Rainbow in the Dark by Mick Wall and Wendy Dio

This is the recently released biography on legendary vocalist Ronnie James Dio. The book goes into his life before, during and after all the bands he's been in. It's a good book, definitely funny. But, this book starts in and ends in 1986. It doesn't go through to current day. It doesn't talk about his second stint in Black Sabbath

Ronnie was born Ronald James Padavona on 7/10/1942 in Cortland, New York. He is the only sibling in his home. Initially, like most kids of his age and generation, he grew up being a massive baseball fan. One day, out of the blue, his father took him to a music shop and asked him which instrument he would like to play. Young Ronnie didn't know. He ended up choosing a trumpet because of the amount of jazz that was played in his home. He jokingly said that after choosing this, the store clerk took him to the back of the store to get measurements on various points of his face and that he was waiting for the guy to tell him to drop his pants and then turn and cough. Luckily, that didn't happen. The guy was just measuring him up to find the perfect trumpet for him. Almost by magic, the young Ronnie made magic happen when he started to play. He would get the remark he would get repeatedly later on "Where does all that power come from?" because of his short stature.

Once the music bug had bitten him, the venom of that bug would not leave him alone at all. He then was inspired to choose music as a career. Many in that generation looked at performing music for a living as a lark, a hobby, not something to be completely serious over. But Ronnie, ever so stubborn, was determined. He and some of his band mates, who would later join him in the bands Elf and Rainbow, went through a series of names, like Ronnie and the Prophets, Ronnie and the Redcaps, before settling on Elf after changing it slightly from The Electric Elves. He also took on the stage name Ronnie Dio, taking the "Dio" part from gangster Johnny Dio because Ronnie was an avid fan of mob-related history

Ronnie James Dio and the Prophets

The band's debut album. By the way, this "elf" is actually Ronnie with prosthetic ears and rubber facial parts to give him the look of a fearsome elf from mythology

During a road trip to a gig for this band, they were driving down the road and suddenly got into a crash with a drunken driver. The person in Ronnie's band that was driving was guitarist Nick Pantas. He was killed on impact because the steering wheel hit his head too hard. David Feinstein, Dio's cousin, the other guitarist, went through the windshield and was injured seriously. His legs had been mangled by the front end of the truck that hit them. Ronnie and the other band members suffered minor cuts and bruises. When taken to the hospital, Ronnie was livid. The only way that Massachusetts state troopers could calm Ronnie down was to accept his demand take a blood alcohol level test on the driver. Suffice to say, not only did the blood alcohol level reveal the driver's inebriated state, Ronnie could tell right away the driver was drunk. He learned that a bone specialist was in town and was able to save David's legs, which were thought to be at risk for amputation. This bone specialist was able to save David's legs. Because of this, they had to shuffle around duties by bringing in Mickey Lee Soule to play keyboards and Doug Thaler, who was originally the keyboard player, switched to guitar

Eventually, as the times went on, the band changed their sound once they realized people were more open to slightly longer songs and more album-oriented music instead of the singles that people had released in the 1960s. Bands like Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin were setting the stage (no pun intended) for harder, heavier music in addition to bands like ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) and more. The band realized they could go heavier and with Ronnie, who had initially been playing bass, he decided to focus solely on singing. By some luck, the band Elf had been picked up by Purple Records, the label created by legendary hard rock band Deep Purple. That, of course, put Ronnie and his band in almost constant contact with any number of the members of Deep Purple, whether it be Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Roger Glover, Jon Lord or Ian Paice. He definitely noted the heavy tension between Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore. He described it as a "I hate you" kind of mood.

It was the attention of Ritchie Blackmore that had gotten Elf noticed. Ritchie was in a rut with Deep Purple and beginning to grow tired of the heavy funk-fusion type music they had switched to. He invited Elf to a club in Camberley, where Ritchie had a house. They auditioned together and suddenly a new band was formed. They had moved operations to LA and thus, named the band Rainbow after the famed LA club. While in England, staying with Ritchie, this began a life long love of all things English for Ronnie. This probably explains why when Ronnie would talk, he would talk in his normal American accent, but his English would be very refined and sophisticated. He also developed a love of the zany comedy from people like the Monty Python's Flying Circus and more. The only downside is that the new band Rainbow would basically be Elf minus guitarist Steve Edwards and drummer Mark Nauseef.

At the time, Elf had been in the process of releasing an album, Trying to Burn the Sun. It did get released in the US in June of 1975. As time went on, Ronnie would go on to release three albums with Rainbow-1975's Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, 1976's Rising, 1978's Long Live Rock 'n' Roll. Ronnie could definitely understand Ritchie's frustration at how Rainbow didn't seem to be taking off as well in America as they did in Europe. As time went on, however, things started getting tense in the Rainbow camp. As the press would suggest it, Ronnie was fired by Ritchie. According to Ronnie, he left of his own accord. The reason that Rainbow keyboard player Tony Carey was fired was because he was loud, outgoing, boisterous, "too American", as Ritchie put it. He managed to get under Ritchie's skin almost constantly because of his outgoing nature. He would be fired and brought back at least two more times before being fired for good. The song "L.A. Connection" from Long Live Rock 'n' Roll was about Tony's constant calls home to L.A. The song "Starstruck" from Rising was about this stalker-like female fan who would follow the band everywhere. Ritchie and the rest of the band would see her everywhere. During his days with Rainbow, he met, fell in love and married the woman who would be not only his best friend, but his wife and manager, Wendy. They married in 1974 and remained together until his death in 2010

It was after the 1978 Long Live Rock 'n' Roll album that Ronnie finally quit. He was under a lot of stress dealing with someone like Ritchie, whose mood could be described, at best, moody and erratic. For a short time, Wendy and Ronnie didn't have much money except for $800 in a bank account and all their possessions in a car. Ronnie was offered the chance to front Black Sabbath since their original front man Ozzy Osbourne, had gone solo with wife Sharon Arden-Osbourne managing him. That gave Ronnie the idea to have her manage him. She urged Ronnie to join Sabbath as it would put money in their accounts. At first, Ronnie, Tony, Geezer got along great. Geezer was out of the picture since he was having marital problems. When Geezer came back, there was a little tension between Geezer and Ronnie because of the whole bass/writing lyrics thing. Geezer was the primary lyricist for Sabbath and when he came back, he discovered Ronnie had also been able to write lyrics. Ronnie definitely didn't like the slightly laid back vibe from Tony and Geezer. He wanted to get straight to work and get it done.

When drummer Bill Ward left, in came another fellow New Yorker named Vinny Appice. Ronnie also sets the record straight with the whole "altering the master tapes" issue that Tony accused him of. Ronnie didn't last long in Sabbath as the tension once again started coming up, this time with Tony Iommi and not Ritchie Blackmore. He jokingly says that if you want to work with someone moody and erratic, try working with Ritchie Blackmore. If you want to work with someone demanding, try working with Tony Iommi. He describes Black Sabbath as a ghost ship with no captain. When he joined Sabbath, he noticed Tony and Geezer shied away from doing interviews. He would take the role of captain at the helm for interviews and he and Vinny would make sure every fan got an autograph, despite the ire that was rising with Tony and Geezer, who would often tell them to hurry up. He quit Sabbath because of stress in that environment. Despite the bad vibes between him and Geezer and Tony, they all still remained friends until his death.

It was then that Wendy suggested creating his own band and naming it simply Dio. He said he actually preferred to work with European and British musicians because they didn't often have egos. He wanted Dio to be British-American. He certainly accomplished that by bringing in various musicians. On drums, he could think of no one more capable than Vinny Appice. He asked Vinny what his choice was: stay with an accomplished band or take a risk with a good friend and start something new? The choice was obvious. He was sticking with Dio. On guitar, he brought in young, Irish-born guitarist Vivian Campbell, who would come to have problems with Dio later on. It was suggested later on that Dio had fired him or some such thing. Dio straight up says that Campbell was actually threatening to sue Dio because he wanted equal rights on songs and equal pay, despite the fact that everything in the band was being bankrolled by Ronnie and Wendy. He demanded double the $1700 he was getting. When Campbell's lawyer called and gave them the choice to comply or he quit, Wendy told the lawyer Campbell had already been replaced. The band would go to make at least 10 studio albums, dozens of live albums. The most successful album of Dio's would be their initial right out of the starting gate, Holy Diver. This is the album that introduces some fans to Dio, while later albums get people into their music. The lineups had changed here and there, but the magic of Dio would remain the same. Also, when Dio started touring, he started introducing what is commonly known as "The Metal Horns". This gesture of holding down the middle fingers with the thumb while leaving the index and pinky finger extended started becoming a household feature at Dio concerts and now metal concerts worldwide. He credits his Sicilian grandmother being overly superstitious and using it to ward off evil spirits and freak out Americans, who would think it was some sign of devilish worship or activity

Vivian Campbell