From Dio in an interview:
ME: That’s superb. Just one more question for you. You’ve had press recently regarding Vivian Campbell. Is that something that you are quite passionate about?
Dio: No I’m not passionate about it. I think that the lowly vermin that captured that on his cell phone at a moment when you are saying something that perhaps you would never say to the press, or something that you didn’t really mean that much, but you know, sometimes situations dictate what you say. And once again that was something that was completely off the record.
Apparently I said something bad about the band as well, about Def Leppard, and once again all of things that were said were said in the heat of the moment. No reference to them at all, and I would like to apologise to those guys. I like them. It wasn’t fair to them, but as far as Vivian goes, all I can say is check out the source, and then see what that source has been saying and sometimes you reply. Most of the time I have been taking the high road on all of it and I have not said anything on it. I have praised Vivian so much and I think that he deserves praise for as great as he played, but you know that was just a retort to the things that he had said about me first, and once again in an unguarded moment, I feel that I was very unfair, but I said what I said.
But I am not passionate about hating him, no. I have better things to do with my life than to think about revenge or being a horrible person. Of course I don’t want him to die! What I said was, once again a heat of the moment thing. Those thing can not be explained unless you speak to the source which is me I guess, like you are doing. So no, I have no passion about that whatsoever.
ME: I wasn’t sure how you would take it but I thought it was worth asking. To sort of clarify it.
Dio: Well if I say something I will certainly explain what my motive was and what my method is. So thanks for giving me the opportunity to say it.
ME: Your very welcome. Thank you very much for talking to me.
Some of what Viv said about Ronnie:
In a recent interview posted on DEF LEPPARD's official web site, current DEF LEPPARD/former DIO guitarist Vivian Campbell talked about his disdain for hard rock. "The real irony of that is I actually don't like hard rock music," he said. "I know it's a strange thing to say, but I don't really care about my past contributions. Even now I still get these guys coming up to me going 'Duuuuuuuude!', giving me the DIO devil sign and yelling 'Holy Diver!!' and 'Rainbow In The Dark, whoo hoo!!' and it's cool that they remember it, but that music never mattered to me — and still doesn't." Campbell went on to praise and rip Ronnie James Dio, with whom he had an acrimonious split in the mid-'80s, "Oh yeah, night after night, [Ronnie] was absolutely on the money," Vivian said. "An incredibly strong voice and within that niche genre of dungeons and dragons and rainbows and midgets... You know, the sorta old school heavy metal, he's an incredible talent. But he's an awful businessman and way more importantly, one of the vilest people in the industry."
I will say though that over the past few years when I have seen Vivian he seems to be more appreciative of those years and music with Dio.