Thursday, May 20, 2010

Ronnie James Dio Remembered

Rock vocal legend Ronnie James Dio passed away this week from stomach cancer.

Ronnie was widely regarded as one of the very best hard rock vocalists of all time. He first had success in the 60's with his "doo wop" style bands Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, and Ronnie and the Red Caps (do a search on Youtube, you won't believe your ears!), then as a hard rock singer as a member of Rainbow, then as Ozzy's replacement in Black Sabbath, recording what many regard as Black Sabbath's best albums- "Heaven and Hell" and "Mob Rules". He then went on to a very successful solo career with his band Dio, with such hard rocking hits as "Rainbow In The Dark" and "Last In Line". Most recently he has been successfully touring the world with his Black Sabbath band mates calling the band "Heaven and Hell", to differentiate it from the Ozzy Osbourne headed version of Black Sabbath that has toured in recent years.

One thing you always hear about Ronnie that his friends and people who have met him say, is that he was such a nice, gracious and polite guy.

Dio can be credited with single handedly popularizing the "devil's horns" hand gesture at rock concerts, etc. Dio says that his grandmother used to make the hand gesture to ward off the evil eye, which is very common among superstitious Southern Italians. The "horns," or "Corna," themselves are used both to scare away and give someone the "Malocchio" (the Evil Eye).
Nowadays the hand gesture has just come to mean something like "you rock" or "rock on" at virtually any rock concert you may attend these days. I've even seen photos of Miley Cyrus doing it!

There will be a Public Memorial Service for Ronnie James Dio on Sunday, May 30th at 2:00 PM at The Hall Of Liberty located at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068.

Here is Ronnie James Dio singing Neon Knights:





For more info on Ronnie James Dio and his passing click this link:
http://new.music.yahoo.com/ronnie-james-dio/news/--62001717

Ronnie James Dio's official website: http://www.ronniejamesdio.com/

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