Ronnie James Dio Dies

From Ronnie James Dio's official Facebook page. The post below was submitted by Ronnie's wife, Wendy Dio:

"Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever."

I'll have more on this news tomorrow. I need to process this one for awhile first. So sad. For those not following the story, Dio was battling stomach cancer and was seemingly doing better.

Comments

[crüe düde]

holy shit. thats shocking. i thought he was doing better. my condolences to his family

[JT]

A rumor started spreading last night, with several musicians (including Mick Mars and Tom Morello) posting their condolences. At the time, it was only a rumor, and I fell for it too. Now, it's truth. And I am sad.

[bumblefootboy]

R.I.P. ronnie james dio. you will be missed dearly. what a sad day it is. to lose such a metal icon.

[BASHSTER]

sad day i remember as a 13 year old boy sitting in my mates brothers bedroom he owned a record deck that have disco lights in it red ones,orange ones,green ones and blue ones my mate and i used to sneak in and play madness on the deck until one day we got caught.He laughed saying we hadnt seen the disco deck in full effect so he turned off the lights shut the curtains and put on Man on a silver mountain the lights on the disco deck were just red and orange like it was possessed by the devil and thus i was converted to HEAVY METAL so its probably why im sat here have a little cry.
RIP RONNIE JAMES DIO YOU DEVIL HORN FLASHING DWARF OF AWESOME ROCKNESS

[Ramzilla]

Sad, sad news.....

[Blaine]

I'm really bummed. Things seem to have turned for the worse quickly. Just a month ago I was listening to him on Eddie Trunk's show, explaining the cancer was in remission and that Heaven & Hell would be touring this fall. It's hard to imagine the heavy metal community w/o RJD.

I regrettably never got the opportunity to see him with either DIO or Heave & Hell... Now I'll never be able to see my two favorite Sabbath albums live. Such a loss, he was such a gentleman and a great role-model.

[Glenn]

I think the whole world should bow their heads and throw up the devil horns one time for the legend R.I.P.

[kari]

The heavy metal world was certainly turned upside down today. I always thought RJD was the best of the best above all in the world of metal vocalists. There will never be another. LONG LIVE ROCK N ROLL! METAL HORNS UP!

[Metalboy!]

I'll never forget watching "Dick Clark's American Bandstand" one Saturday morning when I was 15 and there was a segment about 3/4's of the way through the show where Dick selects someone out of the audience to stand behind this podium thingy with him and guess which of two singles released that week would be selected by audience applause to be the next big hit.

The whole thing went something like this...

CUT BACK FROM COMMERCIAL...

DICK: Let's get someone up here to guess which of these next two songs our audience will pick to be the next big hit. Whichever song get's the loudest applause, that's the one we'll play. Who's this? C'mon up here. What's your name?

KID: (Excitedly) Danny!

DICK: Alright, Danny. We're going to play a few seconds of two new songs and ask you to guess which song our audience will pick to the next big hit and whichever one wins we'll play all the way through. Are you ready?

KID: Yep!

DICK: Okay, here's the first one...

The opening strains of "Man On A Silver Mountain" by Rainbow cranked out. The kid looked all excited. I was excited, too, as this song had been getting tons of airplay in Maryland and we were all into it in the neighborhood, air guitaring to it by the pool, etc.

Dick hands a hand lettered sign with the words "Man On A Silver Mountain" to the kid to velcro onto the wall behind them as the song fades out.

DICK: (Reading his Q-cards) Okay, that was "Man On A Silver Mountain" by Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. What did ya think of that, Danny?

KID: It was cool.

Polite applause from the audience.

DICK: Okay, here's the second song...

The second record begins to play... Ugh! "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille... Argh!

Dick and the Kid repeat the sign ritual. Song fades...

DICK: That was "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille. Well, Danny, what did you think?...

Well, I knew what I thought. I thought it frickin' sucked and hated that song with a passion. I never listened to more than 8 seconds of it and still, to this day, have never heard it all the way through. Today, it's considered one of the worst songs ever recorded, despite having gone to Number 1 on the Billboard Charts.

KID: Uh, it's okay...

Loud applause from the audience.

I'm practically yelling at the TV...

"Man On The Silver Mountain!"

DICK: Well, Danny, which song do you think the audience will pick?

KID: Uh, the first one.

DICK: "Man On The Silver Mountain". Let's hear that again.

Short snippet of the song is played.

DICK: Well, audience, what do you think?

Some applause.

DICK: Sure you don't want to change your mind?

The kid quietly laughed nervously.

DICK: Okay, audience, how about the last one, "Love Will Keep Us Together"?

Wild applause from the audience...

DICK: Okay, Danny, nice try... The Captain & Tennille and "Love Will Keep Us Together"...

The audience hit the dance floor and started to "boogie" to the song as it continues to play as the outro to the next commercial totally makin' me more than suspicious that the whole thing was pre-planned anyway...

METALBOY: Bullsh*t!

And I turned off the TV and went on errands with my Dad (an excruciating Saturday morning ritual I normally tried to avoid) just so I could buy the 45 of "Man On The Silver Mountain" for 99 cents at Ricky's Records & Tapes.

I still have it.

EPILOGUE: I don't think I ever watched "American Bandstand" all the way through again unless someone half decent performed live on it, which did happen occasionally in years to come, like, believe it or not, Aerosmith, Kiss, Steppenwolf, Def Leppard, Dokken, Y&T, Billy Idol, The Raspberries, and Pink Floyd!

The Captain & Tennille went on to torture everyone for decades. The one good thing out of it (or is it?) is the fact that it was their state-of-the-art studio they could afford to build with all of the proceeds from crap like "Love Will Keep Us Together" that Axl proceeded to "lock up" all those years to make "Chinese Democracy". I guess that's their footnote in Heavy Metaldom.

Speaking of footnotes in Heavy Metaldom...

Well, it's certainly more than a footnote, but as most of you are aware, it was Ronnie James Dio's Grandmother who he credits with creating "The Devil Horns" hand gesture he knew as "The Mallachio", as she called it, or "Evil Eye" since she used to make the gesture often when he was growing up to thwart off "evil".

It was in Elf that Dio first started to make the gesture on stage.

Needless to say it was the first notes out of that booming voice of his when I first heard "Man On A Silver Mountain" that absolutely blew me away in 1975 and continues to do so to this day.

But I'm an idiot because I never saw him perform live! As Kari and others have pointed out here, he simply possessed one of the greatest Rock & Roll voices ever and it will live on forever!

MAN ON THE SILVER MOUNTAIN

I'm a wheel, I'm a wheel
I can roll, I can feel
And you can't stop me turning
Cause I'm the sun, I'm the sun
I can move, I can run
But you'll never stop me burning

*Come down with fire
Lift my spirit higher
Someone's screaming my name
Come and make me holy again
I'm the man on the silver mountain
I'm the man on the silver mountain

I'm the day, I'm the day
I can show you the way
And look I'm right beside you
I'm the night, I'm the night
I'm the dark and the light
With eyes that see inside you

* X 2

Just look at me and listen
I'm the man, the man, give you my hand
Come down with fire
Lift my spirit higher
I'm the man on the silver mountain
I'm the man on the silver mountain
I'm the night, the light
The black and the white
The man on the silver mountain

You'll always be The Man On The Silver Mountain to us all, Ronnie! "Long Live Rock And Roll"!

[strutter]

Best metal vocalist ever ! We will miss you Ronnie

[Shadow]

A sad day in the the world of Metal, rock, and music in general. Dio was in my book one of the top 3 metal vocalists of all time and I had planned on seeing H&H while in Europe, sadly this is not to be.
Dio , Rock on wherever you are, most likely with the man on the silver mountain.

[damnp78]

on to that "silver mountain"... RIP.

[Kenny Ozz]

We have lost a huge legend. So sad.