female soul…”Rainbow Eyes”
November 14th, 2025 at 05:59A wonderful interview with Wendy, nice and relaxed and Billy Corgan was down to earth as he always is. I didn’t realise she was from England or Britain perhaps. That séance story was amusing, probably easier to hear all these years later from afar. That Chateau of ‘horrors’ ha ha ha. I have always laughed at Wendy’s take on Ronnie possibly joining Sabbath. Dio saying he didn’t really like them or know them, Wendy telling him you WILL like them. Something like that. Thanks ever so much for that, 107 minutes, nice one. Cheers.
November 14th, 2025 at 07:02Corgan is so good and sensitive as an interviewer, you wonder why he doesn’t have his own Late Night TV show. He’s the exact opposite to the ugly American cliche/caricature.
November 14th, 2025 at 16:37I spoke too soon re Billy being laid back. I tried to watch the Gene Simmons interview and Corgan is like a kid in lolly shop, after he has consumed vasts amounts of sugar and artificial colours and everything else. Talk about a fan boy. It is a genuine excitement level, but the opposite of the Wendy Dio interview with him not constantly interrupting. I don’t think I have ever noticed Gene lost for words that much before. I couldn’t keep watching after about 20 minutes or so. I like Simmons narrative, a smart individual and rather down to earth etc. The trouble is, he keeps getting stalled when he is commencing to explain something by the boy in the hyped interview chair. At least it is a genuine hype from Corgan, not feigned or rude or anything. I had better get out of here before Uwe finds me. After his rant yesterday, I will be ducking for cover for a while yet me thinks. Cheers.
November 14th, 2025 at 21:10Would like to have heard more about how RB met Wendy and why her parents liked RB. Funny to hear her and RB butt hands and RJD would tell her to take it easy and Wendy is like screw that – she knew him before Deep Purple lol!!
Thats insane how RJD didn’t get royalties from Rainbow until he had passed. Interesting to hear how Bruce Payne used to be Elf’s manager and then ditched RJD years later to stay with Ritchie. Follow the $ lol!
Billy is the best interviewer!! Love all his interviews.
November 15th, 2025 at 20:59I saw that Gene Simmons interview too. I think it’s hilarious because Billy deeply feels and wants to talk Gene into agreeing with him that KISS were vastly underrated, had magic in their songs and were great songwriters. Yet Gene is utterly unmoved by it all and deadpans – kudos to his heartbreaking cruel to be kind honesty -, no, I don’t think so, we were never better than ok (he uses his favorite term “meat & potatoes”). And Billy persists trying to tickle some kind of artistic self-awareness out of the Auschwitz-survivor’s son, but Gene is not having any of it; he isn’t Paul Stanley who always wished to believe he was creating art (he wasn’t). In a way that discussion is tragic because Billy is sincere in his adulation and so is Gene in his world-weary perception of KISS as a consumer product.
I like and defend KISS but to me they were never art (they approached being art once with Destroyer, but that was mainly Bob Ezrin’s do), the ole trope by the NME that KISS’ early albums were living proof that it takes less skill to play hard rock credibly than any other music known to man still holds, yet the immediate replicability of KISS’ music is also the reason why they had so many teenagers pick up instruments and try to be like them – I should know, one of the first rock songs I ever performed with my band as a teen was C’mon And Love Me.
https://youtu.be/6NmjJujTKzo
November 16th, 2025 at 01:16In Corgan’s defense Simmons is not exactly the most captivating interview subject, recycling lines from the past and beating his own drum, but without the charm of someone like DC. It doesn’t help that Simmons is almost always wearing shades, making it even more difficult to get behind the cartoon image.
November 16th, 2025 at 06:55Gene Simmons like many musicians from that long ago would probably prefer to talk about anything else. However he knows what is coming, so he attempts to play the game. One way to look at it. Regarding the glasses, there are a few people who have those on when indoors. Who knows why, could be a health issue, or the bright lights. I doubt that he would be doing it to be Kiss cool though. However I could be wrong on that. Cheers
November 16th, 2025 at 20:45Simmons can be highly entertaining and perceptive in interviews, but here he is actually flabbergasted by Billy‘s take that there might be musical value to KISS‘ oeuvre. 😂
Yet the same Gene Simmons has written some of the best and most musical KISS songs ever …
https://youtu.be/YBO5uKqfm5g
(Testimony to him being an absolute Beatles nut.)
https://youtu.be/g_MRqF0yeWU
https://youtu.be/hJImYcqUwjA
It’s weird and unexpected, but Gene the loudmouth is actually very modest about his music. Same goes for his bass playing, he’s a much better and inventive bass player than he himself and people give him credit for.
I think Gene‘s outlook on life was vey much shaped by his single mom‘s (whom he adored) Shoah-experience as a Hungarian-Jewish teenage girl.
https://www.kissasylum.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/gene-simmons-his-mom-flora-cause-of-death-696×413.jpg
Life‘s lesson for Flora Klein was basically: If you can‘t put it in a bank account so it can help you flee if your life is threatened and if you can‘t eat it so it can save you from starving to death in Ravensbrück, then it isn’t that vital and just an embellishment in life.
I find Simmons a fascinating figure with all his flaws and incongruities.
November 16th, 2025 at 21:57