Today we got the sad news that heavy metal rocker Ronnie James Dio lost his battle with stomach cancer at the age of 67.Ronnie's big break came as the lead singer of the group ELF in 1969 when they opened for Deep Purple. When Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple in 1975 he ask Ronnie to front his new group Rainbow. On their self title first album in '75 they had a minor hit with "Man on a Silver Mountian" that became a cult hit during the metal surge of the 1980s.
In 1979 Ronnie became the new lead singer of Black Sabbath when Ozzy Osbourne left to start a solo career. After a somewhat successful stint with Sabbath, Ronnie left them in 1982 to start his own band Dio with then Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice. They released their first album in '82 called Holy Diver which has become a staple of hard rock/metal radio and has been called his best work. That album produced 2 now metal classics "Rainbow in the Dark" and "Holy Diver" which helped the album chart at #56 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart and #13 in the UK.
In 1984 Dio's second album was released, The Last in Line, and it became Dio's first platinum album (1 million sold) in 1987. This album while not as well received by the critics was a huge hit with the fans and it made it to #24 on the Billboard Album chart. The single "The Last in Line" became a staple of MTV and made Dio a household name in the music world.
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