On this day · 84 years ago · 1942
84 Years Ago Today: Ronnie James Dio, Metal's Defining Voice, Is Born
Born Ronald James Padavona in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he'd front four legendary bands, Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and Dio, and become the voice most metal fans picture when they throw up the horns.
By Jaxon, Metal desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Ronnie James Dio was born Ronald James Padavona on July 10, 1942, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and raised in Cortland, New York. He fronted Elf, then Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow starting in 1975, replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath in 1979, and formed his own band, Dio, in 1982. Widely credited with popularizing heavy metal's 'metal horns' hand gesture, he sold more than 50 million records before his death from stomach cancer in 2010.
From Cortland, New York, to metal's defining voice
Ronald James Padavona was born July 10, 1942, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where his family was stationed during his father's U.S. Army service in World War II, according to Dio's official biography. The family soon returned to Cortland, New York, his parents' hometown, and that's where he grew up. He started performing in 1957 with the Vegas Kings, later renamed Ronnie and the Rumblers, years before the world knew him as Ronnie James Dio.
Elf, then Rainbow: the Blackmore partnership
Per Dio's official biography, he formed Elf in 1967, a band that spent years as Deep Purple's opening act, and that relationship paid off in 1975: when Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore split off to form Rainbow, he hired Dio as lead singer. The Blackmore-Dio pairing produced three studio albums and established Dio as one of hard rock's premier vocalists, a reputation built on range, projection, and a flair for medieval-fantasy lyricism that became a genre signature in its own right.
Replacing Ozzy, and a legacy that outlived him
In 1979, Dio took the job of replacing Ozzy Osbourne as Black Sabbath's lead singer, fronting the band across Heaven and Hell (1980) and Mob Rules (1981) before a mid-career reunion added Dehumanizer (1992) to that tally, per Wikipedia's account of his career. He left Sabbath in 1982 to form his own band, Dio, which went on to sell more than 20 million records, and later reunited with Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi as Heaven & Hell from 2006 to 2010.
Along the way, Dio became closely associated with popularizing the "metal horns" hand gesture across rock and metal culture. Per his official biography, he said he adopted it from his Italian grandmother, who used it to ward off the evil eye. That same biography records his final public appearance: accepting a Best Metal Singer award for Heaven & Hell's The Devil You Know at the 2010 Revolver Golden Gods, about a month before he died that year of stomach cancer. Bloodstock Open Air later renamed its main stage in his honor.
The guitar partner behind Dio's heaviest chapter
Dio never played guitar himself, but two of his most celebrated eras, the Heaven and Hell/Mob Rules run and the Heaven & Hell reunion, were built around Tony Iommi's riffs, one of the load-bearing sounds in heavy metal as a genre. Iommi's own signature spec is thoroughly documented today: an unusually light .008-.032 set that compensates for the prosthetic fingertips he's played with since a factory accident at 17.
TI832 Tony Iommi Signature (.008–.032)
Why this one: Tony Iommi's own documented signature set, the guitar half of the two most celebrated Dio-fronted metal records: Heaven and Hell/Mob Rules and the Heaven & Hell reunion.
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