The album was a minor hit, reaching the Top 40 in the United Kingdom and #44 on the Billboard 200. Dio continued to use his birth name on any songwriting credits on those releases. They released the self-titled debut album Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in early 1975. Dio and his first wife, Loretta Berardi (born 1941), adopted a son, novelist Dan Padavona. Dio never pretended to be one of the kids — he sang as an adult assuring us that we weren't alone in our suffering, and some day we might even be proud of conquering it. [21] The conflict led to Dio and Appice ultimately quitting the band later that year. Iommi asserted that the album's engineer began complaining to him that he would work all day long on a mix, only to have Dio return to the studio at night to "do his own mix" in which his vocals were more prominent. Blackmore invited Dio along with Gary Driscoll to record two songs in Tampa, Florida on December 12, 1974. Hartford, Connecticut: Connecticut Department of Public Health. Following his departure from Rainbow in 1979, Dio joined Black Sabbath, replacing the fired Ozzy Osbourne.
Reportedly, Dio approved of it, and had Tenacious D appear in his video "Push" from Killing the Dragon in 2002. "[48], New York State Department of Health; Albany, NY, USA; New York State Marriage Index. Celebrating the music and spirit of Ronnie James Dio! Campbell, Vivian "Ronnie was in a very dark place when we were doing Sacred Heart that’s when he was divorcing from Wendy", Erik Piepenburg (March 29, 2013) [Who Are the Best Voices in the History of Metal?] Dio was named "Best Metal Singer" at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards in April 2010 for his work on The Devil You Know, making him the oldest recipient of this award at age 67. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. He was originally just going to do one track of a solo LP, but we ended up doing the whole LP in three weeks, which I was very excited about. Original Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward was to be involved in this project, but later withdrew. In 2006, he founded the band Heaven & Hell with ex-bandmate Tony Iommi.

Dio met Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi by chance at The Rainbow on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in 1979. In 2008, the band completed a 98-date world tour. The second single was "An Angel Is Missing"/"What'd I Say" featuring Dio on lead vocals for both tracks. Dio provided vocals for the songs "Homeward", "Sitting in a Dream", and the UK single Love Is All.[22][23]. Their debut album, Holy Diver, included the hit singles "Rainbow in the Dark" and "Holy Diver", the album's title track. The group's lineup consisted of Dio on bass guitar, Billy DeWolfe on lead vocals, Nick Pantas on guitar, Tom Rogers on drums, and Jack Musci on saxophone. Dio and Blackmore split, with Blackmore taking the band in a more commercial direction, with Graham Bonnet on vocals and the album Down to Earth. Some of the singles (such as "Mr. Misery", released on Swan) were labeled as being by Ronnie Dio as a solo artist even if the rest of the Prophets contributed to the recording.

[14] In a 2000 interview, he stated that he majored in history and minored in English. Musci left the band in 1960, and a new guitarist, Dick Botoff, joined the lineup. [43], On March 31, 2014, the tribute album Ronnie James Dio This Is Your Life was released. Blackmore stated in 1983, "I left Deep Purple because I'd met up with Ronnie Dio, and he was so easy to work with. Friends, family, and former and current bandmates of Dio gave speeches and performed including Rudy Sarzo, Geoff Tate, John Payne, Glenn Hughes, Joey Belladonna, and Heaven & Hell keyboard player, Scott Warren. "Ronnie came into the band and he was doing whatever we told him, basically because he wanted the gig. 2.2M likes. They produced one single for Atlantic Records[19] and one album. The single "Time Machine" was featured in the movie Wayne's World, the tenth highest-grossing film of 1992. [4][5] He is known for popularizing the "Metal Horns" hand gesture in metal culture and his medieval-themed song lyrics. Ronnie James Dio. [citation needed], Padavona graduated from Cortland High School in 1960. [6][7] According to a version provided by the singer himself,[8] the act derives directly from the classic Italian apotropaic gesture, which his grandmother usually did. "[42], On July 10, 2011, in parallel to Dio's birthday, his hometown of Cortland, New York held a day-long event featuring many central New York local bands and talent for a benefit to the Stand Up and Shout Cancer foundation for cancer research and Dio Memorial concert.

[12] He instead attended the University at Buffalo to major in pharmacology. [11] Padavona participated in his high school's band program and was one of the youngest members selected to play in the school's official dance band.

A Dio monument has been unveiled in Kavarna, Bulgaria. Elf recorded three albums until the members' involvement recording the first Rainbow album in early 1975 resulted in Elf disbanding. In 1979, Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne as Black Sabbath's lead singer and appeared on three studio albums with the band, all three of which met with success: Heaven & Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981) and Dehumanizer (1992).

In the 1980s, she managed the Los Angeles rock bands Rough Cutt, NuHaven, Cold Sweat and Hellion. Ronald James Padavona (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010) known professionally as Ronnie James Dio or simply Dio, was an American heavy metal singer-songwriter and composer, and was also known for popularizing the sign of the horns in heavy metal. He also appeared in the film Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, playing himself and providing guest vocals in the movie's opening musical number "Kickapoo."[25]. Padavona listened to a great deal of opera while growing up, and was influenced vocally by American tenor Mario Lanza. He was awarded the "Metal Guru Award" by Classic Rock Magazine in 2006.
Over the next few years, the group went on to become a regular opening act for Deep Purple. [11] His first formal musical training began at age 5, learning to play the trumpet. 1959-77 Connecticut Marriage File.

Also, the main stage on Masters of Rock festival carries his name since summer 2010. Dio's musical career began in 1957, when several Cortland, New York musicians formed the band, "The Vegas Kings".

[20] In 1982, conflict arose over the mixing of the Live Evil album.

A notable live recording, A Special From The Spectrum, was filmed during the band's second world tour and released in VHS format only. He fronted or founded numerous groups throughout his career, including Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio, and Heaven & Hell. In 1985, Dio contributed to the metal world's answer to Band Aid and USA for Africa with the Hear 'n Aid project. Retrieved from, This page was last edited on 21 October 2020, at 11:57. – Revolver Golden Gods Awards", "Паметник на Рони Джеймс Дио откриха в Каварна", "RONNIE JAMES DIO Statue To Be Erected In Kavarna", "Ronnie James Dio Hologram Debuts at German Metal Festival", "RONNIE JAMES DIO Hologram: 'Dio Returns: The World Tour' Kicks Off In Bochum, Germany (Video)", "Scorpions Among Nominees for Hall of Heavy Metal History", http://www.peteofthestreet.net/dioslostdecaden, 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Rainbow, Winning Combinations: Deep Purple and Rainbow, Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978, Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978, List of cover versions of Black Sabbath songs, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ronnie_James_Dio&oldid=984670314, American expatriates in the United Kingdom, Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using Infobox person with deprecated parameter home town, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2018, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Articles which contain graphical timelines, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Pillsbury, Glenn (2013). [39], The main stage of Bloodstock Open Air is also named after him in tribute after Heaven & Hell pulled out upon his death. He was inducted into the Cortland City Hall of Fame in 2004, and has a street named after him there called Dio Way. In 2009, Dio was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and he died of the affliction the following year. [45] A second hologram was created for a subsequent world tour, which began on December 6, 2017 in Bochum, Germany. In late 1967, Ronnie Dio and the Prophets transformed into a new band called The Electric Elves and added a keyboard player. On May 4, 2010, Heaven & Hell announced they were canceling all summer dates as a result of Dio's health condition. [26] His part was shown in a prerecorded video on the subsequent tour, and Dio appeared onstage to sing the part live on at least one occasion (both shown on the Mindcrime at the Moore DVD). [46], On January 18, 2017, Dio was inducted into the Hall of Heavy Metal History. In 1997, Dio made a cameo on Pat Boone's In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, an album of famous heavy metal songs played in big band style. His family moved to Portsmouth from Cortland as part of his father's service in the U.S. Army during World War II[10] and they resided there for only a short time before returning to Cortland. Dio said of the encounter, "It must have been fate, because we connected so instantly. In 2009, Dio was diagnosed with stomach cancer[32] and underwent treatment at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Explanations vary for how Padavona adopted the stage name "Dio". [13] There he played trumpet in the university's concert band; however, he only attended the university from 1960 to 1961 and did not graduate. Dio quickly emerged as one of heavy rock's pre-eminent vocalists. [10] Then he enrolled at Cortland State College but dropped out as well. [44], On August 6, 2016, a hologram of the singer, created by Eyellusion, made its live debut at the Wacken Open Air Festival. In 1999, he was parodied in the TV show South Park, in the episode "Hooked on Monkey Fonics", which he later described as "wonderful.