The life and career of heavy metal legend Ronnie James Dio is given the ultimate tribute in Dio: Dreamers Never Die, a documentary filled with heart, humour, and hard rocking attitude.
When it comes to ranking the ultimate heavy metal frontmen, no list is complete without Ronnie James Dio. A man of short stature, large presence, and God-like vocals, Dio proved to be a heavy metal icon of little comparison, with a career that includes memorable stints in the Richie Blackmore led Rainbow, a post-Ozzy Osbourne Black Sabbath, and Dio’s own successful solo career. When Dio passed away in 2010 after a lengthy battle with cancer, a gaping void was left in the heavy metal community that is still felt to this day.
No doubt that is why watching Dio: Dreamers Never Die brings forth such conflicting emotions of joy and sadness. Directors Don Argott and Demian Fenton deliver not only the story of how one man helped shape a genre of music, but also how this diminutive metal warrior became a champion for the underdog in his advocacy for individualism and free expression.
Beginning with Dio’s origins as young Ronald James Padavona in 1940s New York, Dio is presented as a figure in constant evolution: from altar boy to high school trumpeter, to 1950s crooner, to his first stage as a rock ‘n’ roll frontman in the band Elf. It is from this point where Dio: Dreamers Never Die chronicles the metal years of Dio’s life through a terrifically edited (courtesy of Demian Fenton) collage of archive footage and stills, along with (of course) the classic hard rocking music of dragons and rainbows, heaven and hell, good and evil, that encapsulated the heavy metal experience of the 1970s and 80s.
Interviews with the likes of Jack Black, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, and Dio’s wife and manager Wendy Dio (who is an executive producer on Dio: Dreamers Never Die) not only speaks to Dio’s talents as a vocalist but as a man driven by a strong sense of values and creative vision. This also led to as many bridges burned as allegiances forged, with Dio’s self-confessed flaws as a perfectionist and control freak resulting in never-ending line-up changes in his band.
An allegiance that was never severed, though, was Dio’s connection with his fans, a metal horde of varied stripe who still rock those patented “metal horns” high whenever Dio’s classic anthem “Holy Diver” is played. Dio: Dreamers Never Die is as much a tribute to Ronnie James Dio the man and metal god, as it is his love for those who loved him in the good times and the bad.
