The Voice of Metal: R.I.P. Ronnie James Dio
Asked to list the great pop vocalists of the past 50 years, most would mention names such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and Freddie Mercury. But break down the discussion by musical genre, and a wider diversity of names emerges.
Take, for example, the genre known as heavy metal. Although most commonly associated with ear-pulverizing electric guitars, drill-sergeant drums and the well-placed cowbell, heavy metal boasts its share of exceptional singers. Certainly Ozzy Osbourne is on the all-time list, as well as Judas Priest’s Rob Halford and AC/DC’s Bon Scott.
But they all rank below Ronnie James Dio, who died Sunday in Los Angeles, apparently from complications of stomach cancer. He was 67.
Dio never earned the widespread popularity of Ozzy Osbourne, nor did he die tragically and prematurely like Bon Scott. Instead, he was a respected journeyman of the genre, performing with several different bands as well as his own over a career spanning four decades.
What separated Dio from the pack was the strength and operatic quality of his voice. Although much of the music he performed trended toward dark themes, his voice represented a startling beauty amid the carnage. He rightly bristled at being labeled a "screamer."
"I consider myself a singer, not a shouter," he told the Buffalo News in 2007. "It’s always interesting to me when over the years fans have come up to me and said, ‘Man, nobody screams like you.’ I know they mean it as a compliment, but inside I’m going, ‘I’m not a screamer, I’m a singer.’ It’s about a marriage of technique and feel, emotional content — not just screaming."
Dio’s frontman work for Rainbow, Black Sabbath (post-Ozzy) and his own band, Dio, includes a handful of the finest metal songs ever recorded. Three that immediately come to mind are "Man on the Silver Mountain" (Rainbow, 1975), "Heaven and Hell" (Black Sabbath, 1980) and "Holy Diver" (Dio, 1983). Dio was an influential metal icon of that era, spawning other operatic vocalists such as Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson and Queensryche’s Geoff Tate.
To be sure, the swords-and-sorcery fantasies and good-vs.-evil themes of many of Dio’s songs are a little cartoonish to take seriously at this latter stage of life. Dio likely was part of the inspiration for the classic 1984 mockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap."
But as a teen in the early ’80s, I can testify that Dio was a rock ’n’ roll icon for many boys seeking to imagine a life bolder and more consequential than the prescribed experiences of small-town life. Call it nostalgia if you want, but every so often, when the mood hits, I’m compelled to plug in a CD offering the huge voice of Ronnie James Dio telling it like it never was.