By now, the sad news of Ronnie James Dio’s death has reached every corner of the world, and the tributes from fans and bands alike have poured in by the thousands – like these submissions gathered from Metal As Fuck fans. The diminutive singer, frontman of Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath/Heaven and Hell and his own solo outfit Dio, was truly one of the best loved figures in metal. Tragically taken from us before his time by stomach cancer, he will be greatly missed.
One of Dio’s enduring contributions to metal was the introduction of the metal horns – the universal salute that features in so many of the photos submitted on this site. In an interview with Metal Hammer, unpublished until last week, he says:
“The sign was protection against the evil eye. My grandmother used to do it. I can also give evil with it, the sign of the devil. The horns. People say ‘So you invented that?’ It was probably some guy 50,000 years ago called Og. It was a superstitious sign to ward off evil and give evil back. Because I used it so much I became synonymous with it. A symbol that has become so prevalent.”
Dio himself enjoyed a beer on occasion, like in this short clip with Lemmy, recorded only about a year ago (horns up to Bazillion Points Publishing):
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in these sad times, the One Million Beers team encourage everyone to do what we think Ronnie would have liked – crank up some classic Dio tunes, open a nice cold beer, raise the horns to honour a heavy metal legend… and don’t forget to take a photo and send it in!