The excitement around the new Dio Rules project has been growing steadily since their first shows earlier this summer. Now they are back on the road again with three Halloween dates this weekend, the first of which, Jergel’s in Warrendale, MetalTalk will be reporting from. We covered the inception of the band with Andrew Freeman in May, and now we reached out to guitarist Angus Clark to find out more about this fascinating journey.
Angus Clark has 25 years with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which is about as big a rock production as you can get. The shift to DIO Rules was, he said, the result of “A bunch of different things that conspired to come together to make it happen.
“I always had a passion for all the music that Ronnie James Dio has made. I saw the Mob Rules tour at Madison Square Garden. After recognising that Ronnie James Dio was the new singer in Black Sabbath, I went and found out what he had done before. So I grew up on all that material.
“Then, Ronnie started the Dio band. I saw the Holy Diver tour at the Beacon Theater in New York, which is an under 3,000 cap theater. A legendary venue, but small. It was literally in my neighbourhood. Within a year, he was back at the Garden. I saw the Last In Line tour at the Garden. I even saw the Sacred Heart tour, in LA with Viv and later back on the East Coast with Craig.
“That was my burn-in period, 13 to 17. When you make this bond with the material, it never lets you go.”
For Angus, his work with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is still going strong, and they are getting ready to go back on tour. He had been getting calls about projects that were ‘tribute’ in style. He was the guitarist in the musical Rock of Ages and performed shows with them, “at the Performing Arts Centre level.” Essentially an ’80s show, he became familiar with that touring circuit.
“I’d also been playing with Mark Martel, the singer for the official Queen tribute, Queen Extravaganza,” Angus said. “I had learned this whole Queen repertoire, and it’s really fun to dig into this repertoire and really nail it.”
There the seeds were sown. “I always loved those Dio solos when I was growing up. But what if I actually really did it? If I was going to do my own thing, I would do the music of Ronnie James Dio. The most influential hard rock/Heavy Metal singer ever in terms of downstream influence. You can point to guys who have more legendary chart-topping status. Ozzy, of course, is a massive figure in my life. But there aren’t many people who took the Ozzy thing and started singing like that or made that the foundation for where they went.
“Whereas Ronnie James Dio, he is the model on which so many other careers have been built, to my way of thinking.”
During the pandemic, Angus Clark modified the three guitars. “I had this Vivian Campbell replica done. A flat black top Les Paul. I had this beat-up SG Junior done in the style of Tony Iommi, and I have this white Strat. I can’t build these guitars and not do something with them.”
Angus began putting the band together. Noticing that Last In Line did not appear to be doing much, through some friends, he was able to put the call in. “It was a dare myself to do this kind of a thing,” he smiled. “I listened to the [MetalTalk] interview. The timing was the timing. There was nothing on the calendar. Andrew wasn’t sure what else there was, and it didn’t cost him anything other than some time to cut the demos.
“Then he was in New York for some Lynch Mob dates. I had him come do the performance video with us and I was just lucking out.”
There was no need for Plan B. “Exactly,” Angus says.
Fellow Trans-Siberian Orchestra/ Rock Of Ages guitarist Joel Hoekstra put Angus in touch with Kathy Wagner as Panzyler Entertainment Group. “I called her, and I went over what it was about and why I was passionate about it,” Angus says. “That really resonated with her. She took a risk, really. Because, until you see the band and you see the crowd that shows up for this band, it might not click for you what’s going on.
“But we have an underserved market of people who know every word to these songs, and they want to have that communal moment of being there and feeling it done with the right quality, the right amount of integrity and all that musicianship. But also just the love for the material and the music and Ronnie.”
One aspect of this lineup I do love is Mark Klett, who not only plays keyboards, but plays second guitar as well. Not every song needs a keyboard on it. “Exactly,” Angus says. “That was one thing that I think was always confusing about Sabbath. They were always committed to having the keyboard player, whether he was offstage or kind of like almost invisible. Not having that person actually play guitar, there would be an organ sound or something like that filling in the gaps.
“Similarly with Ozzy. It’s the same thing. It was Don Airey. I know Jeff Nicholls was doing Sabbath for a long time. Dio had a keyboard player. They all conformed to the same thing.
“I don’t need a keyboard on a live version of a Sabbath tune where there was no keyboard on the record. Mark is an awesome guy. We toured together in Trans-Siberian Orchestra. We’re gonna do the live versions of these Rainbow tunes, including the Blues with the keyboard solo and everything.
“[I said] You’re gonna have your moment on that, and we’re gonna do some of the harmony leads from either the DIO or Sabbath eras where there was some harmony stuff. Then we do Kill The King where he’s playing keys, and I’m playing guitar, and we’re doing all the arpeggios and harmony. So it’s great.”
Kill The King live works very well for DIO Rules. There is so much going on behind the obvious guitar work. Working from On Stage, Angus was able to isolate the keyboard parts and sent them to Mark. “There is some stuff that was surprising,” he says.
“With Matt Starr on drums, he is just amazing, and his recall ability is so fast and tight. He learns stuff so quickly and then it’s bang on. Then, with Winston Roye on bass, who I’ve worked with for probably 15 years now, it gelled really quickly. A couple of days in the rehearsal room and cool.”
It was that first rehearsal when it gelled so quickly that Angus says he felt DIO Rules would work. “We rehearsed without Andrew because we’re all based in the New York area and Andrew is in Las Vegas.”
The last rehearsal before the debut gig was the only rehearsal with Andrew, though Matt was unable to be there. They rehearsed with recorded drums. “The very first time we were all in a room together was the day of our first gig at Rams Head, Annapolis.”
The logistics are what they are. “It wouldn’t be the same band if I wasn’t calling guys that were in demand. Every time we come together to play, it’s a special thing, and we want the audience to know that and feel it. Everybody’s at the top of their game, so it’s really great.”
In the video of this interview, you can see the three guitars that Angus put together. I love the almost obsessive attention to detail. I really get that. How far down the rabbit hole did he actually go?
“It’s not really practical to use vintage amps for this kind of thing, but I have a lot of white strats,” Angus laughs. The Blackmore strat is specifically outfitted. The rosewood fingerboard, the large headstock, and the choice of pickups are very specific.
The Viv guitar is a relatively new Gibson Standard 50s. “I am actually going a little farther down the rabbit hole because I did just acquire a 1977 Les Paul Deluxe, which is literally built five weeks after Vivian Campbell’s guitar. But I haven’t done the cosmetics with it yet, so that’s another project. Now that I actually have a band to do this…”
The Iommi guitar is a relatively recent SG Special. “I had it refinished and upgraded the electronics and the bridge. These pickups are actually JD pickups, so they’re very unique. They were made in Birmingham and ordered from John Diggins’ son, who now runs the company. That’s the deepest thing.”
Three different guitarists. Blackmore has the almost classical precision, Iommi practically invented Heavy Metal, and Vivian brought a different kind of fire to Dio. Is there a style that comes more naturally, or one maybe pushes Angus as a player?
“They all push you in different ways,” he says. “I feel most comfortable on the Vivian stuff. He’s very Gary Moore influenceed, but then he has a lot of scalar stuff. I was vibing on the Rainbow In The Dark solo when I was a kid. Ritchie is one of those things where you think you know it, and then you try to really learn it, and it’s like, ‘Whoa!’ There’s a whole level of technique that he does that regular guitar players don’t do, and you have to kind of train yourself away.
“If I’m playing Kill The King, and I’m doing verbatim licks, or something on my own, I immediately think, ‘Well, that doesn’t sound right.’
“Iommi, the very first guitar solo I ever learned was Tomorrow’s Dream from the Vol. 4 album. But his playing evolved a lot through the Dio era, so I feel very comfortable on it. But there again, there are some compositional choices that he makes as a soloist that are like, ‘Whoa!’ You think you got it, and then you’re like, oh, no, I don’t got it.
“So Viv’s kind of the most like mine. Ritchie and Tony are a stretch in order for me to do anything freewheeling that sounds right in the ballpark. I’ve got really close on the tones, I think. Attention to detail is what makes a band like this really stand out.”
Every Ronnie James Dio fan will have a different idea on the setlist, you imagine. One Night In The City is, I suggest, an awesome song that always came across well live. “I’d like to get it in the set,” Angus says. “I think there’s gonna be opportunity to move things around. The first three shows we had Voodoo from the Mob Rules album in the show, and we had Die Young from the Heaven and Hell album.
“But we changed it because we wanted to put Children Of The Sea in. You’re trying to balance slow tunes and faster tunes and you want to make the set work. It is all classic tunes. Then Andrew was like, come on, we gotta put Stargazer in. All right, Stargazer’s in. Now, the show is a little too long.
“I think we’re going to take Straight Through The Heart out. But it’s amazing doing Stargazer. We finished playing it the first time, and somebody in the audience shouted, ‘You should never not play Stargazer.’ The audience has spoken.”
Even I can get carried away, so it must be difficult. I suggest, with Mark there, Lonely Is The Word would be great as he could cover the acoustic guitar in the solo section. I am glad I do not have to worry about the setlist or how long it is.
“I love One Night In The City,” Angus says. “I’m glad you brought that one up. And, of course, either Lonely Is The Word or Over And Over. Either of those big outro tracks. I just love the hypnoticness of the rhythm section and just how completely out there Tony goes in those moments.”
We could be here hours, as I reminisce about turning the volume up on those songs as the long fades kick in. “There’s the riffs at the outro of Mob Rules,” Angus says. “I’m nerding out on all that stuff.”
DIO Rules are now moving further afield. Jergel’s in Warrnendale is Thursday, followed by Penn’s Peak, “which is a really large venue for where we’re at, and then we’re getting to Connecticut, which is where Matt Starr is from. So it’s nice to finish there to kind of get some of his hometown folks involved. That’s on Halloween night. So this is really exciting.
“Then next year we’re gonna do this run around Chicago/Milwaukee. It is gonna be challenging in a whole different bunch of ways because I think we’re gonna have to fly.”
Of course I then have to ask about bringing it all across the pond, which Angus would be up for. He was recently over here touring in Jon Anderson’s band. “We were there for four weeks, and we pretty much got around everywhere you can name,” he says. “That was another opportunity where I was learning material that I loved when I was 13. But now I’m getting to play with Jon, and as soon as he opens his mouth, it’s like the album.
“It’s like the album comes to life in front of you. It was an exceptional experience. London audience was amazing. All, all the audiences were really kind. You could tell they were getting their money’s worth from that experience.”
One thing that struck me when I was talking with Andrew Freeman was his sense of responsibility towards the music. Angus has tremendous emotional investment in it as well. “What I’ve always really appreciated about Andrew is that he is making the material his own,” Angus says. “He sings it with conviction. I think with Ronnie’s lyrics, if the singer isn’t really connected to it and singing it with conviction, it just all falls apart. Andrew is right there. He’s inhabiting the role.
“This is something that was pointed out when he was doing Last In Line. That timbre of his voice may not be like you’re hiring a sound-alike. You’re seeing a person that is nailing it and is bringing you the energy and the intensity. The delivery is such that you’re connected with it, and that’s the main thing.
“I think that’s what we’re doing as a band, but that’s what I really appreciate about working with Andrew. We’re doing a tribute to Ronnie, and we all appreciate what Ronnie did, what he accomplished, and what this music is both to us and the fans.
“As I said, I see these audiences. They know every word, and they just want to connect with the singer and the band in that way, so that it’s just this communal thing of like, yeah. This is the feeling that I wanted to get from being here. I knew about Andrew because I had seen him with Last In Line and now that I’m working with him, it’s ten times as true. It’s just all there. It’s amazing.”
For me, this is an important point. Sure, there are plenty of other Dio tribute bands out there, but the approach that DIO Rules have is something I respect and this makes it something unique.
“I think that’s true,” Angus says. “We’re not doing a look alike thing. There’s a place for that. I can see where people want to get lost in the fantasy of it. I did the lookalike guitars. But I just think it’s a touch that’s just kind of like an ode. We want to bring these elements together so that you are there, but you realise that it’s a band. We’re all fans.”
I can’t help it, so we go off on a Craig Goldy tangent, through Lock Up The Wolves and Doug Aldrich. You can see that part in the video, but suffice as to say, when Angus says, “If I was gonna do a song from the other eras, I think I like Sunset Superman,” I don’t disagree. But then it could be Hey Angel. “There’s good tunes on all the records.”
With 25 years with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, for Angus Clark, there are still goals. “Is there something I haven’t achieved yet? I’ve never done anything with Tony Iommi, right? That would be incredible.”
There is talk of the DIO Rules lineup writing some original music under a different name. “I’ve made records,” Angus says. “I had a Metal band called Daredevil Squadron. We have two records. I had a kind of a Progressive Metal band in the ’90s called Naked Sun. There’s one record.
“Some fan of Jon Anderson had it posted on Facebook. I didn’t know anybody still had that record. There’s probably at least a couple more original artist projects that I’d like to do in the near future while I’m still a viable stage performer. [laughs]
“Playing music that I love for people that want to see it, that’s the main thing. That’s what brings me joy and that’s what I really get out of doing DIO Rules. Same thing, Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It’s my 25th year, but it’s 30 years of the Orchestra. We’re carrying forward a legacy for Paul O’Neill, who passed away a number of years ago. So that’s very important. I encourage everybody to come see, if you’re in the States, TSO this holiday season. It’s gonna be an amazing show.”
Angus has to clear out the Yes material and get the TSO material back in his mental space. But first it is DIO Rules. “We have new t-shirts,” he says. “We will have them at the shows. Follow us on the Facebook page, send comments. As I said, should we do One Night In The City?
“It is probably time to start hearing from the fans about what they would like to hear in the set list.”
Now there is an invitation.
DIO Rules Tour Dates 2026 And 2027
Looking ahead, DIO Rules have announced shows at the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, Illinois, on Friday 8 January 2027 and Shank Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Saturday 9 January. Further dates are being developed.
- 29 October 2026 – Jergel’s Rhythm Grille, Warrendale, PA
- 30 October 2026 – Penn’s Peak, Jim Thorpe, PA
- 31 October 2026 – Broad Brook Opera House, Broad Brook, CT
- 8 January 2027 – Arcada Theatre, St. Charles, IL
- 9 January 2027 – Shank Hall, Milwaukee, WI
Tickets and further information: DIO Rules official website.
