R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio

I was never a heavy metal fan, but in all of the interviews that I've seen, he was a class act and a very down to earth nice guy.

R.I.P.

I hadn't heard, that suxs.

It does suck.

I saw him once live.

I never liked his music, I don't think it transcended generations well. But.. The dude was a pioneer, so hats off to him..

Aw man, that really sucks.

Really, really sucks.

I got to seem him twice. First time was also my very first concert in '87 at Market Square in Indy with Megadeath opening. The show was unbelievable, huge laser-light show, robotic rotating drum riser, giant robot pterodactyl-thing dropped from the rafters while the guitarist shot it with a laser during his solo. Completely over the top, and the music/performance was just as good.

I went to see him again around 10-years ago, this time at a bowling alley in a little po-dunk town. No E36 M3. I was 4' from the "stage", which was a 6"-riser where the bowling lanes had been. He kicked ass just as hard, and in some ways more so, than he did at that arena.

He was one of those guys I always hoped to have a chance to meet someday.

Bummer

Joey

I have been listening to Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio ever sense I heard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxW32N6ALRw

his biggest contribution to our culture wasn't the music he made, but rather the "devil horns" that you see at every concert by every artist from the latest Disney abomination to the most brutal black metal band and everything in between.

I was not a huge fan, but I did like Last in Line and some of his Sabbath stuff. I am sad that he is gone.

I just hope that God didn't take his lyrics too seriously.

Good thing he passed on his cape and scepter to Jack Black and Kyle Gass.

RIP Dio, you will be missed.

How on earth did Ozzy outlive Ronny?

Isn't Ozzy younger? Ronnie was 67, would have been 68 next month.

Lesley wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxW32N6ALRw

i must confess that somehow i missed this song in my metal youth. thanks Dio, and thanks Lesley for posting the link.

i got to see Motorhead, Heaven and Hell, and Judas Priest a couple years ago. JP sucked, I walked out 3 songs into their "headliner" set. motorhead kicked ass, and H&H was even better. those old farts went hard!

RIP RJD

This one hits me hard, as this guy was one of my favorite metal musicians ever, and a personal hero. He devoted his life to metal. Every time someone at a metal show flashes the devil horns, they pay tribute to this man, because yeah, he started it! (Actually it was his grandmother that taught him this, it is an old Italian hand symbol for "good luck" or to ward off the "evil eye", an Italian superstition, my own grandmother did this too! ) He was one of the most talented metal vocalists ever to front a band, and whether he was out in front of Elf, Ritchie Blackmoore's Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, or his own solo band, this guy gave it his all.

RIP Dio

I knew he was having issues, but I hadn't heard any updates.

This is a major loss to metal and music in general.

SilverFleet wrote: He devoted his life to metal.

There's only two kinds of music: Heavy, and Metal.

It was on HNN on the ticker at the bottom of the screen this morning.

Holy Diver may have the best cover art in the history of Rock. Dio flat out kicked ass, and was a big part of my childhood soundtrack. Hopefully he'll get his due postmortem, as he always was overshadowed by Ozzy.

RIP RJD

Posthumous hotlinks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frtJQFe9apw&feature=related RIP

I wanted to see Dio live. I guess I'll never get that chance.

Heaven and Hell

Holy Diver

[ups the irons]

More suck:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/05/30/dio.memorial/index.html?eref=rss_latest&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+Most+Recent%29

At my funeral, if this happens, I would like my corpse to rise in demon form to slaughter the offenders with ungodly fury. Sort of like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcLwR28u-Is#t=3m45s