Heavy Metal Power

Ronnie James Dio’s memorial service was held at The Hall of Liberty, Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles. By the time I arrived, the seats inside Liberty Hall had long since been filled, so I was one of the thousands of Dio fans outside under the hot L.A. sun watching the events on the big screen.

Eddie Trunk was the master of ceremonies and started things off by stating how honored he was to be hosting such an event. Obviously Eddie is a huge Dio fan. He did a fine job as host and had a few entertaining personal stories regarding his relationship with Dio’s music and Dio the man.

One of the early speakers and also one of the highlights of the day was Dio’s high school friend (sorry I forgot his name). He gave a touching speech, stating how Dio would be missed at their 50th high school reunion and just how much he misses his friend.

Another one of the most interesting and moving speeches was from Ronnie James Dio’s son Dan Padavona. He related how he and his father shared a love of music. His dad was always someone who could totally understand his love of hard rock and heavy metal. Although Dan is not a musician, growing up with Ronnie James Dio as a father, it was inevitable he would develop a passion for heavy metal.

As the day went on we were treated to video clips and photos of each stage of Dio’s long music career, starting back with pictures from his early rockabilly days, through Elf, Rainbow, Sabbath, and Dio. Ronnie James Dio was a lifelong musician. He even received a scholarship to Julliard for trumpet at the age of 7. There was also a special video showing some of the more elaborate stage sets and theatrics from the Sacred Heart era. That brought back a few memories for me.

Throughout the day there were acoustic performances of many classic Dio and non Dio songs. Oni Logan performed a great version of a tune from one of Dio’s earlier recordings, ‘Sitting in a Dream’ from Roger Glover’s The Butterfly Ball. One of the most impressive performances of the day was from Joey Belladonna from Anthrax. He sang ‘Man on the Silver Mountain’. His voice sounded great and this acoustic version of the song was excellent. Geoff Tate was another highlight performing ‘Hallelujah’. Glenn Hughes, Dio’s favorite hard rock singer, closed out the performances with ‘Rainbow Eyes’ ‘Catch the Rainbow’.

Toward the end of the day we heard about Ronnie’s charity work with Children of the Night and his newly formed Stand Up and Shout Foundation. Stand Up and Shout is focused on early cancer detection and treatment and it was sad to hear Ronnie would have had a much better chance of beating his stomach cancer if it was diagnosed earlier. Looks like foundation is off to a good start as there was a long line of fans queued up to purchase a memorial shirt proceeds of which went to the charity. The foundation also plans to have two memorial concerts to honor Dio and raise funds. One is planned for London and the other for Los Angeles. They plan to make this a yearly event. During this time Wendy Dio said a few words about Ronnie and thanked the fans. She was obviously very emotional.

The memorial was a fitting send off for the best vocalist hard rock and heavy metal has ever known. It was really nice thing for the fans not only that this day was put together, but run so well. It was a pleasure to be part of a day honoring such a special songwriter, performer, and human being. I’ll miss you Dio.