Sep 2913 min read

The Enthusiast's Guide: Ronnie James Dio

Bruce Mee pays homage to one of the greatest Rock and Metal vocalists of all time...

My love affair with the music of Ronnie James Dio began in 1978. Having been a fan of Glam Rock in my latter primary school years (not that I realised that was how it was categorised, Alvin Stardust being my absolute hero) before moving onto ABBA, my brother joined the Britannia Music Society and one of the albums in his first order was Rainbow ‘Rising’. I scoffed at his music, but little by little the sheer majesty and pomp started to win me over. Late nights listening to ‘Tarot Woman’ in the darkness of my bedroom, the sheer cinematic brilliance of ‘Stargazer’ painting pictures in my mind that ABBA could never hope to replicate; I was sold hook, line and sinker... welcome to the wonderful world of Heavy Metal!

Ronnie James Padavona was born in 1942. From the age of 5 his father started off his formal musical training by having his son learn to play the trumpet, ensuring he practiced for two hours a day; a fact which Ronnie said helped him with his powerful vocal delivery in later life.

figured his own name was too difficult to pronounce, so took the stage name “Dio” from Italian-American mobster Johnny Dio (whose real name was Giovanni Ignazio Dioguardi). Only years later, whilst playing with Black Sabbath, was he horrified to discover that the name translated into “God”. “I certainly didn’t take the name because of that, I haven’t got that much of an ego!” he had told me back in 1990.

Deciding that playing the trumpet wouldn’t help him pull girls, he taught himself to play bass, and it was as a bassist that a young Ronnie would appear in his first band, The Vegas Kings. They changed their name several times, firstly to Ronnie and the Rumblers, then Ronnie and the Redcaps... the latter released two singles with Ronnie only singing lead vocals on the second: “An Angel Is Missing/What I’d Say”.

Later morphing into Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, who released the somewhat “Doo-wop” album ‘Dio At Domino’s’ in 1963, the band toured colleges throughout the New York area for several years before changing their name yet again in 1967. Adding keyboard player Doug Thaler (who went on to co-manage Motley Crue) they now became The Electric Elves, which was later shortened to just Elf. As Elf, the band would release three albums, the last of which – ‘Trying To Burn The Sun’ – was the strongest.

After first becoming addicted to Dio via Rainbow’s ‘Rising’ when I was 14, I went back and bought some of the Elf albums, being quite shocked at how “honky-tonk” they were, at times even Gospel. Elf had been mainly focussed on piano, but it was when supporting Deep Purple on several world tours that Dio became more enamoured with the guitar as being the main focus. “The first Elf album was mainly guitar, the second more piano, and I think that tends to push you towards a certain musical image, and in this case we were more honky-tonk, but honky-tonk with the influence of Sam Cooke and Otis Reading on me as a vocalist, so you had that sort of crossover thing,” Ronnie told me back in 1990 for my first ever interview with him for Boulevard.

Whilst both Deep Purple band members Roger Glover and Ian Paice produced the debut Elf album, only Glover would produce the following two. It was during those supporting tours that Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore started taking more than a passing interest in the band.

In 1974, Blackmore was feeling disenchanted with Purple’s musical direction, and their decision to block his idea of covering the Quatermass song ‘Black Sheep Of The Family’ resulted in him inviting Dio and Elf drummer Gary Driscoll to the studio, with the intention of recording the tracks for a solo album. Things went so well that within three weeks, Blackmore and most of Elf had recorded a full album. That album – ‘Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow’ – was released in 1975 and the chemistry between Dio and Blackmore, even at this early stage, was phenomenal. Whilst Dio’s penchant for honky-tonk was still prevalent on the track ‘If You Don’t Like Rock ‘N’ Roll’, the medieval Gothic Rock created by the duo shone like a raging beacon. “I think in Ritchie’s case, and in my case, we influenced each other quite a bit. I brought to him what I had in Elf, some of my R&B attitudes along with my love of Classical music, and his Gothic approach to it. That’s what made Rainbow what it was,” Dio told me back in 1990.

While the Rainbow debut was basically a nuts-and-bolts album thrown together very quickly, with a change of line-up and time to write, the band would then come up with a release that is still acclaimed as one of the milestones of classic Hard Rock. Rainbow’s ‘Rising’ truly put a spotlight on Dio and this is the moment a true superstar was born. However, after the follow up album, Blackmore decided he wanted to go in a more commercial direction and Dio was fired, replaced by former Marbles singer Graham Bonnet. Dio and Blackmore would never speak again, a sad tragedy indeed.

NEW BEGINNING...

During a chance meeting with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi in the Rainbow Bar & Grill in LA, and upon finding they really got on and communicated well, Dio soon found himself replacing the recently fired Ozzy Osbourne. Sabbath fans were up in arms, Rainbow fans were pleasantly surprised, but the majority were mainly curious to see where this newfound partnership would lead us. The answer to that was to Heaven... and Hell!

In their very first jam session together, Iommi and Dio wrote ‘Children Of The Sea’, an absolute monster of a classic song that fitted so well in with the others on ‘Heaven And Hell’ when it was released in 1980. The Rock world, I think, was genuinely shocked at just what a brilliant album this new relationship had spawned. Well, all bar Ozzy whose puerile theatrics of “hanging the dwarf” on stage betrayed his feelings. To this day though, Dio’s debut album with Sabbath is still held up by many as one of the true pillars of Heavy Metal.

It was at the very beginning of his tenure with Sabbath that Dio started using the “Horns’ sign, ostensibly to give him his own unique onstage gesture as compared to Ozzy’s beloved double ‘V’. This became very much Dio’s trademark which he continued with until the end, and one which he pretty much single-handedly established as a worldwide symbol for Heavy Metal. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the sign of the Devil, but an old superstitious gesture to ward off the “evil eye” which he picked up from his grandmother.

Second album issues? Not for Dio and the Sabbath boys who, having replaced long- standing drummer Bill Ward with Vinnie Appice, went on to release ‘Mob Rules’ in 1981, an album that definitely equals, if not surpasses, ‘Heaven And Hell’.

However, during the mixing of Black Sabbath’s first official live album – ‘Live Evil’ – the rot started to set in; accusations and counter-accusations flew, with Iommi accusing Dio of sneaking in at night to alter the mix levels to make his vocal more prominent. A charge Dio flatly denied, and one that was later found to be a total miscommunication from the sound engineer. Rumours of Dio being offered a solo contract didn’t help matters with Iommi, and by the end of 1982, both Dio and Appice would quit the band. Iommi would have the last say in the matter though, petulantly crediting Dio as ‘Ronnie Dio’ on the live album, much to the latter’s chagrin.

IN CONTROL OF MY OWN DESTINY

Having been effectively “second in command” in his previous two roles, Ronnie decided it was time to form his own band, refusing any longer to take orders from others. Quickly roping in Jimmy Bain from his playing days in Rainbow, the line-up was completed by hot-shot young Irish guitarist Vivian Campbell, fresh from Sweet Savage.

Deciding to name the band after himself, Dio brought in the songs ‘Holy Diver’ and ‘Don’t Talk To Strangers’, both total classics. And if rumours are to be believed, many of the other tracks were based around Campbell’s unused Sweet Savage demos. Whatever the truth, when ‘Holy Diver’ was released in 1983, a mere year after leaving Black Sabbath, the Rock world was in collective awe. Here was yet another Ronnie James Dio classic album. I mean, seriously, most musicians are happy to have one or two classic releases from within the same band, but here was a man who had now done it with three different bands... surely the proof of true genius and justification of his strong self-belief.

1984 brought the release of ‘The Last In Line’, and just as he had done previously with ‘Rising’ and ‘Mob Rules’, this second album was an absolute monster. The first to feature ex Rough Cutt keyboardist Claude Schnell (Dio had previously been quoted as saying he didn’t see a place in Hard Rock for keyboards), the album was the highest charting release of the band’s career, and in the keyboard-driven single ‘Mystery’ delivered a song for the ages. Every track was a classic, from the storming opener ‘We Rock’ to the pulsating, epic closer ‘Egypt (The Chains Are On)’, later covered by the Metal Queen herself, Doro Pesch.

However, true to form, things began to unravel on the third album, ‘Sacred Heart’. Dio had left both Rainbow and Sabbath after his work on a third album, and now tempers began to fray. Having worked on the first two albums for a basic rate of pay (effectively as session musicians), Dio had verbally promised the band a fairer share from the third album onwards. Whether it was just a case of reneging on the deal or being distracted by his divorce from wife/manager Wendy, this never came to pass, resulting in the aggrieved Campbell leaving midway through the tour, being replaced by former Rough Cutt guitarist Craig Goldy. Even though the recording sessions were fraught with poisonous discord and discontent, the album still threw up a few classic tracks such as the hugely melodic ‘Hungry For Heaven’, the title track and the wonderful ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Children’. But really, this was the beginning of the end for Dio, the band, and I truly hope Ronnie realised in later life just what he had allowed to slip between his fingers.

One thing I will say about the ‘Sacred Heart’ tour, is that it was the biggest, most jaw-dropping spectacle I had ever seen in my life [even now, only beaten by P!NK]. Mechanical dragon, castle walls, robot warriors firing laser beams from their heads and that huge crystal ball descending from the ceiling, with Ronnie’s face suddenly appearing in grandiose speech. That really was a time when Rock Music knew how to have fun!

It was around this time that Dio and the band organised the ‘Hear ‘N’ Aid’ charity project, the Hard Rock equivalent of the Live Aid single. ‘Stars’ was written by the band and featured around forty top musicians from the Hard Rock scene. Ozzy Osbourne, unsurprisingly, was conspicuous by his absence. However, the lack of interest and general apathy by the media in general left a sour taste in Dio’s mouth. “I felt it was such a good project done by so many good people who had such a great talent, but who just got laughed at most of the time.” As recently as 2015, Dio’s ex-wife Wendy was still talking about putting an extended Hear ‘N’ Aid DVD out, consisting of many never-before-seen clips and outtakes. However, with so many big names involved, getting permission from all the record companies was not an easy task. That is still the case it would seem nine years later.

Craig Goldy had a hand in most of the songs on fourth release ‘Dream Evil’, although Dio would later claim that the guitarist was totally the wrong fit for the band. As he told me in 1990, “The collaboration between Craig Goldy and myself was a wrong one. Not that Craig is wrong, we just happened to be the wrong people to write together. ‘Dream Evil’ was written between the two of us, and wrongfully so. I’ve never been a compromiser, I’ve never compromised in my life, but I feel I did on that album.” Goldy was shown the door soon after.

The album still contained some great Dio songs, such as opener ‘Night People’ and the typical Dio epics of ‘All The Fools Sailed Away’ and ‘I Could Have Been a Dreamer’, but this release really was the last to show us the Dio I had truly grown to love.

THE SLOW, LINGERING DOWNFALL

For the fifth Dio album, ‘Lock Up The Wolves’, Dio brought in 17-year-old unknown British guitarist Rowan Robertson, probably in the hope of injecting the same youthful hunger that Vivian Campbell had displayed back in the beginning. The difference was, of course, that Campbell had been a tried and tested songwriter. Robertson wasn’t, Dio even having to teach him the basic rudiments. The rest of the guys weren’t too enamoured with Ronnie’s decision to bring “this kid” into the band, and all eventually left, being replaced by Teddy Cook (bass), Jens Johansson (keys) and ex AC/DC drummer Simon Wright.

For me, the album was a train wreck, removing almost all of the melody and epic scope of all Ronnie’s previous monster releases. When I took Dio to task about this in 1990 he replied: “We wrote the songs for ourselves. It is heavy, yes, it is, and that’s what I wanted it to be, the heaviest album we could possibly make at this time.” Mission accomplished, but I’m sure he didn’t mean it to be the worst either. By the end of the tour, Robertson was gone.

It was during touring for this album that Geezer Butler had joined the band on stage to run through the Sabbath classic ‘Neon Knights’, an experience Butler enjoyed so much he talked Dio into re-joining Black Sabbath with him, supplanting then current singer Tony Martin and bassist Neil Murray. During rehearsals Cozy Powell suffered a broken hip, resulting in Vinnie Appice taking up the drum stool, thus reuniting the ‘Mob Rules’ line-up for the first time in ten years. Anticipation was like a rabid dog straining to break free, but in the end, ‘Dehumanizer’ was nothing but a damp squib, eschewing the classic melodic Hard Rock of those seminal two releases to offer up a combination of ponderous Heavy Metal and gloomy Doom. As Dio explained to me in June 1992, “It was deliberate to make it that way. The thing we didn’t want to do was try and write another ‘Heaven And Hell’. I personally think it’s a great album, one of the best I’ve been associated with.” Well maybe his mother liked it, because sure as hell me and most people I spoke to absolutely detested it. Thankfully this brief reunion only lasted a year and one album, and soon both Dio and Appice were heading back to begin work on the sixth Dio album.

Bringing in guitarist Tracy Grijalva and Jeff Pilson on keyboards, the less said about ‘Strange Highways’ and the follow-up ‘Angry Machines’ the better. Interviewing Dio in May 1992, I pointed out that his then live set revolved around the Dio classics, with several Rainbow and Sabbath songs thrown in. Nothing from ‘Lock Up The Wolves’ and the following albums. Very telling, surely? Dio agreed, admitting, “That’s very, very true. They certainly didn’t become fan favourites. The songs on those albums, they just weren’t happy times... they weren’t productive musically. So, I think the answer to your question is we don’t do them because we don’t like them either.”

Come 2000, Dio released their eighth studio album, ‘Magica’. This was touted by Ronnie as the first part of a trilogy, with the music supposedly harking back to the ‘Rising’ days. It wasn’t, on either account. Musically, it was certainly more back in the Dio ball-park, just not as good, but the big surprise was the return of guitarist Craig Goldy, especially considering Ronnie’s previous comments. Also returning were Simon Wright and Jimmy Bain.

THE RESURGENCE

On the following album, ‘Killing The Dragon’, history repeated itself and Goldy was shown the door despite having credits on several of the tracks. In came former Burning Rain/ future Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich, who only co-wrote two songs on the album, but those were the tracks Ronnie considered the best. With Aldrich, he had finally found another muse with whom he could easily bounce ideas off. Aldrich’s playing certainly helped the band recapture some of their former glory, and they even had a minor hit with the single ‘Push’, helped considerably by fans Jack Black and Tenacious D.

In 2004, Dio’s tenth, and last album, ‘Master Of The Moon’ was released. This saw ex-Dokken man Jeff Pilson on bass and ex-Warrant member Scott Warren on keys. But it was the return, yet again, of Craig Goldy on guitar that told you all you needed to know about this release. Basically, a stopgap before Ronnie James Dio prepared to gamble one last throw of the dice. He had always made clear in interviews how much he enjoyed working with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, even after what the fans considered the disappointment of ‘Dehumanizer’.

In 2007, Dio and Iommi wrote and released three new songs as part of the ‘Black Sabbath – The Dio Years’ release, and the accompanying tour was very successful. At this point, the band was still operating as Black Sabbath, but for the full-length album in 2009 rebranded themselves as Heaven & Hell due to ongoing talks about possible Black Sabbath reunion shows with Osbourne. The ‘Devil You Know’ tour was the last time I saw Dio live, and he was as imperious and epic as ever, his voice seemingly having lost none of the power and majesty over the years.

The plan had been for Dio to return to his own band to complete ‘Magica 2 & 3’, although everyone in Heaven & Hell remained open to future collaborations. Unfortunately, in November 2009 Ronnie was diagnosed with stomach cancer. The initial prognosis was favourable, but due to failing health a proposed support slot with Iron Maiden had to be cancelled and Dio sadly passed away in May 2010. How tragic, that just on the cusp of a likely career revival, fate would have a different plan.

Back in 1990, I had asked Ronnie what he would like to be remembered for in fifty years’ time. His reply was typical of the self-effacing Dio. “Oh, I really don’t care what they remember me for. I’ll be dead by then and my bones won’t care. I’ve only tried to do one thing, to be true to myself. I’ve never set out to be someone who’d be remembered... if they do remember me, I hope it’s just for caring.”

This guide is not meant to be an exhaustive run through the entire back catalogue, but it does cover the main highlights from Ronnie’s distinguished career.

Dio's albums rated (click to expand the picture)