The Last in Line

Today started off in a fun way as I rousted the girls early and we went to watch Deb and Tricia do the Marblehead JCC Triathlon (1/8 mile swim/10-mile bike/3.5-mile run). It was Deb's first and Tricia's fourth and they both did really well. Congrats to both, especially Deb who trained her butt off these last several months. We went out for dinner to celebrate the accomplishment and her birthday, which is on Tuesday.

But when I got home, I discovered that the great singer Ronnie James Dio had died at the age of 67. He'd been suffering from stomach cancer for a while, so the news wasn't too surprising, but it still came as a shock. A native of Portsmouth, NH, Dio had been a force in hard rock and metal for nearly 40 years, first with his own band Elf, then with Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and most recently, Heaven and Hell. His operatic voice was as powerful an instrument as any guitar and he introduced the "devil horns" salute to metal.

I first became aware of RJD in 1980, when he took over for Ozzy as the lead singer of Black Sabbath. The first two albums he did with Sabbath, Heaven and Hell and The Mob Rules, rank among the greatest of the metal genre. A few years later, he formed his own band Dio and released a couple more classics, Holy Diver and The Last in Line. I saw Dio play at the Worcester Centrum in the fall of '84 and again in Portland a few years later. The dude was a powerhouse of a showman. Sure, he was rather cartoonish in his reliance on dungeons-and-dragons-esque lyrics, but dammit, the guy could belt it out with relish.

Dio was almost a professor of metal, very thoughtful and erudite in his interviews. But he had a sense of humor about himself, working with the hilarious Tenacious D to lampoon the image he had spent decades cultivating. He was still touring with Heaven and Hell--the Sabbath lineup that recorded those classic early '80s albums--right up until the stomach cancer forced him to be admitted to the hospital for treatment. I know what I'll be cranking over the next few days.

The last in line:


Kickapoo:


Mob Rules: