Craig Goldy shares his story as a musician to Chaoszine part 2: “Dio hologram was misinterpreted. I don’t think we’re going to be doing the hologram anymore.”

We published yesterday the first part of the over two-hour-long interview with Craig Goldy, who is an American musician best known as the guitarist of the band Dio. Before joining Dio, he played in groups such as Vengeance, Rough Cutt, and Giuffria. Goldy became a member of Dio in 1985. He played on the latter part of the “Sacred Heart” tour and also on the “Intermission” EP (1986). In 1987 Goldy played on the album “Dream Evil” (1987), but he left the band in the middle of the following tour for unknown reasons in 1988. Later on, he formed Craig Goldy’s Ritual and put out two solo albums through Shrapnel Records. In the ’90s, among other things, he collaborated with David Lee Roth and worked many years with Christian evangelist and ex-Black Sabbath vocalist Jeff Fenholt. In 2000, Goldy returned to Dio and helped write and record “Magica,” but soon after, he left the band again due to family commitments. However, Goldy was back in the Dio in 2004 and played on “Master of the Moon,” which turned out to be the band’s final studio album. The band dissolved after Ronnie James Dio sadly lost his battle with stomach cancer and died in the May of 2010. In 2011 Goldy and several former members of the band and friends close to Ronnie decided to create Dio Disciples. The band performs a setlist based on classic Dio songs and songs from his time on Black Sabbath and Rainbow. The band is still touring. In 2015, Goldy formed a new band called Resurrection Kings and released its debut album in 2016. Now the band is back with their second-year album “Skygazer.” Now was the perfect time to grab the phone, call the man, and ask for the latest news. Goldy was in a very good mood, and that’s why the interview became massive. It took over two hours, but here it is now, split in two episodes, Craig Goldy’s entire career in a nutshell. You can read the second part of the interview below:

RECONNECTING WITH DIO, THE MAGICA TIME

Years went by, but in 2000 it was announced that you and Jimmy Bain would rejoin Dio, and you then started working on the classic “Magica” album. If I’m right, that happened because Dio’s management wasn’t overall satisfied with the band’s musical direction and how the business was going. Well, maybe you can tell me the long story short. How did the reconnecting happen?

Craig Goldy: Oh, for “Magica” and the reconnection, yeah, that was amazing. And when I got that phone call, I was just like, “Wow,” because, at one point, I’d met with Ronnie and told him that I felt bad about how things worked out. And he said the same thing. And at some point, maybe it’d be great to come back. And he said, “Yeah, maybe. That would be great if we could do that.” So, I guess he kind of kept that in the back of his head. So, when they called me, it was a little bit– I thought what Tracy G did was amazing. I don’t know. I was a bit jealous of it because he was getting into some really dark, doomy riffs and things. And I like that kind of stuff. And I was actually trying to incorporate some of that stuff earlier on, and Ronnie didn’t like it. So, I was kind of going, “Wow.” So, it was kind of– I felt like, “Wow. Why would he say yes to him and no to me?” But it turns out that it’s just because I was still– Ronnie was still trying to be like a mentor to me because he said at one point after a guitar solo that was on MTV, he said that he’s looking forward to me being a leader of my own band someday. So that meant that he was trying to prime me as a leader, not just a follower. Being in the band, Dio, wasn’t a job or a gig; it was a dream come true. So, there were a lot of different things going on at the time. But I had heard that people got tired of Tracy not doing the Ritchie Blackmore solos the way Ritchie Blackmore did, or they got tired of not doing Vivian solos and Tony Iommi solos the way they did them. And that he did a lot of sound effects and stuff. And I understand. But I still think what Tracy G brought to the band was amazing because that was a whole different world. I mean, they created a totally different world within a different– because Ronnie James Dio creates his own world anyway, so with Tracy G, Jeff Pilson, and Vinnie Appice, dear Lord, that was amazing. But I guess it was too much sound effects and too much doom that people kind of liked the more classic Rainbow, Black Sabbath stuff. So that’s what they wanted was that they wanted Ronnie to go back to do that. And luckily, they called me. And the odd thing was I had a dream two days before that I was sitting at Ronnie’s house, and we were working together again. And then two days later, I get a phone call when he’s saying, “Ronnie wants you back.” I was living in Colorado at the time. I had two days to put everything in the storage unit, get on a plane and get to Ronnie’s house, but I did it. But it was great because, at that time, Ronnie had me stay at his house because, before, we told each other, next time we do an album together, I’m going to live at his house because when we were doing “Dream Evil”, he would call me at 2 a.m. And at that time, I had a wife and her little girl. So, they were asleep. He’d be like, “Sorry, sorry.” I’m like, “No.” And in those days, you could have the phone on your shoulder while you talk. And so, I had my little amplifier right next to it.

So here I got my guitar, and he’s singing to me on the phone. I’m playing guitar with my little amplifier next to where I would speak, and we’re writing songs over the phone at two o’clock in the morning. And then, “Okay, great. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And then five minutes later, “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” Like, “No, it’s okay. I’m awake. What?” So, one Christmas party, Ronnie would have a Christmas party every year at his home, and everybody there. He comes over to me and goes, “Goldie, come here. I want to show you something.” So, we go downstairs. And what seemed like five minutes passed by, we’d go back upstairs; the entire house was dark, my wife and her little girl were asleep on the couch, and the party was over because we had just lost total track of time. So, he was like, “Okay.” So, he kind of looked at me, and he said, “Next time, why don’t you just stay here?” [Laughs.] So he moved me into his house, so we had 24-hour access to each other, and that that was magical. Sorry to use that word for magical. That turned out to be a great thing to have access to each other all the time because Ronnie would get these great inspirations at odd hours of the night. And so, I was right there. And we’d like, “Okay, let’s go. Let’s do it.”

Although the reunion was a great thing for the fans, it must not have been an easy thing for Ronnie to fire Tracy at the time?

Craig Goldy: With Ronnie, it was like that because he’s such a good man, and he has such a good heart, he loved Tracy, and he loved being able to do that stuff. But actually, deep down inside, what he told me was like that he kind of missed the classic rock-type stuff, too. He started to miss it himself. And so, it was– and Ronnie often would say things to make other people feel better because he didn’t want to make it sound like he had a little switch on and off. “Okay, I like Tracy now, and now I don’t want to work with Tracy now,” and it was like a switch on and off immediately. It wasn’t like that because Ronnie loved Tracy. And so that band was run like a family. So, when you have to say goodbye to a family member and move on to a different era, you don’t just do it quickly and just cut all ties and “Okay, you’re in, and now you’re out. See you. Bye. I’m not going to talk to you anymore.” It was difficult that way, but Ronnie himself knew that it was time to go back to the classics, and that’s what he wanted to do. Because quite honestly, nobody tells Ronnie what to do. The only time a record company ever told Ronnie what to do was on “Lock Up the Wolves” when they told him to have a different producer. That was the first and only time that he worked with a different producer.

I saw Dio with Tracy two times in Helsinki; it must have been in 1996 and 1997. I liked his playing, and I also loved the “Strange Highways” album, his first record with the band. How do you like him as a guitar player?

Craig Goldy: Yeah. I mean, I heard some of his new stuff. That guy is incredible. He’s a magician on that damn guitar. Some of the stuff and sounds that he gets it, he’s an absolute magician. I don’t know how he does what he does.

But if we briefly back to the writing of “Magica.” There are a couple of songs and melodies which sound very much like Rainbow, and I think that was the goal you had. A perfect example of that is the song “As Long as It’s Not About Love”. Do you agree with that? 

Craig Goldy: Yes, I think so, too. Even in the bridge section of “Feed My Head” it sounds a lot like Rainbow, “Rainbow Eyes”. Because every time Ronnie and I worked together, there was going to be a little bit of a Rainbow-esque element to it, just because Ritchie Blackmore so highly influences me. And I loved the music that he and Ronnie did together, and that was such a big part of my life that it literally became a part of me. So, it took a long time for me to figure out how to come to terms with loving Ritchie Blackmore’s style and the way he plays and the way he writes and just trying to make something of my own. Because it was very difficult because it almost felt like what Ritchie Blackmore wrote was such a part of me that I started writing things like that. And it was hard for me to break away. And so, working with Ronnie and made it easier in many ways because Ronnie had really good memories. He would say, “No, no, no, that sounds a little too much like this,” or ‘It sounds a little too much like that. Let’s do something else.” But Ronnie liked the idea that I was a little “Blackmoreish” He liked that. And he had missed that kind of sound. And so that made it a little bit easier, too, is that he would be able to– he was like the sifter, like, “No, yes, no, yes.”

Compared to the Dio albums released in the ’80s, “Magica” was a lot darker and heavier record. But there are still a lot of melodies that remind me of the past. For example, “Fever Dreams” could easily have been on the “Dream Evil” album. But overall, the sound and the direction were very different from the old records. You were away over ten years from the band, so how easy it was for you to adapt to that new, heavier, and modern sound direction of Dio?

Craig Goldy: It was great. It was awesome. It was just one of the highlights of my life, and I was able to start doing some of the darker stuff that I wanted to do. We didn’t get a chance to dive into it as much because Ronnie just got out of doing that, so he didn’t want to go right back into it. But we did get a chance to go a little darker than we did before. And because of “Better Late Than Never”– it was strung together. The whole album is strung together, so it opens up with a sound effect– what I call it, a sound effect scenario where I had all these different sound effects, and I would put them together and try to make a little audio story out of sound effects. And then, the song would start. Then, when the song would fade, it would go into another sound effect scenario. And then, as that would fade, it would go into another song, kind of like put together almost like “Dark Side of The Moon”, where the whole album was strung together as one long piece. So that wasn’t easy to do in those days when we didn’t have computers to do it that way. So, I’d just done that in “Better Late Than Never”. And Ronnie had noticed that, and so he and I agreed that we were going to try to do that for “Magica”. So, we also wrote all the little in-between parts together and the music behind the story.

The album was successful, and the future looked bright for Dio. But In 2002, when the band was in the studio working on the next Dio album, “Killing the Dragon,” you were out of the band again. What happened back then?

Craig Goldy: Well, “Killing the Dragon”– I was actually working on that album. I was writing and recording on that album. What had happened was I was dating a girl that was living in Europe. And, believe it or not, I mean, I was calling her one day when I was in Germany working to break up with her. But before I could get the words out, she told me she was pregnant. [Laughs.] So, I did the right thing. I just said, “Okay.” Well, I went and got a job and tried to support that because it was– because I was really good with kids. Even though I had a rotten childhood, I was really good with kids because I wanted to make sure that it would never be like what I had to go through whenever they were around me. And so, it was a big deal in my family. “Okay. Wow. Craig’s going to have a son.” The date set for when he was supposed to be born was right at the same time when the “Killing the Dragon” album was going to come out. And so, Ronnie wanted the same guitar player to do the tour as on the album. And I just couldn’t with good conscience know that that girl moved all the way from Europe, sold her business, moved all the way from Europe to live in America, and was giving birth to my one and only child. And I was going to be on tour. I just couldn’t do it. So that’s when Doug stepped in. And they finished the album and finished the recordings with Doug. And then, after that situation, my situation settled. That’s why I was back for “Master of the Moon”.

But the “Magica” was supposed to be a trilogy, so my greatest– my proudest moment and my saddest moment was when Ronnie and I were getting ready to write for “Magica II”. Yes. He was still in Heaven & Hell. And they were making a lot of money because Ronnie was back in the arenas again. And God bless him. He was happy. He deserved to be back in the big arenas again, the big stage, the big sound, and headlining 20,000-seat arenas again. That was wonderful, so happy. I remember seeing him many times backstage, and he just– he’d look at me and goes, “Don’t worry, Goldie. We’re going to do something big. Just trust me. It’s Okay. I know. Don’t worry about it.” So, when he got diagnosed, it was just– the world was turned upside down. And then, at some point, the doctors told him, “Okay, you got a clean bill of health.” He had beat it, and we’re like, “Wow. Okay.” So, he told Wendy, and Ronnie said, “Okay. You can do whatever you want to do.” So, everybody thought Ronnie would go back to Heaven & Hell because they were making so much money and back in the 20,000-seat arenas that he was going to go back to that and just kind of pile up as much money as possible he could for his retirement. So, Wendy said to Ronnie, “Well, what do you want to do?” And he says, I want to write with Craig. And so we started writing together. And he had already started a voiceover for the next part of this– of “Magica”. And we already have a song together. It’s not quite finished. So, one of these days, we’ll finish it and release it. At the time, I was working with that band Budgie, and we’d already done– we already paid for visas, the plane, flights, and everything, and I was going to be gone for like two weeks. And Ronnie said, “No, I want you to go because I don’t have the whole story written yet. So, by the time you come back, we’ll have more to write to because that’s what we did the last time.” And the first “Magica” album, Ronnie didn’t have the whole story finished. We would write songs as he would write characters and finish the story. It was quite cool. I’d wake up one morning, and he’d go, “Goldie, check this out.” And there’d be a new chapter and a new character and a new song to write for that character. So, we were going to recreate that all over again. So he goes, “You go and do this, and when you come back, I’ll have more of the story written, and then we’ll have more to write to.” I said, “Okay.” And when I came back, he was in the hospital, and he was gone the very next day. Yeah. But for him to say that that was just– that was like, “Oh my God. What do you want to do?” There he was in Heaven & Hell making money hand over fist and back in the 20,000-seat arenas; you can do anything you want. What do you want to do? Sit right with Craig. [Laughs.]

DIO DISCIPLES

I met Ronnie in July of 2009, only a few months before his cancer was diagnosed. He was playing with Heaven & Hell in Oulu, and after the show, a couple of my friends and I went to meet Ronnie at the hotel. He was definitely “the last in line” at the hotel. He had time for everyone, and he was the last person who went to sleep. I still remember how well he treated us; he was joking and smiling like he always did. He must have been very ill then already, but he didn’t want to show that out at all.

Craig Goldy: Yeah, yeah. He was very strong that way. I mean, that man could power through anything. But unfortunately, he lost that battle. But yeah, one of the greatest things about being in the Dio Disciples is that Ronnie’s music will never die. Dio Disciples didn’t have to go out and play music because they wanted to make his music not be forgotten. That’s not an issue. His music would never be forgotten. It was able to talk to the fans who missed him just as much as we did afterward. That was the part– because to me, those were not rock concerts. Those were memorial services in the form of a rock concert. And I got a chance to be there with him when he did that stuff. He was the first to get there and the last to leave. And I was there with him because sometimes, after the show, we’d go and talk to the crew. And sometimes, he’d even be helping them load the truck. I mean, all sorts of stuff. It was just crazy what he would do. But I got a chance to be by his side and watch all that stuff and get a chance to have a relationship built with the crew, have a relationship built with his fans because I was standing right there. As many hours as he put in, I did the same. And so, sometimes we’d get back to the hotel at 3 a.m., and as you said, we had to leave at 6:00 a.m. to go on to the next city. We had very little sleep. But it was worth it. And that was the greatest– for me, that was the only reason why I did the Dio Disciples, was being able to talk to his fans afterward and try to make sure that his way didn’t die with him. Try to treat them the same way that he did as best as I could.

Now when you mentioned the Dio Disciples, what’s the state of the band now?

Craig Goldy: I know they want to tour and were just kind of waiting for this COVID thing to lift. And I’m waiting. Also, I have to make sure that my injury is at the point where if I start doing stuff again, it doesn’t set me back. Because there were a couple of times when I felt pretty good and started to do things normally, and it kind of set me back. So, we’re working together with doctors and staff. I’ll make a full recovery. It’s not a big deal; it’s not life-threatening or anything. It’s just taking a long time. But they have plenty of guitar players to pick from. I know that Rowan did a couple of Dio Disciples concerts when I couldn’t make it. And I think it went over pretty well. So I mean, they have Rowan, they have Doug, they have even Tracy. I would love to see Tracy do some stuff with them.

I’m sure many people and fans will still remember the quarrel you had between Dio Disciples and Last in Line (which features the original Dio band members Vivian Campbell, Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain (RIP), and singer Andy Freeman.) Are those differences now resolved, and how do you see the situation now?

Craig Goldy: Well, it seems better. It seems a little bit better. I think people are starting to realize, at least, I got a chance to air my opinion. And I think over the years, and people know where I’m coming from and that I loved Ronnie just as much as they did. And so, the heart behind it was right, but it just wasn’t done right from the very beginning. The website was run like a vacuum sale, door-to-door vacuum salesman. And the way things were run, I think poor Wendy was so distraught that she didn’t have a visionary. She works really well with a visionary, which is why she and Ronnie were such a good team. But she didn’t have that visionary by her side. And quite frankly, at the time, I was so sad because Ronnie came to me once and told me that he wanted to pass the torch on to me. He goes, “I want to pass the torch on to you, kid.” And right in front of his best friend, Willie, who was the tour assistant at the time. And Willie turns to me and goes, “Wow. Do you know what that means?” I go, “Yeah. This is big.” So, I feel really bad because, at the time when she probably needed me the most, I was so heartbroken that I started drinking too much. And that made me kind of– and I just kind of withdrew and went into my own little cave for a long time. Until I finally did my own personal tribute. I did two songs as my tribute to Ronnie because I couldn’t even get excited about making music again. I didn’t want to play music anymore. I didn’t want to write music anymore because I was so broken. And finally, I overcame that.

But at the time, she needed someone to say, “No. That’s not a good idea. Don’t do it that way.” And she didn’t. And I think the fans got the wrong impression of her heart. And it was just everything was done improperly from the very beginning. And I think that’s what made fans have the wrong impression because of the way things were. They were just done the wrong way. I mean, it wasn’t that Wendy doesn’t know what she’s doing. It’s not that she doesn’t love Ronnie. It’s just she put the website in charge of a guy who was basically a salesman. That’s what he does. He was a really close friend of Ronnie’s, and they worked together in Warner Brothers a lot. But he was more of a marketing guy. So, he kind of ran the website as a marketing guy would, and it came across as almost money hungry. It was sickening. And a lot of the fans saw that, and it was just like they all thought that this was just– they kept calling it a money grab. And I knew the heart. I knew the heart behind the guy who was doing even the marketing. I knew the heart behind Wendy. I knew the heart behind all the guys in the band, including when Rudy was with us from the beginning. And why he left. And why Tim left for a while. It just was unfortunate. Everything needed to stop and start over again and have that kind of visionary work alongside Wendy the way it was supposed to. That’s when it worked. But if you don’t have a visionary next to her, it’s not going to come out the same. It just isn’t.

And at one point, it started to happen again because when they did the “A Decade of Dio”. The guy who was mastering those– she didn’t like the way it sounded. So, she finally reached out to me and said, “Craig, what do we do?” And she sent me a copy of it, and I knew exactly what was going on. So, I just told her, “Okay. When people are trying to make an old recording sound new, what people normally do boost the mid up, they boost the range, and that just suddenly makes it sound brighter.” And I go, “If Warner Brothers is looking for a reason why it doesn’t sound good, just tell them that the engineer boosted the mid’s too much. And they’ll just cut it in half. Just whatever he did, they’ll do half as much, and you should be fine.”

The next thing I know, Warner Brothers is contacting me, and they want me to sit with the guy. So now, I’ve actually got– I saved the work orders. None of those albums were going to come out until I approved them. And Wendy and Warner Brothers wanted me to sit with this guy one on one. And until it sounded the way it was supposed to sound, then it would go out. So, it was kind of like, “Oh. We’re back again. We’re a team again.” And then, I forget what happened. Something happened again, and. Oh. I think the Dream Child album is what happened next. [Laughs.] 

Yeah. I love Wendy, and she’s family to me, but it’s just what– I tell the story. When Jesus went into the temple, he saw the money changers, and that angered him. So, he toppled their tables and said, “This is a temple of worship, not a temple of– not a marketplace.” And so, in the temple of Dio, they saw the Dio Disciples as the money changers, and they wished to topple our tables. Because that’s how they saw us because that’s how it came across. So, when the Dio Disciples came out, it literally ripped all of the Dio fans in half. Some were with us, and some were against us. And some people were very, very hateful towards us, and it’s interesting how so much hate can come from so much love because they only hated us because of their own love for Ronnie. And I think nowadays people are– I’ve said that story and told that to many people. Even one-on-one, I try to reach people because you can’t change the heart of the city until– I mean, you can’t change the city until you change the hearts of the people in the city. So, as we went from city to city and met with the fans, I think people started to understand the true heart of this, and it started to calm things down. And then the pandemic hit, and there was just no way to do anything, so. So, I think eventually, if it does start back up, that it’s going to be probably a little bit more well-received than it was before because I think people by now, they ought to know what’s truly behind it.

The Ronnie hologram you used on the Dio Disciples tour caused a lot of discussions, and it wasn’t all very positive. 

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Craig Goldy: It was just a grand gesture. That’s all it was, and it was misinterpreted again. And no, I don’t think we’re going to be doing the hologram anymore.

Yeah. I think it’s a wise decision.

Craig Goldy: Yeah, it was unfortunate.

But still, going back to the thing about the “two camps” in Dio’s legacy, I think that it became bigger in public than what it really was. On top of everything, you and Vinny have been playing together again since 2015. So, in a way, and my opinion is that the feud between the two bands sounds just ridiculous now.  

Craig Goldy: I know. I know. I agree with you. It was rough. And at one point when Vinny and I started working together, that was great because we became good friends again. But this time, it was more like equals. It was great. And when I went to one of Vinny’s birthday parties, Vivian was there, and every time I ran into Vivian, he was very respectful towards me. He’s not a jerk at all. And it’s just unfortunate that that feud between Vivian and Ronnie is what kept us to became two camps. That’s the only reason it was considered two camps because Vivian was still angry with Ronnie, and even though Ronnie was– Ronnie took that hate to his grave. He never said anything like, “Hey, Vivian, let’s meet together and bury the hatchet.”

Nobody stood up and became the bigger man. That’s why I said I think Vivian should– I said a couple of things hoping that somebody would just stand up and say something like, “Hey, it’s unfortunate. Sorry, Ronnie, for all the things I said.” But regardless of what Ronnie did or did not do or a promise he made or did not keep, I know what happened behind the scenes, and I know that Ronnie’s a man of his word. So, if he made that promise, he was going to keep that promise. It probably wasn’t going to be kept at the time that the band wanted it to, but it was going to be kept. I know that for a fact. But it’s just unfortunate because Vivian is a great guy. He’s an amazing player. He’s the quintessential deal player. He’s the one that created that sound with Ronnie. It wasn’t Ronnie alone. It was all of them. And when Jimmy was with us, I mean, that was amazing. In fact, I worked with Andy Freeman, the singer. He’s an amazing singer. We did some concerts together with Jimmy Bain when we were at this thing, called the Hollywood All-Stars.

I, Jimmy, and Andrew did a couple of shows together, and we were thinking about doing an album together, and there are times when I see all the guys from Last in Line at the NAMM Show back when– before the pandemic hit. And we all got along great because they knew where my heart was, too. I was cheering them on– “Go for it, guys.” It’s just unfortunate the way the press can slant things sometimes, too. Vivian didn’t need any help, and Ronnie didn’t need any help showing how much hatred they had for each other. I was just kind of hoping that eventually, that feud would end. And it never did. And I think that’s what made this idea of the two camps because in my heart, there aren’t two camps either, and there shouldn’t be.

So, do you see that there is a chance that someday, everybody can bury the hatchet and get together, somehow?

Craig Goldy: Well, I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t know. I mean, at some point, I’ll give it my best shot. I will reach out and see. But at the same time, I just don’t know– some wounds never heal, I guess. Some things do cut deep. And so, it’ll be interesting to see. But I’ll give it my best shot; I’ll tell you that.

Hey, even Rudy Sarzo went back to play with Quiet Riot, so everything is possible. [Laughs.] And none of us is here forever. 

Craig Goldy: That’s right! [Laughs.] You’re exactly right. And I just really don’t think– there’s no reason to bring hate to the grave. It shouldn’t be that way. But once again, I was there when I was in Giuffria. I was around that during the “Holy Diver”, “The Last in Line,” and “Sacred Heart” era. I was around. I was there when Ronnie would show up at rehearsals at Mates. And he was the only one there. And the truck would show up with the equipment before the crew would even get there. So instead of waiting around, Ronnie would start unloading the truck. So, I would be like, “Well, I’m not going to let them do it by himself.” So, Ronnie and I started unloading the truck. And I remember all that kind of stuff where he would be doing all the stuff and doing all this extra stuff. And then, when it came the time when– the money problem. For some reason, because– I think it was because that band was run like a family that money became a problem because you know what it’s like when they say, don’t lend money to family. [Laughs.]

THE END OF STORY

It’s time to sum this interview soon, but I still have a few things left in my mind. It seems that you have tons of great stories to share. So, I need to ask if you have plans to write a book someday? 

Craig Goldy: Oh, oh. Yeah. As a matter of fact, yeah, I think that might be a good thing.

But we already kind of arranged one tonight, “laughs.”

Craig Goldy: Oh, yeah. We already made one. Exactly. There are different ways to be creative and different ways to be gifted. And you are definitely gifted, and you are creative. I mean, I could just tell just simply by the way you– as you said, you structure your interviews to be more like a conversation. But the way you– you’ve got a really fast wit. And I admire that about people who can have that, got a really fast wit. I call it association. There are people who– they can associate one thing, one subject that’s been brought up. And then, later on, it can be tied together with another seemingly unconnected subject matter. But somehow, they find something similar that can connect the two, and it becomes really funny because of the way they put it together. They associate something that seems to be unrelated that happened during the conversation, and they bring it back up again in a very fast and humorous way. And you have that gift. I mean, that’s– imagine trying to be a comedian and not having that kind of gift. [Laughs.]

[Laughs.] Thank you very much, Craig. I respect your words. And it has been an honor to do this deep but very open interview with you.

Craig Goldy: Well, luckily, because I’m a fan, so quite honestly, if somebody asked me for an interview, it’s an honor and a privilege. And the day that people stop asking me for interviews is going to be a sad day because it is an honor and a privilege to be interviewed, period because I’m a fan. And so, in my mind, I’m still that fan that listened to Deep Purple for the first time because I can draw like a photograph. If you want to, I can email you a picture that shows that I can draw like a photograph. And I was supposed to be an artist. But if I would get work as an artist, it would give me really bad migraines. Music just really called to me. So luckily, I was able to make music. But I mean, you also have a gift that just– there’s even a saying in the Bible that your gift may make room for you and sets you before great men. And I think that’s why you feel so good about saying how many people you’ve interviewed because it’s your gift that brought you to all those great people you talked about. All the people that you’ve been able to interview, you’ve been able to put them at ease. It’s a nice experience that they want to repeat. Doing this was really enjoyable from beginning to end. But for you, I’m sure that there’s a bit of a strategy thereof where you want to go and what you want to do, and even if you don’t have a strategy beforehand, you know that because you have a gift, you can do it simply just by, you probably don’t have to do much work. You say you do. You go and do your research, and that’s great that you do that, so you’re ready for anything. But ultimately, it’s your gift that gets you through everything. It’s not so much the studying. It’s just that because you’re so prepared, you can do anything. And so, by doing that, you set everybody at ease, and I feel like you’re like a long-lost brother that I never got a chance to talk to and so. [Laughs.] That’s right. That’s awesome. I know, but also, I think, don’t take this the wrong way– because I mean it in a good way– because people seem to take this wrong when I try to tell them this: you still have purity inside you. There’s still a bit of innocence inside you, and I mean that in a good way because that’s how you can talk so straight is because you’re willing to take the truth, whatever it is. Because you are open, and so when a pure heart makes a wish and leaves no stone unturned, something magical will happen anyway. It’s not like you just sat around. You didn’t sit around and wait for them to come to you. You worked great, and it just means that you have the purity that, and purity is– the truth is one of the strongest forces on Earth. And purity and innocence, meaning that not that you have a child inside, but it’s childlike, meaning that it’s so pure that it’s so strong. Because that’s what allows you to connect with anybody, you can talk to anybody because you don’t have a hidden agenda. You’re not a mean person. And you know you’re not a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Absolutely. But now we have to end this wonderful discussion, and my last question goes, when are we going to see Craig Goldy playing live in Europe again?

Craig Goldy: Hopefully not very long, because it shouldn’t be very long before I’m up and running again and start making some new music again. But it just depends on– I don’t know if I’m going to go the record company route this particular time and maybe be more straight from me to fans stuff like that kind of a thing. I don’t really know. I’m still trying to formulate exactly what the next step is, but it’s definitely going to be some new music, and I definitely want to come back to Europe again. And it’s just going to take a few things because we want to make it right.  Everybody has to be vaccinated, and so on. There are so many different things that need to be set in place. So, the time factor, I’m not really sure, but it will happen. There will be some new music. And when I– this time, I’ll make sure that the people that I work with are going to be able to tour, that they’re not going to be so stuck in ten different projects that they can’t commit to one for at least a few months to do some touring. So, it’ll have to be strategic at the same time, which members and people I work with to make that happen. But it’ll happen, and hopefully, in 2022, next year, it would be great

Hopefully, it will happen, and we’ll see somewhere on the road.

Craig Goldy: Definitely. Thanks once again, Marko. And I got to tell you, man; you’ve been– this interview time has been great. I love your mind, the way your mind works. You could be a comedian. [Laughs.] But yeah, it’s right. I mean, there are talented people all over the world. And you’re right. This is a saying I put in my book when I was trying to teach people stuff because– those two things. One of them is that if there weren’t so many people willing to buy crap, there wouldn’t be so much crap for sale. [Laughs.]

You’re absolutely right Craig. Thanks once again.

Craig Goldy: Thank you Marko.