YMMV / Ronnie James Dio

• Common Knowledge: People who know Dio by his fantasy-influenced later reputation often assume his early band Elf fits into the Heavy Mithril fold, based on its name. The lyrics of Elf's music touch on general bluesy themes, with no notable mystical influence, and the music itself is Blues Rock rather than metal.
• Complete Monster: Magica: Shadowcast is the leader, High Priest, and executioner of the Evilsyde who sets out to conquer the planet Blessing and summon his master Astaroth. A monster prideful of his own wickedness, Shadowcast sent his forces out to engage in a bloody battle with the wizards, whereupon he won and took the spell book Magica. Knowing that the elder Eriel is destined to defeat him, Shadowcast gives him fever dreams while he launches his attack. To feed his troops and summon Astaroth, Shadowcast encases the population of Blessing into stone, sending their souls to the planet Otherworld, where the spirits are kept in prison camps to be tortured and assimilated for energy. Later sending Eriel to the Otherworld, Shadowcast personally executes him, and attempts to do the same to the young Challis. Leaving his men to burn, Shadowcast returns billions of years later to possess some aliens, where he deletes his failure from history, and continues his plan of conquest.
• Fan Nickname: "The Elf", and 'The God of Metal', since 'Dio' means 'God' in Italian.
• First Installment Wins: Of Dio's solo work Holy Diver is not only widely considered to be the best, but one of the greatest metal albums of all time.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • These lines from "The End of the World" (Master of the Moon), when one considers Dio's cancer:
    They say you never hear the bullet that kills
    And I don't hear a sound
  • From Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny:
    Dio, can you hear me?
    I am lost and so alone
    I am asking for your guidance
    Won't you come down from your throne?
  • In a slightly different vein, the last song he recorded was Metal Will Never Die, which was released after his passing. With lyrics like this:
    Raise your fist a rebel yell
    I am metal and I'll never die
    We are metal and we'll never die
  • Dio's narration on "The Magica Story" from his 8th studio album ends with him getting ahead of himself after narrating the events of the album, saying the rest of the story is for another time. Thanks in part to Dio's death in 2010, as well as his plans for two sequels to Magica, add on his final two albums before reuniting with Black Sabbath being unrelated to said album, it does sadly mean we'll never know how the rest of the story goes.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • The immediate outpouring of love and support from the metal community when he was first diagnosed with cancer... And the repetition of it later when he finally succumbed to the disease. Some of the tributes, like this one◊, are so strikingly simple but moving at the same time.
  • Since Heaven and Hell was supposed to play at the Sonisphere Festival in 2010 before Dio passed away, during the Big Four of Thrash event broadcast to theaters, Scott Ian, Lars Ulrich, Kerry King and Dave Mustaine all talked about how Dio influenced and affected their lives.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The opening lines of Sacred Heart, "The old ones speak of winter, the young ones praise the sun", basically predicted Elden Ring.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Among the metal community. Before his passing, almost every discussion of Dio would involve people joking about Dio kicking cancer's ass. When he died, these jokes weren't so funny anymore.
  • The Italian satiric comic depicts him as God-as in, God at one point came to Earth and became the rockstar Ronnie James Dio, before leaving in disgust at the higher-ups of the Catholic Church, and His favorite look (being The Omnipotent, he can take whatever look he wants, ranging from a giant too large for his desk to a talking potted daisy) is still that of an elderly Ronnie James Dio.
• Moment of Awesome: We're Stars. Never has so much godly metal been contained in one place.
• Narm Charm: Dear LORD, he was the bloody king of this. His lyrics were never short of cheesy as fuck, but with a powerful and dramatic voice like that, he could make anything sound like it was the most profound thing on the planet.
• Older Than They Think: Dio cut his first single in 1958. And man, it was HEAVY! Other stuff he recorded in that period was much lighter R&B, Rock & Roll and Doo Wop.
• Signature Song: "Holy Diver" and "Rainbow in the Dark" are Dio's best-known songs.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: "Holy Diver"'s prologue consists of a soft synth overture. It lasts until the 1:20 minute mark until the song proper starts.
• So Bad, It's Good: The music video for "Holy Diver", which features Dio running around dressed like a medieval warrior and doing various poses with his sword.
• The Woobie: He became not only a Memetic Badass, when he was diagnosed with cancer... But the metal community, especially the ones of the female persuasion, treated him as the designated woobie, and for good reason.

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