One of the most legendary voices in all of heavy metal, Sir Ronnie James Dio passed away this weekend..how does Old Man Robb feel? Well..if i can be greedy for a moment i had always wished i would have had the opportunity to see this man perform live no matter what the band- Rainbow, Black Sabbath, his awesome solo stuff and of course his reunion with the Sabs w/ Heaven & Hell... i wished i had made the trek in 2008 to see Dio and the Sabs along with Judas Priest, Motorhead and Testament in Toronto, but that was then and this is now. Of course i can damn Halifax for never booking Dio in any of his bands..why i dunno..the closest to the Sabs coming here was 1983 with Ian Gillan, but the show was cancelled here and in Moncton due to the stage set being too big and could not fit on the stage...
Back in 83/84 is when i first heard "Live Evil" after a guy at school lent in to me in exchange for ZZ Top "Eliminator"...like the ZZ Top, but man..Live Evil blew me away with Dio's reinditions of Ozzy's Iron Man, NIB and others...then i found the other two Sabbath-Dio cassettes at the Sears Bargain Basement- Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules and i was all set, of course i also had a bunch of the solo stuff as well...if Ozzy would have had a permanent replacement in Sabbath, i used to wish it would have been Dio...although i thought Ian Gillan/ Born Again was awesome as well..
It may sound a little silly, but Dio always managed to get back with the Sabs around the right times, i was almost finished high school when Dehumanizer came out, then i was in the middle of negotiating to teach in S Korea when they reunited as Heaven & Hell and put out, "The Devil You Know" around the last week that i was teaching in S Korea...of course there were several people i was working for that i thought were the Devil That i Know...and of course how true that prophecy turned out to be... appropriate music for trying times, always good to know i could turn to Dio and the Sabs..no BS, no changing for any labels, just hard driving metal the way it should be...
RIP Ronnie James Dio...you will be missed.... \,,/
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