AXS TV Looks Into Who Really Invented The 'Metal Horns'

There's a documentary series on AXS TV right now that is looking into the mysteries of music. Tomorrow night, the series tackles the subject of who really invented the metal (or devil) horns - perhaps the most iconic gesture in all of music. I'm still of the mind that the honor goes to Ronnie James Dio, but maybe the rock doc will sway me. The trailer below is great and engaging. It is over three minutes long.

Everyone loves throwing up the horns, but where did the iconic symbol come from? 🤘 #MusicsGreatestMysteries pic.twitter.com/7YCvGrfu0N

— AXS TV (@AXSTV) July 10, 2021

Comments

[Gary]

I’m going with either Lawrence Welk or Josh Grobin. 🤟

[Bkallday]

Obviously it was Gene Simmons, Gary. 🙄

[Him]

I think the best term is _who_ popularized this darn Italian thing. And Dio wins, no matter what others say. But Sicilian grannies have been using it for ages.

How do I know? Well, Him is short for Himfredo. And my relatives are from the hills above Palermo (and, just to cover my bases, the Alps beyond Turin).

[Metalboy!]

ALL attempts at “comedy” aside, without watching this, it is DIO who “invented” Metal Horns (thus the key frame of him as the opening visual of the trailer).

He did so, initially, according to himself in an interview with Eddie Chump on “That Metal Show” several years back, not as a symbol of “Metal Power”, or some such, but rather simply, as a gesture his Grandmother would make in front of the family home to ward off evil spirits on the street in Greenwich Village in NYC, where he grew up.

It was only over time that the hand gesture has evolved into a symbol of quite the opposite, as it is now viewed as symbolizing “Rock & Roll”, and in some circles, “Evil”, primarily in the worlds of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Mötley Crüe, WASP, to name a few, all acts who employ gimmicky symbols of The Devil like pentangles and 666, etc.

I’ve seen members of Stryper occasionally make the gesture on stage, too, but I think they use it to mean something more in the vein DIO’s Grandma originally intended, considering their penchant for Christian symbolism.