You can’t call yourself a fan of this music of ours, rock and heavy metal, without having at least a little bit of knowledge about the legendary vocalist Ronnie James Dio. I first became aware of Dio when he appeared in ‘The Pick of Destiny’, the ‘origin story’ of Tenacious D. Fast forward a few years and I discovered my Dad’s old Rainbow Rising vinyl and from the moment I first heard the opening lines of ‘Tarot Woman’, I was hooked.
The ‘Dreamers Never Die’ documentary provided a wonderful insight into this incredible man, with contributions from his friends, fans and the who’s who of the rock world, all coming together to paint an extraordinary picture of a man, who was more awe inspiring than I first thought.
Interweaving clips of interviews with Ronnie, re enacted scenes and some great storytelling, what a heart-warming two hours this was.
Produced by Wendy Dio who right throughout led the storytelling of Ronnie’s life, it began right at the beginning, taking us right back to the early days, we learn that Ronnie, then Ronnie Padavona, was a trumpet player first and his first recordings came well before the Rainbow years, well before the Beatles even, he was recording back in the 50’s!
It was great seeing input from some of the Elf guys, then called ‘The Electric Elves’, including some great stories from his cousin, David ‘Rock’ Feinstein. Ronnie’s life was peppered with tragedy, the death of his guitarist and friend Nick Panta very early on might have been enough to make a lesser man throw in the towel, but not Ronnie, this almost made him more determined!
Elf secured a record deal and began touring with Deep Purple, we hear how Ronnie Padavona becomes Ronnie Dio, Wendy Dio told us that story when she spoke to us ahead us Ronnie’s birthday bash earlier this year; and we then hear how Ronnie and the rest of the Elf band were recruited by Ritchie Blackmore to form Rainbow.
We hear how Ronnie meets Wendy at the Rainbow on Sunset Strip and they very quickly get together, Wendy professing she fell for ‘Ronnies words’. He takes her on tour and the rest as they say is history!
Following the run of three incredible Rainbow albums and with inputs from the likes of Roger Glover, Glenn Hughes and Lita Ford, who used to use Stargazer to get her psyched to go on stage and play with the Runaways, Ritchie Blackmore had his sights set on America and Ronnie just wasn’t part of his vision, so he was sacked. A story we are all familiar with, but the shocking revaluation came in the discovery that Ronnie only received royalties from Rainbow after he had died.
Wendy and Ronnie were broke, but the same spirit that pulled Ronnie through when his friend and guitarist Nick Panta died resurfaced and pulled him through once more. And then a chance meeting at the Rainbow in LA with Tony Iommi, cue more input from the likes of Rob Halford, Vinnie Appice and Sebastian Bach, Ronnie replaces Ozzy in Sabbath, but again that didn’t last and he is out on his own once more and again came back fighting!
We see Ronnie form Dio, survive grunge, produce Hear ‘N Aid which was metals equivalent to Live Aid and continuously stay forever positive. It was such inspirational film from start to finish, watching him defy all the odds and each time come back fighting and with each return, he came back even stronger!
Ronnie’s sheer love of performing really shone through and we realise the size of the show didn’t really matter. Whether it was performing to a club of 800 or at a stadium to 80,000, the important thing for Ronnie was that he was on stage, it gave him purpose! Somehow, Ronnie gets talking to Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler and this spawns the Heaven and Hell project. Ronnie was in his element, there were plans for a second album but sadly things took a turn for the worse.
We all know how the story ends. But even through his cancer treatment, he stayed positive – he was going to beat it! Footage and stories from Ronnie’s final days were very moving. An emotional Eddie Trunk tells us of the phonecall when he was told that Ronnie had died and I certainly had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes as I watched.
The outpouring of love from his contemporaries showed what a lovely man he was, the adoration that comes from Dio fans across the world cements that fact. Ronnie took the time to get to know his fans and would see people and remember them from the previous time he’d met them, what a lovely genuine guy!
The film finished and I felt energised, I felt positive and I felt inspired! A little bit of Ronnie’s spirit was inside me and I’m going use it and harness it to be a better person. We can all do better, we can all focus on the good and we can all stay positive. Wouldn’t the world be a much nicer place if we were all a little bit more like Ronnie?!
