The Dio hologram began at Wacken Open Air 2016 and has been touring with a full-fledged Dio Disciples band ever since. Now in a new interview with The Metal Voice, Wendy Dio says the hologram tour is currently shelved and will return in 2019. She says she wants to fine-tune the facial features and that the tours that have taken place were "good tests."
"It was a good test, we did very well, but there's things I need to perfect on Ronnie. I'm really very critical. I need to perfect his face a little bit more — his eyes and his eyebrows are not quite right to me. So we're back on the drawing board right now. And we're hoping it will go out again probably the beginning of next year, and we will hit Canada and America. But it has to be right first."
Wendy also talks about the criticisms being made against the tour, essentially saying that if you haven't seen it yet, then you really shouldn't be saying anything about it. Personally, I think it's less about the show itself and more about the whole "touring a hologram of a dead guy and making it an over-glorified cover band," but to each his own.
"All the criticism is fine — everybody has the right to criticize something — but look at it and see it first before you criticize it. Because most of the people that criticize it haven't seen it and they don't even know what to expect. It's a whole experience that we take out. Ronnie comes in and out — you don't know when he's gonna come in or out. He does about six or eight songs — he comes in and out. The rest of the time is with Ripper and Oni singing the songs, sometimes singing together, singing alone. And what we are developing now is for Ronnie to sing together with them, so they sing different verses together. And plus, the band, of course, is superb — they are a fantastic band, because they played with Ronnie for 17 years, and he only picked the best. And then we also have all kinds of stuff going on with old photos of Ronnie, all different things going on at the same time, so it's like an experience — it's a whole experience."
So yeah, a prettier Dio is coming in 2019.
