There are singers who can hit every note, and then there are singers who make you believe every word. For decades, the music associated with Ronnie James Dio has carried that weight, not just with power but with conviction. With Last In Line and now DIO Rules, Andrew Freeman has found a way to step into that world without imitating it, keeping the spirit of the songs alive while still sounding unmistakably like himself.
When Angus Clark was putting together the new DIO Rules project, he described Andrew as “an obvious choice but also the chosen one.” With four East Coast dates announced and plans underway to spread their wings further, this new and exciting live concert experience will again see Freeman presenting DIO songs in his own style without reducing it to imitation. This is something that has always been important for Andrew.
It is an approach rooted in instinct as much as craft. “A lot of these gigs that I’ve done over the years, coming in for other singers, I try to keep it what I hear in my head,” Andrew Freeman told MetalTalk Editor Steve Ritchie. “I think what you hear in your head from listening to these songs for so many years gets kind of skewed. You make your own versions of it, at least I do.
“I’m not one to listen to a lot of older music. I love it, but I don’t listen to it that much. So I have my own versions in my head of what they’re supposed to be. I will hear like a Dio song on the radio or a Dokken song, and it’s like, oh, that’s not how that song goes. ‘Cause I have my own thing.
“I try to bring my own thing to it, but still throw it back to what it’s supposed to be, what the fans are expecting it. When you’re a replacement guy, which I’ve been in a lot of bands, it’s always the best thing to do. I think that comes from years of doing cover bands and trying to make the songs as close to what you can make them.”
Andrew Freeman is not alone in thinking that way. In my recent talk with Ronnie Romero from Elegant Weapons, Ronnie spoke of always finding a space somewhere to put your own performance on it when he was with Richie Blackmore’s Rainbow. This is a sentiment Andrew Freeman agrees with.
DIO Rules have played three very well-received warm-up shows, though Andrew Freeman was not involved in rehearsals. “I went over some of the older material,” he said. “Most of the songs I’ve been singing for a long time with other bands, other situations and jams. You gotta get it as close as possible to it. As far as it being a tribute, I mean, this DIO Rules thing absolutely is a tribute, whereas Last In Line was not really founded on that. It was never about that.
“I like your first question. I do bring a lot of my own style to it just because they weren’t looking for somebody who was trying to be the guy, trying to sound like him. I think that is gonna carry over to this new DIO Rules thing.”
For me, Andrew Freeman always comes across as natural and unforced, rooted in the same tradition, sitting in the middle ground between reverence that tips into imitation and rejection of the past that loses the emotional connection. That balance feels especially clear with DIO Rules and his role of custodian, treating these songs as something that still needs to be heard and experienced.
“I feel that too,” he says. “Not getting away from DIO rules thing, with Last In Line, I felt like that was something that I had the obligation to take to the finish line. These guys playing together, it was very important to the fans and to me, ’cause I’m a big fan. You feel like a gatekeeper, a custodian. I always felt that way.”
Stepping out of that role has brought an unexpected sense of freedom. “For the most part, I got a positive response to it,” Andrew Freeman says. “I was expecting it not to be very positive. So, now, stepping out of that role and stepping into this thing that was mostly for fun that Angus [Clark – Trans‑Siberian Orchestra, Joe Lynn Turner] wanted to do, it’s a little different. It’s less pressure.
“Now I’m more like, well, maybe I should be singing this differently. Maybe I should be trying to be more like that. Maybe I should dye my hair black. Maybe I should get the boots. Maybe I should get the fringy stuff.” We laugh, and the tongue is firmly in cheek here.
“This is more of a celebration ofRonnie James Dio and his life and his career, and I think recognition that is deserved, definitely. The thing with him and Ozzy and Rainbow being a side band to Deep Purple, in a sense, a continuation of Deep Purple, he was the ultimate replacement guy. People tend to forget that, until he came into his own band.
“I feel like I have to do it a little better. We’re approaching it with a little more aggression, whereas before I wasn’t encouraged to. I basically could do what I wanted to do.”
Sixteen years with Last In Line and working with musicians who were part of those original DIO recordings, did that shape Andrew’s phrasing or instincts in ways he did not expect?
“Maybe, I don’t really remember approaching it like I was trying to emulate anything he was doing. I did know a lot of it, like the back of my hand. I’ve been asked questions about trying to work out harmonies. Is there a harmony on that part, and I don’t remember.
“We did our own versions of them, and they were scaled-down versions. There was no keyboard player for a lot of the time we were together. The big album harmonies weren’t there. I guess we made our own versions of the tunes. When we were out doing Rainbow In The Dark, there would be no keyboard line, and no keyboard player in there.
“That was a big day when that happened. I don’t really remember really trying to emulate because that voice and that timbre that he sings in always came kind of easy for me. It’s the lower, more delicate stuff that I have trouble with.”
DIO Rules was a project conceived by Angus Clark, who has spent 25 years with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and is a man with an awesome background in those big production shows. When Clark called, Andrew Freeman said he felt a “little strange.”
“Anybody who knows me, they’ll tell you I’m a little moody and I’m a nice bunch of guys. You never know who’s gonna pick up the phone some days. I was kinda like, yeah, I’m already doing that.
“But I knew who Angus was, and I’ve kinda wanted to connect with him over the years, just because he’s a New York guy and a great guitar player. I had seen his videos over the years. He is a big Vivian fan and all those guys, Blackmore and Iommi. He would make these videos, and I was thinking, how do I not know this guy? He plays with a lot of the same guys that I know.”
The DIO Rules band were in New York, and Clark asked if Andrew Freeman wanted to come in for a promo video shoot. Andrew had already planned to be in New York for gigs, so he decided to stay for a couple of days, thinking the project might fall by the wayside before then.”
He was wrong. This was not for any concern about the project, but because Andrew receives lots of calls from national bands, tribute bands and other requests. “A lot of times it just comes down to, do you have an agent? Do you have all the right things in place? How much of this stuff are you expecting me to bring to the table?
“Because a lot of times, people don’t think about the marketing end of it, the branding end of it. He didn’t have a name. He just said he had this DIO thing.”
Blas Elias, the drummer from Slaughter, who Andrew worked with in Raiding The Rock Vault, had put Angus in touch. “I was like, Oh great, here we go, another one. We talked about it, and he’s a good guy.
“So I went down, did the thing, and, I’ll be damned if he didn’t have an agent involved, gigs booked, branding and a great name. And I’m like, OK, well, let’s see where this goes. So they booked three shows.
“We did the shows. The shows were sold out, which I was really surprised about. Last In Line wasn’t really about me. It’s about Vivian and Vinny, mostly Vivian. Those shows don’t sell out. We’re playing the same size rooms, and it was a surprise. It was a real surprise that it got received as it did.”
Angus is a great guitar player. He has built his custom Tony Iommi guitar, he has his Vivian Campbell Les Paul that he had painted and a customised Blackmore Strat. He is a man on a mission, isn’t he?
“He’s off the deep end, my friend,” Andrew smiles. “He is well down the rabbit hole, for sure.”
Joking apart, DIO Rules is a really cool lineup. The set list is ’75 to ’85, bangers only. Angus has described it as the strongest material with the strongest players. We’re talking Cozy Powell drums in here as well, so that is a real challenge for Matt Star.
“Matt is a great drummer, great self-promoter,” Andrew says. “He’s very present online, and everybody knows who he is. Always out working and always out hustling. I love playing with Matt.
“There have been times that I’ve worked with Matt where I think he’s very close to what Vinny does. He and I did a record together a couple of years ago, and I got the drum tracks. It was rough mixes. The drum tracks, I thought it sounded more like a Dio record or a Black Sabbath record than a Vinny Appice track, not to slight Vinny, than what Last in Line were doing.
“It was kind of like, wow, this is what it’s supposed to sound like. So he’s definitely got that big Bonham-esque boom to his playing. His stuff, his visuals, his gong, his bass drums, he’s got the whole package. That dude is definitely the whole package for sure.”
The rhythm section does not stop there. Winston Roye, on bass, has a great pedigree, not just with Soul Asylum. “Winston’s my favourite, man,” Andrew says. “He’s pretty awesome.”
There are some great quieter lines in the Sabbath songs. The opening of Falling Off the Edge Of The World and the middle of Die Young are iconic Ronnie. Here, there is some work to do.
“I definitely have to practice,” Andrew says. “Ronnie has a head voice and then Ronnie has his guttural, diaphragm voice.. His head voice is very strong, and it’s very well controlled. That’s something I’ve had to work on over the years to get that under control. I actually have to figure out how I do that because I don’t like doing head voice. I’m not a big fan of it. I’m not a big fan when people do it.
“So I always try to do it guttural. I have learned in my old age to accept that and try to do it as best I can. There was a band I did, more of a Doobie Brothers sort of thing, that I had to really kind of learn that sort of head voice, how to control it and do it correctly.
“So, it’s an adventure, after all these years of trying to keep his songs sounding the way they are supposed to sound. To dig deeper into it like this has definitely been an adventure and a fun journey.”
But if some moments demand careful restraint, others invite the opposite. The promo video shows clips from songs recorded live in the New York session. While only brief, the Kill The King clips excite as there is a dual guitar/keyboard solo, making this a track that will be awesome live and one of many that Andrew can throw himself into.
“A great tune,” Andrew says. “Mark Klett, the keyboard player, guitar player, is a godsend, too. He also plays for TSO, so he and Angus really complement each other. It’s nice to have those keys on stage again.
“We [Last In Line] didn’t have them for a long time, so it’s nice to have that semi-utility guy. I fall short of calling him a utility guy because he’s so talented. He’s just an amazing player. All the tunes really come across like you’re hearing them on the record, that’s kind of the idea.”
For me, the addition of Klett is vitally important. He can drop into the David Stone, Tony Carey, Geoff Nichols, Jimmy Bain keyboard role in the songs that need it, but can bring some backing guitar to bolster the sound on other tracks.
“The Jimmy Bain keyboards,” Andrew says. “Nobody talks about Jimmy playing keys. Jimmy was a great keyboard player.”
With the shows selling out and the lineup locked in, DIO Rules feels like more than a tribute act finding its feet. It feels like something that has earned its place.
Part Two of our conversation with Andrew Freeman turns to a chapter that is firmly in the past and the story of what happened to Last In Line.
For tickets to the July shows and much more, you can find DIO Rules on Facebook. A portion of every ticket sold will benefit the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund, supporting cancer research and awareness.
DIO RULES – July Dates
July 8 – Sellersville Theater, Sellersville PA
July 9 – The Suffolk, Riverhead NY
July 10 – Tupelo Music Hall, Derry NH
July 11 – The Newton Theatre, Newton NJ
