IDOL Chatter - The rules of the game by Ronnie James Dio

Edited by Kristina Estlund

Tired of listening to what some stuffy old critics has to say about your favorite performers? Well, let the stars speak for themselves! Every month here in Idol Chatter read what hot musicians have to say about various topics of the day, including who they are, what they play and whatever else comes to mind.

The legendary voice of gothic heavy metal is back once again in the arms of Black Sabbath! Ronnie James Dio began his reign as the Lord of Loud in the outfit Elf. After a couple of albums he split and took a sharp left turn into Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, then turned right and ended up fronting Sabbath following the departure of Ozzy Osbourne. This collaboration lasted for three legendary discs, Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules and Live Evil. Gripped once more by wanderlust he decided to go solo. The band Dio spawned the classics Holy Diver and The Last in Line, and made the extended pinky and index finger the universal symbol for brain-thumping, head-banging banshee-howling heavy-metal music. Ready for a new challenge after Lock Up the Wolves, Ronnie made a U-turn and picked up the mike for the latest reincarnation of Black Sabbath, lending his pipes and song writing talent to their new LP, Dehumanizer.

Surprisingly when I asked Ronnie what he'd like to talk about in this segment of Idol Chatter he mentioned nothing about warlocks, dragons or black magic. Instead we wound up discussing sports! Yep, the man with the satanic scream is just nuts about baseball, basketball hockey football - you name it. On or off the road, his TV is tuned to ESPN and he's first in line at the newsstand for latest issue of Sports Illustrated! So here with no further ado, is Ronnie James Dio on the games people play.

My earliest recollection of sports is my dad playing on a local softball team. It was always a big family event. We'd go and watch him play. My dad was always good and, of course, you want to be like your father, so I played all sports. My dad never got big enough to be a professional, but it was watching him that first turned me. I guess one thing led to another. You know when people you hang out with are playing, you're always joining the same sports every year, the same time of the year. There was always football, basketball and baseballs, always at the same time. I was in everything - Little League football and Little League baseball - but I was real small, so I was never really able to compete. I like the competitive nature of sports. I've participated in T.J. Martell [the annual T.J. Martell charity sports event, which includes bowling, hockey tennis and golf, in addition to the highly publicized softball game]. I've done the bowling event a couple of times. We won second one year and third another. It's fun, but I don't really play an awful lot, because I don't have time. I always plan on going out and playing golf, but I never make it. So, I'm forced to be an observer.

I'm a baseball fan - I'm an everything fan. As far as my favorite sports, I'd probably say it was basketball. I keep up on it, but it's real difficult when you're out of the country. I mean, when you're in Germany it's pretty impossible. I love Larry Bird. Larry Bird changed the game around. You know he was a big white man. I'm not trying to sound racist, but the NBA finally got someone that we could admire for being a great basketball player. He was just great for the sport.

In hockey, I'm a New York Ranger fan. Unfortunately living out here [in L.A.], I don't see a lot of the Rangers because of Gretzky's Kings. They were the great hope this year. I really thought they were going to crack it, but they didn't We all thought that when Gretzky got here, he would change it around. But they haven't really done much better than they were before, to tell you the truth. Hockey has some marvelous players though: Lemieux and that Canadian guy Eric Lindros We'll have to see what happens with him. He's a John Elway [Denver Bronco quarterback Elway wouldn't play for the Indianapolis Colts because he didn't want to sign with a losing squad, so he was traded. Landross wouldn't play for Quebec, and is now with the Philadelphia Flyers].

My favorite football team is the New York Giants. I know I'm very New York, but I grew up with those teams. As far as our quarterbacks [Jeff Hostetler and Phil Simms. Last season Simms finished the season out because Hostetler ended up on the injured list], it's a hard one to digest. I mean Simms took them to the Super Bowl, but it was Hostetler who got them there. It's the same with the 49er's. You have Bono and Young, who back up Montana. Either give the two kids another gig or let them front the team. They're both so talented. Montana's whole, and he's made a winning team, but it must be difficult for someone so talented to take a back seat.

As far as the L A Raider quarterbacks, Marinovich versus Schroeder, I have a couple of different trains of thought. Schroeder hasn't given the goods. I think they have some lineman problems. Poor Al Davis has gotta be going, "What a great move that was, bringing in Marinovich. But Schroeder was originally quarterback, so we're going to play him until we die with it." Marinovich seems to always lift the team and come through in the latter part of the game I think he has a chance, and he can't do any worse than Schroeder already has.

I'm a Yankees fan, and I'm a Met's fan, because they are a New York team, so I'll give them a break. Again, though, I don't get a chance to follow them, because you don't get many of their games out here. I listen to sports radio a lot, or just read about it in the paper. The Yankees' names have no faces to me. I've been out here for such a long time that I know the Dodger players a lot better than I know the Yankees.

Muhammad Ali will always be my all-time favorite boxer followed by Sugar Ray Leonard, followed by nobody. I'm not really into journeymen boxers. I guess I'm into front-runners, being that Ali and Leonard are both champions. I like some of the smaller weights, too, like Michael Carbajal, who was the Olympic champion. He's great. I like Jorge Paez - absolutely unbelievable. He has this headdress on - it's about three feet high, black and white, kind of feathered - and he's running around. He's a great boxer.

I've played golf since I was a kid, but I haven't had a chance to play in three or four years, being constantly on the road and doing something. I'm not at all into it because it's good business [since it seems to be the sport of industry insiders] - not at all. I've liked the game since I was a kid. I lived in a pretty rural area, and we always had two or three different courses to play on. The guys you went to school with played, and you do the things your friends do. I have a great time. I enjoy it. I love Chi Chi Rodriguez. I like John Daly a lot. He's rather erratic, but when he gets a course, he can out-drive everybody on, he's much better.

There's so many guys in bands now who spend all their time golfing. I mean, you've got guys from Slayer playing golf these days- Strange people you wouldn't expect to be playing golf are up at 6 a m., ready to play 18 holes - or 36, if they can get it in - and then go do the gig. It's a great sport. It's just you against the ball against the course. It's real individual, and it's got its finesse moments and times when you can get up there and pretend that the person you hate the most's face is on the ball. When I golf, I tuck my hair up underneath a baseball cap: mainly because, even though it's not quite as bad as it used to be-if you go with a bunch of longhairs, it's alright-you still get looked at like you've grown another head. It's just easier to stick your hair up underneath your hat. Plus, it's a hell of a lot cooler and a lot easier to swing without it in your face.

When I'm in England, I watch bowls. It's like an Italian game called boccie. You have a small ball that you throw down a 30-yard or so fenced quarter of grass or sand, and then you take two larger weighted balls and try to roll them as close to it as possible. You get points for being the closest large ball to the little target ball. I love soccer. They have wonderful players in England - in all of Europe. I saw a couple games up in Liverpool. They have one of the great teams in all of sports history. You know they have riots during and after the games over there. The English fans seem to be the worst. I don't know why, but they go to all the games in different places and start riots. They're going to bring the World Cup here this year to the Rose Bowl - same place as the Super Bowl. That's such a great place. Why don't they just leave the Super Bowl games here? The weather's always good. Who wants to go to Minnesota in the winter?

I've got Mickey Mantle's baseball card with an autograph. I got a baseball signed by him too. I had Bobby Clarke's jersey He's great player. It's got his name on it, and his number. I met Mickey Mantle. I met Mark Gastineau, who used to be on the Jets. I met Sid Fernandez, a pitcher with the Met's. He's been over here a couple of times, and I went to the playoffs last time I was in town. Most musicians know most of the sports people, and vice versa.

If I had children, I would encourage them to play sports. Absolutely. I think it's wonderfully competitive. I think it gets just a little bit out of hand, though, in Little League - you know those situations where coaches and parents get a little bit out of hand, kind of like stage mothers. But I think sports is a real broadening concept, especially the competitive nature of it, and the idea that you're supposed to be gentlemen rather than not get along.

This article is taken from RIP, January 1993.