When I was growing up, Heavy Metal/rock music was my music of choice, it was my life. Back in those days in the late 70’s and into the early 80’s, we would spend our time listening to the best albums of the moment on a massive ‘ghetto blaster, either sitting in the park or at any of the local railway stations, train spotting! Our albums of choice at the time were Saxon ‘Wheels of Steel’, Judas Priest ‘British Steel’ and Black Sabbath ‘Heaven and Hell’. We went through many batteries back in those days, cranking the music up loud and annoying any passers by.

My favourite of all our choices at the time was the Black Sabbath album and it is still one of my favourite albums to this day. How Ronnie James Dio could pack that ‘massive’ voice into such a small and tiny frame seemed impossible. Once I knew of his work with Black Sabbath I went to search out his back catalogue of work with Rainbow and was just amazed at the lyrics and the quality of his voice, he was and always will be the quintessential rock and metal frontman and with his passing there was a massive void left in the world of rock music.

So come with me on an 'oral history' of Ronnie James Dio, the greatest frontman in Heavy Metal and rock