Vale Ronnie James Dio
May 17th, 2010
One of the big influences on The Sixsmiths, Ronnie James Dio, passed away yesterday. Dio was a huge figure in the heavy metal movement. I want to share my first experience of Dio. If you grew up in Australia at the same time I did, and watched a lot of afternoon ABC TV in the 70s and 80s, you probably saw a trippy animated music video of a frog singing a Beatles-esque song to various woodland creatures. That frog was Dio. The clip was played by the ABC, along with a couple of Mike Oldfield videos, to fill up empty space at the end of an hour, and they played it often. It was no doubt an influence on me. RIP.
– JMS
May 18th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Dio casts a long shadow over this project.
We cite two of his songs in the text of the graphic novel and there’s really no other musician whose work had the same combination of soul and darkness.
Ronnie was always a giver.
– JF