During an appearance on Hangin' & Bangin' Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich reminisced about his failed audition for Kiss when he was just a teenager, and also mentioned his time in Ronnie James Dio .
Asked how Kiss's rejection affected him, Aldrich said: “ Gene [ Simmons ] was funny. […] Eric [ Carr ] was very nice to me. It was bizarre to see those guys without makeup.” According to the guitarist, it felt like it was illegal to see them like that. “Eric Carr brought me to see the guys, and I thought it was just bizarre because I had only ever seen them with makeup.”
“We played together and eventually they realized I was very young, I really didn’t have anything in common with them. Later, Eric said, ‘You did a really good job, but obviously you need more experience.’ It’s true, you don’t want to be on the road with someone you don’t feel comfortable with, or someone who’s too young or too old, or whatever. It was a great experience, it really made me take the guitar seriously,” he stated.
Doug Aldrich also spoke a bit about his career, with all the side projects, countless side projects, and many tribute albums. He even made one for Ronnie James Dio. When asked by the interviewer how it went, he said: “I mean, it was good, but sad, obviously. I would give anything if we could still have Ronnie with us, but yeah, we did a slightly different version. […] I still can’t believe Ronnie is gone.”
“I still picture him in that house, doing his things, listening to sports radio and creating music. Ronnie had a really good sense of humor too, people don’t really talk about that much,” he added.