All language subtitles for Dio.Dreamers.Never.Die.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264-RARBG-English

Back in the day,

we were the people that stood in line

at a record store waiting
for the gate to open.

Because the discovery
of music was everything.

For years,
the only way you would be able

to judge what you should get

was you'd look at
the cover and be like,

"Oh, that's cool.
That's gonna piss off my parents"

or "That looks rockin'," or whatever.

And it was all we looked forward to

was to open that cellophane

and see what would
fall out of the jacket.

Sometimes there would
be a picture or something,

and smell it and hold it,

put it on the turntable,

drop the needle, and when
this music's in your blood

and Dio and the music
he made's in your blood,

it's just impossible to... to get out.

When you're a kid,
you're looking for a voice,

somethin' that says,
"This is my generation."

And for us, it was Heavy Metal.

And then all of a
sudden comes this dude

with the most powerful voice of all!

With a Heavy Metal band,
the music is so powerful

and so potent,
you really have to know

how to control it...

specifically singers
because we have a message.

We have things to say.

He found a way to create
music that makes people

unable to contain themselves

to the point where they refuse
to live without that music.

I was amazed by the way

he was able to captivate people.

I want to know how, why...
How do you get there?

There are a lot of people
that think of Ronnie

as being the guy that
did this and singing metal.

That is him,
but there's another side.

The million dollar question...

How do you describe
Ronnie James Dio?

I tend to be an enigma
to a lot of people, I think.

There was something about the guy.

There was just something about him.

When Ronnie sang,
he wanted to make sure

that everyone never forgot it.

People took it home with them
and they named their pet "Dio,"

and they named their firstborn
"Ronnie."

It was like, "This is Rock 'n' Roll

that is gonna change your fucking life."

It's been years since Ronnie passed.

He passed on the 16th of May, 2010.

I think he's here.
I think he's here still, all the time.

Sometimes I hear my name called,
but there's nobody here.

I'm probably just imagining it.

Hello. Welcome to my home

and welcome to Behind Closed Doors.

This was a Christmas present
from my wife, from Wendy.

We can see the lions and whatnot.

Mick, away we go.
I'm gonna make this ball here,

and then we can talk.
Ok.

Ronnie's story traverses,
really, the whole history

of Rock music.

His career went on
for decade after decade.

Here we are all these
years after he died,

and he's still this huge
figure in Heavy Metal.

You know,
some of these guys are immortal,

but none more so
than Ronnie James Dio.

We now have a media room here,

but I still have the lions
and I still have the nostalgia

of when we used to
have the pool table here.

Well, you've caught me in the library,

one of my favorite
places in all the world

because it contains words.

You know, he had a message.
He was a messenger.

His message was for the
people that lived regular lives,

had regular dreams that
meant something real.

You know I don't play piano.
I'm a singer.

Let's go to the bar.
It's my favorite place anyway.

This is his favorite place, was the bar.

So I feel his presence much more here.

And it's a warm, comforting feeling.

Obviously, you've had
a lot of elbows resting

on this at one time or another.

We never started with this.

And why should we think
that this should last forever?

I was just as happy, and I'm
sure Wendy was just as happy

before struggling and
being happy together.

I think this is all
very transitory anyway.

It's... It comes and it goes.

I mean, you have ups and downs.
It's like life.

Life goes through great
waves of emotion and passion

and great lows of
despair and whatnot.

That's the way life is.

There it is.
That's his beautiful trumpet

that hasn't been
played in a long time.

He used to play this from
when he was 5 years old.

He never played it for me.

It's a beautiful thing,
but he had had enough of it,

I think from all the hours of practice

he had to do with his dad.

I started as a trumpet player

when I was 5 years old.

Oh, so you've been very musical.
Where was that?

Upstate New York,

a town called Cortland, New York,

which is right in the
middle of nowhere.

Dairy farming community.
18,000 people.

It was a great place to
grow up because you got

a good moral attitude.
You grew up well.

This is the house
where Ronnie grew up.

After he became famous,
the city decided

that they were gonna
name the street after him

'cause it was on the
corner of his house.

So, this is the Dio way.

This had been stolen a couple of times.

His immediate family,
they were pretty straight-laced.

His mother was, you know,
a sweetheart, of course.

You know, the moms were
always easier on the kids

than the father.

My father was harsh with me.

You know, these were the
days when a good hiding was,

you know, right around
the corner. And boy, I...

Believe me, I was always
up for one of those.

I wasn't up for it,

but I always caused
one of those, apparently.

Everyone had the same ideas.

They were good ethics,
good morals,

a lot of church involved.

Whether I believed in it
or didn't, it gave you rules.

You know, Catholic, ya know?

Ronnie was an altar boy.

Ronnie loved classical music.

His father insisted he practice trumpet

3 hours every day, for years.

He was a voracious reader.

He was a smart kid in school.

High grades, very intelligent,

president of his class, actually.

And he was a little bit crazy.

One time we were riding in the car.

There was a nun
walking down the street,

and Ronnie stuck his
ass out the window

and he mooned her,
so he mooned a nun.

He was a bit of a rebel.

He had a gang called The Angels.

Stole a car here and there
and got in some trouble.

It could have escalated,

but I think not in that
family background.

I mean, it wasn't just his father.

There was his grandmother,
and there are pictures of her.

She doesn't look like the kind of lady

anybody would want to cross.

I think for him,
can you imagine in the '50s

how conservative times were?

Like most musicians,

he realized music was
a route out of that.

This was a road to good times.

And what blows me away, as a fan,

when I discovered
that Ronnie James Dio,

best metal voice you ever heard,

he was singing in the
'50s before the Beatles.

How is that possible?
Like, that's fascinating.

Other than wine and weed.

Everybody has their things.

Some people like to
go to football games.

Some people like to bowl.
I collect Ronnie James Dio.

I was a radio guy,

so I came out of Syracuse
radio in the early '60s.

Ronnie first started in bands back in...
around 1958,

playing trumpets and
horns and bass at the time.

It was earlier than the Beatles.

So, it was Bill Haley.
It was Elvis Presley.

It was all those rockers.

That's what the inspiration was.

So, Ronnie was born
Ronald James Padavona.

But when he was in bands and stuff,

it was too long a name
and not hip enough for him.

Ronnie got his name, "Dio,"

famously from a real
life Mafia mob guy

called Johnny Dio.

Ronnie was like,
"This is evil, but it's cool."

And so he decided,
"That's gonna be my name."

And that was it.

I was the guy who
didn't want to do anything

but play the music.
I didn't want to sing.

And everyone tried,
and everyone kind of

fell by the wayside,
and they finally said,

"Ok, it's your turn."

The training as a horn player

was so absolutely perfect as a singer.

You play from the same
place as you sing from,

from your diaphragm.

In my mind, my voice was a trumpet.

In the Red Caps,
Ronnie was so clean

and could hit any
note he was looking for.

You could tell this guy
is professional already

and he's only 18.

The Red Caps eventually
became The Prophets

and through the years,The Prophets,

they formed something special.

He really had the passion
to do the best he can

with the abilities
that he was God-given.

Ronnie got the dream,

so we used to talk
about that all the time.

Ronnie was gonna be the lead singer,

star of the show.

And then I was going to
be his lead guitar player.

Nicky was gonna be the
leader of any orchestration

or the band.

Nick Pantas was Ronnie's kind of

musical soulmate at that point,

that he writes with,
builds bands with,

builds dreams with.

Even from those
very, very early days,

you can tell his mission
in life was to be a singer.

You can tell it.

One of the problems that
we really had back then...

we could not find the genre

that would fit Ronnie perfectly.

He was capable of
singing anything, basically.

He would be doing songs

by Engelbert Humperdinck,
Tom Jones.

Ronnie did a version of
"The Way of Love"

that Cher had a big hit on.

Before Cher recorded it.
It's phenomenal.

I got in the band.

I was just out of high
school in 1965, '66.

We had a manager at
the time from Ithaca,

and he was pushing Ronnie

into following that Tom
Jones route, you know?

Careers go in different directions.

In those days, it wasn't fashionable

to be in Rock 'n' Roll in order

to want to pursue that as a career.

It really made no sense at all to do.

Well, I loved it so much

that it was going to
make sense for me to do.

We found a way to be discovered

All the series of pictures were taken

in my parents' basement.

And we took rolls of tinfoil,
and we hung it up in the back.

And that's when the
Beatles first came out,

so everybody started
to grow their hair long.

We decided to change the
name to The Electric Elves.

I mean, we used to
have a van that said

"Electric Elves" on it.

They thought we were
electrical contractors.

"Uh, my house needs wiring.
Call The Electric Elves over.

They're small. They can get into
the crawl space really easily."

You know and at that time,
playing clubs,

you're doing cover songs.

When The Beatles album came out,
we learned the whole album.

You know, because Ronnie
could sing the whole album.

We were doing so well
from a playing standpoint,

you know, going from Maine
to North Carolina to Detroit.

We wanted to be better musically

and wanted to be
something special.

1968, I had been out
of the band for a while

and Ronnie was playing clubs,

like they were always playing clubs,

and they were called The Electric Elves.

We played in, uh...

I think it was Waterbury,
Connecticut, for a week.

And, uh, we decided not to
stay overnight the last night.

Our gear was in the back of the van.
We all rode in the van,

so we decided to
drive home that night

rather than stay another night.

And a drunk driver ends
up crossing the lane

and hits us head on.

I woke up in a
hospital bed with Ronnie

next to me in the other bed.

We looked like zombies.
Ronnie hit the windshield.

His whole scalp was torn back.

He had over a hundred
stitches in his scalp.

Nicky was driving,
and it impacted the front,

pinned him in the steering wheel

and he actually bled to death.

Uh... it... it...
it was really hard to believe,

to understand that that could happen.

This is such a catastrophe,

not just for, obviously,
for Nick and his family,

but for Ronnie,
it becomes a moment of,

"Is this time to throw in the towel?
Is this a sign?

Is this just not meant to be?"

That's a slide...
That's one slide of Ronnie's.

You can see it's...
it's after the accident

when his hair was
just starting to grow in.

Ronnie, when he was a kid,
succeeded really greatly

as far as academics.

At some point he started college
and he was taking pharmacy.

So, after the accident,
he could have chosen anything,

any avenue to go to.

I remember the moment when I said,

"We gonna put this thing
back together?" And he said,

"Yeah, we're gonna put
this thing back together."

In our minds, we were wanting to go

to Led Zeppelin, The Who.
We idolized Deep Purple.

Deep Purple, that's what
was heaviest, you know?

And we just said, "Ok,
that's what we wanna do."

And the death of Nick Pantas,

that terrible crash

that could have easily
dissuaded lesser men

just to say, "You know what? I'm done,"

Ronnie decides, "No, I'm not done.

In fact, I'm only just getting started."

He decides to build this

into something more contemporary

with, you know, a shit ton of power.

There's just a power and a presence.

It's remarkable when
you think that a man

of such small stature

had the biggest voice
you're ever going to hear.

Eventually, we became Elf.

We were very small and
all kinds of hair and beards

and the whole deal.
We'd walk out on stage

and actually, people started to chuckle.

But when we hit the first note,
it was like,

jaws dropped, you know?

And suddenly,
you've got not just a new band

but a new sound, a new attitude.

And the beginnings
of the Ronnie James Dio

that would become famous.

We came up with those songs,

and that's what ended
up getting us an audition

with, you know, Columbia.

Elf were auditioning
for the famous Clive Davis

who discovered everybody,
just everybody.

And we were gonna audition for him.
Wow.

At the time,
Roger Glover and Ian Paice

from Deep Purple,

out of the blue, for some reason,

they wanted to become producers.

So, somehow they got involved
in coming to this audition.

We were told just at the last moment

that Roger and Ian were coming.

Well, that put us in quite a turmoil

because 2 of our heroes?
Oh, my Lord.

"Oh, my God.
Like, you know, 2 people

from Deep Purple are
gonna be here, you know?"

It's like, and I idolized
the band, you know?

Some chairs set up,
and Clive comes in

and a couple people with him.

And then Roger and Ian come in.

Well, well, well.

There were probably, I don't know,

15 or 20 suits in the room.

You know, Clive Davis, et cetera,

all these people and white wine

and you know, It's all,
"Thank you very much."

And then these 4 midgets walked out.

And I go, "What's this?
A circus act or something?" You know.

Standing there and
playing in front of, like,

you know, record executives,

and not to mention
2 guys in Deep Purple,

and you have to try to sell yourself.

It was, like, a big deal.

You know, we played the songs,

and it was like, "Alright, that's enough.

We don't need to
hear any more songs."

And everybody gets up.
You know, we couldn't hear

what they were talking about,
and everybody leaves.

We don't know if they
hated it or if they loved it.

I mean, we were knocked out.
Absolutely knocked out.

And we said,
"Yeah, we'll do this. We'll do this."

And we flew down to Atlanta
and recorded the album.

And then we got to go
on tour with Deep Purple.

So we went from playing
bars to playing arenas.

We really felt like we made it
at that time, you know?

Little did we know
there's a long way to go

before you really make it.

I always had places
that I wanted to get to.

Deep Purple were my favorite band.

We must have done
probably 8 full tours

with the band.
So, Elf took on the world.

You know, that was the beginning,
certainly for me.

So, over the course

of the next couple of years touring,

Ronnie was always around us.

I fell in love with
the sound of his voice,

then I fell in love
with his personality,

then I fell in love with
him as a human being.

He was great.
He was funny, strong-willed.

And he believed in what he did.

Go for what you believe in,
and that's what Ronnie was.

He was...
he was a hard fist coming at you.

You know, I just loved the guy.

I just genuinely loved him.

It was born into him
from generations of eons

of lifetimes ago

to be...kind.

Growing up a Deep Purple fan,

it's just, like, they were the biggest

and the fucking baddest
of all the musicians

on the planet.

And... And fucking Blackmore.
Oh, my fucking God.

Ritchie Blackmore...

he's like the "Deep" in Deep Purple.

Uh, he's a mystery within a riddle.

He's not the easiest
man to get on with.

I barely saw Ritchie in Deep Purple

when I was in the band.

Ritchie was an isolator,
and this is in the days

where there was no
separate dressing rooms.

Well, he had his own dressing room.

He stayed at different hotels, basically.

And he never partook
in any group endeavors.

No after dinner parties, no...
No.

Blackmore left Purple

because they were going
in a more funk direction.

I was going to leave Deep Purple

no matter what because I didn't
respect that type of music

that we were getting into,

but luckily at the same time,
I met Ronnie.

Ritchie and I really had

the same kind
of musical feelings.

We were engrossed in
the classical kind of music,

Bach especially.

And we felt that there was
a great place in music

to kind of revive
that mystical, magical aura

and put it into
today's kind of, uh, context.

Ritchie left and went to start,
you know,

putting Rainbow together
with the guys in Elf,

you know, pretty much.

By the time Rainbow gets going,

you got the Mount
Rushmore of heavy Rock...

Purple, Sabbath, Zeppelin.

All of them shared
a common denominator

in the sense that they were
all coming from the blues.

Ronnie James Dio
and Ritchie Blackmore wanted

to explore this kind of
neoclassical heavy Rock music

that is something way beyond,

so Rainbow is taking
this spaceship to a new place.

As a teenager,
I came from an abusive family,

physically and verbally abusive,

in and out of hospitals
and stitches and, um, surgeries.

So, music was
extremely important to me

because I had no one.

I remember I was in a car.
Deep Purple had just broken up.

Disco was starting
to make its scene.

The world was upside down.

And all of a sudden,

"Men on the Silver Mountain"
comes on the radio.

And I was like, "Yeah!"

You know,
you're just all fired up.

Ritchie Blackmore was back.

Then, I first heard
Ronnie James Dio's voice,

and I was like,
"Who the hell is that?"

He was like a whole universe

that was concealed
within one man.

And so at one point,
the world was upside down,

and it turned it
right side up again.

This is not just another Rock band.

It's gonna take what
we used to call "heavy Rock"

into a whole vista that
really hasn't existed before.

And it was all
about this dynamic

between
this incredible guitarist

and this extraordinary singer

that almost
everybody had never heard of.

I remember going to
Munich to do an album,

and Ritchie was
in the same studio.

And he said,
"Oh, I gotta play you a song."

"Stargazer," full blast.

I was blown away.
That was like a masterpiece.

Ronnie sang about
mystical, magical stars

and universe and dreams.

That's what I do with my music.
I'm a narrator.

I give people avenues
which they can go down.

Safe avenues.

I don't shove it
down their throats.

They're your dreams
to try to attain.

I don't tell them
this is what they must do.

So, a narrator is what I am.

In the "Runaways" days,
I would put on "Stargazer."

All my dreams and all
my hopes would come out.

That gave me all the strength

and all the power
I ever needed

in guitar playing and music

and just my everyday shit.

Even though Ronnie
could really sing blues

if he wanted to,

lyrically, he was never
the victim in his lyrics.

It was more of a sage.

You can see, but you're blind

Someone turn the sun around

What you can see in your mind

The gates of Babylon

And the things we
wrote were so different.

That was the band, you know,
I wanted to be in forever.

That was my chance to do
what I was born to do,

which is to write
classically oriented

Ronnie was now firmly embedded

into the Gothic
and medieval Rock of Rainbow.

He'd found his niche.
He'd found his new character.

Well, here we are...

the famous
Rainbow Bar and Grill.

Uh, land of fruits and nuts,

and, uh, they always
used to say that.

Moving and, uh, it was...

it still is the place to be
on Sunset Strip.

I came to Los Angeles in around '74.

I got a job in a... in a diner,

and then I was doing
a little bit of acting.

I didn't mean to
do acting, actually.

Uh, I went with a girlfriend
of mine,

and we went there, uh, as, um,

stand-in, what do you call it?
Uh...

Extras?

Extras.
Yeah, we went in as extras.

It was a movie called
Death Race 2000.

And this guy that I had to rub

his shoulders and stuff,
he was telling me that

he had written a movie and it
was gonna be a big time.

And I thought,
"Yeah, yeah, right, whatever."

It actually turned out
to be Sylvester Stallone.

You schmuck.

And then, I met a-a girl
at a party and she said,

"Well, why don't you
get a job at The Rainbow?"

We had everyone in here...

Led Zeppelin,
Deep Purple, The Who.

Anyone you could possibly
think of was in here.

So this is the table
where it all happened.

This is where
I met Ronnie, uh, with Ritchie,

and he introduced me
to Ronnie.

And they invited me to go
to a party afterwards

up at their house,
and so I went up there.

We talked, and, uh,
followed me around a lot.

I said,
"He's too short for me."

But then he talked to me more,

and we talked on the phone,
and Ronnie being Ronnie,

he's a very personal person,
he was so interesting

and such a very wonderful person

who loved animals as I did.

He love to talk about books,
movies, uh, everything.

I think I fell in love
with his brain, actually,

and the way he was,
his graciousness.

You felt the same way

And then he went
on tour with Rainbow.

And then he asked me
to go on the road with him.

I'd only known him for
a few weeks, and I said,

"No, I can't quit my job.

"I'll come
for a couple of days,"

which ended up
being a couple of months,

which ended up being
for the rest of my life.

We were both young when
we were experiencing the road.

And it was fun for a while,

and then it got
a little bit tense.

Rainbow are enormous in Japan.

Rainbow are bigger in Japan
than The Stones.

Rainbow are huge
in Britain and Europe.

Rainbow are not huge in America.

In America,
Rainbow never got there

with Ronnie as the singer,

and I know that that bothered
Blackmore tremendously.

And he was consumed

with getting Rainbow
on U.S. radio.

Long Live Rock 'n' Roll
was the last Rainbow album.

They're working on
the next one, early stages.

Ritchie decided
it was time to get a hit.

I was staying at
Bruce's house one day.

And he played me a song,
"Since You've Been Gone."

Since you've been gone,
since you've been gone

He said,
"Well, Ritchie wants to do it."

I said, "Get outta here.

"After...
after what he's done?"

You know, especially
with Rainbow Rising,

how could he want to do this?

You know, Ronnie spent,
you know,

the first 10, 15 years
of his career

putting on a suit,
looking for the hit song.

You know, this is
something he'd left behind

many years ago

and believed that the unique
selling point of Rainbow

had nothing to do with
"Since You Been Gone, Baby."

And Ronnie spoke up.

He stayed true to himself,

and I think it really
pissed off a few people.

It got very tense,

and so Ronnie
was actually fired.

Since you've been gone,
since you've been gone

That was the time

where Rainbow
did get airplay in America.

It wasn't with Ronnie.

For Ronnie on a personal level,
it was a disaster.

He and Wendy were in a situation

where the house they lived in,

you know,
was owned by the band.

Uh, Ronnie didn't
even see any royalties.

This is a guy who
co-wrote all the big songs.

Ronnie didn't get
any royalties from Rainbow

until after he died.

So they had no money.

You know, Ronnie was
a very, very proud, man.

He didn't want to admit
that he'd been hurt by this.

He didn't want to admit
that maybe he'd blown it.

I was a young Sabbath fan.
I remember watching

Don Kirshner's Rock concerts,
seeing them do,

"Never Say Die" live
without lip syncing.

You could tell that Ozzy
was sounding a little rough

and kind of just
doing that penguin clap,

you know,
just running around, just,

looks like a wind-up toy
after a while.

Black Sabbath is
pretty much yesterday's news

in the late '70s.

The original Black Sabbath

is some of the greatest metal
ever made.

No one was disputing that.

But at that point,
ten years into the business,

coming off of a couple
lackluster records,

beat up from the road,
it was a mess at that time.

Things weren't working out
at the end of the '70s for us.

I think it was probably
a lot of different things.

Disarray.
Maybe "disillusionment"

might be a better word.

We'd been in
Rock 'n' Roll for years, man.

All of them were very badly riddled

with drug problems.

Ozzy was considered, like,
a huge mess and can't sing,

can't write, can't do this.

He was just a crazy dude
from Birmingham,

like a juvenile delinquent.

He was never a professional,

and that's what
was great about him.

And Ozzy's a sweetheart.
We all know that.

But he... he was crazy in...
in the '70s.

I mean,
one night at the Rainbow,

he set himself on fire
at a booth in the Rainbow.

Fire extinguisher came out.
He could have died.

He's laughing his ass off.

And... And Oz,
he came to such a place.

He needed to leave.

Ozzy leaves,
and everybody was just like...

"Ok, so that's it,
they're done.

"Black Sabbath is just done."

So, by the end of the '70s,

Ronnie and Wendy
take off for L.A.

Ronnie would not
go down the, you know,

"Hey, baby,
let's have a hit," route.

He's already in his 30s.

He's already been around
the block a zillion times.

He's got no career.

I mean, you know, "What the fuck
am I gonna do?"

But the Rainbow
seems to have been

such a lucky place for him.

You know,
he meets Wendy in the Rainbow.

And now who does he
meet in the Rainbow one night?

Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath.

Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath,
who has just sacked Ozzy.

At the Rainbow
Bar and Grill, I met Tony.

Saw him and I went
to the rehearsal place.

I only went up there
just to say, "Hello."

He came over to the house

and, um, I played him
a bit of the stuff,

some of the riffs I got.

And, uh, he said, "Oh, let me
have a go at that."

Went off to the other room and wrote

the beginning
and a verse to a song called,

"Children the Sea."

He'd walk out and just sing.

You know,
this voice would come out.

I mean, he was just,
you know, unbelievable.

When he first
got offered the job

in Black Sabbath, he was like,

"I don't know if
I like this music or not."

And I said, "We have
$800 left in the bank.

You love this music."

And so he...

he joined the band,
and he did love the music.

This was going into a band that to me,

had been the Heavy Metal band,

a band that didn't
apologize for coming to town.

It just stepped on buildings
when it came to town.

And to be included in that band
was very special to me.

Takin' over for Ozzy in Sabbath?

Can you imagine the pressure?

To replace a singer is...
really a...

It can go either way.

And then putting in Ronnie,
in a tough spot, really.

You know, again,
I'm a very positive person.

I said to them,

"They're never gonna say
anything bad about you.

They're only gonna
say something bad

about the new guy who came in.

And my shoulders
are big enough to take it.

You know what we'll do? We're
gonna write some great songs.

Don't worry about it.
I'll take care of it."

At this point, I'm working
for the biggest, uh,

Rock and Heavy Metal
P.R. company in the U.K.

Suddenly, it comes 'round,
"Sabbath have sacked Ozzy,

but they're gonna bring
Ronnie James Dio in."

And there was
a lot of blowback.

"Where's Ozzy?
This guy can't be Ozzy."

From the outside looking in,

it doesn't sound promising.

It does not sound promising.

They had to rise above
and create an album

that was far above anything

that they had
done in the past.

You could think it's good,
you could think it's bad

but you don't know
until the audience, the fans,

they're going to tell you
if it's good or not.

As a fan, you're
established to the singer,

the drummer, the guitar player,
whoever...

that's the band.

And if there's something
that's different,

what's going on, you know?

Is it even gonna work?
Is it even gonna connect?

Now, of course, there's
always gonna be a lot of, like,

die-hard Sabbath followers
who are like,

"No, there's only one singer
of Black Sabbath."

And then, all of a sudden,
here comes Ronnie James Dio.

I think it's a creation that
happened many realms ago

that Ronnie would be
the singer in Sabbath.

It's all been written in stone.

He was supposed to be there.

He was supposed to replace Ozzy.

He was supposed
to take that microphone.

He was supposed to write
"Heaven and Hell."

When it actually starts to
blast out through the speakers

and it's like, "Well, let's see
what you got, dude." You know?

Do me a wrong,
you're a bringer of evil

And then when everybody
had saw what Ronnie had got...

it's like, "Ok."

There was just like,
this is what I have

always wanted to hear were
those Black Sabbath riffs,

with Ronnie's voice.

Everything about it was great.

I mean, "Heaven and Hell"
is probably to this day

my favorite Sabbath record.

It's a masterpiece in...
in a lot of... in a lot of ways.

And it's a very,
very important record.

One of the best albums ever.
Period.

Ronnie was a big dreamer,

but he wasn't afraid
to tell you,

if you're gonna fall,
you can't be frightened.

You've got to get up
and do it again.

I made the statement that was,

that I've
always wanted to make,

which was, "The world
is full of kings and queens

who blind your eyes
and steal your dreams.

And that all
means they're your dreams.

If you have those dreams,

don't let
anyone rob you of those,

those wonderful ideas."

That statement
has been something

that I've tried to
live with in my life.

This is Ronnie's
very iconic white blouse.

He wore this when he was...

the first round
of Black Sabbath in the '80s.

He loved this shirt. He loved...

always loved these sleeves,
these medieval sleeves.

Going into Sabbath with the sleeves

and the drama,

he was able to captivate people
with an amazing presence.

Well, yeah,
it did become more mystical.

And we built up
the stage show,

basically around the image of...

uh, he had got this
theatrical way about him.

I was always a little bit
intimidated by Ronnie

because of not only his voice,

but everything else
around him.

He projected something,
you know.

"Oh, my God, there's Dio?"

But on those occasions
that we did get a chance

to sit and talk,
he was just a very comforting,

welcoming kind of a guy
in every aspect.

Every time I was with him,
we'd laugh.

We would laugh our asses off.

Clownish behavior,
boyish, you know?

And that...
that behavior was very rampant.

He was just Ronnie.
He was just mellow.

But when he sang,
he became a character.

'Cause Dio,
not Ronnie and Ronnie James,

Dio was a huge character.

Ozzy Osbourne, obviously,
was there before me,

was throwing the peace sign
around everywhere.

I felt something else
was, you know,

was needed to incorporate me

into my own thing
with that band.

You know,
I worked with Dio in Sabbath

as his publicist.

And I'll never forget this.

Ronnie said,
"I thought about this thing,

and I think it could be
a bridge between Ozzy and me."

And he said,
"What do you think of this?"

I said, "What's that?"

He goes,
"I'm thinking, it's like Ozzy,

spirit of Ozzy is still here.

This is still Black Sabbath,
but it's me now."

I went, "That's brilliant."

It was iconic as
soon as you saw it.

Even if you didn't know
what it meant, it was iconic.

What's he doing?

It became a trademark
for him, you know, to do that.

And... And the fans,
you know, attached to that.

Now, in a situation which is
not even involving metal,

you see crowds,
and they're like, "Ah."

I mean, even today,
you go on Facebook,

and there's all these kind
of middle-aged women going,

When you see somebody do that,

you know where it
came from, you know,

who originated that.

People think this
means something

other than what it really is.

If you'd all join us,
I'll tell you what it means.

Ronnie who'd always,

he'd grown up in
the Italian family, of course,

would walk around
with his grandmother.

And his grandmother
was very superstitious

and she would walk around
going like this,

to ward off evil
or give the evil eye

or ward the evil eye off,
which is called the Malocchio.

So, this, what we now
call the devil horns,

that is Ronnie James Dio,
and it was out something

his fierce-looking grandmother
used to do.

It means, "Long live
Rock 'n' Roll." Put 'em up!

And suddenly,
by the end of every show,

the whole audience
was doing it back.

And again, it was
another one of those moments,

I thought, "This is
interesting shit here.

You know,
this is really interesting.

He's gonna work this
until it is just his band."

And that's exactly what he did.

So come with me,
I'll give you the desire

But first,
you're gonna burn in fire

The rest,
as they say, is history.

I mean, I'm not the only person
who's ever used it, of course,

but you know, I must say

that I've been
the one who's used it most

and probably
the most known for it now.

It's only meant as
a, you know, connection

between the...
the music that we play,

which is hard and heavy
and pretty damn evil.

So, uh, that's what
that's all about, anyway.

The whole thing
was difficult for me.

And Ronnie knew that
I was, um,

feeling uncomfortable
with certain things.

I really missed Oz.

I felt like
I'd lost a best friend.

And so I was grieving there,

and my drinking
had accelerated.

And that plays
a huge part in my departure

from Black Sabbath.

But Ronnie was
supportive towards me

as a... as a person throughout.

So, that's how
I first met Ronnie,

and we hit it off right away.

He's from upstate New York...
Cortland.

And I'm from Brooklyn, New York.

And, uh, Tony and Geezer...

I couldn't
understand them very well.

I was pretty young,

and they were kind of
scary-looking

with the mustaches and,
you know, "These are the guys."

And they talk to me and I go,

"Ronnie, what did they say?"

I'd keep asking Ronnie,

"What'd he say?
What does that mean? "Blimey"?"

So Sabbath follows
Heaven and Hell

with Mob Rules.

Mob Rules
is an unbelievable record.

"Sign of the Southern Cross."
Look at my arms.

Just saying the name
of the song does this to me.

Alright!

We finished Mob Rules,

the tour was fantastic,
so everything's going great.

Then,
I don't know what happened,

but it's business between
those guys, three of 'em.

A lot of times
success breeds problems,

and that happened.

I felt that that really did happen,

that, uh, all of the bad things

that... that could be used
were used, you know,

from drug abuse
to, um, mental abuse.

I'm not sure what happened.

It was, uh...
I mean, we were all, uh, doing

quite a bit
of nose powder at the time.

This is the era of cocaine.
Everybody in the music business

is doing too much cocaine,
but not at all, Ronnie Dio.

That was... It was never...
never his thing, and they clashed.

You know, sorry.

It... It got difficult for
him behind the scenes.

Egos getting involved.

We recorded the Live Evil album,

and the mixing of that record
became a problem.

When we're
doing the Live album,

he did get sort of...
upset about things.

Ronnie could be
fierce, very fierce.

He cared about
every single detail.

I've heard a lot
of rumors, you know,

that I'm a control freak
and you know,

that, of course, led to, uh,

"I think we should
let Tony mix this album."

In other words,

"Your services are
not required anymore."

Dio joined the band,

and he turned it into
something incredible.

But don't forget,
Tony's still thinking,

"Yeah, but I built this band
for ten years

before you came along
and I offered you the gig."

Another gram of coke, and it
gets even worse than that.

Two more grams and, "I don't
even know who the fuck you are.

Why don't you fuck off
and back where you came from?"

It just got to the point

where Ronnie
wasn't happy anymore.

It was his choice to leave 'em
and he left.

Lonely is the word

He had
been through Rainbow,

and even when he found
the sweet smell of success,

it turned sour so quick.

And then he does it again
with Sabbath,

and it turned sour so quick.

You know, it was a very
traumatic time for me.

You don't go from being,
you know,

one of the biggest
bands in the world

to not having a job anymore,
and what do you do?

To me,
it's always what comes next

and what your ideas are,

how many chances
you want to take.

I had no one, you know?
So I thought,

"Well, better get
off your ass and go out

and start writing songs
on your own."

I had a garage in the back,
and off the side of the garage

was this tiny little shed
kind of thing.

And so I went in there
and went to Radio Shack

and put all these little
boxes and plugged things

into my little
reel-to-reel tape recorder,

and that sounded so terrible
but you know, I loved it.

I woke up and I went out
in that horrible little place

that I set up as
a little living room.

I can do this.

And so for me,
it was like a real genesis.

heavy Rock music

I was a wife then.
I wasn't a manager.

And then he said, "Ok,
so now you're managing me."

Oh, this is
like, wait a minute. Um...

I manage your affairs,

but I don't know
about managing a band,

but I figured if
he's got confidence in me,

then I'll do the best I can.

In fact, I think it
was Ritchie who said,

"You know, she just
wants to make him a star."

Yeah, I did.
Yeah, that was my goal.

One night, Ronnie goes,

"Look, I'm gonna
put my own band together.

"You want to join me?"
I went, "Wow. Yeah."

When we put it together,
it was just me and him.

He's playing bass.
We played "Holy Diver."

Ronnie had written
a bunch of material,

and they begin the search
for the hotshot guitar player

which everybody had
to have at that time.

So we went to London.

Vinny and I went,
going around to clubs.

Here's a band playing.
Let's go see them.

We went to all
these different clubs.

And I knew
the kind of player I wanted.

I didn't like
the style of playing

that American guitar players
were using at the time.

They all wanted to be
as fast as Eddie Van Halen.

I mean, after having played
with Tony and with Ritchie,

I wanted someone
who could be fast,

but had to have romance
in his soul.

I said, "You know what?

"I'm gonna give
Jimmy a call, Jimmy Bain."

Because of course, Jimmy had
played with me in Rainbow.

And I thought,
who better to know

guitar players than Jimmy?"

So the call was only to ask him
if he knew guitar players.

Jimmy just assumed that he was
gonna be the bass player.

So, he was.

Jimmy called
this guitar player's house

at two in the morning,
a young shredder from Ireland,

this guy, Vivian Campbell.

And the thing
that sold Ronnie,

we were jammin', and then
Viv was all out of things

to play so he played,
like, a Chuck Berry thing.

Just in this little section.
That was it.

The missing ingredient
was Vivian Campbell,

the guitar hero.

So, now we've become
a family in a band, Dio.

These are tapes
that I found that are, uh...

from the beginning.

You know,
I haven't heard this stuff.

"Jam."

Let's see what's on here.

1, 2,
1, 2, 3...

Jam!

So, we needed
a place to rehearse,

so Ronnie got this place
called "Sound City."

It was like every night
at seven o'clock

going to the boys club.
They let us do anything there.

They had candy machines.

We'd go in...
"You want some candy?"

"Yeah." Boom-boom-boom
till all the candy fell out.

You know, pinball games.

We got to make little ramps
so you never lost a ball.

Have some drinks
and smoked some pot.

And we were playing.
Life was fantastic.

Straight through the heart

So, he's singing that
in the room.

You go, "Holy shit."

What was the feeling
like with the band back then?

Oh, it was great.

It was such a wonderful
family atmosphere,

just a magical situation

where everybody
loved being in that room,

playing, and we experimented.

So this one's a version
of "Rainbow in the Dark."

There's no
keyboard part in it.

Ronnie's still
testing the waters

with where
the vocals should go.

When there's lightning

It always
breaks me down

We had
"Rainbow in the Dark."

We're playing it back.

And Jimmy's got
a cigarette in his mouth

with a big ash ready to fall

and a Jim Beam and Coke.

And he goes over to
this little shitty keyboard

of Ronnie's and he goes,

And he wrote that part
without the ash fallin'.

What? That's killer, dude.

Um, "Rainbow in the Dark."

uh, it's a song that
I really disliked.

And when it was finished,

I announced to
everyone that I was going

to take a razor blade
and just cut the tape up.

And so
I went for the razor blade.

And they all went,
"No, no. Don't, don't."

And I didn't do that,

and I thanked them
over and over and over.

And so, you know, kudos
to them forever and ever.

We were just
having time of our life,

and the roadies used to go,

"This is going platinum, dude."
Nah, never.

At that time,
you had vinyl records

so on the first um,
"Holy Diver,"

we both wanted
to push the edges,

and the record company
were not that happy about it,

but we've got this idea.

We know what we want.

In the '80s, I was working,
uh, with Ronnie and Wendy

on pictures
and just in general,

doing stuff that they
wanted me to do and everything.

I get a phone call from
this guy named Gene Hunter.

He says, "Wendy gave me
your phone number.

And do you know
of a good cove to go to?"

I said, "Cove?"

We ended up down at a place
called Paradise Cove.

So we get down there,

and he's got this wet suit
'cause it's really cold.

And on the top
is a priest outfit,

and he's got the shitload
of chains, a lot of chains.

I'm going, "What's he doin'?"

So, he found a spot,

and he's trying
to drag these chains

into this middle
of this little cove.

It looked like he was
standing on a slippery rock

or something, but he
kept bobbing up and down.

I'm not taking pictures.

I'm just... He said,
"Take the fucking picture.

Take pictures!"

And he's bobbing
and going up and down.

So, I'm taking,
and snap, snap, snap.

"Are you alright?
Are you coming back up?

Oh, crap. Are you..."

"Take the pic..."
So he's... Glug-glug.

I don't know if I took
more than a roll and a half

before it's like,
this is not good.

This is now bad

because it's like
he's trying to breathe.

And he's trying
to throw me the chain

to bring him in,
but he can't lift it.

So I'm slipping.
He's drowning or falling

and going under again,
and it's like...

So, somehow I yank him.
He pulls, and he gets up.

He... He's like, half-drowned.

I got the pictures developed,
and I turned them over to him,

and he said,
"I'm working on the cover

for this 'Holy Diver' record."

So after the record
came out, I'm like,

"That's what we were doing."

That was him. He was
literally fighting the waves.

And I was like,
"This is so beyond awesome."

So Ronnie now, he's been the singer

of two of the biggest
Heavy Metal bands in history.

Now, they say three times
a charm, but not in music.

You know?
This doesn't happen, man.

But this was Dio.

He's determined that either
he goes down in flames

or he finds glory.

Ronnie and Wendy
have got enough money

to make this album,
put together a tour,

pay for it themselves.

They bet the farm on it.
They really did.

Huge risk. Uh, we didn't know
what was going to happen.

We actually mortgaged our house

to take the first tour out.

He had to start the whole
circuit of playing anywhere.

The first show was Antioch, California.
It was a barn.

He played Bronco Bowl in Dallas,

which is a bowling alley.

So we'd like to do a song for you

called "Rainbow in the Dark."
Let's go!

It was just crazy.
You could feel it, the excitement.

The radio stations here was
playing the shit out of that

first record, and you just
heard it every 10 minutes.

We did Santa Monica Civic, sold out in,

I think, in an hour,
and then they did an in-store

after that where they
smashed through the window,

there was so many fans.

I think, because of the
introduction of a new band

just under Ronnie's name

with a new, young
hotshot guitar player...

Dio, the band,
it was an introduction for him

to a whole new world,
a whole new start for him,

this rising scene,
at the time, of Heavy Metal.

This is where we'd always sit,

and there's pictures
of Ronnie and Rainbow there.

Oh, how young we were.

So young. Babyface.
They're all babyfaces.

Oh.

There were some
of these songs that I think

reflect my own trauma
at the time as well.

I mean, you know,
I had some personal things

that were going on that
bothered me quite a bit.

Yeah, in the beginning,

it was, like, a normal relationship.

Everything was hunky dory,
you know.

And then, things changed
between Wendy and Ronnie,

you know?

You know, obviously it's
very hard being married

to a musician for a start,

and managing him,
as well, was very hard.

Ronnie was a wonderful, sweet, loving,

giving person,
but he was a perfectionist.

He had dreams,
and he was gonna fulfill them.

And if you were not to his standard,

you were going to get it.

He would give it to his crew,
his band, to me.

So, we had a lot of fights,
a lot of, um...

I'll leave for a while,
come back for a while,

back and forth and back and
forth during our relationship.

You know, their relationship
was unique. Let's face it.

It wasn't traditional by any means.

It wasn't just an
artist-manager relationship,

and it wasn't just a husband
and wife relationship.

It was a lot of very complex things.

Any relationship has ups and downs,

and we had many ups and downs,

but we were always a team.

I had his back, he had my back,

so we were gonna
fight to the end together.

In the early '80s,

Los Angeles was just the
most exciting place on Earth.

The early '80s were badass.
They were badass.

It was magic.
All of a sudden, the Strip came alive.

Rock bands everywhere,
and there were parties

every night,
but everybody was into music.

Everybody was also kind
of into recreational things

that perhaps weren't
as healthy for you.

Most of all, there was just
all this great Rock music

and all these great bands.

And my distinct memory
is Ronnie kind of being

in the center of all that.

You know, he fit in in a different way.

Ronnie wasn't a guy that was like,

"Hey, let's go out and chase chicks,"
you know?

Always the conversation seemed
to go to the same thing... music.

I think he acted more
like a role model.

There was this whole
undercurrent of metal bands

around L.A. that looked up to him,

and he was aware of that,

and he was very
nurturing to everybody.

"Are you doing your best?

Are you doing the greatest thing

you could possibly be doing?"

Globally, metal was thriving,

was getting on the radio,
it was selling.

And it's getting introduced
to a lot of people

on what was a new thing
at the time called MTV.

The advantages of the
MTV video explosion,

you can't understate it, really,

'cause it... it had a lot of value.

When I was in Quiet Riot,
"Cum On Feel the Noise"

was on every half-hour.
It's timing.

Ronnie had just put
together the Dio band,

and all of a sudden he's
getting the MTV exposure.

"Rainbow in the Dark"
became the one that

MTV played all the time.

Ronnie loved that one

because it made him look really tall.

Him in the white boots on
the roof walking around,

I was like,
"I want white boots like that."

Record companies
would dump all this money

into the music videos.

I mean, now if you had to
look back, you could probably

do something way
better with your cellphone.

It's true.

So, he was at the forefront of that,
but he... he looked mean.

You know, he looked tough.

He was one of the very few artists

that actually had
that metal image going.

You know, look at Dokken,
"Breaking the Chains,"

They got me chained down
in a kimono and I'm like,

"Oh boy."
And then you cut to Dio...

That was a totally different vibe.

Ronnie was pretty much all
about just going out there

and being as Metal
as you could ever be.

I got this mysterious phone
call from these producers

that wanted me to come
over to Warner Bros.

They told me that they
had had great success

with "Holy Diver," and they
wanted to do something epic

to launch "The Last in Line."

So, Jeff, the Warner Bros.
executive, popped a cassette in,

and I'm going,
"Oh, this is kind of cool,"

And there's this moment
in that song where...

We are coming

And then Ronnie
uncorks his amazing voice,

and I'm not going to
try to even imitate it.

You know, a chill goes down
my spine, and I thought,

"Ok, I... there could
be a video in this song."

Jeff pitched me an idea.

He wanted to have a video
about teenagers in hell.

So, uh, the studio wants to do
a video about teenagers in hell,

and Ronnie had a much
more philosophical take on it.

And he basically told me,
"Well, from birth to death,

we're all in a line.

And imagine if you're the last in line."

And then he says, "And of course,

you've got to put Murray in it."

Murray? who's Murray?"

Well, Murray,

you think his name would
be Damien or fucking Lucifer.

Ronnie one day, said "Murray."
So, he became Murray.

And so, I basically came up

with this slightly wonky idea
which is about a, you know,

a normal teenage kid.

He's, you know, going around.

He's got his delivery,
and he goes into the elevator,

and he pushes the button.

And I kind of took
The Wizard of Oz motif

of, you know, being swept
up in a tornado and inverted it.

I got the teenagers in hell,
and I got the line

and, um, Murray in the distance.

All the elements of
Ronnie's career seem

to come together with Dio,

the culmination of his
extraordinary presence

and extraordinary ability to write songs.

They weren't top 40 songs,
but the key factor

is that he knew how to connect.

That was the key,
that very direct connection

with his audience, which fans felt.

Is that good?
Is that in focus?

You got that shit?

I got it.

Where I really came
online as a-a metal head,

you know, '80s,
that period was real, like...

Devil-heavy.

Faceless creatures in robes,
from my study,

symbolize Druids, which, of course,

you go back to, uh, Satan worship.

It was Satan.
There was something extra seductive

and... and powerful about that.

Looking back on it now,
there is some humor.

Alright now, now you're
going to play this backwards?

Right. And then you'll
hear there's power in Satan.

There is power in Satan

Did y'all hear that?
I heard it!

My mom was a little concerned

with my consumption of Devil music.

And she gave me this
tape that was a preacher

who was talking about evil music.

Daily, young people are bombarded

by distorted visual images
and twisted music messages.

It was supposed to, like,
turn me away from the evil ways

but I was like, "Oh."

It was just sort of this rad
tape that turned me on

to new music that I
hadn't listened to before.

It had the opposite effect of
what it was supposed to do.

Dio had some Devil.

Dio's Devil was a
little more theatrical,

like a Shakespearean Devil.

It's the thing that makes
all great stories interesting

is like, how good is your villain?

What's Star Wars without Darth Vader?

How good is the Bible
without the Devil?

Dude, no spice.

There was blowback
of people thinking,

"Oh, he's just some
sort of demonic guy."

I'm sure the evangelical church,
for instance,

in the States, isn't too
happy about what you do.

Not too pleased, no.

Well, they think that, uh, I'm the Devil

or this particular sign means

I'm putting a curse on you.

And what does that sign mean,
with two fingers?

Oh, I just cursed you,
and you're gonna die in hell.

Well, there's a myth that
the Dio logo says devil

when turned upside down.

That's not true at all.
Not at all.

Christians ruin everything.

I'm a... I'm an ordained minister,
you know.

I believe in God and
Jesus and all that stuff.

They just ruin everything.
They're idiots.

You want it to be dark.
You want it to be scary.

You want it to be powerful.
You want it to be intense.

For Ronnie, it was a tool.
He knew how to communicate.

I don't believe in
either heaven and hell

as a place to go to.

At the end of the day, if we all
just believe in the same thing,

you know, that we've got a
choice between good and evil.

Ok, make your choice.
That's all it's about to me.

The whole good and evil thing,

it came from a very
deep place within him

where he wanted to empower people.

He authentically believed
that the weaker guy

needs to stand up for himself.

You can accomplish
anything without people

influencing you to do stuff
that you don't want to do.

As a kid,
I just remember how strong

and resonant and powerful it was.

I've always felt to be
somewhat of a spokesman

for people who may be lonely,

maybe have been looked down upon.

His heart was for the downtrodden

and the black sheep of the globe.

He was our voice because
that's how he saw himself.

Climb the rainbow

You're a star

We are forever you and I

We're stars

At the time, uh, they were
doing, uh, "We are the World."

Ronnie had wanted to be part of that,

but we were nasty,
Heavy Metal, dirty people.

We are fire and stone

And we all want to touch a rainbow

You know, often, metal is marginalized

and thought of as
lowbrow or whatever.

So, many times those
artists are not invited

to the charity events
and the charity recordings.

So, Ronnie decided to
do his own Heavy Metal,

"We are the World,"
and it was awesome.

This project came about
because of a radio-thon

that the station KLOS held for 2 days.

Our bass player, Jimmy Bain,

and guitar player, Vivian Campbell,

noticed the lack of people

representing our genre
of music, our kind of stuff.

Ronnie just wanted to
show that we wanted...

We want to help, too,

but do something
that's a little bit different.

Every single musician
that made it in the '80s,

you know, we grew
up listening to Ronnie.

So, any time Ronnie would say,
"Listen, I need you guys,"

and we'll say, "Yes, we're there,"

because we wanted to be like him.

He was a hero to all of us.

You can think about
anybody who was anybody

on top at that time, and they were there.

Do you know a lot of the people

involved with it?

Well, I'm meeting
them out there, aren't I?

I met the Yngwie Malmsteen
person, you know. He's great.

I like the way he puts
"Yngwie J. Malmsteen"

on his album,

so you know, you don't
confuse him with all the other

Yngwie Malmsteens in the business.

You've got all of these people.

We all know about each other

and what we're famous
for doing or not doing.

Ronnie was the captain
of the ship, and he steered us

through what could have
been an absolute catastrophe.

But singers and songs
will never change it alone

You can do better than that.
Yeah.

Everybody's giving a thousand
percent. You know, you can't...

"It's just a couple of notes."

You can't do that because
there's Ronnie Dio,

and he's the boss.

'Cause we are fire

'Cause we are fire

And I have to say, I admit it, you know.

I was scared shitless.

I'm like,
"I'm playing with Ronnie James Dio."

Shit.

Does "Dokken" really
rhyme with "rockin'"?

There's some debate in here,

but we'll sort that out later.
Ok, here we go.

I'm just nervous, man.

Fuckin' Ronnie James Dio
producin', I'll stand out here.

Goddamn. Never in my
wildest dreams have I thought

this would ever happen to me.
Good man.

Great. Right. Nice job.
I'm proud of you.

Mark.

We should have...
Rhymes with "rockin'."

The Hear 'N Aid song
is about 8 minutes long,

in its full length version,

and I think about 6 and
a half of those minutes

are guitar soloing going back and forth,

'cause there's about 15
players taking different sections.

But I don't know.
I mean, I'm such a fan

that I love every note of it.

I'm totally down with it to this day.

And I love that it showed that just

'cause you're into metal,
it doesn't mean you're a moron.

You can still have social issues.

You can still care about things.

You can still care about people.

After you stop listening
to this, to this record,

to what I say,
people will still be starving,

and only you can change it.

So, if this is the vehicle
to make you think,

to make you help another
human being, then so be it.

We've done our part.

We actually made,
I don't know, it was like over

a million dollars that we
got to send to, uh, to Africa.

It's easy to look back on that stuff

with a snicker now, but at that time,

that was the coolest thing in the world.

You know,
I can't name all the Rock stars

who were in that video.
Rock 'n' roll was king.

MTV was king.
This was our prime.

Hello. I'm Ronnie James Dio.

We're about to embark
on our Sacred Heart tour.

It's a show that we feel
is the most spectacular

that we've ever produced.

And when we get to your town,
we're hoping to transport you

back to the days of
knights and dragons,

damsels in distress, crystal balls,

and lots and lots of magic.

We feel we've got a great show for you.

I hope to see all of you really soon.

The original Dio
band made a 3rd record

called Sacred Heart,
and the music videos got bigger,

the stage show got bigger.

He knew how to dream,
make that dream materialize,

and it just kept growing
and growing and growing.

He wanted a bigger
stage set and bigger and more,

and it cost a fortune,
but he wanted it.

We had this huge 18-foot fire
breathing dragon with lasers.

He had this thing
about dragons, you know,

dragons and rainbows.
What a great thing.

You know, I've got leather studs
and whips and chains,

and Ronnie's got
dragons and rainbows.

I wish we could flip.

He would slay the dragon

with a laser sword at the end.

It was absolutely
like going to Disneyland.

Greetings, my children.

Come with me now
and discover the magic

that lies beyond
the sea of dreams.

At that point, Ronnie
had reinvented himself fully

as being the caretaker
of the name, "Dio."

1986, Sacred Heart tour.

I remember bumping
into him on that tour.

I'd never seen him
so full of joy.

I'd never seen him
so fulfilled.

He knew, I think, that he'd...
he'd done something remarkable

with his career at this point.

But it's taken Ronnie,
you know, what,

nearly 40 years to get there.

And Ronnie
defeating the dragon becomes

a kind of metaphor
for the man.

His whole life
had been a battle.

Everything Ronnie had,
he'd had to work for,

fight for, earn.

He's like Muhammad Ali,

the guy that became
world champion 3 times.

And, um, every time
Ronnie slew that dragon,

that was Heavy Metal
is all about... authenticity.

Here he is, top of
the mountain,

and he'd done it
by not writing the hit single.

He'd done it by not kowtowing.

He stuck to his guns,
come what may.

We've had about
five offices, I think,

and I've always
had "Holy Diver,"

uh, which is very,
very precious to me.

The original artwork of "Holy Diver"...

I've always had
that hanging above my desk.

And of course,
gold records is just something

you always hang in your office
and things I'm proud of.

You know,
Ronnie didn't care, you know.

In our house, we never had one
gold record hanging, not one.

He was a humble person.
He thought that was showing off,

so I showed off
for him in my office.

This is his first gold record
that Ronnie ever got

in 1975 for "Love is All,"
which is a song he performed

on The Butterfly Ball.

And then I found a scrapbook.

I think his mum might
have made it.

Wow, this is all Rainbow.

Black Sabbath here.
This is Black Sabbath now.

A lot of, uh,
press releases here on...

Dio.

Those were fun days,
real fun days.

Yes, yes. It was
a great time in our lives.

A great time in our lives.

Well, that's the end
of that book.

Now, the entertainment.

Tonight, we got for you,

you know him, you love him.
He's a neighborhood boy,

Ronnie James Dio
and the Dioski brothers!

Yay!

At this point with
Ronnie's career, you know,

he'd been following his own path
since he was a kid

and reached a kind
of new pinnacle with Dio.

We had a lot of fun
on the first two records,

by the time we were
doing the Sacred Heart album,

it was a very dark record
for us to make.

It was really,
really difficult.

All those fun times
we had at Sound City,

it was a great atmosphere.

It wasn't such a business.

And then,
the business end of this

started getting
really frustrating.

and Viv was the one that would
point it out after a while.

The promise was made
to us that by the third album,

it would be more
of an equitable situation,

and I was...
I was a squeaky wheel.

I mean, the third album came,
and I was the one going...

"Uh, excuse me."

Vivian had just told me
that he wanted more money,

From Ronnie's perspective,
when I'd bring it up to him,

he looked at it
as a young kid who he found

and put on the map
that was being ungrateful

and pulling the leverage play.

Well, you know, you should
get paid for what you do.

And when Sacred Heart
came around, I said,

"What do you got, Viv?
We've had four months off."

"Oh, nothing." "Oh, really?"
"Nope, not a thing."

"Oh, I guess I didn't
pay you enough, then did I?"

Money is not what
music is all about.

Ronnie had years
and years and years of banging

on the doors, and Elf
and Rainbow and everything else.

You can't just have
somebody come in the door

and go, "Oh, yeah, well,
I'm as important as you."

The band was called Dio...

for a reason.

He understands that
whether he likes it or not,

this time I'm the Blackmore,
I'm the Iommi.

He's the boss.

After a while,
Ronnie got tired of it and said,

"We're going to get rid of him
and get somebody else,"

and I'm like, "Are you crazy?"

Back in those days, losing
a band member was a huge deal,

especially a guy
that was a budding guitar hero

in Vivian Campbell.

Yes, it was magical.
It was great in the beginning,

but people
have to go sometimes.

You know,
Vivian Campbell had to go.

I mean. It was Ronnie's band.

You sometimes
get very trapped

by your own existence,
uh, you must maintain.

When you get
to a certain success plateau,

the only thing you can do is
to either try to maintain it

or reach above that.

When I got the call to,
to join, you know,

headlining 20,000-seat arenas
every night,

it was like...

And so back then,
Heavy Metal was going strong.

And that was during
the time that bands came to L.A.

to find their fame and fortune,

and they all got their hair
ran up to, you know,

ten feet and tons of makeup.

This is the reason I am
a Rock 'n' Roll drummer, see?

Because girls like this
hang out with guys like me!

Can you believe it?

Motley Crue, Skid Row.
We looked like girls.

I mean, not just us, but you
know, all that look was huge.

And I'll always say it,
that the Rock scene of the '80s,

we were our own undoing.

It became more important
about their look,

and not the songs...
bands like Poison.

"Unskinny Bop" bop?

Ronnie couldn't
write "Unskinny Bop" bop

if they put a gun to his head.

Dio... he was never a part
of that hair metal thing.

He wasn't singing about
getting laid and doing drugs

and, you know, crap like that.

I mean,
the music was rubbish,

and they destroyed
what the rest of us created.

There's Sacred Heart
and what's the other one?

Dream Evil, I don't know.

Was there another one
after that? I don't know.

Sales, they started going
down, you know?

And MTV, that was built
upon Heavy Metal music,

suddenly went,
"Oh, no more of that."

120 minutes.

Right here,

the 2nd of tonight's
2 world premiere videos.

It's from the Seattle band,
Nirvana.

Here is
the planet's first look at...

"Smells like Teen Spirit."

Basically, right after
Nirvana had their first play

of "Teen Spirit,"
it changed everything.

It needed it.

You know, the MTV toilet
needed to be flushed,

you know and clean up

and... and get something
else in there, you know?

You're talking to a guy

who worked
in Rock radio for decades.

I literally saw the day
the program director comes in

and says, "All of these CDs...
in a box. No more.

Here's what
we're playing now."

There's a big misconception
that the birth of Nirvana

and all that
took down the "hair bands,"

and it certainly did.

But it didn't
discriminate to just that.

It took down everything.
Everybody got hit with that.

I don't care if
you were Black Sabbath,

Judas Priest, Iron Maiden,
whoever you were,

across the board, was one of
the most harsh, abrupt things

I've ever seen in my life.
All of this goes away,

and all of this
is suddenly uncool.

It was like that, cut and dry.

Dio in the box?
Dio was in the box.

somber acoustic instrumental

The '90s
were the darkest period

because he got
dropped from Warner Bros.

Losing a record deal
was devastating.

Absolute devastating.

The music industry
at that time, it was like...

Pfft. "We don't care, we don't
care about you anymore."

For someone like Ronnie,

it did get
a little awkward in the '90s.

Nu Metal and Grunge
became what the public face

of Metal was depicted as.

Underground,
Death Metal, Grindcore,

Black Metal got more intense.

The point being that stuff
like Ronnie James Dio,

people just
kind of maybe said,

"We don't need any of that
stuff. That's dinosaur shit."

Bands like Dio
will find it very difficult.

It's only really
alternate Rock that seems

to be getting
most of the attention.

Where... Where is it going?
God knows. I mean, that's...

A lot of that has
to do with, you know,

with its acceptance, really.

It'll go as far as
people allow us to go.

The mid-'90s,
I remember he came over

to London to do interviews
to promote his latest album.

I had to beg, borrow, and steal
to try and get someone

to interview Ronnie James Dio.

I couldn't get anybody
interested in interviewing him.

That was, like,
a really down time for him.

He didn't feel loved anymore.

Well, because it's
a world that, uh, you know,

it's not a very happy place.

It's a world we live in that's,
uh, just really depressing.

And it couldn't allow me
to talk about dreams

and everything's
going to be wonderful

and the world will be happy.

Just, you know, work hard
and your dreams will come true.

Shit. I look at the
world around me now,

and I see that that's pretty
impossible to happen.

So I couldn't
in my conscience,

write about dreams
and happiness.

I didn't really start going
to his house until the '90s.

I remember going
and taking photos of him,

and that's when
everything was changing.

He noticed it,

because he wasn't
selling out arenas anymore.

I got here because
I believed in the music I made,

and somebody liked it.
So, hey, I got a nice house.

You know, as I told you
many times before,

I don't give a damn
about this house.

What do I care about this?

I could sleep on this table.
I could sleep on the floor.

It's not important.
It's all about playing.

It's all about
playing for people.

It's the only thing
that matters to me.

So, through the hard times,
love what you do.

He's one of those guys I don't
think would have ever retired

cause when you're an artist,
you're an artist.

That's what
you do forever, you know.

You just...you...till you die.

You've got such a long career.

You haven't had any breaks.

No, I never...
I haven't taken vacations.

I don't. I wouldn't
know what to do with myself.

What am I gonna do,
lay on a beach?

Waste...
That's a waste of my life.

Eating, sleeping, and vacations
are a waste of my life.

You only got so many years,
you may as well get

all you can out of it.
Just grind it out,

bring it out, go for it

because I got
a lot more to do yet.

Start with this one.
Title track of Dio LP #2.

This is called
"The Last in Line."

It was very much a
different thing from the '80s.

For you,
we especially do this one.

It's called
"The Last in Line."

But, uh, he would go to
the ends of the Earth

to play in front of people.

And I'd be the one going,
"Oh, Christ, I don't know.

You should think
about this, you know?"

He didn't care if 80 people
showed up to a show or 80,000.

He never
lost sight of the guy

from Cortland, New York,
who, music was his salvation.

He never lost sight of that.

Ronnie never, ever complained.

You know,
he never phoned it in.

That was... He couldn't do that.
It was impossible.

The enthusiasm and the
hunger and the conviction,

it was unbreakable.

Hard Rock was
out of favor. MTV was gone.

We got record deals
on smaller labels.

Ronnie just continued
to keep making records

and keep creating, putting
together some great bands.

There were some great lineups,

people that were
in and out of Dio.

They still did some
great work during that time,

whether it sold anything
or anybody acknowledged it.

Ronnie just kept going.

Think about the miles
that are on that voice.

And I always felt maybe
he would have sort of started

to relax a little bit.

But we did four whole albums,
maybe five DVDs,

and he would be
here every minute,

of every day
for every part of it.

Being in the studio with Ronnie,

it was un-fucking believable.

He was on a level
that some people never get to

in their prime when they're 21.

He would sing with the band

while they were cutting
all day long, every time.

I mean, I told him
a hundred times and said,

"We could just use the vocal
you just sang, you know,

every time they go through it.

You know, you don't
have to keep singing it."

He said, "No, no, no,
I'm singing with the band."

I said, "Ok."
He's such a remarkable person.

There's certain people out
there, people with conviction,

people who have it here.

"This is what I want to do,
and I'm doing it."

And that's all
that should fucking matter,

you know, forever.

I must say,
I'm not going to go away.

No matter what happens.

I'm gonna be here again
to haunt you next year, too.

Perhaps the year after that
and the year after that.

I love to do what I do
very much, and as long as people

will accept me for what I am,
I'll still be back

year after year after year
doing this, and hopefully

getting better at it if I can.

There was always that
hardcore faction of fans.

They'd always be there,

and, uh, he felt
immensely grateful for that.

Dio's the best!

I told him to say that.

If there was 200
people or one person,

he'd treat them as if
he was their long lost friend.

And sometimes we
used to argue about that

because he'd be, like,

talking to two fans
till about three in the morning.

And we'd be going, "Come on,
Ronnie. It's time to leave.

We gotta get on
the bus to the next gig."

He's going,
"Yeah, just a minute."

He had this remarkable
way of, uh, remembering people

and what they were about.
You know, he'd see somebody,

you know, ten years later
and he'd go,

"Oh, hi, Mary,
how's your mother doing?"

"Hey, Larry, how you doing?

How's your cousin, Bill?"

And he would
rattle on all these names.

And I'm going, like...

He would say, "Hey, wait
a minute, your dad was sick

last time I saw you.
How's he doing?"

And you know,
the look on fans' faces

would be like,
"He remembered that?"

He fed off that energy,
that direct connection

with every single fan.

You know,
they've got the records.

They got the dreams.

That's living in the face
of career death, if you like.

Thank you!

Aah!

In the movie,
The Pick of Destiny.

It's, uh, the origin story
of my band, Tenacious D.

We took some
creative liberties,

but it starts off at
the beginning, you know,

when I'm a kid and, uh,

my parents disapprove
of my rocking.

You gotta praise the Lord
when you're in my home

And I pray to Ronnie James Dio
to please show me the way.

And then, he, like,
comes to life in the poster,

and he delivers the advice.

Escape your father's clutches

In this
oppressive neighborhood

On a journey you must go

To find
the land of Hollywood

A lot of people say it's the
best part of the whole movie,

which is awesome
and a little bit sad,

'cause me and Kyle
aren't even in it.

It's Dio, Meat Loaf, and a
little kid that looks like me.

We had to record all the songs

before we started
filming the movie.

Can you play it
for me from the end

of "Go my... Now, go my son
and rock" into the softer bit?

So, he came over to the studio,
and, um, he brought a microphone

still, like, attached
to a stand with a cord.

And he was like,
"I brought my mic,"

and we're like,
"Awesome, but you know,

we're at John King's Studio.
He's a Dust Brother.

We've got, like, the best
mics in the world here.

Let's try it on
the Sennheiser 5000, first."

He was like, "Sure,
whatever you want to do."

And this sounds
like I'm making this up

but dude laid down
such a heavy vocal,

it, like, was distorting.

We're all just like, "Holy fuck,
turn down the levels."

"I did turn down the levels!"

And so, then he said, "Let's
take out the Sennheiser 5000,

bring in the Robotron 6000.
This is..."

And it's like, you know.

We went through, like,
three different, like,

state-of-the-art, cutting edge
bleeding edge microphones.

And he was just,
like, too big a voice

for these fucking microphones.

And he's like,
"I kind of told you guys.

"That's why
I bring my own mic."

And so, they're like,
"Oh, yeah."

And they plugged in his mic,
and it was like, ding.

And it was like,
it just sounded like Dio.

Now, go, my son

And Rock

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I just can't believe
this is really happening.

I just felt an obligation
to thank him for, you know,

gracing us with his gift
of, uh, of his singing

and... and music
ability and inspiration.

It was deeply moving to me.

Holy Diver...

You've been down too long
in the midnight sea

Oh, what's becoming of me

Look out

Ride the tiger

You can see his stripes,
but you know he's clean

Oh,
don't you see what I mean

Whatever happens,
wherever you are,

as a musician,
you have to play through it.

Let the music push through
and play through

and still stay strong.

The music industry
and music, it's...

everything has a season.

People missed
that kind of music again.

I'll never forget it.
I was married to a woman.

She had two boys and they had
a ball because they were

kicking my ass in Guitar Hero
with "Holy Diver."

I was getting my ass
kicked on Guitar Hero

by these two nine-year-olds
on a Dio song

and I was in Dio,
for fuck's sake, you know?

Suddenly, Rock and Heavy Metal,

people are starting to dig it.
It's not a passing fad.

It's something
much deeper than that.

And sure enough,
within a few years,

the whole classic Rock market
has matured.

And it's the ones
that really, really mean

something to people
that will always endure.

And we got a phone call
from the record label.

And they're going to re-release
the Dio years with Sabbath.

And I don't know,
out of the blue, Ronnie goes,

"Well, maybe we should just
write a couple of songs."

We worked on these songs
to go into the box set

and, uh, we really enjoyed it.
We really enjoyed doing it.

When we got together,

it was like old friends
meeting again.

I don't know.
just a certain vibe that you get

that just feels right.

And we said,
"Well, let's get together,

"Let's make another album
and go on tours

and get
the band back together."

And they decided
they were not going to call it

Black Sabbath, this time.

They were going
to call it Heaven and Hell.

Alright,
let's check this out, guys.

Oh, for God's sakes,
my eyes suck.

Can you tell me which...

God, I'm a little jittery
from coffee.

Here's one thing that is true.

I think that Ronnie James Dio's
best-ever song

was his very last song,
which was called "Bible Black"

off the Heaven and Hell
record.

How many artists can say that

their last single
was among the best?

To me, it's the best.
I love that song.

Thank God, I remembered
to say that on here

because it's totally true.
You can put it on.

Thank me later.

How heavy is that?!

The fact
that Ronnie got back together

with Tony
and Geezer and Vinnie,

I've never known him
quite so, uh, Zen.

This was exactly
the way it was supposed to be.

Just like the early days, just
like Heaven and Hell again.

And it was just so much fun.
It was just, wow.

Everybody was absolutely
kickin' ass, being friends.

Everybody was having
such an amazing time together.

You could tell.

Even Iommi would
smile occasionally.

It was really great
because we've gone through

a lot together over the years.

And you get to
appreciate things a lot...

Sometimes you can't see it
when you're involved in it.

But later on, you think, "Oh,
wow, that was great." You know?

We seemed to have grown
out of all our miserable days.

Life's too short now.
You realize as you get older,

you go, "Why carry
a grudge or be unhappy?"

You realize,
you know, you don't get

these kind
of friendships, really good,

strong friendships.
They're so hard to get.

So, this is
a wonderful, wonderful time

of all of our lives.

Heaven and Hell
has made great difference

in just my, my attitude
as a human being now.

Heaven and Hell
took off. It was killer.

Got a great reception.
The album did really well.

Heaven and Hell
embodied a time when the big,

major, important Heavy Metal
stars were authentic.

They didn't learn it from
the bands that came before.

They didn't learn it from MTV.
They invented it.

Heaven and Hell
is an important band

because they
came along at a time

when you need
a kick in the ass.

And there's this man
all these years later,

still loving what he does
to do as a legendary singer.

That's remarkable, considering
we go all the way back

to The Red Caps.

It was like all
the chickens were coming home

to roost, and Heaven and Hell
was as much

about the culmination
of his journey, his music,

his universe, the love
he gave out every night

he walked on stage.

It seemed to me
that Heaven and Hell

was the encompassment
of all that good stuff.

It was awesome. I went to
a couple of different shows.

There he was
in a 20,000-seat arena again.

And it was like,
"Ah, you're back home, man."

Thank you!

It was absolutely fantastic.

Everybody was
enjoying what we were doing.

And I remember sitting
with Ronnie and saying,

"You know, do you fancy
doing another album?"

He said,
"Yeah, I'll be up for that."

But of course, we never did.

This is Damian
with BlackSabbath.com here,

backstage
with Ronnie James Dio

after performing
the last show on the tour.

Ronnie, sum up
the tour for us. How was it?

Uh, it was, uh, tiring.
It was...

Every show was great,
as always.

This band is never not great.

Uh, it was...
It was very productive.

We've been on the road
for such a long, long time.

Uh, you know, the music
made all the difference,

the shows we did
made all the difference.

And that's all why we do it.

So, I guess I'll you know,

I'll give it a nine and a half
out of ten.

And is that half point because
of a little bit of sadness

that now the tour is ending?

Or is this actually
the beginning,

the start of something new?

You always say,
"Well, gee, maybe I...

I'm going home. Oh, what
am I gonna do when I get home?

Maybe we should have done more."

Of course,
there's always sadness for that,

but, uh, we will do...
we'll do more,

and we'll
probably do another album,

and I'm sure we'll
certainly do another tour.

And for me, I know nothing
else other than to... to play.

Yeah, it was on the last...
We didn't know

it was the last tour
at the time. Heaven and Hell.

And before he was
going on stage, he'd be, like,

doubled up some nights,
terrible pain in the stomach.

And we're going, "Come on,
Ronnie. Go and see a doctor."

And he's going, "No, it will
pass. It will pass."

And he'd go on, as if nothing

was going on
when he got on stage.

He was just the usual Ronnie.

He wouldn't let it
interfere with him.

And then, he'd come off
and he'd be doubled up in pain.

He'd had problems
for about a year

of, um, indigestion.

So he did a blood test.
The doctor called me

and he said,
"It's not good news."

When we first found out
that he had cancer,

the two of us cried all night.

My life fell apart then.

I...Actually,
Ronnie was comforting me.

That night, when we both cried,
he was comforting me

'cause I was hysterically crying.
I couldn't...

I just couldn't think
of life without Ronnie.

You know, I mean,
I just couldn't think of life

without Ronnie at all.

And he was comforting me,
telling me,

"It's going to be ok,
it's going to be ok."

Every time I tried
to express concern and direct

the conversation towards
what he was dealing with

and let him know that I loved
him and I cared for him,

and I was there for him,
if I could do anything for him,

a lot of the conversation
was about him lifting me up

and making me feel good.

Where I was supposed
to be doing that to him,

as much as I tried,
that kept coming back to me.

Ronnie lost
the eyesight in one of his eyes.

Also, his hands
started shaking as well.

Did he lose his voice?

No. No.
Never lost his voice. No.

Um, no.
That would have killed him.

A Heavy Metal music
icon is in Houston

dealing with some
serious health issues.

The staff are
just so wonderful.

They just are the best people,
as you can see.

This is the Ronnie James Dio

few people have ever seen.

He's a bit soft-spoken.
He's relaxed.

Dio has stomach cancer.

You know, I've been
poked and prodded in holes

I didn't know I had before,
and they probably

made a few new ones. I don't
even know where they are.

I'm lucky
that I am a very, you know,

hard person and strong
within my beliefs.

Dio calls this experience

"Something to roll with."

I refuse to be beaten
in any way, shape or form

so I'm going
to beat this, too.

I just want to get better.

I just want to be cured,
you know?

They were trying a lot
of experimental drugs on him.

So, eyesight
came completely back.

His hands stopped shaking.

Wendy Dio is always with him.

The treatment
seems to be working.

She says the tumor in
his stomach is getting smaller.

We used to call it
"killing the dragon."

We used to skip
down the halls going,

"We're killing the dragon.

We're coming to kill
the dragon."

And the Golden God goes to...

Ah! Ronnie James Dio!

About the Golden Gods,
I remember very much that

because that was
the night that we thought,

"This is it.
He's back on track."

It's great to be
back amongst people again.

It's been a little while since
I've been able to do that,

but I feel pretty good.

Can't wait to get back
on the stage again. Thank you.

Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.

I love everybody.
Thanks a lot.

"Dio, Dio, Dio."
Yeah, they were chanting

because I think that they also
were being as positive as I was.

It's all going to be over.

It's all going
to be a bad dream.

Dio! Dio! Dio!

During Angry Machines,

the first record
I ever made with him,

the record was done,

and he came in and he said,
"I wanna do one more song."

And I thought,
"Oh, really? You mean, so..."

I thought he meant, you know,
bring the whole band in.

And he said, "Oh, no,
it's just gonna be

just me and some piano."

And I thought,
"Oh, ok, cool."

And just went out
and sang that song,

"This is Your Life."

There are people in
this world that are...

There are people that make
the world a better place.

Who cares
what came before

We were only starlight

One day then nevermore

And he was one of them.

Because we're
whispers in the wind

He was in the hospital.
Everybody left.

I slept on the bed with him,
holding his hand.

It was like 7:15 in the morning,

and he just, like,
shot up and looked at me.

And I was calling the nurse.
It's fine.

Like, what's happened?
And then he died.

It was like... it was like,
almost like he said goodbye.

This is your life
This is your time

What if the flame
won't last forever?

Ronnie and I had
a mutual friend that called me,

and I heard him in tears,

and he just said to me,
"He's gone."

And, um...

Sorry, 'cause it's still...

Ronnie was that special, man.

All these years later,
it can still hit ya.

He was the heart and
soul of so many things,

so much music.

You don't always see that
while it's happening

because you feel like
there's gonna be more.

When Ronnie died,
there wasn't more.

There's not more Ronnies
out there.

He was the real deal.
That's who he was... is.

To me it's all about "is."

Ronnie still is in my head,

in my ears,
you know, in my heart.

Most importantly,
the music is what lets us know

that Ronnie is alive
and living with us.

Ronnie's beautiful messages
in his songs,

you know,
they're lifting people.

They're helping people get
through their own challenges.

These are the beautiful elements
of Ronnie

that will live forever.

That's why he's everlasting.

And that's one of
the things he once said to me.

He said, "The important thing
is it isn't just what you do

and what you learn,"
He said, "You gotta pass it on.

Then you've lived a life
worth living."

And now he passed his message
on to millions of us.

The message is, if you do
put your heart and soul

into something, no one
can take that away from you.

If you really
have something to say,

if you have
that love in your heart,

that really is
the most important thing.

There's a quote that I live by,

that Ronnie definitely nailed,

is from Horace Mann,
the educator.

He said, "Be ashamed to die

until you've won some
victory for mankind."

Ronnie ought not be ashamed.

I still talk to him, but it's
not like talking to him.

You know? I miss him.

The fans are still there.

I'm sure Ronnie
would love to know that.

He would love to know that
his memory is still there.

He's not forgotten.
He'll never be forgotten.

I will never allow him to be
forgotten as long as I live.

I believe in reincarnation.

I think you have
to be the ultimate being

before you get to that point.

You have to keep coming back
till you get it right.

I think Ronnie got it right.

I really think he got it right.