Legendary Heavy Metal Vocalist RONNIE JAMES DIO Dies

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=140129

Legendary Heavy Metal Vocalist RONNIE JAMES DIO Dies
May 16, 2010

Wendy Dio, wife/manager of legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio (DIO, HEAVEN & HELL, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW), has released the following statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:

"Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45 a.m. [on Sunday] 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private goodbyes before he peacefully passed away.

"Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all.

"We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us.

"Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss.

"Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever."

It was only a month ago that Dio, 67, spoke about his battle with cancer with the Artisan News Service on the "black carpet" of the Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which took place on April 8 at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. When asked about how he had been feeling since he was diagnosed with the disease late last year, Dio said, "Well, I feel good and bad at times. It's a long process. Chemotherapy is a... I never realized what a difficult thing it was to go through. It's a real cumulative effect — the more you have, the more it piles up on top and it takes longer and longer to get over it. I find it very difficult to eat. I don't like to eat anyway, so I guess that's OK. But I know I have to. But this makes it very, very hard. But if you're determined to beat it, then you have to go with what you believe is going to beat it for you, and in this case it's that. I go to a great hospital in Houston called M.D. Anderson, which I think is the best hospital in the world, I have the best doctor in the world, Dr. Ajani, who I really trust and I really believe in, so I think I've done all the right things. It makes me feel positive about my life and positive that there is a lot more of it to live."

Earlier this month, HEAVEN & HELL canceled its summer tour plans in Europe due to Dio's treatment for stomach cancer. The band said in a statement that Dio wasn't "well enough to tour this summer. We hope that everyone understands and want to thank fans and industry colleagues for their continuing support at this time."

Born Ronald James Padavona in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Ronnie James Dio had performed with ELF, RAINBOW, BLACK SABBATH, and his own band DIO. Other musical projects included the collective fundraiser "Hear 'n Aid". He is widely hailed as one of the most powerful singers in heavy metal, renowned for his consistently powerful voice and for popularizing the "devil's horns" hand gesture in metal culture. He was most recently involved with HEAVEN & HELL, a project which also included former BLACK SABBATH bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice. Their first and only studio album, "The Devil You Know", was released on April 28, 2009.

In April, Dio appeared at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards in Los Angeles to accept the award for "Best Vocalist." As members of ALICE IN CHAINS presented the award to him, the crowd chanted, "Dio! Dio! Dio! Dio!"

The Black Sabbath Show

The best of the 70's rock band cartoon, the sadly forgotten Black Sabbath cartoon hour...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvFTL6qOvfg

Ozzy Osbourne Opens Up

http://www.spinner.com/2010/01/27/ozzy-osbourne-memoir

Ozzy Osbourne Opens Up About Drugs, Failed Marriage in Memoir
Jan 27th 2010
Steve Baltin

Ozzy Osbourne's recently-released autobiography, 'I Am Ozzy,' should be required reading for any aspiring rock star. For starters, it would teach all up-and-comers not to bother with the drugs and debauchery because they're never going to top the Ozzman.

Since the book has many over-the-top stories -- including one where Ozzy woke up on a freeway after drinking with Motley Crue -- the former Black Sabbath frontman tells Spinner he was hesitant about writing the memoir for a long time. "I've been approached for years about doing a book and I kept putting it off and putting it off," he says. "Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll: that's all people in the music industry want to hear about."

Sure, the seedy bits are in the book, but Osbourne also offers truthful and poignant insights on the regrets in his life, from his sometimes turbulent relationship with his mom to stupid youthful acts of animal cruelty. Is there one thing he regrets the most? "The way I treated my first wife [Thelma]. I was young, I was drinking, using drugs, -- I was a rock 'n' roll star and I thought that gave me a license to be an a--hole to some degree," he says. "I thought I was just being cool and that's just what we all do, but I got married way too young and I had children way too young."

Osbourne met Thelma Riley in 1970 at a club called the Rum Runner, where she worked in the cloak room. The two moved in together and eventually got married in the registry's office in 1971, before Sabbath went to America for the first time. After hitting it big, Ozzy enjoyed all the perks of being a rock star, including sex with three women in one night. "If I loved Thelma, I certainly didn't treat her like I did ... For years I acted like a married bachelor, sneaking around," he writes. "I put that woman through hell. I should never have married her. She didn't deserve it: she wasn't a bad person, and she wasn't a bad wife. But I was a f---ing nightmare."

The two stayed together for their children -- Jessica, Louis and Thelma's son Elliot -- until 1982, when they filed for divorce. The reason for the final split? Osbourne confessed to Thelma he'd fallen in love with his manager, Sharon Arden.

Looking back now, he owns up to his mistakes. "I was wrong in a lot of ways. I now have turned completely around in the respect [that] I do not drink, I do not take drugs, I am not cruel to animals. I have lots of animals in my house now," he says.

But don't worry -- he's still the same Ozzy at heart. "I'm not turning into a f---ing born-again Christian at the same time," he says. "I still have naughty thoughts, thoughts of, 'Maybe one day I can do this and maybe one day a nice drink of that.' If there's something I like doing to myself, I'll do it. I'll start mental masturbation."

'I Am Ozzy' is available now from Grand Central Publishing.

Heavy metal and classical fans make sweet music

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2441316.0.Why_heavy_metal_and_classical_fans_make_sweet_music_together.php

Why heavy metal and classical fans make sweet music together
CATHERINE FEGA0N and CHARLOTTE CARMICHAEL
Friday 5th September 2008

HAD he been alive today, Beethoven might well have been bosom buddies with heavy metal rockers Black Sabbath.

Unlikely as it may seem, fans of heavy metal and classical music have much more in common than most people would imagine, according to a new study.

Researchers found fans of the music styles shared "virtually identical" personality traits, such as being creative and at ease with themselves.

The finding was revealed in a major study into the link between people's musical tastes and their personalities.

Professor Adrian North, of Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University, said the survey of more than 36,000 people from all over the world is by far the biggest study of its kind ever undertaken.

"I was struck by how similar fans of heavy metal and classical music really are," he said. "Apart from the age differences, they were virtually identical. Both were more creative than other people, both were not terribly outgoing and they were also quite at ease."

He speculated that both types of music have a sense of theatricality about them which may appeal to similar types of people.

Stephen Montague, 65, is one such example of the personality cross-over between fans of the two distinct music genres.

The contemporary classical composer struck up a friendship with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame more than 25 years ago.

"We exist in a curious parallel universe," he said. "There seems to be an interest with people on that side of the music industry in what we do, they think we are the key to immortality and that what they do is superficial when in fact it's quite the opposite because we envy them."

Although previous research has shown that fans of rock and rap are rebellious, and that fans of opera are wealthy and well-educated, this is the first time that research has shown a link between personality and music preference. Some 36,518 people from countries as far afield as Malaysia, China, Japan and Chile were asked to rate 104 musical styles ranging from chart pop to Bollywood music and opera.

Oliver Searle, 30, a professional composer who teaches at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, said he was not surprised by the findings.

"I just booked tickets to go see Slayer and my favourite bands are Iron Maiden and Nine Inch Nails," he said. "All my peers are heavy metal fans and we would have been more surprised if you had said we liked listening to Britney Spears but not heavy metal.

"The darker side of human emotion is emulated by composers and heavy metal rockers alike. There is a definite cross-over."

According to Prof North, the findings from the online survey revealed that musical tastes can be seen as a direct reflection of people's characters, as well as confirming a number of stereotypes. "Fans of country and western tend to be more hard- working, fans of reggae were more at ease and fans of jazz were more creative," he said. "It's as though they're choosing the music to tell the world something about themselves."

Prof North said that fans of jazz and soul music may be said to have the "best" type of personality, showing positive traits such as good self-esteem, creativity and having an outgoing nature. The study also revealed that classical music lovers are more likely to have strong self-esteem and creative tendencies, rap and dance music fans are outgoing, but indie fans can lack self-esteem.

Prof North said: "People often define their sense of identity through their musical taste, wearing particular clothes, going to certain pubs, and using certain types of slang. It's not so surprising that personality should also be related to musical preference."

Deborah Henderson, 23, a student from Glasgow, put the similarities between the two musical tastes down to fashion. "I am surprised to find the two have similar personalities," she said. "I suppose it is because of the way they dress. I think everyone has a metal uncle."

Seb Hunter, author of Hell Bent For Leather: Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict, confirmed the sentiment. "The sheer unfashionableness of rockers and composers should be a point of commonality," he said. "Neither of them can dress."

Farewell, Quiet Riot

http://www.slate.com/id/2178720/

Farewell, Quiet Riot
By Jody Rosen
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007

Kevin DuBrow, the lead singer of Quiet Riot, who died Sunday at age 52, will be remembered as a guy who was in the right place at the right time, with the right song. The place was the Sunset Strip; the time was late summer, 1983; the song was "Cum On Feel the Noize," a raucous party tune originally recorded by British glam-rockers Slade, which Quiet Riot inflated into the anthem that first took pop-metal to the top of the Billboard charts. Quiet Riot distilled the pop-metal formula, toning down the darkness and nihilism of progenitors like Black Sabbath while preserving the decibel levels, adding poodle hair, spandex, gratuitous guitar histrionics, lots of salaciousness, and, above all, melody. Other, better bands—Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi—would ride the tide to superstardom, but Quiet Riot got there first, when "Cum On Feel" propelled the band's third album, Metal Health, to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 200, for one week exactly, in November of '83. That success was due in no little part to DuBrow's vocals, a raspy yowl, and to his bug-eyed stage presence—more in the Alice Cooper-lunatic tradition than the Robert Plant sex-god vibe that others would exploit. "Cum On Feel" was DuBrow's supreme moment. (And, let's be frank, it was more Slade's triumph than his.) But Quiet Riot's originals were a blast, too. Watch this vintage performance of "Metal Health," with DuBrow stalking the stage in a striped shirt and tight leopard-print pants. "I want it louder/ More power/ I'm gonna rock ya 'til it strikes the hour," Dubrow sings, a goofy but not inaccurate boast.