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Ronnie James Dio

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Ronnie James Dio on the cover of his band Dio's 1997 compilation Anthology
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Ronnie James Dio on the cover of his band Dio's 1997 compilation Anthology

Ronnie James Dio (born Ronald James Padavona on July 10, 19421 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire) is a heavy metal vocalist who has performed with Black Sabbath, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, and his own band Dio. Other musical projects include the collective fundraiser Hear 'n Aid and his band immediately before Rainbow, Elf. He is renowned for his consistently powerful voice and for popularizing the 'horns' hand gesture in heavy metal culture (formed by closing the thumb over the middle and ring fingers, while having the index and little-finger extended). Ronnie said that his grandmother used to make the hand gesture to ward off the evil eye, which is very common in superstitious Italian people (the "horns" themselves are used to both scare away and give someone the 'malocchio').

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Early years

Dio was born to a family of Italian heritage. The family moved to Cortland, New York early on in Ronnie's life. He initially played trumpet and even recorded several singles with various rockabilly bands during his youth, the first one as early as 1958.

Much of Dio's early life is not known for certain. Some say he earned a degree in pharmacology and graduated from the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, but this has not been verified either by Dio or by other independent sources.

In the mid-1960s, he formed the band "Ronnie Dio and the Prophets", a precursor to Electric Elves, with keyboardist Doug Thaler (later a manager of Motley Crue). Then in 1969, Dio formed the band Elf, which went on to be an opening act for Deep Purple. Ronnie's vocals caught the ear of Deep Purple guitar virtuoso Ritchie Blackmore, and when Blackmore left the band, he recruited Ronnie and other members of Elf to form Rainbow. After a few albums with Rainbow, Ronnie left the band due to creative differences (Blackmore had wanted to take the band in a more commercial direction), and was recruited by Black Sabbath in 1979 to replace Ozzy Osbourne. Ronnie gave a new jumpstart to Black Sabbath's commercially sagging career with the hugely popular Heaven and Hell album. In 1982, during the mixing of the live album Live Evil, internal band problems and nasty (unfounded) accusations developed, which led to Dio and drummer Vinnie Appice quitting the band to form Dio. Ronnie James Dio currently lives in California and still records and tours worldwide with Dio.

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. Reportedly, Ronnie approved of the song and he is also set to appear in the upcoming film , playing himself.

In 2005, Dio was revealed to be the voice behind Dr.X in , the sequel of Queensrÿche's seminal concept album .

Family

Ronnie 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 in Buffalo, New York.

Currently, he is married to Wendy Dio (born 1947), who also serves as his manager. Not much else is known about Wendy or their family. Also, in the 1980s she managed Los Angeles rock bands Rough Cutt, featuring vocalist Paul Shortino, who replaced Kevin DuBrow for several years in Quiet Riot and Hellion, featuring female vocalist Ann Boleyn.

Age Dispute

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Note 1: There is a long-standing dispute regarding Dio's age. His most likely birth date is listed above as July 10, 1942. Dio himself has said in the past that he was born July 10, 1949, and at other times, outright refuses to give the year of his birth. The general consensus is that the 1942 date is probably correct, due to the following:

He was in his first band in 1958, which means that if the 1949 date is 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, Ronald James Padavona graduated from Cortland High School in 1960. His first band photo, with "Ronnie & The Redcaps" from ca. 1960 or 1961, is 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 is correct.

British/Australian singer Graham Bonnet, who replaced Dio in the band Rainbow, has said that Ronnie is younger than him. 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 Ronnie as 63 years old under the name "Ronald Padavona" and as 56 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 Ronnie 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.

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 have been suggested, 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 wasn't that rare in the 1960's. In one interview Ronnie was very emphatic about the 1949 year saying "Well, I was born in '49, and I never told anybody anything other than that"

Band timeline

Trivia

Discography

Some of Dio's early appearances on 45 rpm singles are collected on several volumes of the LP series "The History of Syracuse Music," released in the 1980's.

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Ronnie James Dio (third from left) with the other members of Black Sabbath, 1980.
Ronnie James Dio (third from left) with the other members of Black Sabbath, 1980.

With
  • Seeds Of Change (1980); guest vocals on "To Live For The King" and "Mask Of The Great Deceiver"

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External links

 

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