I dug deep into my archives and came across an interview I did with Ronnie James Dio back in 2006/2007.

Long before I joined The Rods, and well before I moved to Ithaca and started working in Cortland, I was assigned an interview with Geezer Butler regarding Black Sabbath's recently released Dio Years Box Set and subsequent tour, under the then-newly rebranded Heaven & Hell moniker. The run of dates culminated with a now-legendary performance at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, which is part of the recently released Breaking Into Heaven Box Set under the Heaven & Hell name.

Because Dio was originally a bass player, and performed on Elf's eponymous debut, I finagled an interview with him as well, which was intended to be a side bar addendum to the Geezer Butler interview. Unfortunately, due to print restrictions, I was only ever able to incorporate few sentences of Dio's interview, so after digging through some boxes and cassette tapes, and working with lalal.ai to clean up the background noise and tape hiss, The Farmer's End is able to finally present this interview in its entirety.

Listening back to this I'm reminded about how much I miss hearing his voice, which is one of the biggest reasons to publish it. I'm sure others miss hearing him too. It also illuminates how essential bass playing was for him as a songwriter, how much respect he had for his musical peers and colleagues, and how gracious he could be as a person. I hope you enjoy it!

Sometime in 2023, The Farmer's End caught up with Kip Winger to discuss the release of Winger's boxed set, Chapter One - The Atlantic Years, among other things, including chops versus song craft, singing and playing, and plugins versus going direct. Dig in!

In 2023, The Farmer's End caught up with Juan Croucier hot on the heels of RATT's The Atlantic Years boxed set release. As one of the truly unsung heroes of '80s bass playing, Croucier shares his thoughts on playing, songwriting, singing, recording, and more... Check it out!