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Ronnie James Dio, born Ronald James Padovana. He was born June 10th, what year is not known, 'cause Ronnie says that the age is not important, it´s the music that really matters. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, but he was raised in Cortland, New York. Nowadays there is a street in Cortland named after Ronnie, it´s called The Dio-way, and was named on November 15th, 1988. If you are plannig to see it, then it should be located between Central Avenue and East Court Street.

As a youth his main interests were music and romantic fantasy litterature, such as books by Sir Walter Scott and the Arthurian legend. All that fantasy read ing might have made him the good lyric writer he is today, and many of his songs are fantasy influenced. He very often use the word rainbow in his songs, and some songs even have rainbow in the title, as in "Rainbow in the Dark" for example.

When Ronnie was five years old, his father told him to play an instrument. Ronnie had no idea what instrument to choose, until one day when he heard a trumpet on the radio. Then he told his father; "Yeah, that one !".

In his teens he thought that the trumpet might have been a mistake, but he does give credit to his trumpetplaying. He means that it gave him the discipline he needed to pursue a career. He almost became a real trumpetplayer, as he got a scholarship to study at the famed Julliard School of Music, but he turned it down to concentrate on his growing rock interest.

The trumpet is the only instrument that Ronnie has had formal training on. His father also helped him to learn how to play the trumpet.Thanks to his musical talent he is selvtaught in five others. They include bass, guitar, keyboards and the saxophone ! Impressive ! That was only four, well the last one is not hard to guess. Thanks to his horn playing (trumpet and saxophone) he got good breething exercises which later on learned him to master a sixth instrument, his voice.

In his teen the trumpet was the main instrument, but he could play both trumpet and bass before forming his first band, Ronnie and the Red Caps. On the first single he released he actually played trumpet. It was in 1957, and the single was instrumental and called "Conquest". Ronnie gave up his studies completely in 1957-58 to become a rockstar.  

Ronnie meets Rock 'n' Roll

In the beginning of the next decade, 1961, the band changed their name to Ronnie Dio & the Prophets, and now Ronnie played the bass instead of the trumpet. The band didn´t really do any own songs. Instead they made some R&B covers, they changed style after a year or two and went over to making covers on pop and ballads.

Ronnie was impressed by The Beatles, and wanted to write his own material so he and the bands guitarist formed a new band in 1967, The Electric Elves, which they soon re-named to The Elves. Ronnie was now the lead-singer of the band. The Elves played rock 'n' roll now, and Ronnie wrote the songs.

In 1969 the band was involved in a devostating car accident. One of the band members perished in the accident. After recuparating, Ronnie and two of The Elves mebers formed ELF, a real rock 'n' roll band. ELF was formed late in 1970. Two years later ELF recorded their first album, called "ELF". On the two following albums, "Carolina County Ball" and "Trying to Burn the Sun", Roger Glover was the producer. Roger Glover was the brittish heavy metal band, Deep Purple´s bassist and also producer. Thanks to Ronnie´s contact with Glover, Ronnie got to meet Deep Purple´s guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore.

Ronnie in Rainbow

Ritchie Blackmore, also known as; "The Man in Black", and the rest of the Deep Purple members didn´t get along that well. Blackmore decided to quit from Deep Purple and form a new band. He knew about Ronnie, so he asked him to join, and Ronnie did. Ritchie named the band "Rainbow". The first album was titled "Ritchie Blackmore´s Rainbow". The first track is "The Man on the Silver Mountain", which became their first hit. The song is a real classic among fans. The album was released in 1975. Before the next album, Ritchie fired his drummer and instead, Cozy Powell became a Rainbow-member.
He did that 'cause he wanted it to be his own band, not him in ELF.

The second album that RHe wrote fantasy related songs, and with his good imagination they became short stories. The album became a complete success ! The lyrics was great, and Ronnie´s singing to. Not to forget Ritchie´s superb guitar riffs and solos. Cozy Powell´s talanted drumming was also very impressive. Together they made one of the biggest and best heavy metal albums, ever. The song Stargazer was a song that Ronnie wanted to do for a long time. He told Ritchie about his idea, and then they wrote one of the greatest songs ever...

After the Rising-tour, Rainbow released a live album, "On Stage".

Now the band started working on their new album. It was finished and released during 1978. The name of the album was "Long Live Rock 'n' Roll". Although Rainbow already had two studio albums released, they have not released any singles. They released "Kill the King" as their first single.

Ronnie in Black Sabbath

Ronnie and Ritchie made good music together, but Ronnie wanted to change style, and go away from the fantasy. Ronnie on the other hand wanted to continue on the same track. So they split up, but Ronnie, who made himself a name thanks to Ritchie, is not angry on him for this. "He was never difficult to work with", says Ronnie. "We were, musically, on the same path, and I respected his privacy... he does´nt like to be leaped upon, and I realized it right away. This is a guy who gave me my first level of success, how can I say anything bad about him? He was never an asshole to me." (These words are from Ronnie many years after the split up).

After Ronnie quit from Rainbow, he was thinking of starting his own band. By a coincidence Ronnie met Tony Iommi at a club called The Rainbow (what a coincidense). Iommi, the guitarist of Black Sabbath was tired of his singer, Ozzy Osborne, because their two latest albums, "Technical Ecstasy" and "Never Say Die" were not that good. Iommi set up a meeting for Ronnie with the other members of Black Sabbath. The members, and Ronnie found each other interesting, and Ronnie became Sabbath´s new lead-singer.

The first song they wrote was "Children of the Sea", which was included on the first Black Sabbath album with Ronnie as the singer. In 1980 the album "Heaven and Hell" was released. With Heaven and Hell, Ronnie was on the heavy metal top again. Together with Rainbow Rising, Heaven and Hell also counts as one of the heavy metal biggest albums. The first single from the album was a real good one; "Neon Knights". Which also was the last song to be written.

The second single was "Die Young".
Ronnie himself says that Heaven and Hell is one of
the highlights in his career, "To be able to be part of resurrecting that band to where it deserved to be, was just a real joy for me. And we did it all together, 'cause that´s the way they are, they´re great people."!

After Heaven and Hell, Ronnie and Sabbath recorded a second album titled "The Mob Rules". The album was good, but came in the shadow of Heaven and Hell. Actually the album is GREAT, but never got the credit it deserved.

After the album, Sabbath toured the world. The tour was recorded and released as "Live Evil". During this studio work, Ronnie and Vinnie Appice (the drummer) didn´t get along with Iommi and Geezer Butler (the bassist). Iommi thought that Ronnie was taking over the band, and Iommi considered Sabbath as his band. Both sides also accused the other for turning up the sound on their instruments.

Ronnie James Dio forms his own band

Ronnie James Dio and Vinnie Appice started their own band, DIO. The band was not RJD´s solo band, it just got the name DIO, I don´t know why or how. Guitarist Vivian Cambell and bassist Jimmy Bain also joined the band. The first album DIO recorded was "Holydiver" and it sold platinum in USA. Holydiver was released in 1983. The album is like a DIO-magic bible for DIO-fans. It is full with hits. The title track may be the most famous song Ronnie ever has wrote. "Stand up and Shout", "Straight through the Heart", "Rainbow in the Dark" and "Don´t Talk to Strangers" are classics from the Holydiver album.

The next album "The Last in Line" is almost as good as Holydiver, and it also contains powerful songs such as "We Rock", "One Night in the City", "The Last in Line", Egypt and "Evil Eyes".

  The next DIO-album, Sacred Heart was, and still is, their weakest album, but still a good one, after Sacred Heart, Vivian Cambell left the band. He was replaced by Craig Goldie. He played the guitar on the fourth album, Dream Evil. The album did not do very well, and it´s probably because Vivian left, and the fans were used to his sound. 

After the Dream Evil album, DIO released first "Look up the Wolves" with a new guitarist, Rowan Robertson. The amazing thing about him is that he was only 18 when he joined Dio.

Ronnie and Black Sabbath reunite

After LUTW, Ronnie and Vinnie got back to Black Sabbath. Iommi, Butler, Vinnie and Ronnie were together again. Meanwhile Ronnie put DIO on ice. They recorded an album during 1992, called "Dehumanizer". The album is one of the best he has ever done. It is really powerful. Iommi and Appice are excellent, and Ronnie proved that he could to great music without any rainbows. Too bad the reunion did´nt last for longer then an album and a tour. Because then Ozzy came back to Black Sabbath, so Ronnie and Vinnie left again to rebuild DIO.

Back in Dio

Ronnie and Vinnie put DIO together again and Tracy G became their new guitarist. And Dio decided to write songs about reality and today, instead of fantasy influenced songs, just as he did on Dehumanizer. The first album they made was not only good, but it was great, "Strange Highways" . Tracy G was, however, even more different then Craig was, and many fans considered the album strange, but allrigth. 1996 Dio was back with a new album, "Angry Machines". It was even more different then SH, and this is the least favorite album to many Dio fans. Myself, I just don´t understand why, the album is great, all songs are... On the tour DIO made some live recordings so they could make their first "real" live album. Previously DIO released a live-lp, but Ronnie disliked it so much that he named it "Intermission". The new live album was released early 1998. It was called "DIO´s Inferno-The last in live".

It did so good that DIO had to do another tour in 1998,It was called "The Hull and Back tour 1998".

Dio fans over the world wanted Ronnie to go back to the "Holydiver-sound", and also they wanted Tracy out of the band.
Their wishes were granted, and tracy left, he could have stayed as rythm guitarist, but he did not accept the offer.
So Ronnie brought Craig Coldy back to the band for the next album.
The album, Magica, released 2000, was a concept album, which Ronnie had wanted to do for a long time, and even though it´s not like Holydiver, it´s absolutely fantastic ! All songs are great !

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