Ronnie James Dio Rejoins Sabbath in Heaven and Hell

2007 is the year of the reunion and one of the most exciting ones for metal fans is the reteaming of Ronnie James Dio with Black Sabbath, who are touring under the moniker Heaven and Hell. Dio, who replaced Ozzy Osbourne as the band's vocalist in the late '70s, was the voice behind the classic album 'Heaven and Hell,' as well as 'Mob Rules' and 'Dehumanizer.'

All of those albums are being drawn upon for the band's current tour, which hits a sold-out Radio City Music Hall Friday night. Subsequent shows are enjoying similar success. Did the band members have any idea there would be this kind of a demand for them to reunite? "For a few years now people have said, 'Do you think you'll ever do this lineup again?' But you never know what to expect when you do something like this," guitarist Tony Iommi tells Spinner. "It's marvelous for us to see all these places full."

While Iommi may have had an inkling, Dio, who says he's asked more often about reuniting with Rainbow, was totally caught off guard. "I was as surprised as everyone else," he says. "Especially when Radio City Music Hall went on sale. That, to me, was the benchmark for everything that has come [since]."

The initial reunion came about when Iommi and Dio got together to write three new tracks for an upcoming retrospective, 'Black Sabbath: The Dio Years.' And while it had been 15 years since the two had played together, Dio says it was like no time had passed. "It was instant and always has been. We never disliked each other, ever," he says. "You just start back on that foot again -- same laughs, same jokes we probably told 15 years ago. We had that rapport when we first started and that same rapport is there."

Whether that will lead to more beyond this is another question. "We're enjoying what we're doing," Iommi says. "We said we'd do it until the end of the year, then we don't know. We've all got different commitments so we'll see what it brings."