Time flies doesn’t it? Perhaps I said that last year when the first anniversary came to pass. I think that I might have and while I was initially on the fence about posting a two year reflection about the passing of Ronnie James Dio, when the day started out I decided that I should. Let’s face it. Ronnie James Dio became one of the most important figures in Heavy Metal music ever. Without question or controversy, he was the man, and one of the most visible champions of the genre that we have ever had in our corner. His death crushed many and he is missed every single day by his worldwide legions of fans. Since he passed away a whole lot of stuff has popped up in terms of releases or bands touring in his memory. We’ve found unreleased classic shows and limited edition vinyl releases along with special edition versions of some of his work with Rainbow, Elf and of course Dio. A Tribute To Dio band called “Dio Disciples” tours with Ripper Owens at the helm and now a new band that features members of Dio’s first solo touring band are working on unleashing their own thing and I am sure that we have not seen nothing yet.

Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010)

Since Ronnie’s death another interesting development was the proposed reunion of the original members of Black Sabbath but now that seems to be a questionable project since it no longer involves the founding Bill Ward. I know that Geezer and Tony didn’t want to continue on with Heaven And Hell without Ronnie at the helm, but I so wish they would have just opted to find someone who would do proper respect to the man and his memory and let these tunes be heard night after night in live concert instead of only being pulled out of the DVD cabinet every now and again. Still I am glad I own the catalog items that I have and I was so glad to have taken photos of him in concert a few times when the means allowed me to do so. Those are my memories. What are your own?

Clicking the photo above will take you to the original memorial blog posting that ran on PiercingMetal Musings the day that Ronnie passed away. I chose to present it to you in this manner as opposed to just making it a “sticky” on the top of the other posts. Please note that the comments have been closed on this particular posting but you can leave any thoughts you might have about Dio on the original memorial piece if you so desire. We welcome your own thoughts about his memory and his continuing influence upon the Heavy Metal scene. So many of us miss him still and wonder how the last two years in Metal might have been had he not been ill or at least been able to recover. Oh well. There is nothing we can do to change the outcome that we got, but let’s blast the Metal music a little bit louder today and never ever forget what Dio gave to us for so many decades of his life.