We first picked up on this news a few weeks ago when a death hoax circulated around the web fueled by facts about his illness. Sadly it’s now true. Ronnie James Dio passed away yesterday morning after a long battle with stomach cancer. Yet his spirit as one of metal’s most powerful singers is immortal. A frontman for Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and his own legendary metal outfit – Dio. At the time of death he was on hiatus with Heaven & Hell, a band made up of the same Sabbath members responsible for the 1980 Heaven and Hell album. It’s widely considered to be a metal masterpiece.
Oh, and the devils horns used by metal heads across the globe? Ronnie popularized them.