The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
CD Reviews  |  Classical  |  Live Reviews  |  Music Features
Best2011Vote-1000x50

Ronnie James Dio (1942 - 2010)

Live free or rock
By DANIEL BROCKMAN  |  May 21, 2010

1005_dio_main
As he lay in a Texas hospital bed in March, being treated for the disease to which he would eventually succumb, Ronald James Padavona, better known to the world as heavy-metal legend Ronnie James Dio, gave an interview to a local TV station. “Cancer? I’ll kick the hell out of you,” he declared, before throwing the devil horns. “I refuse to be beaten in any shape or form, so I’m going to beat you, too.”

Throughout his career, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire–born Dio exemplified the fighting spirit that constitutes the core ethos of heavy metal. He will be remembered for his powerful work as a solo artist, but also as the instigator of the second act of two of metal’s progenitors: first, in his pairing with a post–Deep Purple Ritchie Blackmore in Rainbow, and then as Ozzy Osbourne’s replacement in Black Sabbath.

In each, Dio turned the franchise around by replacing ’70s drug-addled nihilism with a new spirit of pugilistic righteousness that heralded metal’s ’80s ascendancy. With a booming voice and a towering stage presence that belied his 5’4” stature, Dio proved to generations of rockers that, if you possess the proper determination and spirit, you can command metal legions with but a wave of your hand.

His signature devil-horn hand gesture, purloined from his superstitious Italian grandmother, was used not to ward off evil, but to channel the power of metal into a universal force that transcends micro-genres and satanic accusations. As the Dio legend now enters its mythic phase, let us throw the horns in his memory — a testament to a man who sought out and found light in the darkness.

Related: Review: Lady Gaga at the Wang, Ghost stories, Winged migration, More more >
  Topics: Music Features , Entertainment, Entertainment, Music,  More more >
| More
Add Comment
HTML Prohibited

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/22 ]   Amy Chua  @ Harvard Book Store
[ 02/22 ]   BU Cinematheque  @ Boston University College of Communication
[ 02/22 ]   "John La Farge's Second Paradise: Voyages in the South Seas, 1890–1891"  @ Addison Gallery of American Art
ARTICLES BY DANIEL BROCKMAN
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   PJ HARVEY | LET ENGLAND SHAKE  |  February 16, 2011
    Polly Jean Harvey's newest manages to be a song cycle about the soldier's perspective on armed combat without being a typical anti-war diatribe — and is all the better for it.
  •   THE SOUND OF TYRANNY  |  February 18, 2011
    There are musicians, and then there are polymath musicians. How to tell the difference?  
  •   GANG OF FOUR ROAR BACK WITH POST-PUNK FURY  |  February 02, 2011
    The history of popular music is littered with musical questioning, from "Why must I be a teenager in love?" to "Who put the bomp in the bomp buh-bomp buh-bomp?" But when pop turned to rock and artists began to attempt to wield their popular might in order to do right, that inquisitiveness often turned into telling people what to do and think.
  •   THE PERFECTIONIST PERSONA OF NATALIA KILLS  |  January 26, 2011
    The British-born Natalia acted in BBC television and radio comedies (starting at age nine) before morphing into a musical career that has seen her adopt the stage name Natalia Kills — which describes her lethal combination of dark themes and anthemic synthpop.
  •   ROBYN RECLAIMS HER IDENTITY EN ROUTE TO POP STARDOM  |  January 26, 2011
    There are some pop stars for whom every record requires a reinvention of their persona. But what if your persona is just yourself, and you've spent your career rejecting the urge to create controversy to make people pay attention to you? For pop chanteuse Robin Carlsson, a/k/a Robyn, the R-word itself causes consternation.

 See all articles by: DANIEL BROCKMAN

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2011 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group