Monday, December 19: Tig’s Rock Birthdays

Today (Dec. 19) we remember former Dio bassist Jimmy Bain who would have been 69. Other rock birthdays today include keyboardist Doug Johnson of Loverboy (59).

Jimmy Bain passed suddenly on Jan. 23 while the band was performing on Def Leppard’s cruise. The cause of death was determined to be lung cancer. In addition to being a co-founder of Dio, Bain also played in Rainbow and most recently the band Last In Line. Last In Line consisted of the classic Dio line up of Jimmy Bain (bass), Vivian Campbell (guitar), and Vinny Appice (drums), along with singer Andrew Freeman. The band released their debut album Heavy Crown in February via Frontiers Music Srl. According to Blabbermouth.net, the cd was recorded at Southern California studio and produced by Jeff Pilson, a veteran bassist who plays with Foreigner and formerly of Dokken, Dio, and many other bands. Singer Andrew Freeman (a former Pine Bush, NY resident) most recently performed in the Las Vegas production “Raiding The Rock Vault” and previously performed in George Lynch’s Lynch Mob and The Offspring among others.

Jimmy Bain was a great bassist and it was a pleasure to get to see him perform live with Dio many times over the years. Check out some vintage footage below of Jimmy Bain performing with Dio in concert.