Aw man. Def Agent
jasonfranks reports that
Ronnie James Dio is gone.
This was unexpected. Yes, he was 67, and yes, he was undergoing treatment for
stomach cancer, but I’d heard the treatment was
going well, so the news is still a bit stunning.
I’m a fan, as many of you may have already deduced from reading this blog, And like a lot of people my age, my introduction to RJD was his Black Sabbath work – specifically,
Mob Rules, which I scammed from the
Columbia House Record Club.
I was already familiar with Ozzy-era Sabbath at the time (albeit mainly via
Paranoid), and some of my peers didn’t care for Dio as a replacement singer. I liked Ozzy too (and I was on the Crazy Train by this time as well), but I saw Dio-era Sabbath as almost a different band entirely. Ozzy prophecized doom. Dio brought it to yr front door, kicked the fucker in, then told you to run for it. NOW.
Which made an impression on my 16-year-old psyche, I can tell you. As
Holy Diver would a year later.
Granted, by
Dream Evil, Dio was becoming a bit of a self-parody, but years later I would revisit his stuff, pay a little more attention and see there was more to him than slaying dragons on stage than I realized at the time. I would also discover his earlier work with Rainbow (after having grown up wit Joe Lynn Turner-era Rainbow), which was when I learned Rainbow used to be a lot better before they started having hits in the US.
Anyway, Dio was a master front man with a distinctive voice that could
make Christmas carols sound apocalyptic. And say what you will about his sword/sorcery fantasies – Dio always stuck to his artistic guns, never changed his style to sell more records and (as far as I know)
never took himself too seriously.
Not bad for a kid from New Hampshire.
CREDITS: Headline idea stolen from Goldfinger, who comically deployed some Dio around the 2:00 mark in
their cover of Duran Duran's "Rio".
DISCLAIMER: I'm not a big Goldfinger fan. But I appreciate a good Dio reference.
Tomorrow never comes,
This is dF