Heavy metal is not made for Wall Street, it’s not intellectual, it’s something you feel.\u00c2\u00a0 It electrifies your body, truly plugs you into the socket and makes you thrust your body forward and throw your hands in the air.<\/p>\n
We can debate the progenitors.\u00c2\u00a0 Many believe it’s Led Zeppelin, which some don’t even consider metal anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Possibly it’s Deep Purple.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it’s Black Sabbath.\u00c2\u00a0 The music eventually got heavier and heavier, to the point where the masses were oftentimes left out.<\/p>\n
But for a moment there, especially in Los Angeles, METAL RULED!<\/p>\n
It was all over the airwaves, all over MTV, and finally Ronnie James Dio was in the right place.<\/p>\n
Most American metal musicians are younger.\u00c2\u00a0 They were born in the sixties.\u00c2\u00a0 Came of age in the era of the Partridge Family.\u00c2\u00a0 But Ronnie James Dio was there from the very beginning.\u00c2\u00a0 He was a lifer.\u00c2\u00a0 He tried college for a minute, he’s rumored to have studied to be a pharmacist, but he gave up the straight life to pursue the muse.<\/p>\n
Not that he had quick success.<\/p>\n
But he soldiered on.<\/p>\n
Until he teamed up with Ritchie Blackmore to create "Man On The Silver Mountain".<\/p>\n
Ubiquitous on the airwaves, most people didn’t realize Dio was the vocalist.<\/p>\n
And it’s tough on the image when you follow a known quantity in a legendary band.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Dio did an admirable job of replacing Ozzy in Sabbath, but it wasn’t his band.\u00c2\u00a0 To purists, there was something faux about the whole thing.<\/p>\n
But then Ronnie went solo.\u00c2\u00a0 And delivered.<\/p>\n
"Holy Diver" crashed the airwaves like his previous work with Blackmore and Iommi, but this time it was under his name and his name only.<\/p>\n
"Holy Diver" whispers into the speakers.\u00c2\u00a0 And slowly emerges from the fog.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, fully a minute in, it ERUPTS!\u00c2\u00a0 The buzzsaw riff immediately cuts you, but it’s Ronnie’s full-bodied vocal that enraptures you.<\/p>\n
Still, it’s what came next that cemented Ronnie as a presence, as a talent in my mind.\u00c2\u00a0 That track was on the follow-up.\u00c2\u00a0 It was entitled "The Last In Line".<\/p>\n
In the late eighties, the metal bands looked the part, but purveyed wimpy-ass power ballads.\u00c2\u00a0 Then Metallica wiped the impostors off the map and you could no longer be quiet again.\u00c2\u00a0 Subtlety was banished from metal.\u00c2\u00a0 And something was lost.\u00c2\u00a0 Because Zeppelin was always quiet and loud, subtle and then intense.\u00c2\u00a0 And "The Last In Line" walks this line finely.<\/p>\n
You’ve got to credit Vivian Campbell, he crafts an intro only a step removed from the White Album.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s richness, there’s melody. Ronnie comes in and sings melodiously.\u00c2\u00a0 And then…<\/p>\n
WE ARE COMING HOME!<\/p>\n
The track explodes.\u00c2\u00a0 The ancestors of Beavis and Butt-head have their hands in the air in devil horns, they’re throwing their long hair in front of their faces and back.<\/p>\n
"The Last In Line" was the apotheosis.\u00c2\u00a0 A career culmination at exactly the right time.\u00c2\u00a0 Dio was a star.<\/p>\n
And remained one for the rest of his life.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether solo or back with Iommi or…<\/p>\n
He did not exude a lot of charisma, certainly not offstage.\u00c2\u00a0 He was in front of me on an airplane a couple of years back and he was swallowed by his seat, despite his scary look, he was gentle.\u00c2\u00a0 But when the man opened his mouth on stage, he was a heavy metal legend.<\/p>\n
My heart dropped when I saw Dio died.\u00c2\u00a0 It always happens this way.\u00c2\u00a0 They say they’ve got the Big C and are making good progress, then they unexpectedly drop.\u00c2\u00a0 Positively creepy.<\/p>\n
But what’s not creepy is the adulation, the outpouring of love.\u00c2\u00a0 If only there could have been a tribute concert, if only Dio could have seen the place he had in fans’ hearts.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only from the street, but from certified rock stars like Lars from Metallica<\/p>\n
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