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| Ronnie James Dio | Craig Goldy | Rudy Sarzo | Simon Wright | Scott Warren |
| Home | Band |
Ronnie James Dio, baptized Ronald James Padavona, was born in Portsmouth, NH on July 10th 1942, to an Italian family who raised him in the Roman Catholic Church, which he found very distasteful. Early in his life they moved to Courtland, NY, where he graduated from Courtland City School and was inducted into their hall of fame in 2004. Growing up he played the trumpet and recorded for some singles with a few rockabilly bands.
During his high school years he joined the The Vegas Kings whom he played Bass for, Later taking over as Lead vocals. At this time the band changed their name to Ronnie & The Rumblers then finally Ronnie And The Red Caps. The 7-inch single was released in 1958. Ronnie stage name "Dio" (God in Italian) came from the mafia member Johnny Dio, which took as his last name and used professionally in the 1960s playing for the band Ronnie Dio and the Prophets.
The band seemed to be like Ronnie And The Red Caps just with a different title. Ronnie would later go on to front the band Elf (1967-1975), Rainbow (1975-1978), Black Sabbath (1979-1982, 1991-1992). After Sabbath came and went Ronnie Formed his own band Dio(1982-1991, 1993-present). Dio consisted of members Ronnie had previously done other projects with. Ex-Rainbow bassist Jimmy Bain, ex-Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice, in addition to ex-Sweet Savage guitar shredder Vivian Campbell. More recently, Ronnie has formed a side project quickly gaining much hype called Heaven & Hell. The line of the band is the original Black Sabbath line up during the "Dio years" as it's commonly known as.
Born on November 6, 1961 Craig Goldy is the current guitarist for Dio. Craig made his musical debut in the band Giuffria and in the early line up of the band Rough Cut, a band the Ronnie had produced and was co-lyricist. Craig was briefly in the band called Hear 'n' Aid, a project used to raise money for the famine relief in Africa during the mid 80s.
Goldy played alongside Adrian Smith and Dave Murray of Iron Maiden, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brad Gillis and others. Goldy hit the scene with Dio after Vivian Campbell left. Goldy's techniques proved to be that of a master, however, his stay with the band was short lived for a solo career, until 1991 when he returned to the scene, soliciting the Craig Goldy Ritual project consisting of Mike Stone on lead vocals, bassist Tom Rucci, keyboard player Doug Allen and drummer Carl Marelli in the recording of his 'Hidden In Plain Sight' album.
Goldy went on to record and co-write with the likes of David Lee Roth for his song "Lady Luck" in 1991, on top of that, planning the release of an instructional guitar video, the same year. The 2000s saw Goldy's return to Dio, not without appearing on David Glen Eisley's "Stranger From The Past." The Dio return helped create the Band Magica, nevertheless, shortly leaving, due to family obligations. Doug Aldrich stepped in for a time before joining Whitesnake, leaving the spot open for Goldy's final return.
Rudy Sarzo, born in Cuba during the 1950s, has been a recording artist for more than 20 years. Rudy started his career out with Ozzy Osbourne (March, 1981-Sept, 1982) playing bass for his debut solo album "Blizzard of Ozz" and his second album "Diary of A Madman."
Later he went on to Quiet Riot (Sept, 1982-Jan, 1985) when they recorded the "Metal Health" album (being the first debut album of a Heavy Metal band to reach #1 on the Billboard charts), as well the album "Condition Critical." In, 1983 Rudy was voted the #1 Bassist by Circus Magazine, and headlined some of the biggest tours and appeared in some videos getting airplay on MTV.
Rudy, thereafter, joined up with Whitesnake (April, 1987-Sept, 1994) recording the "Slip of The Tongue" album, then toured in support of the "1987" and "Slip of The Tongue" album and appearing in multiple MTV videos. May 1997-Aug 2003, Quiet Riot reunited (Rudy on bass) headlined tours for Quiet Riots "Alive and Well" and "Guilty Pleasures" albums, as well appearing on VH1's Behind the Scenes: Quiet Riot. In Nov, 2003 The DVD "Quiet Riot Live In The 21st Century" was released after the band finally disbanded. Rudy has 30 Million copies of his recordings combined with all the bands sold worldwide.
Simon Wright, born June 19, 1963, is a self taught drummer, who would listen to such drummers as Cozy Powell, John Bonham and Tommy Aldridge when receiving his first drumset at age 13. Simon's first big break through was on tour with A II Z at the age of 16 on the Screaming Blue Murder Tour along side the band Girl School.
A year later he would play in some of the biggest bands such as AC/DC on three of their albums, "Fly On The Wall," "Who Made Who" and "Blow Up You Video." Upon leaving AC/DC Wright met Ronnie and recorded the critically acclaimed 1990s Lock Up The Wolves album.
While taking time off from Dio he kept himself busy as a loose agent going from band to band, Most notably: Rhino Bucket, John Norum, Mogg/Way and even UFO with Michael Schenker in 1995. Currently Wright is in the studio recording the up coming Dio album as well promoting his new DVD "On The Road With Simon Wright."
Scott Warren is a self taught keysman who learned to play at the age of 6, later going on to Dick Grove School of Music where he was trained professionally. Before joining Dio, Warren was part of the bands Kee, Berlin and most notably Warrent. Scott appeared in Dio in 94 on the "Strange Highways" where he has stayed (on keyboards) ever since. The most recognized work he did was on the recent "Killing The Dragon" album for the record "Before the Fall."
For more information go to these websites:
en.wikipedia.org and www.ronniejamesdio.com
Created and maintained by
S.D.Hughes, Spring 2008.
last updated Spring 2008.