söndag

RIP Ronnie James Dio

Nås i afton av den sorgliga nyheten att Ronnie James Dio förlorat kampen mot cancern och avlidit.

En av de största rockrösterna genom tiderna – kanske den allra största - har gått ur tiden.

Själv såg jag honom live endast en gång. Det var i Scandinavium, Göteborg för ett antal år sedan tillsammans med Deep Purple när de gjorde Concert for Group and Orchestra. Kommer inte ihåg om han gjorde djävulstecknet då. Men det lär ha varit Dio som introducerade denna hälsning i metallvärlden. Bara det en rätt enastående bedrift.

Dio! En legend i sin egen livstid. Tack för musiken Ronnie!

Spotify - Rainbow – A Light In The Black, Rainbow – Gates Of Babylon

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

xxx

Uppdatering 10 05 17

Michael Hann, The Guardian:

So there's the voice, the lyrics, but there's something else, too, that places Dio in an exalted position in the great throne room of metal: his use of his index and fourth fingers. It was Dio who brought to hard rock the devil's horns, the international symbol of all thing's rockular, understood throughout the world and across generations. The sign of the devil's horns is a physical Esperanto more easily understood than any other gesture save, perhaps, the raised middle finger. To have brought that to the world is one of those ludicrous but endearing and enduring achievements that only metal can really manage.

/…/

I never saw Dio perform live and, now he has died of stomach cancer at 67, I never will. With a whole generation of rock stars from my youth now entering old age, metal is going to have get used to its heroes passing not in plane crashes, or from the effects of partying, or in other rock'n'roll ways. They are going to die of the things that kill ordinary people, a reminder that the swords and sorcery are not real, and that beneath the leather and the hair lurk real people who have sometimes, like Dio, done remarkable things.

Nils Hansson om Dio i DN - här

Metallicas Lars Ulrichs gripande hyllningsbrev till Dio – här

Vad vet du om Dio? Quiz från SvD – här.