News: Ronnie James Dio Tribute

More often than not, it takes a man’s dying to establish himself as an icon.

Ronnie James Dio is the exception.

Dio passed away at the age of 67 from a prolonged bout with stomach cancer at 7:45 a.m. on the 16th of May. Dio was and is (and perhaps will always be) the paradigmatic symbol of Heavy Metal. His was the voice. THE VOICE!!! The primal scream that pierced through the flesh of the listener and wrenched the demons straight from the darkest regions of their bloody hearts for over half a century.

And yet, as sinister as Dio’s devilish demeanor and stature may have seemed as he prowled before audiences as the lead for Rainbow, Ozzy Osbourne’s replacement in Black Sabbath (beginning in 1980), and fronting subsequent acts such as Heaven & Hell and (the aptly named) Dio, his friends and cohorts in the rock and roll community will remember him as the perfect gentleman and the essence of class.

All the same, Dio’s influence will never wane. Although he has departed this existence and this world to move on to a better place, Ronnie James Dio will forever be pushing heavy metal and rock and roll up to new volumes and out to fresh, new ears and minds wherever and whenever we are possessed to throw up our hands with the “devil’s horns.”

Icons never die.

Rest in peace and farewell.