The late legendary vocalist and songwriter Ronnie James Dio was one of the most important voices of Heavy Metal music. Born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States back in 1942, he started his career in 1957, way before Metal and Hard Rock existed.
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He first achieve some fame in the early 70s with the band Elf, which toured with Deep Purple. That’s how the guitarist Ritchie Blackmore discovered Dio and obviously, that meeting was crucial for him later on in 1975, invite the American singer to be Rainbow’s vocalist. In the following decades, of course, he was also the vocalist of Black Sabbath and of his own band, Dio.
During his career Ronnie talked a lot about other artists and once even named which, in his opinion, is one of the best songs of all time.
The song that Ronnie James Dio said is one of the best of all time
Although Ronnie James Dio didn’t always have good things to say about his ex-bandmate, the guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, he always praised his work as a musician. In an interview with Rhapsody Blog back in 2009, Ronnie revealed which were some of his favorite songs of all time. One of them was Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water”.
“One of the greatest songs of all time. Of course, I played with Ritchie Blackmore for a long time. And all the guys in Purple have been my good friends for 35 years now. That record was produced by the bass player, Roger Glover, and the drummer, Ian Paice. Ritchie wrote a riff that we can all play. So simple, but it is a magnificent riff. I just think it’s one of the ultimate classic songs of all time. When I hear it, I hark back to that time in my life. It’s important to me,” Ronnie James Dio said.
Although Rainbow didn’t perform “Smoke On The Water” when Ronnie James Dio was part of the band (Only after he left), he performed the track with Deep Purple a couple of times. One of those performances happened at Royal Albert Hall in 1999, when the band was recording with an orchestra. But obviously, by that time Blackmore was no longer a member of the band. At that time Deep Purple was formed by Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Jon Lord, Roger Glover and Steve Morse.
Ronnie always said that Deep Purple influenced him a lot
Although he was born in the USA, Dio always said that he was influenced mainly by British bands. In an interview with Let It Rock in 2005, he named Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin as two groups who really made him want to sing and write heavier music.
“Those who influenced me were Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Mainly English bands of that era. But especially Purple and Zeppelin. That’s what made me want to do this more and more, and more. Because the first band I was in back then, ELF, were much more a kind of honky tonk rock ‘n’ roll band.”
“But I always wanted to be able to play heavier music. I loved their musicianship. I thought they were the best musicians on Earth! Those were the people I really cared about when I was into this kind of music,” Ronnie James Dio said.
Dio was a really good friend of the members of Deep Purple and they all paid tribute to him after his passing. The vocalist died at the age of 67 back in May 16, 2010, a victim of stomach cancer.
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