Interview – Dion

Everyone has the potential to do something special in life, but the question remains whether they can navigate the ups and downs. A long, windy road full of trials, tribulations, tremendous highs, and debilitating lows, the human condition is full of various emotions, dreams, aspirations, and longing for meaning. Something more mysterious than just a cut-and-dry, calculated explanation, Dion DiMucci spent his time finding peace and purpose in music.

Famously known worldwide simply as Dion, the singer-songwriter first earned fame in the late fifties, leading Dion and the Belmonts with massive hits such as 1958’s “I Wonder Why” and 1959’s “A Teenager in Love.” From here, going on to a solo career, Dion continued success with the signatures of 1961’s “Runaround Sue” and 1962’s “The Wanderer,” becoming a chart-topping performer.

In total, he has recorded over forty albums, achieved eleven Top Ten hits, and sustained a career in Rock-n-Roll for over sixty years. It is a story you could not have ever premeditated, but it is also not without a fair share of bumps in the road. In fact, Dion had to face his own battles head-on, overcoming addiction in 1968 and remaining completely sober for fifty-seven years.

A humble man who realized that life is a blessing and gift, Dion now turns his life experiences into a striking new book called Dion: The Rock and Roll Philosopher. A book about life and lessons learned, all matched with compelling storytelling, it is a stroke of enlightenment that transcends generational reach. Excited about the writing, Dion recently sat down to talk about the work he put into the book, his journey in life, the wisdom he has earned, and more. 

Cryptic Rock – Without mincing words, you are truly a Rock-n-Roll icon. Sustaining yourself in music for over six decades, you have attained great success, all while having a very interesting career, to say the least. How would you describe your incredible journey?

Dion – I feel like I found a privileged way to live. It’s just the most exciting, thrilling, interesting, and it’s mesmerizing the people that I’ve worked with all these years. I just did a couple of albums with Jeff Beck, Bruce Springsteen, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, Paul Simon, and Boz Scaggs. It’s crazy stuff. It’s just a glorious trip for me that I get to enjoy the music business at such an intimate level.

I have a wonderful family. My life is balanced. I always wanted to maintain some degree of sanity… because life is the art. I wanted to balance it out. I have three lovely daughters who love me, and I love them. I have been married for over sixty years to my childhood sweetheart. I have these beautiful granddaughters. I have a great-grandchild now! My journey has been totally blessed. What can I say? I feel like I’m very fortunate. I lucked out. I try to make good decisions. Life is so unexpected, though. Things happen, but I’ve been very blessed and fortunate.

Cryptic Rock – It sounds like you have really manifested a fantastic life with your family. Some would say family is the most important thing. Success in music is more like the icing on the cake.  

Dion- Yeah. I know the music just doesn’t come through me. It comes from me. It comes from above, for sure.

At my age now, who would have thought that I would have written, in the last four years, forty of the greatest songs I’ve ever written and had so much fun doing the last three albums? I did Blues with Friends in 2020, Stomping Ground in 2021, and then I did Girl Friends in 2024. Here is the point – I couldn’t plan it if I tried. All I do is stay open, and I feel like I’m under the spout where the glory comes out. I’m under the wellspring of creativity. You have to be open because that’s the only way these songs truly come to you, not from you. It is not like, ‘I’m doing everything.’ I’m not. I stay open because it’s a gift. If you have a gift, there’s a gift giver, and you have to stay open. It’s an important word. It’s kind of like you download this creativity.

I think everybody’s born with a creative side in some area of their life, whatever it is. A lot of people are closed off to it. I don’t think consciously they know they are, but they’re just focused on other things, maybe problems, instead of letting go and being open. Life could be pretty hard for a lot of people. A lot of people are just focused on eating and getting through life. That’s important… I’ve always been focused on that. (Laughs) What I am saying is to stay open to the possibilities.

Cryptic Rock – Of course. Being positive is an essential part of it. It is about realizing that you have to take the good with the bad.

Dion – Absolutely. Through those bumps in the road, those challenges in life, that’s where you grow. That’s why I wrote this book, Dion: The Rock and Roll Philosopher: Conversations on Recovery, Life, Music, and Faith. Lyons Press publishes the book. It’s kind of a book reflecting on events in my life and stories about Eddie Cochran, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, etc. There are a lot of stories about music, such as me inducting Dick Clark into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Lou Reed inducting me into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There are all kinds of stories, including me making an album with Phil Spector. There are events in my life that I’m reflecting on. There are about fifty stories and one-hundred sixty-something photos, and every story is fun to read and entertaining, but they have great substance.

You come out with some kind of life lesson. You learn how I grew when things weren’t going all my way, so to speak. When life gets complicated, how you grow in relationships that’s what the book is about. It’s a fun and interesting read.

The audiobook is wild because it has sixty songs and different voices. It includes Lou Reed’s voice inducting me into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Little Steven Van Zandt’s voice inducting me into the American Music Honors, and just live stuff because it’s audible. You can do anything you want. We got on a roll, and it was a very creative trip. We just let it happen. It was a lot of fun.

Cryptic Rock – It sounds like it. The book is very compelling. It has a lot of interesting substance. Yes, these are interesting stories, but they offer lessons. That is what is really fascinating about it. The audiobook you are talking about sounds really cool as well, because that is an entirely different dynamic. 

Dion – Yeah. It has a story about an album I made with Phil Spector. It’s about a twenty-five-minute story with Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Van Zant in the control room with Cher and Greg Allman. I’m in the studio with sixty musicians, Phil Spector with his white wig, white jumpsuit, and his 357 Magnum, waving it at everybody, pointing it at Bruce, saying, “You want to know how to make a record? I’ll show you how to make a record.” Like Bruce Springsteen needs a lesson in learning how to make a record (Laughs). There are fun stories in it.

I’ve been clean and sober for fifty-seven years. I have a friend who’s been sober for about twenty years. We go to these twelve-step meetings, spiritually-based recovery meetings. After the meeting, we go out for lunch. We review the meeting and get into it. We critique it. We do these stories. One day, my friend Adam Jablin said to me, “I wish everybody were here. I wish my family, my friends, my co-workers, my employees.” He said, “Dion, I wish everybody were here to hear these stories.” I said, “Let’s document them.” So, that is how it happened. 

I had a mentor in my life who was so interesting. I wanted him to write a book. I said, “Ben, you should write a book.” He always said, “No.” I said, “This stuff is just great. It’s just fun and meaningful.” To me, it’s life-changing. I’m very motivated, enthusiastic, and passionate about sharing it with people because it changed my life.

Here I am at my age. I enjoy my daughters, and I don’t judge them. I learned how to do all this stuff through great mentorship. That’s what the book is about. It is about me mentoring a younger guy and stories.

Cryptic Rock – It is very inspiring because, as you said, there are a lot of life lessons in this book. It makes you wonder where we are heading as a culture. Not to generalize, but it seems like younger generations do not appreciate or value an older mentor who can offer wisdom. There is tremendous value in that insight. 

Dion – That’s why I called it The Rock and Roll Philosopher. It’s not complicated. A philosopher is a person who loves wisdom. You just mentioned it. The art of philosophy is making distinctions. If you make bad distinctions, it’s bad philosophy. Your philosophy is perfectly designed to get the results you’re getting in life.

It’s your belief system. It is where you actually see somebody’s belief system, not what they’re saying, what they’re talking about, what they’re preaching, or what they’re sharing. Where you actually see it physically is in relationships. You see it in the relationship with their wife, their kids, their co-workers, and their band. In my case, it’s my band and how we get along, or how we consider it. That’s what the book is about, where you actually see it in relationships.

Cryptic Rock – Agreed. There are a lot of profound things said in the book, too. One fascinating thing is discussing classic liberalism and what it is today. You touch on today’s world and how the Roman Catholic religion and liberalism went hand-in-hand back then about caring about people, the autonomy of men and women, etc. There is a lot to think about in what you are saying. 

Dion – I always say that I’m totally liberal with my love. I’m conservative in a lot of my thinking because I have three daughters. I’m not too political. I think the less faith you have in a higher power, the more political you can become. You think that politics is going to solve all your problems. It’s not.

Also, money, pleasure, power, and honor are not going to solve your problem. They’re all outside yourself. They’re not bad things. We’re not Puritans, but you have to get over on those things. You have to have a healthy detachment towards those things. If you’re trying to grab onto them, you could lie, cheat, steal, and try to manipulate people to get more money, pleasure, power, and honor and fill your life with those things. There’s a big difference between success and fulfillment.

You want to be free. You want to have this freedom of excellence. When you get over on those things or have a healthy detachment, you can achieve that freedom, the highest good, and be peaceful and serene. It gives you the power to work toward the things you really want to work toward. That’s true freedom to me, not being needy and thinking, “I got to have these things.”

Cryptic Rock – Right. That comes from experience in life. You have lived a lot of life and experienced a lot. Those values are seen in our relationships with others. It also keeps you grounded and humble. As you said, you feel very blessed with what you have done in music. You do not take anything for granted. 

Dion – Yeah. I kid you not. I’m easy to understand. It’s a lot of common sense to me. When I was ten or eleven, my parents were always arguing. They were like emotional thirteen-year-olds. My mother had two jobs. My father never worked. He grew old, but he never grew up. No responsibility.

I heard Hank Williams on this Country radio station coming out of Newark, New Jersey. I lived in the Bronx, New York City, which had an Italian section. Who was going to be listening to Hank Williams? Nobody even knew who he was. “Jambalaya,” nobody knew what it was. I didn’t know what it was. Anyway, I fell in love with this guy’s music. I became obsessed. I ran up to Fordham Road in the Bronx and found this music store, Cousins Music Store, and Lucha Katy owned it. I told him I heard this guy, Hank Williams, sing “Jambalaya” and “Cold Cold Heart.” He gave me the record. He said, “Take it home. Next time you come in, you pay for it.” He saw how passionate I was. He said, “Give me your phone number, and I will call you every time a Hank Williams record comes out.” Also, I love Jimmy Reed.” I said, “When the Jimmy Reed record comes out, call me.” He would do that. I’d get the 99 cents. I had my dollar bill, and I ran up to Fordham Road, and I got those records. His music at that age hurled me into a place of enchantment, a place of delight and pleasure. It got me away from all this arguing in my house. I became obsessed, and I loved it.

All my life, until this moment, I’ve been trying to hone, develop, and create a song that I could transmit to others to make you feel what I felt when I was eleven years old and heard this music. What it did to my soul and my being meant so much to me. What it did inside me – it went in, made a left, a right, up here, and went around my head. I was enthralled.

My whole life has been about trying to take people on a trip, whether it’s with a song, this book, or a new play that we have coming out that’ll be on Broadway called The Wanderer. It’s about two and a half hours long; it’s not a three-minute song. Whatever it is, I want to take people to this place of enchantment.

Cryptic Rock – It has been your lifelong mission, and you have succeeded in many respects. People who are passionate about music can feel it in their singing, writing, and everything they do. It all translates. 

Dion – Yeah, I hope so. I think one of the best compliments I ever got was from this kid. He was eighteen years old. I was playing at Joe’s Pub in New York. I come off the stage. I was backstage in the dressing room. His father was a disc jockey, and he brought him backstage. While I was out there doing my set, I talked about what I had just talked about with you. I talked about Jimmy Reed and Hank Williams, what they meant to me, what they did for me, and how they brought me to this place of transcendence.

He looks at me and says, “Dion, when you talked about Hank Williams and Jimmy Reed, the trip they took you on? You do that for me.” I thought, “Okay. Lord, you can take me now.” I thought that was the best compliment I could ever get.

Cryptic Rock – That is a very high compliment. It makes you feel good about everything you have been doing all these years.

Dion – Absolutely. It landed, and it made an impression on somebody. That’s what I’m doing it for. I like the money; it pays the rent, but it’s like a fringe benefit. It’s not Exhibit A. It’s what that kid told me. It’s nice to be making money in a business that you love like this.

Cryptic Rock – As you said, it’s just the benefit of your passion. You released a record last year, Girl Friends, which is an excellent collection of songs. 

Dion – Well, you got a Canadian on there. You got Sue Foley. She’s great. She’s unbelievable. That was fun doing that song with her, “Hey Susie.” Yeah, I enjoy that. The feminine genius. You get a girl like Susan Tedeschi who walks in the room with a guitar. Forget about it; the whole room changes! Everything changes! I don’t know what it is. All I know is everybody wants to be at their best.

Cryptic Rock – There are really great collaborations throughout the album, and it is enjoyable. 

Dion – It was enjoyable to do, believe me. It’s really fun. As I said, I feel privileged to be able to do this, to call up somebody like Danielle Nicole and Susan Tedeschi and ask her to do a song with me.

She told me, “The only problem I have with is I’m not singing with you. The next time, I want to sing with you.” I asked her to play guitar. I love the way she sings. Hopefully, we will get to work together again. 

Cryptic Rock – Hopefully! One of the things that is incredibly inspiring about you is that you are one of the few Rock-n-Roll artists who have transcended so many decades. Others are not active anymore, the way you are. Beyond feeling blessed, what do you attribute your prolific career to? 

Dion – I really don’t know. I think what contributes to it is, number one, I got clean and sober in April of ’68. I never smoked, drank, or drugged in all these years. That’s a healthy thing. I try to go to the gym three times a week to just get the cobwebs out of my head. I live a healthy lifestyle. I’m a man of faith. I have great people around me. My wife is from Vermont. She’s a down-to-earth girl, and she keeps me grounded. I have my kids. I have the kind of friends that call you on your garbage. When you’re out of line, they keep you on track.

I have a lot of growing to do. I’m a work in progress. I haven’t arrived. I feel like I’m a link in the chain, like a vessel. I learned from all these guys from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. I learned from all the young guys, too. The new musicians out there keep me young. They get better and better every year.

I’m great friends with Joe Bonamassa, who helped me with these three albums. I’m with his record company. He’s a great guitar player. We love the Blues and Blues Rock. It’s a lot of fun to sing that music because you can express any emotion you have, whether it’s joy, sadness, loneliness, or love. It’s like the naked cry of the human heart longing to be in union with the universe.

Cryptic Rock – It is fantastic to see how involved you are. You continue to make an impression on younger generations and work with modern musicians as well. 

Dion – I was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and doing an interview with Dave Marsh, the great Rock writer. He’s been around for decades, a Rock and Roll writer from Rolling Stone during its heyday. We’re doing this interview, and he says, “Dion, you’re the only artist from the ’50s who’s relevant today and creative today.” I started arguing with him, and he won. I thought, “Oh my God, that’s a compliment in such a beautiful way.” When I got home, I told my wife. My wife turned it into a dare. She said, “Well, what are you going to do now?” That’s when I did the three Blues albums. She called me on it. (Laughs) 

Cryptic Rock – That turned into a new bit of fuel for the fire. 

Dion – Yeah. Sometimes, hearing a good word from a guy you really respect goes a long way. It just gives you a boost. I think we all need that.

Cryptic Rock – Of course. You spoke about the only Rock musician still active since the ’50s. The music from the ’50s and ’60s is still so much a part of our culture today in 2025. It is used in movies and commercials, and people still love it. It is great music, but why do you think it is still relevant? 

Dion – In that era, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Little Richard, the music wasn’t only commercial… it was great! You had greatness, and it was commercial. It was all one. Now it’s different. You either have junk or something great. There’s a distinction between the two. Back then, it merged. I don’t know how the radio works now. It’s either something that is very commercial or it’s very artistic now.

Cryptic Rock – That is a very accurate interpretation. Can you elaborate a little bit on your play, The Wanderer? 

Dion – The Wanderer. Yes. The play cannot be denied. It premiered at Paper Mill Theater in Millburn, New Jersey. It ran for about six weeks. It was jammed. One day, I came out, and I was standing in the parking lot with the valet, and he said, “Dion, you got a hit show.” I said, “How do you know?” It was during intermission I came out. He said, “I know because I’ve been here since it opened. Nobody leaves during intermission. They usually leave.” I thought, “That’s a good indicator.” We got great reviews.

It’s all about early street Rock-n-Roll history. It has the action of the gangs in New York. It has romance. I met my wife in the ’50s, my childhood sweetheart. It has betrayal. It has overcoming. It has great music. It has laughs.

This kid, Charles Messina, I call him a kid, but he’s in his 40s. Everybody’s a kid to me. (Laughs) He wrote it, and he is a great writer and a rhythm writer. He writes with great substance but entertaining. If you give me something of substance, you can entertain me all day long.

For more on Dion: diondimucci.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram 

Like the in-depth, diverse coverage of Cryptic Rock? Help us in support to keep the magazine going strong for years to come with a small donation.