One of my all-time favorite singers, Ronnie James Dio, has passed away today after a six month fight against stomach cancer.  It's something that's been difficult for me to process.  Saturday night, rumors began to circulate that things had made a turn for the worst.  Ronnie's wife, Wendy, put out a statement confirming that he was alive, but not doing well.    When I heard the news this morning, I was crushed.

I first saw Ronnie live back in 2000 at the Fillmore in San Francisco while he was touring in support of the Magica album.  There are two distinct memories I have of that night.  As my dad and I were walking in the upstairs bar area in back of the venue, I remember seeing Ronnie sitting at a small table in the center of the room giving an interview.  A lot of rock stars try to avoid the public, but here was one of the greatest rock/metal vocalists of all time in plain sight just like anyone else coming to see the show.   I was and still am in awe.  Another memory I have is when he pulled a kid from the front row onto the stage and hoisted him onto his shoulders. He must have been up there for five minutes. Dio had every right to act like a rock superstar, but was a man deeply connected to his fans.  That night he played the entire Magica album and of course, played "The Last in Line" and "Rainbow in the Dark" for the encore.  It was a night I will never forget.

 

Years ago when websites were a novel concept and AOL dominated cyberspace, I stumbled upon Roo's Satriani page. Here was someone who revered Joe Satriani as much as I did. One area of Roo's website that drew my attention was the album review section which invited visitor scoring. Roo's disclaimer was memorable ... << MORE >>

Earlier this week, I found out Ronnie James Dio was diagnosed with stomach cancer.  Right now, he's going through treatments at the Mayo Clinic.   The last time I saw Dio was in 2007 with Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath's Mob Rules lineup).  He was 65 then and still going strong.  When I heard about his diagnosis, I immediately thought to play his music so I went to my iTunes library and played, Black Sabbath's "Children of the Sea".  I could go on and on about how many great songs he's made. 

These are my favorite:

Rainbow - "Man on the Silver Mountain" (1975)
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell (The entire album) 1980
Black Sabbath - Mob Rules (The entire album) 1981
Dio - "Holy Diver", "Rainbow in the Dark" - Holy Diver (1983)
Dio - "The Last in Line" - The Last in Line (1984)
Dio - "Rock 'N' Roll Children" - Sacred Heart (1985)
Black Sabbath - "The Devil Cried" - Black Sabbath - The Dio Years (2007)

If there ever was a time to play Dio's music, it's now so if you have any Dio in your music collections, play it!!!

Get well soon, Ronnie!!

Source:
http://www.ronniejamesdio.com/

Today, Metallica will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and deservingly so.  No other metal act has sold more records or done more to popularize the metal genre.  Metal purists may cry foul at this accomplishment, citing the band as sell-outs who watered down their style to sell more records.  This viewpoint, however, is deeply cynical and oversimplies the band's rise to fame.  It is inconceivable for me to imagine James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich planning the success that followed the release of the Black Album.  Metallica's music progressively became more complex with each release, culminating ...<< MORE >>

As I was reading through Blabbermouth.net's news articles today, I ran into one in particular that caught my attention called, "Ask Guns N' Roses a question".  As I read the article, there was a glaring omission.  The one person who would not be accepting questions was none other than frontman Axl Rose, the lone original member of Guns N' Roses and flag bearer of the GNR brand.  Axl has been relatively quiet since the release of the band's long-awaited album, "Chinese Democracy" on November 23rd, 2008.  Seemingly out of nowhere, he appeared on several GNR fan websites from Dec. 11th ...<< MORE >>

I always like checking out the lunch hour theme on 107.7 The Bone, one of the local rock stations in the Bay Area.  Usually, the host Steven Seaweed will pick a theme and invite listeners to make requests based on that theme.  Given today's constant rain, today's theme was appropriately, "The Weather". 

As a listener, here are my top 3 songs relating to the weather.


Stevie Ray Vaughan "Couldn't Stand the Weather" from his 1984 album of the same name.  Stevie will always be one of the greatest blues guitar players ever.  Always humble, he never wanted to take credit for ...<< MORE >>

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Mark Strigl is the co-host and creator of the Talking Metal Podcast, the number-one heavy metal/hard rock podcast on iTunes.  The podcast began as a hobby and extension of Strigl's Music News site which featured news articles and reviews.  As Mark points out in the following interview, there wasn't really a need for another music site.  After listening to other podcasts and noticing a lack of coverage in the metal genre, "Talking Metal" was born.  Since inception, The Talking Metal podcast has grown in popularity, averaging 100,000 downloads and 1-2 million hits per month to its website.  

Jerred: I want to take listeners and fans of the show all ...<< MORE >>

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