I can’t believe it has been this long.  20 frickin’ years ago I started talking to a metalhead in England named Dan Slessor, from Brighton.  He has since deleted his social media and I’m no longer in touch with him.  Hi Dan!  I hope you are well.  Drop me a line.

I was very happy for him when Dan told me had started writing for Kerrang!  (I still have an issue with one of his articles, and Josh Homme on the cover.)  He had achieved the Dream.  Best of all, he got to interview rock stars for the magazine:  Tom Araya, David Coverdale, Joe Elliott….

And Ronnie James goddamn Dio!

One of Dan’s signature moves was to ask bands a joke question, in hope that they have a sense of humour and it would loosen things up.  It worked with Tom Araya when Dan asked him if Slayer ever killed time on the tour bus by seeing how many pencils they could stuff in their pubes.

I recently dug up an old message from Dan.  It was just after he interviewed Dio.  And folks, I can testify that in May 2008, Dan did ask Dio if he had ever ridden a tiger.

Dan told me that while Ronnie did answer in the negative, “Dio was awesome dude – and judging by his amusement, I think I’m the first person to ever ask him if he’d actually ridden a tiger….”

Ronnie passed away only two years after that interview.  You gotta give Dan credit for that one!  I don’t know anyone else who has asked Dio that question.

Dan, I hope you are doing well and if you stumble upon this, please drop me a line, I’d love to catch up!