-Hi D. before to start I want to thank you, and I want to tell that your is a job that I always liked to do, but before talk about the rest as every member of a "great family" ...introduce yourself.

Hi Pino, thanks for having me. What I'm able to do with the band is a blessing; it's great fun and they're great people to run 'round the world with! My name is Dennis Diamond Conyers, best known as just Dennis Diamond. I've been working as Vernon's guitar tech on and off since 1984 (the inside joke is that I've been with the band longer than anyone else except for Vernon). I'm also a musician/composer/producer as well.

-For the ones that does not know him , Dennis is also a musician (played also on Corey Glover's "Hymns) have you got actual plans for your career? What about Royal Pain ?

I'm actually working on a solo record right now, and hope to get together with Corey to do an acoustic duet record (early last year we did a few shows with just him singing and me playing acoustic). I've been asked whether or not Royal Pain would reform; if I did that, I'd like to have most, if not all, of the original members involved. Once we had a personnel change, the entire chemistry changed, and not for the better! So, maybe one day it can happen; who knows? I'm more surprised that anyone outside of the eastern part of the States knew about Royal Pain!

-You are, from a long time, Vernon's tech, if I'm not wrong, you know (and work with) him before "Vivid" times

Vernon and I have been friends since high school. We lost touch for a couple of years, and then he asked me to help him with loading in gear on shows he was doing. It just grew from there.

-And you followed him on...

Well, he guess he liked what I did. And, being both a friend and a fellow guitarist, he would be open to suggestions about making himself more comfortable sonically so he could just be concerned with playing and not whether or not his gear was gonna blow up. It's a great relationship; I've learned a lot from him and I think he learned a lot from me; there's no competitive nonsense here; it's all about music!

 -Have you been tech for other artists/bands ?

I've only done it for one other band only once; Eye & I. I've been longtime friends with Melvin Gibbs and Gary Poulson and they had a very important gig and needed someone who knew what they were doing, so I did it. Other than that, I have no interest/desire to tech for anyone else; people who me know my capabilities as an artist, so they're more interested in seeing what I will do musically.

-I saw you mount and dismount the stage , take out cases and racks and weights and... life on tour: hard or funny ?

 It varies. For the most part it's fun; I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't! Sometimes it's difficult if you're not familiar with the venue or loading into a room that has small entrances or even if you're not feeling well. It's important to try to stay healthy on the road; you can easily find yourself in a venue for 8-12 hours or more...

-During the "days off" you go to visit the place where you are or stay in the hotel to read a book ?

 When there is a day off and we're not travelling to the next city, I'll try to sleep in a bit, then take a look around town; I enjoy seeing sights and shopping for things that I'd normally not find at home. We spend lots of time in tour buses and airplanes, so I'd do my reading there. i also have a guitar with me, so I'd also do some practicing and work up some musical ideas. - Happens funny things on tour or there's only work work and work ? Lots of funny things happen on tour, but it's also a lot of work! You just have to balance out the two.

-..There is friendship between the members of the crew (as it seems to me) or is more a professional relationship ??

 There's definitely a personal relationship with the members of the crew and with the band. At times it's like there are 8 people performing; the band and the crew. But we're all friends in our personal lives, too. We'll call each other up occasionally just to shoot the breeze (usually after some time has past from a longish tour; if you're around someone for a couple of months, it's healthy to put a little distance in there).

-Vernon has an impressive amount of things on stage, I remember first time I saw him was during the Mistaken Identity tour and he was surrounded by 3 "fridges" full of racks on his sides Amp behind him and pedals on the front a sort of little house.. now he got some little less things.. from where you start to connect all and how long does it takes ???

 The setup changes constantly. Most recently, the setup has been guitar into a junction box that controls a VG-88, a GR-1, a GR-20, a GR-50 and a GI-20 (all Roland units). They're routed to three separate outputs: the VG-88 goes through a Line6 Filter Mod pedal, a Line6 Echo Mod pedal, a volume pedal, then to the rack which has a Filter Pro and Echo Pro unit (Line6) and a Lexicon JamMan, which are the only units being used in there right now. It then goes out in stereo to two Crate BV300H heads with a Crate 4x12 cabinet each. The GR-20 goes through a Digitech Space Station delay pedal into a 2-12 combo amp, usually a Crate. The GR-1 goes directly into a Behringer mixer, the GR-50 goes into a TC Electronics G-Force into an EMu Audity into a small Rolls mixer which goes into two channels of the Behringer. The other channels of the Rolls have a Micro Nord synth and an Evolver. The GI-20 controls two Mac laptops which have various soft synths and sequencers in them, as well as trigger the Micro Nord and Evolver. All of this get run through the Behringer, which is DI'd through the house. On the average, it takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get it up and running.

 -Which your usual works during the show , even than change strings that seems that V brokes continuosly :) ?

 I usually only change strings after the third show. Funny enough, the only string that breaks when they do is the D (4th string), which is wound.

 -Particular adjustment you do to V. guitars ?? 

Nothing special, really. He'll just play it and if there's something that needs adjustment, we'll take it from there. He's very hands on with his gear, which is good. Some players won't even touch their instrument until they have to.

-How much is different a pro instrument from the one that I can buy in a shop ??

Unless it's custom made to your specifications, there's no difference at all. It honestly all comes down to the player and thier comfort level with their particular instrument.

 -That's all Dennis, thanks again for your time.. want to say some "last famous words"

Thank you again, Pino. I'm honored to be asked to do this. Though I'm not "famous" (I don't know what that means,actually), I'll say this; Believe in what you do, enjoy what you do, and, most importantly, love what you do !