Dio Hologram Will Be Replaced with Dio Footage
Metal fans with at least a modicum of good taste rejoiced last month when it was announced that the Ronnie James Dio hologram is being retired (at least for now).
Now Wendy Dio, Ronnie’s ex-wife and manager, has revealed both why the hologram is being shelved and with what they plan to replace it, and neither is quite what you expect.
For one thing, Wendy tells Kazagastão, the hologram is being set aside not because people loathed it, but because it was impractical for touring purposes:
“”[The hologram] was well received sometimes, sometimes not; it all depends on the people. The problem with the hologram, and it’s great — and I won’t say never again — but it costs so much money, you can only go into certain venues because of the height of it and the size of it. It’s too expensive to travel, so therefore we couldn’t come to Brazil, couldn’t come to South America, couldn’t go to Japan, couldn’t go to Europe with it. So it limits you so much.”
I don’t know if that’s just spin or not, but it sounds plausible. It may not be the reason we hoped they were doing away with the hologram, but at least it means the tour is gonna feature real live flesh and blood singers again, right?
Wrong:
“So we ARE going out next year in March — the Dio band will go out again — but this time I found an ISO film, a 17-camera shoot, there’s an ISO one of Ronnie only. So we took that, and we’re making this with special effects. So it won’t be a hologram — it’ll be a film of Ronnie himself with the Dio live band and special effects. So we’re working on that. And that we can take anywhere.”
I… guess this is better? I mean, it basically becomes a live concert film with “special effects,” whatever those end up being. And it will use actual footage of RJD, not some CGI bullshit. Those both seem like positives.
On the other hand, this still seems less-desirable than just, y’know, having actual singers on stage. It’s not clear if the “guest vocalists” who got to sing when the hologram needed a breather, Tim “Ripper” Owens (ex-Judas Priest, KK’s Priest, etc.) and Oni Logan (ex-Lynch Mob), will now be part of this movie tour or what. I feel kinda bad for those guys, who have been deemed inferior to technology and concert footage. I mean I don’t feel that bad — “Ripper” Owens seems like a dick — but kinda bad.
You can check out the full interview with Wendy below.
[via]
