Ronnie James Dio
Black Sabbath isn’t only the voice of a generation but is also the voice of an entire genre of music. When the band first burst onto the scene, they did so with a tenacity that was impossible to dismiss. At the forefront of such a massive musical movement was the legend Ozzy Osbourne.
Osbourne’s singing voice, style and charisma made him a force in rock n roll to be reckoned with. He was a heavy metal visionary with a lot to love about him; however, with that, there was a fair bit to dislike as well, especially as drugs and alcohol took a complete hold over his life and dominated everything that he did.
John Lydon once spoke out about his disdain towards Osbourne, saying his silly on-stage antics gave a bad name to the working class. “The rumours of biting heads really, really haven’t impressed me,” he said, “Ozzy now acting like a senile delinquent is equally unimpressive. The sly innuendo of promoting drug abuse and catatonic stupidity offends me.”
There were other ugly moments in his career, such as citing Hitler as an influence, failing to turn up to shows and gigs, and generally letting his performance slip. It got to the point that he was eventually kicked out of Black Sabbath, and the band was left looking for a replacement who could match Osbourne not only in his vocal ability but also in his stage presence. They managed to get this in Ronnie James Dio.
Interestingly, it was Osbourne’s number-one fan and soulmate, Sharon Osbourne, who introduced Dio to the band. It was before she was in a relationship with Ozzy and was working as the band’s manager. This was during a period when it was looking like Osbourne would be getting kicked out of the band any day now, and the remaining members of Sabbath were scrambling for a replacement.
“It was at this point Sharon introduced me to Ronnie,” said Tony Iommi, “I approached him and said, ‘I’m in a terrible situation. I don’t think it’s going to work anymore with what we got. Would you be interested in doing something else?’”
There was no escaping that Dio did a lot for the band as he got them writing and moving forward again after months of being stagnant. That said, his time on board with the band didn’t go to plan, as the album he created with Sabbath, Heaven and Hell, fell flat. “Ronnie was very excited about joining the band,” recalled Iommi, “But I think it was difficult for him to fill Ozzy’s shoes.”
Dio left the band as quickly as he joined and wouldn’t contribute to the line-up again until 1992, when he came back on board to help with the record Dehumanizer. This album showed Dio in the light he deserved to be shown in: as someone with an excellent voice, incredible tenacity, and an undeniable heavy-metal mindset.
Iommi admits it was tough at first as there were “all kinds of egos bouncing around. We had been separated for ten years, and it took us a long time to get to know each other again,” however, the band did go on to make “A very heavy Black Sabbath record that had a real natural sound and a ton of doomy riffs”.