They famously sang, “We’ll know for the first time, if we’re evil, or divine…”
Now they indeed have gone to meet their maker.
First, Dio done died, and now Bain is bereaved.
And, of course, there is a Hudson connection to this band. Being a fan, it’s hard to fathom that it took me this long, since January, to become aware that bassist Jimmy Bain had also passed on. And its been a few years since he and others related to the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, believe it or not, played Dibbo’s and songs like Last in Line, along with a heavy metal all-star band.
The ad hoc group formed for a birthday party out in L.A., but the act took off and so they took it on the road. As sometimes used to happen, after a gig in the Twin Cities and on their way to Milwaukee-Chicago, they needed a place to play or practice in-between. Enter Dibbo’s.
A week before the gig, I scored a telephone interview with Vinnie Appice, drummer for Black Sabbath, who helped form this all-star band. To my surprise, Appice was very engaging and even remembered my name when I introduced myself in the flesh after the show, and made a few minutes of conversation. Bain had been flanked off to the left of the stage, near where I’d been standing, and had traded in his earlier punk rock attire for a trenchcoat, ala Jimmy Page.
When Bain died, it was Appice who made the public announcement online on behalf of the band(s).
Dibbo’s had also hosted groups like Great White, Foghat and a personal favorite of the manager, Blue Oyster Cult, (members of which hung out with the staff until the wee hours of the morning), but the only lineup I can recall like that mentioned earlier was put together by Steven Adler, another drummer, this time for Guns ‘N Roses. A relatively new local bartender notes that she once hung out at length with him, as well as with his hair band contemporaries like Tesla and Warrant.