By Kevin Egan

I never really give a crap when celebrities pass away. I see no reason to waste my time grieving for people who no doubt think they’re better than us common folk. Still, when certain artists die, you sometimes do feel a loss because you feel a connection to their art. It speaks to you, like a conversation that couldn’t be articulated in words so it was expressed in a painting, a film or maybe a song. And after they pass, you know for certain that you will never experience a new creation from them again. Their songbook is officially closed. And you grieve.

Or if there is a singer you enjoy listening to live, like, let’s say, Ronnie James Dio, and he passes away, you’re suddenly aware of the fact that you’ll never hear that voice again, a voice that you consider the greatest ever in heavy metal, if not the greatest in the world.

You can see where I’m going with this, so let’s just cut to the chase.

The first Dio album I owned was The Last in Line, the second recording he released as a solo artist. I remember when Holy Diver came out and I remember it being a big deal because he was the singer that successfully replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. There was a huge buzz about the album and the “Rainbow in the Dark” video was a staple on a local UHF station. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to buy Holy Diver. The reason? The album cover. I couldn’t have imagined a more terrifying album cover than that one. I was raised Catholic so to see an illustration of a priest in chains drowning in the water was possibly the most frightening and sacrilegious image imaginable. And to make matters worse, the devil that looms above is black with shiny red eyes. The Satan I heard about in the Bible was red and carried a pitchfork. This one was black as coal and was swinging the end of the chain that is wrapped around the priest. Black devils, I felt, were much more frightening than red devils. They were the most frightening devils of all. I just couldn’t buy that album. Otherwise, I was going straight to hell.

Obviously, these days I consider it the greatest heavy metal album cover ever. I no longer subscribe to any one religion and now I love that the devil is black. I also love that the priest is wrapped in chains because it represents the evil forces of religion getting their just desserts, which they certainly deserve. It is a bold, brave cover that took a lot of guts to release and Dio had the balls to do it. It was a statement letting the world know that Dio’s time with Black Sabbath was only the beginning. He upped the ante with Holy Diver, not only presenting the greatest album cover in metal history, but the greatest album in metal history as well.

I didn’t think so at the time though. I finally asked my friend, Jason, to make me a copy of Holy Diver . And I loved it. But I was already listening to The Last in Line on a daily basis and the video for “The Last in Line,” the song, was the coolest video I had ever seen. Meeno Peluce, who played Tanner on The Bad News Bears TV series, played a pizza boy who had taken an elevator down to hell. That left a harsh impression on me. It wasn’t until I was older and revisited both records that I realized that Holy Diver was and is far superior.

My favorite track on Holy Diver is “Gypsy.” It’s a serious kick in the balls, both vocally and musically. The song begins with a ferocious scream by Dio, which is followed by some filthy guitar magic by Vivian Campbell. The song, like many Sabbath songs, rocks but also has a bluesy feel to it. The exception, of course, is there is a punch to this song, as there is to many of Dio’s songs, that penetrates straight through your bones and hits you where it hurts. The lyrics are about losing control of your mind and giving into sin:

Well I rolled the bones to see who’d own my mind and what’s within
And it’s a given rule that we’re all fools and need to have a little sin

Ultimately, what makes Holy Diver better than The Last in Line is the production. It’s raw as fuck. As the Eighties progressed, metal records had a glossier coating to them, due to technological “advances” in recording studios. Holy Diver was recorded in the early Eighties, when rock recordings were still unpolished and the meat and potatoes of a band’s sound was still able to be captured on tape. Those are the albums that seem to have lasting power.

I suppose another reason I can’t help but mourn the loss of Ronnie James Dio is the fact that, to us who were teenagers in the Eighties, he was an elder statesman of sorts. When I was fourteen, he was already forty-one years old. He had been through over twenty years in the rock ‘n’ roll business with two of the biggest acts around, Rainbow and Black Sabbath. It seemed as if he had a lot to share with his young apprentices. His songs were often cautionary tales, like “Don’t Talk to Strangers” or “One Night in the City.” A song like “Rainbow in the Dark” describes the experience of being the only bright light in a dark and frightening world. Songs of isolation have always appealed to metalheads because they are usually the outcasts of society. It was no wonder the song hit home for so many young people. It spoke directly to them. Along with his appearance and the image he projected, he truly was the wise old wizard who shared his knowledge and experience with those who sought it out.

The debate concerning who was the better singer in Black Sabbath has always caused heated discussions amongst metalheads. My friend, Rob, has always defended Ozzy-era Sabbath to the end. My friend, Mike, however, always stuck to his guns, insisting the two albums with Dio were better than anything they ever released with Ozzy. Although the Ozzy-era practically invented the genre of heavy metal and were the first to take rock music in the world of doom and gloom, I ultimately have to side with Mike. Both Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules are vocally and musically a cut above almost every other heavy metal album ever made. Without the dead weight of a bloated, drug-addicted Ozzy, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were able to revive what they had done in the past with a fresh take on the Sabbath sound. The riffs on both albums sound fresh and exciting. They are at times much faster, leaving behind the stoner stigma that had been attached to the band for years. Add to that a singer with a rough, rugged voice that can soar as high as the sky (with lyrics colorful and magical creating a whole new mystique for the band) and you have an act that reinvented the genre they helped to create.

There were some tough times for Dio between The Last In Line and his recent success with Heaven and Hell, the band he reformed with his old Black Sabbath bandmates. Many of his solo albums weren’t up to snuff and his material was becoming stale. Still, he persisted, doing what he did best, sing. He never stopped putting out albums and he never stopped touring. When he opened up for Iron Maiden at Madison Square Garden in 2003, I finally had a chance to hear him perform live. I couldn’t believe at the age of sixty he was sounding just as good as he had when he was thirty. I was stunned. And although Maiden were great that night, Dio’s ability to still belt out those songs made the show for me. It was more than impressive. So much so, I spent the next week revisiting all of his albums that I owned.

I had a chance to see Dio again twice in 2007 with Heaven and Hell and again, he was in top form. His voice sounded just as good as it did on the albums they had recorded over twenty-five years before. One lasting impression from the second of the two shows that will remain with me forever happened when I glanced up at the giant TV screens that projected images of the musicians on both sides of the stage. When the camera caught Dio standing in front of the stage singing, I suddenly saw a man who was in pure ecstasy, doing what he had done for over forty years, better than just about anyone. He looked like someone who had left all of the baggage life can throw at you behind and he was experiencing the present for all its wonderful glory. It was a magical moment for me. It gave me hope. It reminded me of the lessons he had instilled in me as a child: to stick with what you love doing, to enjoy it to its fullest capacity no matter what, and to cherish every moment in life even if you sometimes feel like “a rainbow in the dark.”

R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio. And thanks for everything.

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Tags: Black Sabbath, Dio, Geezer Butler, Heaven and Hell, Holy Diver, Iron Maiden, Mob Rules, ozzy osbourne, Rainbow, Ronnie James Dio, The Last in Line, Tony Iommi