Singer Ronnie James Dio Passes Away At 67

Legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio has passed away at the age of 67. He had been diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2009. Dio was a legend in hard rock and heavy metal. He had previously been the lead singer of Black Sabbath and Rainbow and achieved success with his solo efforts. Along with the recent passing of Peter Steele, this has so far been a bad year for metal.

Ronnie James Dio

Ronnie James Dio was born Ronald James Padovona in 1942 in the state of New Hampshire. He attributed his vocal prowess and technique to having played several brass instruments in his youth. He played in numerous bands throughout the 60s and formed Elf in the early 70s. Elf was discovered by Deep Purple, who took them out on various tours as a support band.

Rainbow

After Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple, he got Elf to record as his backup band, with Ronnie as lead singer, and that band became Rainbow. Beyond his musical contributions, he has been credited as popularizing the “metal horns” or “devil horns” which he actually picked up from his grandmother, an Italian immigrant. The term for the gesture is “malocchio,” and became “the horns." It was adopted as the sign of The Metal.

Black Sabbath

After a number of years and various highly esteemed albums with Rainbow, Dio left because of creative differences with Ritchie Blackmore, and Black Sabbath asked him to audition for the open lead singer spot, as Ozzy Osbourne had just been fired. Ronnie James Dio was in almost quickly, and the results were the two albums "Heaven and Hell" and "Mob Rules." Both were well received critically and commercially, despite the legendary original singer having been discharged. Dio quit Black Sabbath following the live recording "Live Evil" and embarked on a solo career.

Holy Diver

A new band was formed, called Dio, and with them Ronnie James Dio recorded “Holy Diver” which is considered a classic. The title track, along with "Rainbow in the Dark" were radio hits and fan favorites. He reunited with Black Sabbath briefly and recorded the album “Dehumanizer,” and continued releasing solo albums until 2006.

Heaven and Hell

Ronnie James Dio and Black Sabbath crossed paths yet again, while Ozzy Osbourne wasn't working with the band. To keep away from conflicts with Ozzy, they decided that they would work under a different name. The lineup of Ronnie James Dio, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Vinny Appice toured under the name Heaven and Hell, and after releasing a live album, recorded a new studio effort, "The Devil You Know," which was released in 2009. In 2009, Dio was diagnosed with stomach cancer and also the band went on hiatus. On May 16, 2010, Wendy Dio posted on the Dio website that he had passed away. Ronnie James Dio was a brilliant performer and musician, and easily one of the most influential of the last 30 years and can be sorely missed.

Sources for the article

Dio website

http://www.ronniejamesdio.com/

The Horns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_of_the_horns