STRAIGHT THROUGH THE HEART

Ronnie James Dio passed away yesterday at the age of 67 after a long battle with stomach cancer.

He finally faced a dragon too strong to slay on his own.



I have been a hardcore Dio fan since I first heard Black Sabbath's HEAVEN AND HELL in 1984. Some things about your teenage years will never be forgotten. I had an older friend named Rocky who lived a couple blocks from me who seemed to have the coolest music collection I had ever seen. He had everything Dio recorded. Elf, Rainbow, Sabbath, solo stuff. I will seriously never forget tooling around our neighborhood in his Gran Torino cranking "Neon Knights" on his cassette deck. I had never heard non-Ozzy Sabbath before and from then on I stayed neutral in the "Ozzy or Dio" campaigning that went on in my school.

I simply thought they both rocked.

RJD pretty much invented a style of heavy metal. It was serious but never too serious. It was fantasy without becoming whimsical. It was heavy and operatically tinged without becoming overblown and crossing over into ELP or YES territory, not that there is anything wrong with that. Whether working with Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore or the half-dozen guitarists in his own band, his voice soared around these bold, metallic guitar riffs and it just carried the song into a separate dimension.



It is safe to say that any person fronting a metal band today owes a debt of gratitude to Dio for what they do. He commanded every stage he took and he never looked out of his element or lost. He always appeared gracious and truly thankful with the fans at the shows. I caught him at the height of his powers in 1984, at a rather lower point in his career in the late Nineties, and once more in 2007 during his triumphant but ultimately final lap fronting Heaven And Hell. The man owned the show and held the fans in his palm. He never phoned it in. He never lost his touch. He never said "Fuck the fans" by not giving us what we wanted. No matter what year you saw him, you bought your ticket knowing you were gonna rock out to Heaven And Hell or Long Live Rock N Roll or Rainbow In The Dark or Last In Line.

He was all class. He is already sorely missed.