THE HISTORY OF RONNIE JAMES DIO
By Curt Jensen & Jim
Scheet
Ronnie James Dio, real name Ronald James
Padavona, was born in Cortland, NY, on July 10th 1942. His parents
are Italian immigrants; Ronnie is a first-generation American. The city of
Cortland to this day continues to have a large percentage of Italian Americans.
Ronnie once said that one of the more exciting things to do in rural Cortland
while growing up was ‘cow tipping.’ Ronnie‘s first serious musical instrument
was the trumpet, with which he became very proficient. During that time Ronnie
played trumpet in the Cortland High Jazz Band. Later, he switched to playing
bass guitar. Ronnie graduated from Cortland High in 1960. He was senior class
president. In high school, he was very popular with classmates and faculty
alike. Former classmates describe him as being a clean-cut type of guy, with
very neat short hair and say that he sometimes wore a suit and tie to school.
Apparently, his looks then were a complete opposite to his current heavy metal
tough guy appearance.
He formed three bands while in high school: the
Vegas Kings, the Rumblers, and the Redcaps. They played classic 50s and 60s
music. Ronnie and the Redcaps played exclusively at Domino‘s, a bar/restaurant
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Ronnie was in a very severe automobile accident
in 1968 with his band while traveling back from a gig in Connecticut. A drunk
driver hit Ronnie‘s van head on. Killed in the accident was Nicky Pantas,
Ronnie‘s best friend at the time and one of the bands guitar players. Nicky‘s
chest was crushed by the van‘s steering wheel. Ronnie, who was in the passenger
seat at the time, almost had his scalp ripped off. He needed about 100 stitches
to repair the injury. Doug Thaler, the keyboard player for the band, ended up
in a body cast for an entire year. The band‘s other guitarist, David Feinstein,
who suffered a broken ankle from the accident, says that the only thing he
remembers about the whole incident was waking up the next day in the hospital
with Ronnie in the other bed next to him. Ronnie received a major scar on his
face from the accident. Later, the City of Cortland named the street where
Ronnie grew up Dio Way. He married a Cortland girl named Loretta Berardi, and
they later adapted a son, Danny. The couple later divorced. His family still
lives in the Cortland area.
Ronnie James Dio‘s hard rock roots started with
the New York based bar room blues band called Elf. The first Elf Lp came out in
1972, and consisted of Ronnie‘s cousin David Feinstein (guitar), Mickey Lee
Soule (piano), and Gary Driscoll (drums). This was the only album that Dio ever
played bass guitar on. From then on, he decided to concentrate on his singing.
Deep Purple‘s Roger Glover produced the album, and he did a very good job on
it. Elf was actually one hell of a band. Highlights on the first album were the
songs Never More, Dixie Lee Junction, Sit Down Honey, Hoochie Koochie Lady, and
First Avenue.
Never More was a preview of Dio‘s later work that
would come with Rainbow. The song is real dark and Dioesque. It‘s a great song.
It‘s also the first sign of the medieval sword and sorcery based material that
started to form in Ronnie‘s creative mind. The next two Elf albums saw some
personnel changes as Craig Gruber replaced Ronnie on bass guitar, and Steve
Edwards filled in for Feinstein. Later, Feinstein would go on to the hard rock
band known as the Rods. Elf put out some great songs, but unless you‘re a big
Dio fan there‘s no way you‘ve ever heard them. The remastered album has the
last two Elf albums called Carolina County Ball and Trying to Burn the Sun.
After listening to fast power metal for any extended period of time, it would
take some getting used to for the typical Dio fan. However, any fan of any one
of the genres of Rock could really enjoy Elf. Ronnie sounds just as good with
this band as he does with Rainbow, Black Sabbath, or his own band. Out of 18
songs on those two albums, about 12 of those are really high quality
combinations of Rock and Jazz. Songs like Rocking Chair Rock n Roll, Black
Swampy Water, and Streetwalker are pure gems. Right now, there are serious
talks about Ronnie and Feinstein getting back together and having a reunion.
The end to Elf came when Ritchie Blackmore of
Deep Purple ‘discovered’ RJD. Elf used to open for Deep Purple on tour, and
Blackmore became quite impressed with Ronnie‘s band. After Deep Purple‘s
Stormbringer album, Blackmore became disenchanted with Deep Purple and he
parted ways with them. Blackmore invited Ronnie, Mickey Lee Soule, and Craig
Gruber to form his new band. The end of Elf and the downfall of Deep Purple
brought on the beginnings of Rainbow.
The first Rainbow album is one of the better
Rock albums of the 1970s. Dio has commented that this is his favorite Rainbow
album. The album was titled Ritchie Blackmore‘s Rainbow to get exposure,
because at the time Blackmore was known all around the world for his work with
Deep Purple. The debut album started all of the medieval fantasy lyrics that Dio
became so famous for. Song highlights include the famous Man on the Silver
Mountain, The Temple of the King, Sixteenth Century Greensleeves, and the
beautiful song Catch the Rainbow. Sixteenth Century Greensleeves is definitely
one of the better Rock songs of the entire 70s. There‘s another track on this
album called Self Portrait. It‘s one of those really dark 70‘s Dio songs that
are just buried in time. It‘s laced with the classic Ronnie James Dio sound.
There really isn‘t a bad song on the first Rainbow album.
For the next album, Blackmore released most of
the Elf guys except Ronnie and brought in his own crew. This was a shame,
because the Elf backup performers were very good musicians. In particular,
Mickey Lee‘s Jazz piano style would be sorely missed. Blackmore brought in Cozy
Powell (drums), Tony Carey (keyboards), and Jimmy Bain (bass). The second album
was called Rainbow Rising. Rising is a rather short album. With only six songs
on it, it‘s only about 35 minutes long. Most of the songs on the album are
fantasy based and the highlights of the album are the two eight minute long
songs Light in the Black and Stargazer. These two songs make up about half the
album‘s length. Run with the Wolf, Tarot Woman, and Starstruck are also great
songs.
The following two years, Rainbow put out two
live albums, and they are both great Rock albums. Long Live Rock n Roll was the
last Dio era Rainbow album recorded. By this time, Blackmore and Dio had
different visions musically. Blackmore wanted to sell out and start playing
radio friendly love songs like the bands Foreigner and Boston were doing at the
time. Ronnie wanted to keep playing his style of music, which was about
dragons, wizards, kings, and all of that good stuff. Despite Blackmore‘s
adamant objections to this musical direction of the band, Long Live Rock n Roll
turned out to be an outstanding album. Song highlights include Gates of
Babylon, Long Live Rock n Roll, Lady of the Lake, and the lightning-fast Kill
the King. There is only one love song on the album, and it‘s called Rainbow
Eyes. This song was probably Blackmore‘s idea. Rainbow Eyes is the only love
song that Ronnie has sung since 1978. He sings about women sometimes, but not
like a lovesick teenager.
After Dio left Rainbow, Blackmore stayed on with
them as they went through three different singers: Joe Lynn Turner, Graham
Bonnet, and another performer named Doogie White. The 1975-78 lineups are often
referred to as the classic Rainbow lineup. Rainbow was bigger in Europe than
they were in the United States. They would play small shows in Canada and the
northern states, but they never really drew large crowds. Rainbow‘s fantasy
lyrics alienated them from the mainstream pop music oriented radio stations.
You‘ll rarely ever hear a Rainbow song on the radio, but you‘ll get the same
recycled Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd copycat material all day. Ronnie has never
really sold out. Radio would have destroyed his work and ruined the typical
metal fan‘s listening enjoyment. Immediately after Ronnie and Blackmore had
their falling out, Dio decided to move on, one way or another. Ritchie
Blackmore is without a doubt a very talented guitarist and musician, but he is
extremely difficult to work for. For instance, the Rainbow lineup from May 1975
to April 1984 went through three singers, four drummers, five keyboardists, and
five bassists.
It was at this time that Tony Iommi of Black
Sabbath contacted Ronnie, and a whole new era started. They met at a Los
Angeles club called, ironically, The Rainbow. At the time, Black Sabbath had
just completed the horrible Never Say Die album. Iommi was also having severe
problems with Ozzy Osbourne, who was at the point of near incapacitation. At
one point, it was not exactly clear how Ozzy left Sabbath. Perhaps all of the members
of this band were so high on drugs and alcohol at the time that none of them
actually knew to this day what happened. In a recent interview, however, Ozzy
himself admits that he was fired from Sabbath for excessive drug and alcohol
usage. After being discharged from the band, Ozzy spent the next six months in
a hotel room getting high. He eventually recovered from his various chemical
dependences. To this day, he sees a counselor and attends AA meetings every
day. In any event, Ozzy was out, and Dio was in.
Later, in the summer of 1980, Vinny Appice
replaced Bill Ward on drums. Rumor has it that Ozzy later referred to this new
Sabbath lineup as, ėGeezer and the three Italians.î Now that Black Sabbath had Ronnie,
for the first time ever, they had a great songwriter, musician, vocalist, and
above all, a true professional. Some sources say that Ozzy Osbourne wrote very
few Black Sabbath songs. Previously, Iommi, Butler, and Ward wrote most of the
material. Now, Ronnie took total control over the songwriting. Their first
album with Ronnie was Heaven and Hell and it was a national success. The album
charted in the top 30. A lot of people are either fans of the Ozzy era, or they
are fans of the Dio era. Either way, no one can deny that Heaven and Hell was a
great heavy metal album. Song highlights on this first album are Lady Evil,
Neon Nights, Children of the Sea, Wishing Well, Die Young, Lonely is the Word,
and Heaven and Hell. That‘s just about the entire album. This album is a true
classic. Heaven and Hell is probably Sabbath‘s best album, even better than
Paranoid.
The next Sabbath album with Ronnie came out in
1981. Mob Rules was an extension of the great hard rock songs from H&H. Mob
Rules should be in the musical library of every heavy metal fan. Once again,
there isn‘t a weak song on this album except for the fourth track, which is
just a minute and a half guitar playing sound effects cut. Favorites on this
include Falling off the Edge of the World, The Sign of the Southern Cross, and
Mob Rules. The Dio Sabbath era was slightly harder than the Rainbow era. The
songs were darker and more sinister. It‘s hard to say which Dio era is the
best. There are 5 distinct Dio eras. There is the Elf era, the Rainbow era, the
Black Sabbath era, the old Dio solo era, and the new Dio solo era (1989 to
present), which would have to include the album Dehumanizer. Dio left Sabbath
soon after the Mob Rules tour. At the studio recording of Mob Rules, Tony Iommi
accused Ronnie and drummer Vinny Cappice of breaking into the studio late at
night and turning the volume up on the drums and vocals, while lowering the
guitar mixes. Later, Iommi quietly said that this did not happen. Ronnie and
Vinny never really got along with Geezer and Tony because of severe personality
differences. Warner Brothers released a live album of the Mob Rules tour in
1983 called Live Evil. On this album, Ronnie sings both Ozzy songs and his own
material. Funny thing about this album, when it came out, nobody in the general
public knew about it being released. Perhaps Warner Brothers had a contract to
put out so many Sabbath albums. Another factor is that only two months earlier,
Ozzy released his own live album called, ‘Speak of the Devil.’ The post Dio Sabbath
albums with Tony Martin and Ian Gillan didn‘t sell well, and were even more
hated by the critics than the ‘classic’ Sabbath releases.
After Ronnie left Sabbath, he formed his own
band called Dio. Ronnie‘s first solo album, Holy Diver, was a nationwide success
and he became world famous. The next three years would become the mainstream
pinnacle of Ronnie‘s career. Holy Diver became one of the biggest selling heavy
metal albums ever, selling millions of copies. This is the album that put food
on the table for the fat cats at Warner Brothers. Legend has it that Ronnie
visited a medieval castle in Southern England several times to gain inspiration
for his new solo project. One source claims it was Tintagel Castle, the
legendary home of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It is not
known whether he walked through the ruins brandishing a sword, like he did in
the famous Holy Diver MTV video from the 80s.
Holy Diver is an outstanding heavy metal album,
and there isn‘t one weak track on it. The album featured Irish guitarist Vivian
Campbell, who would become well known for his very cool British-inspired
blues-based material. By 1983, Ronnie‘s shows were sold out, and heavy metal
was at its all-time peak in America. Holy Diver is by far the best Dio solo
album from 83 to 89. Every song on it is great. The Holy Diver album cover was
a big controversy because of Ronnie‘s mascot: Murray the mutated Malacovian
giant. Murray is seen on the album cover drowning a priest. Many religious
groups dubbed the album as satanic across the United States. Perceptive people
look at it is this way. The priest that was being drowned was a child molester.
The priest is symbolic of child molesters. That‘s all there is to it. In a way,
it could be considered indirect criticism of the Catholic Church.
Poor Ronnie took a lot of heat for this. This is
the same guy who sang on a gospel album in 1980 with Kerry Livgren of Kansas.
That shows just how much people know about some things regarding Rock &
Roll. As far as the music on Holy Diver is concerned, every song on this album
is a metal masterpiece. In 1984 Ronnie came out with The Last in Line. One of
the songs on that album is called Egypt (The Chains are On), and it‘s a shear
classic. It is Dio‘s Stargazer of the eighties. Every time one listens to
Stargazer or Egypt, you can just picture masses of people suffering in the
scalding hot Egyptian desert, people from thousands of years ago. Ronnie brings
the long forgotten dead back to life with these two songs. The mental imagery of
the sun, the desert, and hordes of suffering people is remarkable. Song
highlights on LIL are the title track itself, Evil Eyes, Egypt, I Speed at
Night, and Breathless. Last in Line was a very successful follow-up to Ronnie‘s
solo debut album.
Sacred Heart came out in 1985, and it was the
last album that superlative guitarist Vivian Campbell would appear on.
Campbell‘s melodic and sultry soloing was at his very best on this release. To
be fair to Campbell, none of the Dio albums since his departure from the band
have had the same Dioesque emotional conveyance to them. Future guitarists
tended to reply more upon flash than substance. The Sacred Heart video came out
the same year. This video gives one a good idea what a Dio concert looked like
in the mid-eighties, which were about 25,000 crazy screaming fans. Dream Evil
was released in 1987. By this time, Campbell had left and the Southern
California product Craig Goldie was the new guitarist. Goldie‘s guitar work is
more reminiscent of the LA guitar scene, with virtuosos such as Warren
DeMartini, Eddie Van Halen, and George Lynch. Craig thus added a new really
modern guitar sound to the new Dio album. Dream Evil featured many great songs
like Sunset Superman, I Could Have Been a Dreamer, and All the Fools Sailed
Away. Most of these songs were real nice songs, as this was Dio‘s softest solo
album. In spite of his, a lot of his most ardent fans think Dream Evil is his
best solo album. Lock up the Wolves came out in 1989. Over 5,000 different
guitarists were interviewed and had a tryout for LUTW. Dio picked 18-year-old
guitar prodigy Rowan Robertson. The album didn‘t sell too well, and by this
time all of the fair weather fans had left Ronnie‘s side. LUTW sounds very late
eighties. This was also about the same time that many glam bands were busy
destroying metal‘s image, and had completely saturated the hard rock market.
During the 1990s, Dio continued to release additional solo projects, but none
were as fresh and musically inspirational as his excellent work in the 80s. His
latest project, Killing the Dragon, is scheduled to be released in May 2002.
Clearly, Ronnie James Dio‘s impact on the hard
rock music scene has been vast and dramatic. He‘s already celebrated his 30th
anniversary in heavy metal music. He will also be celebrating his 60th birthday
in 2002. To this day, he still influences many Rock groups of all styles.
Anytime a Rock & Roll band sings or performs any sort of song relating to
dragons, castles, swords or fire, Dio automatically comes to mind. The bands
Danzig, Gwar and many others perhaps owe their very existence to the 5‘ 3”
Elf-like wonder from Cortland, NY.