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DIO

DIO

Dio (left) first band

http://www.ronniejamesdio.com/

THE MAN

Ronnie James Dio (born Ronald James Padavona on July 10, 1942 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA), is an American heavy metal vocalist who has performed with Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Elf, and his own band Dio. Other musical projects include the collective fundraiser Hear 'n Aid. He is widely hailed as one of the best singers in heavy metal[1]; renowned for his consistently powerful voice and for popularizing the "devil's horns" hand gesture in metal culture. He is currently collaborating on a project with former Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice, which is going under the name Heaven and Hell. On January 17, 2007, he was inducted into the Rock Walk of Fame at Guitar Center on Hollywood's Sunset Boulevard.

Early years

Ronnie James Dio was born Ronald James Padavona, an only child to an Italian family. The family moved to Cortland, New York early in his life. His parents raised him in the Roman Catholic church, an experience he ultimately found unsatisfactory. Dio shared some of his feelings for Catholicism in an interview with Hmmagzine:

How has your Roman Catholic background inspired, affected or driven your lyrics writing?

It's given me a lot of religious turmoil in some of the songs I've done. I never agreed with the message of the Catholic church, and still don't to this day. There are some things that are fine, and what I think is very important is the moral upbringing of the young people. But I mean, you could send people to the church of silly walks, and they're gonna get that. I just disagree so much with the way the Catholic church says things like if you're not a good person you'll die and go to Hell, there's a purgatory there . . . if I was talking with a Holy Ghost, it would scare the living Hell out of me. God's Son was nailed to a piece of wood up in the air . . . instead of really explaining it all, I think, at least from my perspective, they frightened us first, and then we're supposed to just believe everything, and follow the rules or you'll burn in hell or something. And I just totally disagree with that. I disagree completely with that idiom. The whole attitude about birth control -- I mean we are a country that took about 10,000 generations to reach the population we have now, which is 4 billion, and it'll only take a little over 1 generation to double it, but yet, you're supposed to not use birth control -- let's have more children! So, the Catholic church, though I think it's important that people grow up with moral values, I just always disagreed with their tactics, which I thought were fright tactics, as opposed to sitting down and explaining the situation.

What do you think of Jesus Christ?

I think that He was a prophet. I've had a difficult time coming to terms with Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He was a great man for the time. He was the right Man for the right time. Let's put it this way: I think He was a hell of a lot better than Michael Jackson. I think the Christ figure is a very interesting piece of work, whoever wrote that piece. A lot of embellishment went on inside of it, I'm sure, but the one positive thing I can say about it I can say is that all of the work of Jesus Christ, all of His words, all of His teachings -- if they were his -- are certainly very positive attitude, and are to be admired. Anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior, I have no problem with that at all. But if it's not Jesus Christ, it's Buddha, you know? I mean, we're talking about religion in one small faction. Catholicism and Christianity are not the only religion on this planet. There have got to a situation where by there are others who are Christ-like. We ever know, in other religions, they have similar names for people. They seem to be edging the issue, because they don't want to put everybody off about Jesus Christ. My feelings are that the teachings were great, but in my mind, my religious beliefs are that you are God, and you are Jesus Christ, and you are the devil, and I am, and all the people I know around me are. But I don't need to go to some place and listen to somebody else to tell me whether I'm good or bad, or whether I'm right or wrong. I am my shrine. You are your shrine. We are all Jesus Christ, and again, I have no problem with anyone thinking Jesus Christ is this deity, someone up there. It's cool.

He initially played the trumpet and even recorded several singles with various rockabilly bands when he was a kid. When he was in high school, he joined a band called The Vegas Kings, in which he played the bass guitar. He eventually became the lead singer of this band, which changed its name to Ronnie & The Rumblers and finally to Ronnie And The Red Caps. Their first 7-inch single was released in 1958.

Ronnie took up the name "Dio" after mafia member Johnny Dio, and first used it professionally in the early 1960s, playing in a band called Ronnie Dio and the Prophets. This was essentially the same band as Ronnie And The Red Caps, but with a different name. Dio is the Italian word for God.

Many of the details of Dio's early life are not known for certain. Some say he earned a degree in pharmacology and was offered but declined a position at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, but this has not been verified by independent sources.

During the Heaven and Hell Performance at the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center in Darien, NY (near Buffalo, NY) on September 19, 2007, Ronnie revealed to the crowd that he had attended the University at Buffalo, however upon further research, officials at the university found no previous record of a student under the name of Ronald Padavona

Career

Ronnie Dio and the Prophets disbanded in 1967, but he and Prophets guitarist Nick Pantas started a new band called the Electric Elves. They shortened their name to Elf in 1969, and went on to become an opening act for Deep Purple. Dio's vocals caught the ear of Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, and when Blackmore left the band, he recruited Dio and other members of Elf to form Rainbow. Rainbow released its first album in 1975. Dio recorded two more albums with Rainbow, but he left the band due to creative differences: Blackmore had wanted to take the band in a more commercial direction.

After leaving Rainbow, Dio joined Black Sabbath in 1979, replacing Ozzy Osbourne. Dio gave a new jumpstart to Black Sabbath's commercially sagging career with the hugely popular Heaven and Hell album. It was during his time with Black Sabbath that he popularized the "devil's horns" gesture. Dio says that his grandmother used to make the hand gesture to ward off the evil eye, which is very common among superstitious Southern Italians. The "horns," or "Corna," themselves are used to both scare away and give someone the "Malocchio" (the Evil Eye). In 1982, during the mixing of the live album Live Evil, internal band problems and nasty accusations developed, which led to Dio and drummer Vinny Appice quitting the band to form Dio. Ronnie James Dio currently lives in California and still records and tours worldwide with Dio.

Despite being known for his powerful singing voice, Dio claims never to have taken any vocal training.

Tenacious D have written a tribute song entitled Dio that appears on their self-titled album that calls for the singer to 'Pass the torch' on to them. Comments he's made on the song have been conflicting. Reportedly, Dio approved of it, and he has also appeared in the film Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny, playing himself, but on VH1, some have interpreted small clips of an interview with him as expressing resentment at the idea that he needs to "pass the torch" and seemed uncertain that Tenacious D are worthy of such an honor. When viewed in full, this interview seems to be done in good humor.

In 2005, Dio was revealed to be the voice behind Dr.X in Operation: Mindcrime II, the sequel of Queensrÿche's seminal concept album Operation: Mindcrime. In October 2006 it was confirmed that Dio would be reuniting with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinny Appice to tour under the moniker 'Heaven and Hell', which was the title of the first Dio era Black Sabbath record. They've used the name "Heaven and Hell" as Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler are still in the Black Sabbath band with Ozzy Osbourne and felt it was best to use a different moniker for the Dio version of the band. Original Black Sabbath Drummer Bill Ward was to be involved in this project, but he has since confirmed his withdrawal.

Family

Dio married his first wife, Loretta Berardi (born 1941), sometime in the 1960s. They adopted one son, Dan Padavona (born July 1968), who works as a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Binghamton, New York.

After divorcing Berardi, he married Wendy Gaxiola (born 1947), who also serves as his manager. Not much else is known about Wendy or their family other than she is the chairman for the privately sponsored organization, Children of the Night, which is a program dedicated to rescuing America's children from prostitution. Also, in the 1980s she managed the Los Angeles rock bands Rough Cutt and Hellion.

Dio currently has two grandchildren, Joey and Julia.

Age dispute

There is a long-standing dispute regarding Dio's age. His most likely birth year is 1942. Dio himself has said in the past that he was born July 10, 1949 and, at other times, outright refused to give the year of his birth. The general consensus is that the 1942 date is probably correct, due to the following:

The United States Library of Congress copyright searches for both Ronnie James Dio and Ronald James Padavona material both return listings invariably citing the 1942 birthdate.

He was in his first band in 1958, which means that if the 1949 date were correct, he would have been 9 years old. This would be unlikely, but not impossible. (Dio has also said that he started his first group around age 10). According to classmates from his high school, and reportedly also a yearbook, which is available in the reference section of the Cortland City Library show a Ronald James Padavona graduated from Cortland High School in 1960. He would have graduated high school a few days before his 11th birthday if he was born in 1949. He was also his senior class president and was voted most popular. His first band photos, with "Ronnie and the Red Caps" from ca. 1960 or 1961[1], are also widely circulated on the Internet. In the photo, he looks to be somewhere in his mid teens, and probably older than the 12 years old he would have been, if the 1949 birth date were correct.

British-born/Australian-based singer Graham Bonnet, who replaced Dio in Rainbow, has disputed the age difference between Ronnie and he. Bonnet was born September 23, 1947. However, in a 2005 interview, while discussing guitarist and former bandmate, Ritchie Blackmore, Dio said that Ritchie "isn't that much younger" than him. Blackmore was born in 1945. Online public records searches (done in 2005) list Dio as 64 years old under the name "Ronald Padavona" and as 57 years old under the name "Ronnie James Dio". Another search shows a "Ronald and Wendy Padavona" in Studio City, CA (presumably a business address), ages 64 and 58 (as of February, 2006), which would fit with the assumed birth years of 1942 and 1947 for Dio and his wife, Wendy. This also suggests that Dio's legal name is still Ronald Padavona. Interestingly, Blackmore has said that Ronnie is younger than him at other times, although this could easily be attributed to Dio's maintaining a false birth date that Blackmore (and others who know Dio) assumed was correct. In an article on Black Sabbath in an issue of Circus magazine ("Black Sabbath Pray For Brighter Days") in the spring of 1982, Dio's age is listed as 33. This would seem to support a birth date of 1948, since the interview appeared before Dio's July birthday. Again, if Dio had been giving an incorrect date of birth for years, it's not out of the question that this number is also wrong.

As a result, most of Dio's fans agree that the 1942 date is the most likely the correct one. The 1949 date is second most likely. 1944 is another possible date, and 1947, 1940, 1939, and even 1937, but there is no real evidence to back these dates up. The age of Ronnie and his son also builds the case for 1942, although a 20 year age difference was not that rare in the 1960s. In one interview, Dio was very emphatic about the 1949 year, saying, "Well, I was born in '49, and I never told anybody anything other than that." It is assumed that he may have taken on the alias Ronnie James Dio at this time, and that his real date of birth was, in fact, in 1942.

In 2004 Dio was elected to the Cortland City School Hall of Fame. The plaque shows his graduation year was in fact 1960

Ronnie Dio & The Prophets

Dio at Dominos (1963)

The Elves

Live At The Beacon 1971 (Bootleg Recording) (1971)

Elf

Live At The Bank 1972 (Bootleg Recording)' (1972)
Elf (1972)
Carolina County Ball (1974)
The History Of Syracuse Music Volume VI (1974)
Trying to Burn the Sun (1975)
20 Years Of Syracuse Rock (1989)
The Gargantuan (1989)
The Elf Albums (1991)

Rainbow

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975)
Rainbow Rising (1976)
On Stage (1977)
Long Live Rock 'n' Roll (1978)
Finyl Vinyl (1986)
Live in Germany 1976 (1990)
Ritchie Blackmore: Rock Profile Volume Two (1991)
Live In Munich 1977 (2006)
Deutschland Tournee 1976 (2006)
Live In Cologne (2007)
Live In Dusseldorf (2007)
Live In Nurnberg (2007)
The Polydor Years 1975-1986 (2007)

Black Sabbath

Heaven and Hell (1980)
Black And Blue (VHS) (1980)
Music From The Motion Picture Heavy Metal (1981)
Mob Rules (1981)
Live Evil (1982)
Dehumanizer (1992)
The Dio Years (2007)
Live at Hammersmith Odeon (2007)
Live From Radio City Music Hall (2007) (as Heaven and Hell)

Dio

Holy Diver (1983)
The Last in Line (1984)
Sacred Heart (1985)
Intermission (1986)
Dream Evil (1987)
Lock up the Wolves (1990)
Strange Highways (1994)
Diamonds – The Best of Dio (1995)
Angry Machines (1996)
Inferno - Last in Live (1998)
Magica (2000)
Killing the Dragon (2002)
Master of the Moon (2004)
Evil or Divine - Live In New York City (2005)
Holy Diver - Live (2006)

THE GROUP

Dio is a heavy metal band led by vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who formed it in October 1982 after leaving Black Sabbath. In an interview, available on the special edition re-release of Holy Diver, Dio states that he never intended to begin a solo career. His intention was to form a new band with fellow former Black Sabbath member drummer Vinny Appice. Naming the band Dio made sense from a commercial standpoint, as the name was already well-known at that time. Dio's logo, when turned upside down, seems to spell out the word "Devil", although this is disputed and Ronnie James Dio insists that he does not see it and never intended to do this. In addition to Ronnie on vocals and Keyboards originally, and Vinny Appice on Drums, the band featured Vivian Campbell who played guitar, and Jimmy Bain, bass.

Band history
In May 1983 they released their debut album Holy Diver, on which Ronnie sang and played keyboards. To avoid having the vocalist stuck behind a keyboard in concert, the band recruited keyboardist Claude Schnell in 1984.

Now a quintet, they released The Last in Line on July 2, 1984, followed by Sacred Heart on August 15, 1985. Several songs were recorded during the tour for that album; they were released along with the studio-recorded "Time To Burn" on the Intermission mini LP. In 1985 Ronnie also wrote the song "Stars" for the Hear 'n Aid project, with Campbell contributing on guitar.

The Dio logo, when rotated, seems to spell "DEVIL".

In 1986 Campbell, citing creative differences, left the band to join Whitesnake and was replaced by Craig Goldy. On July 21, 1987 their fourth album Dream Evil was released. Goldy left in 1988, also because of musical differences. When Ronnie announced in June 1989 that Goldy's replacement would be 18 year-old Rowan Robertson, Bain and Schnell left the band, followed by Appice in December. They were replaced, respectively, with Teddy Cook, Jens Johansson, and former AC/DC drummer Simon Wright. The new band released the album Lock up the Wolves in the spring of 1990. During the tour, Ronnie had a chance meeting with former Black Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler which ultimately led their short-lived reunion, producing only one album, Dehumanizer. After this Ronnie James Dio reassembled the band once again, retaining only Appice on the drums. By late 1994 guitarist Tracy G, keyboardist Scott Warren of Warrant and bassist Jeff Pilson had all joined the band. During this era, the band adopted a more modern sound, leaving many fans of their older style disappointed. As a result some fans regard the albums made during this period--1994's Strange Highways, 1996's Angry Machines and the live album Inferno - Last in Live--as the worst in Dio's catalogue, while others view them positively as a step away from the increasingly outdated sound of the 1980s. Ronnie Dio has made it clear in interviews that he intensely dislikes this point in his career (particularly the Angry Machines album) and asked Craig Goldy to return in June 1999. Reputedly, Tracy G was asked to stay as a rhythm guitarist, but declined.

Craig Goldy's return facilitated the release of Dio's eighth studio album in 2000, Magica, which was regarded by many as the band's "comeback album" and reached #13 on the Billboard independent charts. It featured the return not only of Goldy but of Simon Wright and Jimmy Bain as well. A concept album, Magica features a return to the band's older, more successful sound, while increased use of keyboards gives it a modern feel. During the following tour, however, tensions rose between Goldy on the one hand and Bain and Dio on the other, as Goldy was dealing with the obligations of a family. Goldy left the band in January 2002 and was replaced with Doug Aldrich, whom Bain had met while recording a tribute album for Metallica. Because of his late arrival, Aldrich did not contribute much to Dio's ninth work, Killing the Dragon, which was written primarily by Dio and Bain. Killing The Dragon was released in 2002 through Spitfire Records and was well received in the metal community, even reaching the overall charts in the UK. Aldrich would stay in the band until April of the following year, when he, like Campbell before him, joined Whitesnake, prompting Goldy's return. Soon afterwards, Bain left the band for reasons unclear.

In 2004 Dio released their tenth studio album, Master of the Moon on August 30, 2004 in Europe through SPV Records and on September 7, 2004 in the United States through Sanctuary Records, The album features multi-instrumentalist Jeff Pilson (formerly of Dokken) on bass duties; however, because of prior obligations with Foreigner, he was only available for the recording sessions, and so was replaced by Rudy Sarzo.

2005 saw the release of the Dio live album Evil or Divine - Live In New York City, which featured the same show that was released on DVD in 2003. Dio has claimed he did not have much input on this release, as he had already left the label that released it. Dio toured South America, Japan, Europe, and Russia in 2005. Their fall tour was titled "An Evening With Dio" and featured a regular set, and then a second set of the band playing his 1983 album Holy Diver in its entirety. The band was purportedly going to film a date from this show in Russia for future DVD release; however, the show on the DVD was actually filmed in London, England. The audio of this performance, a double CD named "Holy Diver Live" was released in April 2006.

In 1999, an animated spoof of Dio appeared in an episode of South Park titled "Hooked on Monkey Phonics". The band appears performing "Holy Diver" at an elementary school dance. Although Ronnie James Dio's appearance is somewhat like himself in reality, the rest of the band just appear as a stereotypical heavy metal band with no reference to the real band members.

In 2006, Dio made a brief appearance in the Tenacious D film, The Pick of Destiny. In a scene where a young Jack Black appeals to a poster of Dio for advice, Dio's image comes to life and offers instruction. The appearance is also available on the soundtrack for the movie, in the song titled "Kickapoo".

In 2007 it was announced that Black Sabbath would reunite with Dio and go under the name Heaven and Hell. This has some people debating if the band Dio will release a new album during 2008, though Dio states that his time with Heaven and Hell will end before 2008 to give him time to make another Dio album before he has anything to do with Black Sabbath again.

Lead Vocals
Ronnie James Dio (1983-1991, 1993-Present)

Guitar

Vivian Campbell (1983-1986)
Craig Goldy (1986-1989)
Rowan Robertson (1989-1991)
Tracy G (1993-1999)
Craig Goldy (1999-2001)
Doug Aldrich (2001-2004)
Craig Goldy(2004-2005)
Doug Aldrich (2005-2006)
Craig Goldy (2006-present)

Bass Guitar
Jimmy Bain (1983-1989)
Teddy Cook (1989-1991)
Jeff Pilson (1993-1997)
Larry Dennison (1997-1999)
Jimmy Bain (1999-2000)
Chuck Garric (2000-2001) (tour)
Jeff Pilson (2004)
Rudy Sarzo (2004-present)

Drums
Vinny Appice (1983-1989)
Simon Wright (1989-1991)
Vinny Appice (1993-2001)
Simon Wright (2001-present)

Keyboards
Ronnie James Dio (1983-1984)
Claude Schnell (1984-1989)
Jens Johansson (1989-1991)
Scott Warren (1993-present)

Discography

Holy Diver (1983) - #61 (US) - RIAA Platinum cert.
The Last in Line (1984) - #24 (US) - RIAA Platinum cert.
Sacred Heart (1985) - #29 (US) - RIAA Gold cert.
The Dio E.P. (1986)
Intermission (1986) - #70 (US)
Dream Evil (July 21, 1987) - #43 (US)
Lock up the Wolves (1990) - #61 (US)
Diamonds – The Best of Dio (1992) Unreleased in the U.S.
Strange Highways (1994) - #142 (US)
Angry Machines (1996)
Anthology (1997)
Master Series (1998)
Inferno - Last in Live (1998)
Magica (2000) - #10 (US) #1 (US independent)
The Very Beast of Dio (2000)
Anthology Volume 2 (2001)
Killing the Dragon (2002) - #199 (US)
Stand Up and Shout - The DIO Anthology (2003)
The Collection (2003)
Master of the Moon (2004)
Evil or Divine - Live In New York City (2005)
Holy Diver - Live (2006)

Article ajouté le 2007-08-27 , consulté 43 fois

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