Singer David Coverdale (Whitesnake) was recently interviewed by “Rock Of Nations With Dave Kinchen And Shane McEachern“, where he was asked to share his opinion about the late singer Ronnie James Dio.

He said:

“I met Ronnie in ’73, ’74, God bless him. He was with ELF, who became Rainbow. But they were on Purple Records, so we would take them all over the world as an opening act… I’d known Ronnie for two lifetimes. […]

“Oh my God. He was fabulous. You listen to (Roger Glover‘s album) ‘The Butterfly Ball [And The Grasshopper’s Feast]’, and that’s Ronnie‘s voice. The darker elements, I wasn’t, as much as they’re beautiful singing, there were some things that I didn’t think were him. But they were incredibly successful.

”But I’ve heard Ronnie sing just beautiful melodies and songs, and he was just amazing. But he made a super, super career, and gave me two guitarists. He said, ‘What am I doing? I’m finding a guitarist, breaking them in and then you take them’, with Viv Campbell and Doug Aldrich.”