Kerrang! pays tribute to Dio

To mark the one year anniversary of his death, former Kerrang! Editor Paul Brannigan remembers Ronnie James Dio...

On May 16 2010, a six letter message starting appearing on social networking sites: 'RJD RIP' it read, a brutally succinct way of passing on the shocking news that Ronnie James Dio, the finest vocalist ever to grace the heavy metal world, had died. Though it was well known that Ronnie had been undergoing treatment for stomach cancer since November 2009, initially many assumed the news was a sick joke - internet death hoaxes being one of the more ghoulish, perverse trends of the modern age - but as dawn broke in America, Dio's wife and manager Wendy confirmed her 67-year-old husband's tragic passing in a short statement, which began with the poignant words "Today my heart is broken."

Death has a way of bestowing greatness upon the most mediocre of men, but by anyone's standards, Ronnie James Dio was a music business legend. Frontman of Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and latterly Heaven And Hell, which saw him reunited with former Sabbath colleagues Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice, Dio's rich, sonorous vocals and mystical, romantic lyrics made him an iconic, inspirational figure for three generations of rock fans. On a personal level, those who knew the singer best spoke of his unfailing generosity, his humanity and his impish sense of humour: here was a true gentleman who charmed, bedazzled and bewitched all he encountered.

"He was in many ways the antithesis of the current mould of TV-bred singers," considered Queen guitarist Brian May, a long-time acquaintance. "He had no apparent desire for fame, in the sense that so many 'X-Factor' contestants seem to. He was not a TV face, a 'celebrity.' He just loved doing what he did."

Music was a constant presence in Dio's life from a very young age. Born Ronald James Padavona in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on July 10, 1942, the singer played trumpet and French Horn as a kid before rock 'n' roll stole his soul: "Hearing the naturalness of rock music blew me away," Ronnie told the Performing Musician website in 2008. "Hearing rock 'n' roll in a live situation was 'I have to have a band instantly!' That same day I found some musicians and formed a band." Ronnie's high school band The Vegas Kings became Ronnie & The Rumblers and later Ronnie And The Redcaps after he switched from bass to lead vocals, the singer delivering his first lead vocal recording on the band's second single, 1959's An Angel Is Missing. Around the same time, he 'borrowed' the stage surname Dio from a well-known Florida mobster, reckoning that Padavona was too ungainly a monicker for a successful rock 'n' roll singer.

His breakthrough was a long-time coming: later known as Ronnie Dio And The Prophets, the band never transcended their local hero status, and eventually split in 1967, Dio taking guitarist Nick Pantas with his to form Electric Elves, later shortened to Elf. In 1972 Elf were invited to showcase for CBS Records in New York. Using music business connections, the band's manager persuaded Deep Purple rhythm section Roger Clover and Ian Paice to sit in on the session, and the visiting Brits were sufficiently impressed to take the young Americans under their wings, producing their debut album and taking them on the road as a support band for several US tours. Ironically though, Purple would be responsible for breaking up the band, for when guitarist Ritchie Blackmore quit in 1976, he recruited the members of Elf for his new outfit Rainbow. Rainbow set out to fuse rock 'n' roll attitude with the grandiose power of classical music, and in Ronnie, Blackmore found the perfect foil for his lofty ambitions, as the singer conjured up a vivid fantasy world populated by demons and dragons, wizards and witches, swords and sorcery. It was pure escapism from the mundane realities of every-day life, an alternate reality in which dreams were there to be pursued.

"I tend to write in romantic terms relating to Medieval times," Ronnie told Kerrang! "Even though they didn't have toilets then, it was still a wonderful, imaginative age when chivalry was rampant and all the ladies [were] beautiful. They probably had shit running down their legs, but you couldn't see it under the marvellous gowns!" A generation of teenage boys understood.

"To listen to Dio is to be transported to an ancient time of mystery and joy," actor, Tenacious D frontman and long-time Dio fanboy Jack Black told Time magazine after Ronnie's passing. "His songs were an escape for millions of kids looking for release from the usual bull found on the FM dial. As a teenager I was profoundly moved by the life-affirming fire of his songs. They were filled with glory. They made me want to climb mountains and battle demons."

After three albums of soaring, symphonic metal - the greatest of which, 1976's Rainbow Rising, voted the best rock album of all time in the very first issue of Kerrang!, remains an undisputed classic album - Blackmore decided to steer his band into more commercial realms: determined to stay true to his heavy metal roots, Dio quit. And his decision was vindicated when he re-emerged the following year in the heaviest rock band on the planet.

By 1979, Black Sabbath were in disarray, a sorry excuse for a band, crippled by spiralling drug addictions, alcoholism and escalating internal disputes. 1976's Technical Ecstasy wasn't worthy of the Sabbath name, and despite its thrillingly defiant title track, their eight album, 1978's Never Say Die! was even worse. Something had to give. Ozzy Osbourne had actually walked out on the band in 1977 before the recording of the album, in early 1979, depending on which version of reality you believe, he either walked away a second time or was fired. By September '79, as Sabbath went into Criteria Studios in Miami to make album number nine, Ronnie James Dio was their new frontman.

Replacing Ozzy was never going to be an easy task for Ronnie, as his predecessor noted. "Ronnie is a nice guy and he's got a great voice," conceded Ozzy, "but if they do go out as Sabbath I think Ronnie Dio is going to have to have a bullet-proof vest." Remarkably though, Ronnie not only salvaged the sinking ship, but spurred Sabbath on to new heights. 1980's Heaven And Hell was a magnificent album, with Dio's evocative lyrics melding superbly with Tony Iommi's re-energised: 1981's Mob Rules was another stormer. Dio's growing stature in Sabbath soon created tensions with acknowledged band leader Iommi however. Relations reached a nadir during the mixing of Sabbath's first live album, 1982's Live Evil, when Iommi accused his singer (and new drummer Vinny Appice) of sneaking into the studio to push the vocals and drums higher in the mix. As communication broke down completely, Iommi labelled his former friend a "little Hitler" and the American duo quit the band.

Having considered himself unfairly side-lined in two superstar band, Dio now determined to become master of his own destiny. Retaining Appice as his drummer and recruiting former Rainbow bassist Jimmy Bain and hotshot Irish guitarist Vivian Campbell, the singer's new band name - Dio - left no-one in any doubt as to who was calling the shots. The band were an instant hit: their debut album, 1983's Holy Diver was the singer's third bona-fide metal masterpiece - "If an alien landed on earth and said 'we come in peace and we want to know what heavy metal is', I'd play them Holy Diver" HIM's Ville Valo once told Kerrang! - and when MTV support propelled the album's second single Rainbow In The Dark into the US Top 20, Ronnie James Dio became a superstar in his own right. Detractors still took the piss - as Metallica and Anthrax were injecting a new street-level swagger into metal Ronnie was indulging in onstage sword battles with a papier mache dragon named Denzel - but the singer's charisma, showmanship and outstanding vocals were undeniable - and by the mid '80s the band were selling out three successive nights at London's 5,000 capacity Hammersmith Odeon. Change, however, was in the air.

The release, and subsequent success, of Nirvana's Nevermind album kick-started a new age for rock music. Almost overnight, heavy metal was deemed out-dated, overblown and ridiculous by the media, and a new breed of rock bands replaced the old guard in the affections of MTV and FM radio programmers. Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam gave every impression of despising the old masters, their angst-laden songs wallowing in the day-to-day struggles which Dio, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest sought to soar above. Traditional metal bands took a battering, and though Ronnie re-grouped with his erstwhile Sabbath band-mates for the well-received Dehumanizer album, it seemed the old gods had their day. Somewhat ironically, it was Ronnie's old nemesis Ozzy Osbourne who helped spark a revival in the genre's fortunes, through the creation of the Ozzfest festival, which gave a platform to a whole new generation of bands who saw bands like Sabbath, Zeppelin and Rainbow as the cornerstones of metal. The scene's rehabilitation was such that when, in 2006, Ronnie reunited once again with Iommi, Butler and Appice as Heaven And Hell, a slew of rock's most upwardly mobile bands - Machine Head and Coheed And Cambria among them - lined up to hit the road with the quartet as they toured their fine The Devil You Know album.

In November 2009, came the bombshell that Ronnie was suffering from stomach cancer. The singer was bullish in response to the news - "After he kills this dragon, Ronnie will be back on stage, where he belongs, doing what he loves best, performing for his fans" Wendy Dio announced in a statement - and Heaven And Hell had a length tour itinerary set up for 2010, to include US arena shows with Iron Maiden and appearances at the Bloodstock and High Voltage festivals. As recently as April 8, 2010, when Ronnie attended Revolver magazine's Golden Gods awards to pick up the Best Vocalist gong for his work on The Devil You Know, it appeared that the singer was winning his fiercest battle yet: speaking to the Artisan News Service before the ceremony Ronnie stated "I think I've done all the right things and it makes me feel positive about my life and positive that there's a lot more of it to live." Then came the tragic news of May 16.

The outpouring of grief from the metal community was instant. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motorhead, Slipknot and Trivium were among those who issued statements mourning the singer's death and saluting his legacy. "Few people have had the ability to carry a song like Dio, literally demanding your attention as he effortlessly recreated live the amazing things he did on record," Slayer's Kerry King told Billboard magazine. Korn guitarist Munky said "What a tragic loss for the metal world." Onstage in Lisbon Metallica played Sabbath's Children Of The Sea in tribute. Onstage in Boston, Pearl Jam played the riff to Heaven And Hell. In New York Alice In Chains dedicated Nutshell to Ronnie, while in Geneva, Switzerland Kiss led an arena crowd in a chant of "Ronnie! Ronnie! Ronnie! Ronnie! We love you and we miss you!" As tributes to the fallen legend continue to pour in, one of the most heartfelt, and arguably most surprising, came from Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic. Though certain sections of the media would have you believe that Nirvana set out to destroy the epic heavy metal which was Ronnie's trade, Novoselic's Seattle Weekly column related how Sabbath's Heaven And Hell and Mob Rules album had shaped his teenage life, and how thrilled Nirvana were upon entering Sound City Studios in LA to record Nevermind, to discover that Dio's Holy Diver masterpiece had been created in the same studio. "Ronnie James Dio, may you rest in peace," wrote Novoselic. "Thanks for all the great rock. I need to get up now and flip over the Heaven and Hell vinyl..."

It seems fitting though that we should leave the last word to Ronnie himself. Speaking to Kerrang! in 1987 the singer laughed off all the plaudits he'd been afforded over the years and humbly delivered his own critique: "I'm not a saviour," he said, "and I'm not Saint Ronnie. I'm just a person who sings and writes songs."