DORO PESCH Performs With DIO DISCIPLES For First Time; Video Available

German metal queen Doro Pesch filled in for singer Tim "Ripper" Owens (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, BEYOND FEAR, JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH) for the first time during last night's (Friday, July 1) DIO DISCIPLES concert at Rockstar Live in Bilbao, Spain.

DIO DISCIPLES features former DIO members Simon Wright (drums),Craig Goldy (guitar) and Scott Warren (keyboards) alongside bassist James Lomenzo (MEGADETH, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, WHITE LION) and singers Owens and Toby Jepson (LITTLE ANGELS, GUN)

DIO DISCIPLES pays tribute to the legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio and is fully supported by Dio's widow/manager, Wendy, who recently posted that "there will never be another Ronnie, but we want to keep his music alive and hope you will support the band and become one of the DIO DISCIPLES."

Fan-filmed video footage of the Bilbao performance can be seen below.

Owens is unable to make the Spanish shows as he is attending his daughter's wedding.

Remaining DIO DISCIPLES shows with Doro:

July 02 - Heineken - Madrid, Spain
July 03 - Bikini - Barcelona, Spain

Prior to the Bilbao concert, Pesch stated about performing with DIO DISCIPLES, "I'm so excited to be a part of this tour. I listened day and night to Ronnie James Dio's amazingly wonderful songs and I will try me very best to do a good job with them. I feel so honored and blessed to be a part of this and to keep Dio's music and magic alive. He was truly the greatest rock and metal singer of all time. We love you, Ronnie. I will sing my heart out for you and the fans. "

In a recent interview with Rocksalt.mx, Pesch spoke about a new song she has written as a tribute to Ronnie James Dio. "I was always such a big [Dio] fan, like so many other people, [I] just adored him and loved him," she said. "But there's one song, we will be working on that and I think it will be wonderful. But I first want to show it to Wendy Dio [Ronnie's wife/manager] and let her listen to it, so that's one thing. I kind of want to make many versions of that song, I think it's beautiful and I like it a lot . . . It's called 'Hero' and it has a beautiful melody and I would like to make many versions of it, like an acoustic version and a full-blown band version and maybe an orchestral version and we are just working on it. I definitely want to take care of that one that song's nice. But first I want to let Wendy listen to it. I'm really hoping but I'm sure she will like it a lot. Every time everybody is listening to it in the studio everybody is crying and so wow so touching."