LAST IN LINE bassist Phil Soussan has given the clearest update yet on the band's search for a frontman following the exit of original singer Andrew Freeman — and it sounds less like a search than a decision already taken.
"It's common knowledge we've separated from the singer that we had before," Soussan told Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation. "But we have a person of great interest, and actually beginning of September we're gonna start working together, and it looks very, very promising. And we're all very excited about it."
He would not give the name. "I'm not at liberty to do so, but [we should have an announcement] very soon. Well, we've done some work together, and everything is pretty cool. One thing we haven't done is all sit in a room together. And that's really the last sort of exercise before we all come out with a thumbs-up, and I'm sure it's gonna be fine. I'm 95 percent sure it's gonna be fine."
Asked whether the vocalist is a known quantity, Soussan left the answer deliberately ajar: "I'm sure he's very famous at home, and in other places. He's somebody who's got his own sphere of notoriety. I'm just gonna leave it at that."
On where new material might go, he said guitarist Vivian Campbell "wants us to kind of really get a little bit close back to sort of the roots, more of the roots of the old DIO spirit, the DIO DNA" — while noting that his own instincts pull elsewhere. "A lot of my energy ideas and my impact ideas come from that post-punk movement," he said, citing KILLING JOKE. "It's just going to seep in through the gaps."
Soussan also offered an update on Campbell, who recently revealed that his cancer has returned after a period of complete remission following a bone marrow transplant last year. "I actually talked to him a couple days ago. It was his birthday, so I gave him a call. And he's out there racing rally cars. This is his passion in life," Soussan said. "He has his challenges, and we salute him, because I don't know where he gets his strength of character from, because it doesn't faze him at all... And he's very optimistic about how things are working out."
The split with Freeman, who had fronted the band for 13 years, has not been amicable. Freeman says he learned he was out via a letter from management in September last year and has since disputed both the manner of it and his standing in the business, arguing that as a partner rather than a hired hand he is owed a settlement: "I created that branding for that band, I toplined all those songs... I'm a partner in the company. I'm not a hired guy."
LAST IN LINE was formed by original DIO members Vinny Appice, Vivian Campbell and Jimmy Bain; Soussan joined in 2016 following Bain's death.