Guitarist DOUG ALDRICH Explains His Departure From DIO

Guitarist Doug Aldrich has explained his side of the departure from the DIO band to join WHITESNAKE. Speaking to the fan-operated DIO Message Board, Aldrich said, "In the beginning David [Coverdale] was looking for someone he could feel confident about to work with. The lead guitar spot in WHITESNAKE is a big gig as well as DIO. He just offered to tour at that time. In the end my style of guitar playing fits really well with WHITESNAKE and David and I are very much on the same page.

"Everyone was wondering why I left the band… Another question is why did Ronnie let me leave? I brought a lot to DIO. The band had balls and we were playing good shows.

"When I agreed to David to do the WHITESNAKE tour, DIO was gonna be off the road. Off for a year to do a record! No problem, let me go out and do this tour and we can write when I am home. It could have worked. I left it open to come back and record with Ronnie after. In fact, Ronnie and I did write some stuff in March or April last year for 'Magica' 2+3. I wasn't into the first one so much, but I was gonna do my best on it. Then all of a sudden, there are these gigs that DIO had. They just came up. That's understandable. Things just evolved. Everything was up in the air and it just worked out that way. Some people on the DIO message board say it was for the money. I even have read a bunch of stuff where Ronnie slammed me about jumping for the money. I was surprised at that, he did the same thing in his career several times like rejoining SABBATH. I can understand that he probably had good reasons so I’m not gonna slam him back. I love the guy. Ronnie paid me what was in his budget or what he thought was fair. It seemed clear that we should not expect to be on salary when the tour was over. I understand that too. I passed on several gigs that I was asked to do during the time I was with Ronnie where I could have made extra money. In fact, while we were on the road, Ronnie knew I was getting other offers and he was aware that at the end of the tour, I was gonna be doing other things. But when I got the offer to join WHITESNAKE, that was different. I'm sure that it pissed him off good that David was checking me out. For a number of reasons including that I always wanted to work with David, I went for it. So to me he did what he wanted to and so did I. Through it all, Ronnie and I remain on good terms as far as he says." Read the entire interview by signing up for the board here and accessing the "Hide In The Rainbow" portion of the forum.

(Thanks: ElectricBasement.com)