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UNBELIEVABLE: Vinny appice | History Defined

Before he went solo, Ronnie James Dio had already worked with two guitarists etched onto heavy metal’s Mount Rushmore. But players can also learn plenty from the oft-overlooked shredders who anchored his solo band

From a 17-year-old prodigy to a future stadium-conquering guitar superstar, Ronnie James Dio had a dream team of six-string sidekicks over the course of his solo career – and their contributions to his catalog should be essential listening for any aspiring metal guitarist

Guitar World

"We didn't sit there and go, 'Let's make an album that's going to last 45 years or become a cornerstone of some rock music.' We were just having a great time”: Vinny Appice remembers his time with Ronnie James Dio

Drummer played with him in Sabbath, Dio and Heaven And Hell

MusicRadar

“I would go by John’s room and he’d be working on alternate picking to a metronome. I’d never seen anyone do that before”: He arrived on the shred scene with Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker and John Petrucci… then he vanished

After starting a family and his own company, Darren Housholder's priorities changed – but he’s gradually brought music-making back into his world

Guitar World

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"It was weird just being in the same room as him": The story of the Ronnie James Dio classic assembled from other bands' spare parts

Rainbow In The Dark a highlight of Holy Diver, an album Ronnie James Dio said was “one of the proudest things I’ve ever done”

Metal Hammer

"What does it feel like to be a legend?!?": An awkward encounter with a grumpy, nicotine-craving Ozzy Osbourne

After Black Sabbath's triumphant reunion shows in 1997, a nervous young writer was granted an audience with the Prince of Darkness and his cohorts

Metal Hammer

"Ozzy would always tell me how he loved Ronnie." Vinny Appice says rumours of beef between Ozzy and Dio were untrue

Ozzy surely hated the man who replaced him in Black Sabbath, right? Nope

Metal Hammer

"Nobody has ever sung a heavy metal song better than Ronnie did": A tribute to Ronnie James Dio

Ronnie James Dio: July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010

Metal Hammer

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“If somebody offered me something I’d take it first and ask afterwards what it was. I’d swallow a pill and have to be carried back to my room”: The life and death of Jimmy Bain, the bassist who brought the rock’n’roll to Rainbow and Dio

They don’t make them like the late, great Jimmy Bain any more

Louder

“We were a bit drunk, and I slurred to Ronnie, ‘Do you fancy doing an album?’ It was as simple as that”: How Heaven & Hell resurrected Black Sabbath’s other classic line-up with The Devil You Know

Heaven & Hell’s The Devil You Know was a Dio-era Sabbath record under any other name

Metal Hammer

Black Sabbath albums ranked, from worst to best

Some Black Sabbath albums are epoch-defining classics, some are average, some downright embarrassing, and we've ranked them – from woeful worst to brilliant best

Metal Hammer

“We were doing things that would have been beyond us with Ozzy. With Ronnie James Dio, there were so many more options”: How a reinvented Black Sabbath saved themselves from oblivion with Heaven And Hell

Heaven And Hell was the start of Black Sabbath’s short but glorious second chapter

Metal Hammer

“People gravitate towards success. They say, ‘I want to play with Dio.’ I’ve always been able to surround myself with the top guys”: How Ronnie James Dio escaped Black Sabbath and launched one of metal‘s greatest solo careers

Singer, band leader, icon – this is the story of Ronnie James Dio’s epic solo career

Metal Hammer

"A new heavy metal classic for the ages": The song Ronnie James Dio called one of the "proudest things he'd ever done"

Begun by Dio when he was fronting Black Sabbath, it transformed his career and became one of the classic metal tracks of the 80s

Metal Hammer

ronnie james dio history black sabbath rainbow

Metal Hammer

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MusicRadar

Jeff Beck: "Cozy Powell and I played for about a minute and you could see all the other drummers packing up their kits - he was my John Bonham"

Drum Heroes: Celebrating the hard-working and fast-living Jeff Beck Group, Rainbow, Whitesnake and ELP drum hero who even had a drum-feature solo hit

Metal Hammer

“We’re all very temperamental in our different ways, but we’ve learned to live with that”: how Black Sabbath were reborn in the 21st century as Heaven & Hell

In this classic 2009 interview, Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi look back at resurrecting Black Sabbath’s iconic second line-up under the namd Heaven & Hell

Metal Hammer

"It was a very magical time. The right people came together at the right moment": Ronnie James Dio's track-by-track guide to Dio's classic Holy Diver

Many believed Ronnie James Dio was finished when he quit Black Sabbath, but he proved the doubters wrong with an all-time classic

MusicRadar

Tony Iommi admits that, yes, sometimes he got carried away playing guitar solos – but Ronnie James Dio was his enabler

Iommi says the Dio years challenged Black Sabbath to up their game and RJD would tell him to solo longer. “Listening back to things, you think, ’Bloody hell! That was a bit over the top‘”

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