Seriously ill as he was for the last few months of his life, Ronnie Dio’s death (early on the morning of May 16th 2010) wasn’t quite the shock it might otherwise have been. Yet the sadness is not diminished, nor the feeling that part of our musical upbringing has departed with him. Thinking back to the mid-70s, the recollection of my first exposure to the Dio fronted epics that comprised side two of Rainbow Rising, whilst we listened on a transistor radio in a cramped student bedsit one Saturday afternoon, is still very powerful. The feeling that at last, following a slightly faltering first album, Blackmore had crafted his vision of a new rock music struck me then. And what made it work so very well was in no small measure thanks to Dio’s grasp of what was needed to spark the tracks into becoming something much more than your average hard rock album.
There will be plenty of potted biographies rehashed out there on an occasion like this, and it’s perhaps a shame in some ways that Ronnie’s work will be recognised and respected within the insular world of heavy metal, when he demonstrated a number of times an ability to outperform many of his contemporaries in a number of vocal styles.
I first glimpsed Ronnie Dio live back in 1974, though confess that getting to see Elf was largely forgotten in the excitement of Deep Purple’s return to the UK (which with hindsight was a shame, as some of these Elf recordings are well worth revisiting). So it was not until Rainbow reached these shores in 1976 that we got to understand exactly what had so excited Blackmore about Dio’s voice that he felt confident enough to walk from Deep Purple and throw his lot in with this diminutive and relatively unknown American singer. For no matter what Blackmore threw at him, Ronnie could deliver it back and then some. We always put his massive voice down to those early years playing trumpet, which gave him such sustain.

Ronnie’s tenure within the band lasted what seems now such a short period, yet that first touring line-up clearly laid the groundwork for everything that followed. Whenever a Robinson and a Galway chat, talk always gets round eventually to the merits of the band in 76/77 and a puzzlement over why it all went off at a tangent. Cozy Powell was later to call it quits, and though never one for dwelling too much on the past, he later often seemed to imply a huge frustration with Blackmore for throwing away the possibilities that the Blackmore / Powell / Dio axis had as he saw it offered.

As for Dio, he just got on with it. Having more or less defined the fantasy rock lyric (which he’d been trying out even on the later Elf recordings) he put his own outfit together and carried right on.
My own rock listening never really extended much beyond a narrow circle of bands and musicians, but if the band Dio didn’t work for me very often, that was my loss – for they certainly carved out a strong following if (like a lot of rock groups, including Rainbow in the early days) rarely making much of an impact on the wider public consciousness.
We met Ronnie a few times during the Rainbow days, and he was unfailingly courteous every time – signing material (including a rare Elf poster I’d got on that 74 tour), showing off an amazing embroidered waistcoat, chatting, and always interested in hearing what people had to say.
Our last exposure to the man live was during the Albert Hall shows in 1999 when Ronnie was invited along as a special guest to sing Sitting In A Dream, in part by way of an apology from Roger Glover for not being able to have Ronnie do the song in the very same building over twenty years before (for the Butterfly Ball show – the album version is without doubt one of my very favourite Dio recordings). Ronnie got a rousing and touching reception from the crowd, Gillan seemed to thoroughly enjoy working with him and it was a treat to have him there.
More recently Dio’s career certainly seemed to go up a notch with the band Heaven & Hell, and the DVD of the band’s early live shows demonstrated that vocally he still had enormous power and ability.
We’ll all have our particular moments from past tours to remember and cherish; some with Rainbow, others from his days with Sabbath or Dio. For me I think it will be the memories of Ronnie and Ritchie smiling and laughing together as each tried to gainsay the other on the vocal / guitar responses they threw in to songs like Catch The Rainbow which will stay with me the longest. And not forgetting that sheer moment of rock magic on the band’s second album when he steams in with the “I see a rainbow rising” line – this still sends tingles down my spine whenever I play it (and even, as I write this, just thinking about it).
UPDATE – there’s a Ronnie Dio special tribute in the current issue of Kerrang (last week of May 2010).
UPDATE 2 – There is a lengthy interview with Ronnie Dio in a new book called ROCK ‘N’ ROLL MERCENARIES – INTERVIEWS WITH ROCK STARS: VOLUME I, covering his solo career and Heaven & Hell. You can get more details at the author’s sitewww.neildaniels.com
UPDATE 3 – Michael Eriksson has scanned the Ronnie Dio Classic Rock cover issue, which has some great photographs and writing about Ronnie in (June 2010).
