Ronnie James Dio, RIP

I haven't listened to Dio in twenty years, seriously. But when I was fourteen, I took on a lifetime supply of vaguely sinister/gothic/melodramatic imagery playing along with Rainbow and post-Ozzy Sabbath records.



I was sad to hear he passed away this weekend from stomach cancer. I was surprised at how attached I turned out to be, since as I say it's been a couple decades since I really listened to him.



Supposedly the 'sign of the horns' devil thing was something is Grandma used to do to ward off evil, and he introduced it to his audiences. Or maybe Gene Simmons actually invented it, as Dio said in an interview, 'Just like Gene Simmons invented shoes.'