Metal Legend Ronnie James Dio Has Died

As a tribute, here is part of a Legends feature we ran on Dio a few years back which outlines his career (prior to the formation of Heaven and Hell): Whether he goes down as the "Man on the Silver Mountain," the sinner who sang us a song, "The Last In Line," The Killer of the Dragon or the "Holy Diver," Ronnie James Dio has definitely earned his place in the history books of rock n roll as a metal legend.

Ronnie James Dio was born Ronald James Padovona in New England, on July 10, 1949. Like a lot of children of the post World War II era, he grew up with the backdrop of Rock n Roll as the soundtrack to his adolescence. Ronnie took to music right away and began his pursuit as a performer at a young age, playing bass guitar and the trumpet in one of his early bands The Vegas Kings. Like most rock stars to be, Ronnie cut his teeth with a handful of different bands before settling down into the one that would give him his first big break. In the late 60's he was playing with a band called the Electric Elves, who composed rock and folk music that was the style of the time. By the dawn of the new decade the band had changed their name to Elf and Ronnie was now going by the name Ronnie Dio. They caught a lucky break when Deep Purple's Roger Glover and Ian Paice caught the band during an audition for Columbia records. With a record deal in place Glover and Paice signed on to produce the band's self-titled debut album. - You can read the full feature here

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