Dio has died

[Slime]

Message from Wendy Dio
Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.

- Wendy Dio

He was battling stomach cancer.
http://www.ronniejamesdio.com/

[Good Intentions]

Oh, shit, I saw a report earlier, but then got told that it was a hoax. Now the official page has been updated.

Ah, crap. He was the first dude to throw the metal horns. RIP, dude \m/

[narlus]

i was shocked at how good his voice sounded last year, and am saddened by his passing.  he was a metal god if there ever was one.

[diesel_powered]

Damn. Jay Mohr tweeted something obliquely about this and my reaction was "WTF? Last I checked, dude was in great shape!" Bummer. \m/

[mixed cats]

Fuck I saw the things saying it was false this morning. We've been listening to a lot of Dio around here lately, and discussed him extensively last night, because of Holy Diver being on the jukebox at the bar we were in. I will now walk around doing Dio hands all night.

[Ah_Pook]

aww damn

keep ridin the tiger dio

\m/

[davy]

It makes me glad that he at least stuck around long enough to see his work with Black Sabbath revived, re-examined, repackaged, and ultimately defended. Must've been a nice feeling.

[Ah_Pook]

anyone who ever hated on his two sabbath albums is some kind of douche, is all im saying. theyre better than the last couple ozzy fronted sabbath albums, and way the fuck better than anything thats come after them.

[diesel_powered]

I've often said I'd rather see a Dio-fronted Sabbath on tour these days than an Ozzy-fronted Sabbath.

[Ignatius]

But you might miss out on batty, spiteful Sharon Osbourne spectacle then.

[diesel_powered]

Yup.

I'm all about original Sabbath and back in the day and they'd probably be in my top 5 acts to see if I had a time machine, but now Ozzy is just shamefully fried.

[reebty]

I don't care for Dio era Sabbath and although I don't doubt that he took it seriously and was 100% professional, his work as Dio seems as though it'd be too cartoonish for my taste. But if those photos on his site from 2006 are anything to go by, he sure got his punches in during his fight with stomach cancer. He looked thin, frail and wrinkled, but he still looked 63. My uncle was thinner when he died the same way and lost 60kg/132lbs to get there, and looked 63 but was 49.