LAST IN LINE, the band founded by former DIO members Vivian Campbell (guitar) and Vinny Appice (drums), have officially split with vocalist Andrew Freeman.
Freeman was part of LAST IN LINE from the very beginning, forming the band in 2012 alongside Appice, Campbell, and bassist Jimmy Bain — all key collaborators with Ronnie James Dio on the classic albums Holy Diver, The Last in Line, and Sacred Heart.
Originally, the band was created to honor Dio’s early legacy by bringing together members of the original DIO lineup. After performing live shows focused entirely on material from those first three albums, they eventually chose to move forward by writing and recording new music inspired by that same era.
Appice revealed Freeman’s departure from LAST IN LINE during a recent interview on the Denim And Leather rock and metal podcast: “We’re looking for a singer for LAST IN LINE. So, Phil [Soussan, current LAST IN LINE bassist], Vivian and myself, we’re on the lookout and listening to different singers”.
Vinny first brought up the fact that LAST IN LINE was looking for a new vocalist during a March 25 appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”. He stated at the time about LAST IN LINE’s current status: “We parted ways with Andy Freeman, the singer, and we’re looking for singers, actually, right now. So we have a deal in place. And Viv’s busy — he was busy with [DEF] LEPPARD and he’s doing a lot of rally racing, so we’re trying to schedule finishing our next record and then playing some dates. ‘Cause we have a lot of fun playing. It’s great to play with Viv again. It’s awesome. So that’s what we’re doing right now”.
After “Trunk Nation” host Eddie Trunk brought up the fact that Freeman is busy playing with “a couple of tribute bands”, Vinny said: “He’s playing a Dio show [with a band called] DIO RULES. He didn’t really wanna play that stuff with us, which is — go figure — and now he’s doing all Dio stuff. Crazy”.
