May 16th marked 10 years since the death of Ronnie James Dio (Elf, Black Sabbath, Dio, Heaven & Hell) due to stomach cancer. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his passing, his widow and manager, Wendy Dio, took some time to chat with Greg Prato about the late, great singer with Heavy Consequence. Following is an excerpt from the interview.
On recent comments by Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi that he would currently be working with Ronnie if the latter was still alive
Wendy: "Absolutely. Ronnie loved working together with Tony. It was the joy of his life. And I’m so happy that they got back together again before Ronnie passed away because it was the something he loved doing."
On what Ronnie enjoyed other than music
Wendy: "Sports. He was a huge sports fan. He could tell you anything about any sport – anywhere. He used to sit and write with a guitar on his lap while watching sports all the time. He would have loved to been a sports player if he was tall enough – or if his parents let him. When he was 5 years old, his father said, 'Listen to the radio and pick out an instrument that you like.' Ronnie wanted to get back out to play baseball with his friends, and said, 'Oh…that one' – and it was a trumpet. So, his dad took him down to the local music store, bought him a trumpet, and said, 'Now you’re going to learn to play the trumpet.' And that was the end of poor Ronnie’s sports – he had to practice trumpet for four hours, every single day!"
On the Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund
Wendy: "This year, we wanted to do lots of special events for it being ten years since Ronnie’s passing. Luckily, in February we did the Memorial Awards show, and that was great. But we had to cancel the Ride for Ronnie this year because of the Coronavirus – which usually takes place around his passing in May. Then about 30 friends of Ronnie’s go to the cemetery on the 16th of May and tell stories, and then we go to an Indian restaurant and toast him. Obviously, that’s not going to happen this year. I will go – but you can’t have 30 people there. I’m hoping that [the annual] Bowl for Ronnie – which will be on November 12th – will still go on. That’s always sold out a few weeks before the event happens, and we’ve had people like Jack Black, Dave Grohl, and Tom Morello bowl for us. It’s a very fun event raising money for a good cause. Every penny goes towards research and education towards colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and stomach cancer. Early detection saves lives. In fact, we are making Dio reversable masks which all the money will go towards the Cancer Fund. We are also working with UCLA to find an invasive way of testing for cancer – with a swab of the mouth, and that may come to fruition next year."
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