Fabio Lione

Rhapsody

RHAPSODY, the Italian Power Metal juggernaut, probably one of the highly acclaimed Melodic Metal band of all time, is calling it a day. Lately, the original lineup decided to embark on a 20th anniversary tour, which will also summarize the band's part in Metal history. Steinmetal had a chance to talk with Fabio Lione, the powerhouse vocalist, regarding the upcoming tour, future plans and future of himself and the band.
March 5, 2017
Interview - Fabio Lione (Rhapsody) interview
Hello Fabio, thank you for taking the time for this interview for Metal Temple, your time is well appreciated, coming the fact that you are about to embark of a great tour to celebrate the farewell of your legendary band Rhapsody. How are you doing nowadays? Can you feel the excitement?

Of course!!! I feel really great and the guys too. We had this in mind and we received many proposals. Actually we start talking about that exactly One year ago. We just felt so great. I mean to play with the classic line-up a complete record as "Symphony Of Enchanted Lands" plus some new songs never played before. And some hits!!! It's just amazing. We'll do that for our fans and for us. Celebrating 20 years of Rhapsody (The original band!!!The original name.) It's important that people understand that this will be the last chance to see us all together. After that the original Rhapsody band will not hit the stage anymore!!!

You were probably asked about it quite a lot, but our readers have to know. From where this all came from? The decision to get back in the band with Luca Turilli to end it all

Then things became different and kind of complicated. And actually one original member (Staropoli) didn't want to join this and collaborate with us. We asked him, I guess something like 6 times, to join this tour and his old friends. We talked about this for a pretty long time (1 year, to tell the truth) but he refused and didn't want to join. We did all the possible!!! Probably he just preferred to work on his own band with new people. I have to confess that this made me sad and really disappointed me but this is it. You know, I have been part of Rhapsody for 20 years, Luca even more, as he created the band. Holzy (Alex Holzwarth) for 18 years, Patrice and Dominique for more than 16 years. 5 members of the original Rhapsody are more than happy and excited to be part of this. We wish him good luck with his projects.

So in the end I'm not back in the band of Luca (Luca Turilli's Rhapsody) but the Original members of Rhapsody will celebrate 20 years of the band with this Farewell tour that I think will last for around 1 year!

After this tour the "original" band Rhapsody will not exist no more. Luca will make some different music with his band. And me and Holzy will do different things. So that's why it's a farewell and a 20th year's celebration tour!

Does your mutual decision in the band to wrap it up might have a thing in common with the promotional farewell tour of Scorpions, which have already started working on material for their next album, or similar to Motley Crue that closed up shop? Please explain the band's course of action in the near future.

No, nothing in common. I really love Scorpions and I like Motley but our decisions have nothing to do with them. Or anyway we didn't think about these kind of things. As I said before, we decide to celebrate 20 years of the band, so simple!

The fact that people will have in the future 2 Rhapsody bands that will go on. Well, I don't know what the 2 "Rhapsody's" bands will do after that. But I know that they will probably go on with a different style and without the original singer, drummer, past members, saga, etc.

Looking back at those decades with Rhapsody and the offspring Rhapsody Of Fire, do you have any regrets? Are there things that you might have done differently? Did you miss playing those old songs? Did you miss the chemistry that you had with Luca?

I agree with you somehow; I think the first "era" of the Rhapsody band was kind of magical. hahaha..Thinking about the situation, considering that the band is  an Italian band and everything. Well, I think we probably made more than what was possible for a young Italian band with no experience. We had some bad moments, wrong / bad decisions and sometimes we trusted wrong people. But maybe all fits in the big picture. We always did our best with all our hearts. I don't care if we sold 1.5 million albums or maybe more. I care about what we created, our message and our way of playing Heavy Metal. This band created something unique and if the Metal world and fans liked it. I'm happy with that. Could we have done more!?! Who knows!?! Probably. but as far as I can sing my songs and share the stage with some old friends for a Last Incredible Tour and see our "unique" fans singing along with me and the band. Nothing really matters" more than this for the band and me.

I guess that the farewell tour of Rhapsody would eventually become quite major due to the importance of the event, with dates in Europe along with Center and South America. Do you believe that it would become a World tour?

For sure! At the moment we are fixing the shows and we received many proposals. I can say that this will be certainly a World Tour. Let's wait and see regarding possible additional shows in Europe, Asia, North and South America. I'm sure we will have many surprises for our fans.

This coming end of July, the band will be doing a show in Tel Aviv, Israel. For you, and Alex, it will be a sort of a compensation show due to what happened last year with the slow breakup from Rhapsody Of Fire that caused the cancellation of a scheduled show. How do you feel about what happened? Do you believe that this upcoming farewell show will take on what was planned to be a major event in the previous one?

What happened with ROF is a story for another time. What I can say that I'm very happy that in the end I will finally play in Tel Aviv with Holzy and the guys and for sure what people can expect and will see. It will be surely a major event compared to what was planned in the previous one. We are talking about the "original" Rhapsody band here, a band that will play all the classics plus some songs never played before and the complete "Symphony.." album.

With the chances of Rhapsody to call it a day after this tour, are you planning new ventures? Of course other than the current projects you are a part of, with Angra being the foremost of them. Do you have new ventures / projects that you might wish to shed some light about?

With Luca at the moment we are thinking about the possibility to release a DVD of this Rhapsody 20th Anniversary Tour, so I think we will record some shows. As many of you may know this will be our last tour ever with the original line-up of Rhapsody so we are thinking to create something special for us and our fans.

Regarding myself, finally I will have to think about a Solo album I guess. hahaha. I also have a new band called Eternal Idol with some shows fixed (we just came back from Spain where we played 4 shows). Our first record "The Unrevealed Secret" is getting great reactions from the fans and Frontiers Record is really happy about that. Everything is growing around this band. Then I have to work with Angra on a new record and some shows. The band will celebrate 25 years. Actually we are writing new material and would like to release a new record in the end of this year. I will have also to release a record with my friend Alessandro Conti (Luca's singer, as many of you know I have presented this guy to Luca some years ago).

Fabio, I wish to thank you for this interview for Metal Temple. May this tour will be a successful one for Rhapsody, a band that will surely be missed in Metal music. Any last words for the fans worldwide that expect and might expect your arrival to their country?

This tour will be our "last time party" with all our fans. What this band represents in Metal music is unique I think and we want to make all is possible to honor this band and our fans! So let's enjoy "a last time party night" all together with friends and fans.

You know, I can only say that I was just singing in this Rhapsody band for 20 years, giving my ideas, soul, voice and heart, the rest doesn't really matter to me. I want that this tour will remain in the heart of all our fans for a long time.

Thank you! And see you soon! Ciao!

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