Pratique du Shadowing: RONNIE JAMES DIO interview on religion and the Devil 2004 | Raw & Uncut - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

One interview I get asked about a lot is the interview

I did with Ronnie James Dio at his house in Los Angeles in 2004 for our first film, Metalheadbanger's Journey.

And you know, I've talked a lot about this film in the past, but after sitting down and watching it again after many years away from it,

it made me realize how important this interview was to our first movie.

When we set out to make that film, we knew we wanted to talk about the church burnings

that had happened in Norway and the role of Satan and Satanism in metal.

But Ronnie took that topic to a whole other level

and made me realize that metal has a lot to say about religion, about the difference between good and evil,

and the difference between God and the devil, and these questions that are fundamentally human.

And it also made me realize that I really miss Ronnie.

I'm sure you do too.

And so I'm glad that we can share this clip with you.

Tell me about what Holy Diver is about.

Well Holy Diver actually is a really kind of religious song.

I mean it's once again based from a religious attitude.

I have a tendency to do that a lot too because I think that, especially the religion that I grew up with,

Catholicism has gotten itself so far behind the current method of healing

because it's so steeped in the past

that I've always had a go at them for really teaching by fear more than teaching by love.

Of course they teach by love too, but I was always afraid as a kid of the nuns, the big penguins who were going to smack you in the head with a ruler,

which is what they always did anyway.

Or the fact that if you do something wrong, you're going to go to hell, and you're going to suffer terribly.

And I'm like, whoa, give me a break here.

What's going on?

Here's your God.

He's that man nailed up on a cross there.

Oh my God.

Again, it was so much more by fear that I just really divorced myself from most of those attitudes.

So anyway, the song Holy Diver is really about a Christ figure who on another place,

not Earth, has done exactly the same as we've apparently experienced or are supposed to have experienced on Earth,

dying for the sins of man so that man could start again and be cleansed and do it properly.

So the same thing happened on this other far distant planet.

And all the people on this planet are saying to him, you know, they're calling him the Holy Diver.

Holy Diver because he's about to go to another place, to another planet, another world, to do what he did on from this place, saved people from their sins,

or absolved them from their sins by having himself killed.

And the people are saying to him,

don't go, no, no, innuendos of tigers and stripes and hearts and being eaten and you'll die.

And it was meant to show just how selfish humanity is, that this one form of humanity on this one world said,

no, no, no, don't go down there and save anybody else.

Stay here.

We need you.

You're ours.

That's what that was about.

We're talking about religion, and we've talked to people about religion on this journey, and about Christianity and about Satanism.

and Satanism, as you know, has run through metal music or at least satanic imagery.

You're in Norway where a lot of these bands take this

stuff very seriously to the point where they've burned down churches and there's been murders in that scene.

I'm interested to get your perspective on the satanic content in metal

and also how religion has played a part in the music that you've made?

Well, once again, religion has played a part in my music more from a dissatisfaction, a discontented kind of view.

And I believe that any religion is a great religion because it gives people the strength, some people the strength to go on.

They have to have faith.

And they believe that the ultimate goal of reaching nirvana or heaven is because there'll be good people hey, can't ask for more than that.

That's great.

Religion should be teaching love and it should be teaching

that there is something probably higher than we are out there to lessen our sense of importance.

So, you know, as far as religion goes, I've always dealt with it that way, that it's a good thing, but I think maybe sometimes the teachings don't hold true to themselves.

I shall not kill an eye for an eye.

No, I don't think so.

So that's why for me, the whole world is heaven and hell.

That song is about that, the fact that we, in my mind, we live in heaven, we live in hell.

God and the devil are inherent in each of us.

And it's our choice to make.

You can take the road to good and take the road to bad.

Well, we have a choice.

The optimum way to go, of course, is to do the good thing.

I totally agree with that.

But again, because Religion is taught so badly, I think, that I've used it as an example of humanity somehow.

I mean, I've done it with other subjects as well, but religion seems to be one that really works.

Now, in the music itself, you're talking about generally a lot broader kind of music, heavier, obviously, doomier at times.

It just fits the genre.

If you're going to write a gothic song, you're probably not going to write it about how your love affair broke up.

So your subject matter becomes a little bit more narrowed.

And certainly evil is a great subject.

Evil is dark.

Evil is something that we know about but don't understand why it happens and don't really ever meet up with the devil.

So again, it's kind of having to use your own imagination.

It's really the same with a god, unless you believe that it's a white guy sitting with a robe on a chair someplace.

Obviously, it could be an Asian guy doing that, or it could be a woman, or it could be whatever.

You know, we don't know these things.

So it's good, unless it's used our imagination a little bit.

But the themes around evil are just so much more cognizant to the music that we make.

Because of minor keys, because minor keys are so prevalent in most metal music, it's hard to write a song on an entire minor key and talk about,

you know, nice things.

It just is.

So it's a vehicle.

It's a good vehicle.

So in my case, I've done it differently.

I've always tried to be someone who has warned about the fact, warned people about the fact that there is good and there is evil.

And you have a choice and your best choice is probably not to be evil.

This is what evil can do to you.

This is what evil has done to the people that I know.

Depends on your perspective of evil though.

Drugs are evil.

Too much indulgence in bad things is evil.

hanging around with evil people is going to beget you to be an evil person.

These are the themes that I've tried to deal with in a darker way.

Not to say that the devil is lurking around the corner.

I'm not one of those who goes to that kind of extreme.

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I think that has been a problem, that people have taken metal music to that extreme socially.

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I have tried never to do that.

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Because of course we have the satanic phenomenon and the fact

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that a lot of metal bands have aligned themselves very closely with evil or with Satan and what Satan represents.

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It's a symbolism too, isn't it?

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I mean, it's a great symbolism for what they're trying to portray.

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But what do you think then about that satanic element in metal?

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Well, I'm not a satanist.

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So therefore, I guess I'll have to give them the right to have their religious belief because that's what that will be.

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I mean, really, it's like witches at the end of the day.

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I mean, witches are normally pretty good people.

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You know, you only get the satanic end of it that happens that way.

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Yeah, sure.

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What's this called?

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Slate.

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Slate.

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When I apply for the patent, I want to make sure that I...

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The slate.

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See, I'll change this part from the black and white thing to something a little bit more evil.

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Just put them around.

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Start with white and black.

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There you go.

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That's it.

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Yeah, that's right.

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Drag it up here.

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It'll be perfect.

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When you open it, flames come out.

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Black and red.

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I throw it.

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So, Ronnie, just continue with your thoughts on the satanic content of heavy metal.

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Okay.

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Again, you know, from my perspective, it's always been a warning about it that look, there's a lot of evil out there in the world.

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In case you don't know that yet, there's a lot of evil in the world.

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So that's really the way I deal with it.

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Others, again, go to the extremes and feel that the symbolism, which is incredible for artwork,

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for stage presentation, it goes well with black leather and chains and all those kind of things,

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with lights and pyrotechnics.

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It's just a perfect medium for it.

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I mean, darkness and then therefore I guess evil is a great medium for this.

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It's a great petri dish.

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But it doesn't necessarily mean

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that you have to go to those extremes where people are joining the neo-Nazi party

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and burning synagogues and burning churches or whatever it may be.

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That I have no time for at all.

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But I think it's just because it's so it's again

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so not known

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that you can almost say anything you need to you know we all know about good love

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and be good to your neighbor

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but we don't really know what the devil's doing we don't

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know what's happening where he's hanging out you know is he

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there with a slate going on okay roll him time to

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burn another you know another witch somewhere we don't know anything like

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that so you can be you have

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so much more freedom to create lyrically things musically you know minor keys are minor keys

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and rhythms are rhythms but obviously you must be alluding more to what the subject matter is because

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if you're speaking about about how Satan is the coolest guy

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on the face of the planet then you know that's that's what you've decided to do

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but so obviously there's a line with you you think

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when kids get around to burning actually burning churches like they have in Norway

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and feel very serious about this stuff and actually want to make some kind of broader statement.

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I mean, we talked to a guy who did burn one of these churches.

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He wants to make a statement.

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He feels that Christianity in his country has been a terrible,

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terrible thing that has ruined their society.

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So they feel quite passionate about this.

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But you're saying that's taking it too far.

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Oh, of course it is.

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I mean, that's taking it to the point of idiocy.

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You know, it really is.

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I mean, we talked earlier about, you know, mental and violence.

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I mean, you can't get any more violent than that.

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I mean, what if someone was inside that church?

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Maybe there were.

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I don't know.

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I mean, you have a problem with Christianity, so you have a problem with life as well.

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You have a problem with this person being alive because they're in there.

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I mean, it's idiocy.

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It's complete idiocy.

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Of course I have a line.

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I have a line.

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You know, I have my own moral standards that I must deal with.

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and my moral standards are not in praise of the devil.

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They aren't.

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If that puts anybody off about what I've done in my life, there you go.

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I was in Black Sabbath.

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It's pretty hard to shed that cloak because we as a band never ever in interviews would say,

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no, we're not evil.

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No, we wouldn't do those kind of things.

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No, no, no way.

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And when you don't defend yourself and you let people make their own judgments as to what you are, especially with a name like Black Sabbath,

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then you're going to be painted with that paintbrush and you're going to have to wear it.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Pratique du Shadowing: RONNIE JAMES DIO interview on religion and the Devil 2004 | Raw & Uncut - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

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Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?