DORO PESCH Talks About Her Upcoming RONNIE JAMES DIO Tribute Song

Mick Stingley of Rocksalt.mx recently conducted an interview with German metal queen Doro Pesch. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Rocksalt.mx: I understand you're recording right now.

Doro: Ja, ja!

Rocksalt.mx: Have you written the whole album yet, or is it still..?

Doro: Oh, no, Mick, no! It was just, actually, the last tour we just came off the tour with MOTÖRHEAD — we played with MOTÖRHEAD here in Europe and then we had our own tour started about four weeks ago, so it's just the beginning.

Rocksalt.mx: Just the beginning then.

Doro: Ja. We have this one song, though, I want to write for Ronnie James Dio to pay respect. I was always such a big fan, like so many other people, [I] just adored him and loved him. 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. And we have some other songs but I don't know which ones will make the record. Definitely the one for Ronnie; but everything else, we usually write as much as we can and pick and choose the nicest ones.

Rocksalt.mx: Do you have a title for the song about Ronnie James Dio?

Doro: Oh, yes! (whispering) 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, ja. Every time everybody is listening to it in the studio everybody is crying and so — wow — so touching.

Rocksalt.mx: Not to dwell on sadness, but you did get to record with Peter Steele [late TYPE O NEGATIVE frontman], on "Descent". I wonder if you could talk about that for a moment.

Doro: Oh, ja… he was a great guy and definitely the biggest person I've ever met! He was so super-sweet and so nice. And — wow — it was great, ja. I thought he did such a great job on "Descent".

Rocksalt.mx: Can you talk a bit about how that came to be?

Doro: Oh… I think I just called him up. I had this song and I thought it would be great if maybe somebody with this great low, dark voice would sing on it and then I thought, maybe I will just give it a shot. So I called him up and he said he would like to hear it. So then I went over to his apartment and we had a very nice dinner, and he was very, very polite, like a total gentleman, and we talked and talked. And then he said, "I would like to do it!" And then my bass player, Nick, he had been getting all the files together, and then we mixed it and it was awesome! And then we did a photo shoot and the photographer said, you know, maybe Pete should sit down because if he stands up you look like the little daughter! (laughs) And that's how I feel when I look up, like the eight year-old girl! But he was so nice! But he was a great guy and, you know. I didn't know him as well as I knew Ronnie, of course, or even Lemmy, since we toured together. But I met Pete just a couple of times and he was super-nice, ja!

Read the entire interview from Rocksalt.mx.