Ronnie James Dio, who has died aged 67 from stomach cancer, was the lead singer with the heavy metal bands Rainbow (in which he starred alongside the guitarist Ritchie Blackmore) and Black Sabbath, and then formed his own band, Dio. It was after a tour last summer with a spin-off version of Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, that Dio revealed he was ill.
Dio recorded four albums with Rainbow before concluding that he could no longer see eye to eye musically with the more commercially inclined Blackmore and leaving the band. He took over from Ozzy Osbourne as lead vocalist with Black Sabbath in 1979, hired at the suggestion of Sharon Arden, the daughter of Sabbath's thuggish manager Don Arden, and Ozzy's future wife. With Black Sabbath, Dio was at the centre of heavy metal, and he responded by delivering superb performances on Sabbath's 1980 album Heaven and Hell, hailed by critics and fans as a return to form by a band which had been palpably running out of energy and ideas.
It entered the UK top 10 and sold more than a million copies in the US. "Ozzy was a great showman," said Sabbath's guitarist Tony Iommi, "but when Dio came in it was a different attitude, a different voice and a different musical approach."
The new-look band enjoyed further success with Mob Rules (1981), but the honeymoon came to an acrimonious end following arguments over the live album Live Evil (1982). Other band members accused Dio of wanting to turn his vocals up too loud, while Dio furiously refused to allow anybody to interfere with the way his voice was mixed or recorded. The upshot was Dio's departure from Sabbath.
He took the drummer Vinny Appice with him and formed his own band Dio (a name leaving no room for doubt about who was in charge), which would record 10 albums over nearly three decades. However, he did make a brief return to Black Sabbath when he appeared on their album Dehumanizer in 1992. Debate seems destined to rage among Sabbath fans about whether Osbourne or Dio represents the band's true soul.
Dio had become a fixture in heavy metal's global family, his legend burnished by his being credited with making the "devil horns" hand gesture the international metal call sign (Dio claimed he had learned it from his Italian grandmother, who used it to ward off evil spirits). He had become sufficiently revered to have a multi-artist tribute album recorded in his honour, in the shape of Holy Dio: Tribute to Ronnie James Dio (2000). In 2006, he made a cameo appearance in the film Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, a comedy vehicle for Jack Black. In the film, Dio urges the young Black to go forth and follow his dreams, bellowing "now go, my son, and rock!"
He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the only child of Italian parents who later moved to Cortland, New York. The young Ronnie began his musical career playing the trumpet, and performed in several rockabilly bands. He later played bass in a high school band, the Vegas Kings, of which he soon became the lead singer by virtue of his burgeoning vocal prowess. Never a trained singer, Dio attributed the power of his voice to the breathing discipline he had acquired as a brass player. Renamed Ronnie and the Red Caps, the group released a single called Lover in 1958.
Dio studied pharmacy at the University at Buffalo, New York, in 1960/61, but his future was clearly going to be in music and he did not graduate. In 1961 the Red Caps became Ronnie Dio and the Prophets, who made an album and several singles before disbanding in 1967. Then, with the guitarist Nick Pantas, Dio formed the Electric Elves, a group specialising in broody blues-rock. In 1969 they became Elf, in which guise they landed a slot as opening act for Deep Purple. Purple's guitarist Blackmore was struck by Dio's supercharged, quasi-operatic voice, and after he left Deep Purple, Blackmore invited Dio to join his new project, which became Rainbow.
Dio's Deep Purple connection also led to him adding vocals to several tracks on The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast, a 1974 concept album by Purple's bass player Roger Glover. Then, in 1979, he took his decisive step beyond the Purple orbit by stepping into the lead vocalist's slot with Black Sabbath. In 2006 Dio reunited with Black Sabbath's Iommi and Geezer Butler as Heaven and Hell, choosing the name to avoid confusion with the officially reunited Black Sabbath featuring Osbourne. In 2007, Dio was inducted into the Rock Walk of Fame in Hollywood.
With his first wife, Loretta Berardi, Dio adopted a son, Dan. His second marriage was to Wendy Galaxiola, who also became his manager. She and his son survive him. "Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all," Galaxiola wrote on the singer's website. "Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever." Jay Jay French, guitarist with the metal band Twisted Sister, said that Dio "possessed one of the greatest voices in all of heavy metal, and had a heart to match it. He was the nicest, classiest person you would ever want to meet."
