MORE THOUGHTS ON DIO

I'm kind of surprised by how sad I feel about the death of Ronnie James Dio. I can't act like I'm the biggest fan, and I hadn't listened to him at all for about two decades, up until he rejoined Black Sabbath (aka Heaven & Hell). 

I was moved by the tributes by his Sabbath/Heaven & Hell bandmates Tony Iommi, Vinny Appice and especially Geezer Butler. I say "especially" because Geezer, a lyricist, is a sensitive soul who expresses himself really well with the written word. Also, because I think he and Dio had problems at first: when Ozzy Osbourne was Sabbath's frontman, Geezer was the lyricist.  When Dio came, he wrote his own lyrics, and I think that may have led to tensions.

I was also moved by a tribute written by, of all people, Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield. Sheffield is a kitch-loving hipster (as far as I can tell) but also a very good writer.  Still, I was like, "Not now!" when I saw his name next to the headline "Farewell, Dio: You Got To Bleed For The Dancer."  It was actually a moving tribute that pointed out that Dio's song "Invisible" in which he empathized with gay teenagers, which was unusual, not to mention risky, for a straight heavy metal icon in the '80s. There's tons of great Dio tributes out there, but that one really stuck with me.

Even Ozzy Osbourne issued a brief statement.  Who knows, maybe this will hammer home the point that life is so finite, and inspire Ozzy and Tony to end their dumb lawsuit.  I'm not saying they need to reunite, they should just go back to being pals. But I'm glad that in Dio's final years, he got to play to huge crowds with Tony, Geezer and Vinny. We should all be able to go out doing what we love.

DIO - R.I.P.

I am really sorry to hear that heavy metal legend, Ronnie James Dio, passed away this weekend.

Dio in 1985 was my second big rock concert (Rush was the first a few weeks earlier). At the time, Dio only had released two albums, but of course Ronnie James Dio had his catalog of Rainbow and Black Sabbath songs to pull from as well. I remember hanging out with my friend Joe at the White Castle afterwards with a blown mind, talking about all the great songs we just saw him performed, including Rainbow's "Man On The Silver Mountain" and Black Sabbath's "Children Of The Sea." There were lasers, huge lights, it was loud, it was awesome.

Not everyone knows that before he was a metal icon, he was Ronnie Dio, doo-wop singer. You can buy "Gonna Make It Alone" and "Swingin' Street" by Ronnie Dio and The Prophets on iTunes. He was good at it, and I bet he looked back on his doo-wop era fondly.  Years later, he started his band Elf, which was kind of blues based "hey baby" Stones rock and roll. "Sit Down Honey" is also available on iTunes. It's cool, but like when he was singing doo-wop, he didn't really stand out, it doesn't quite "click." 

It turns out that that Stoney, bluesy kind of rock that Elf was playing was also not satisfying to guitar god  Ritchie Blackmore either -- so he quit Deep Purple, hired the members of Elf (minus the guitarist, of course) and formed Rainbow. That's where you first hear Dio becoming that frontman that influenced generations of metal singers. After three albums RJD left to replace Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. Singing with Blackmore meant he would be compared to Purple's singers (Ian Gillan and David Coverdale). That couldn't have been easy.  But replacing Ozzy in Sabbath! What a ballsy move, even though he is technically a better singer. Dio has never lacked confidence, and that has served him well. The two albums he did with Sabbath were righteous and rocking. But soon he took drummer Vinnie Appice and formed Dio.

Dio kind of encompasssed a lot of what people made fun of in "dungeons and dragons" type metal.  I admit, I made fun of it, and so did lots of other people, especially in the '90s.  But really, the guys from Soundgarden and Alice In Chains were fans.  The other night, Pearl Jam played a mix tape of Dio, Rainbow and Sabbath after the opening act before they hit the stage. And Mike McCready threw a bit of "Heaven and Hell" into "Alive." It doesn't matter what artists were influenced by him though.  Few metal artists were ever so singular in their vision, so confident in their identity.  Slayer and Motorhead come to mind, very few others.

When Dio reunited with Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Appice a few years ago as Heaven & Hell, I revisted his career, and realized that it is pretty awesome.  And although it took a few years for his musical identity to really coalesce, once it did, he never veered from who and what he was, and for that he deserves respect. Not many people held it down for metal the way he did.  He also had a great sense of humor about it, appearing in videos with Tenacious D (they wrote a tribute/parody called "Dio," but he had a sense of humor and enjoyed it).  He even cameoed in their film.

Dude, you don't have to hand your cape and scepter to anyone. Rock on, Ronnie James Dio.

TODAY'S NEWS: TRENT, RHCP, DIO, WATERS, MASSIVE ATTACK AND MORE

So, as I've mentioned, No Expiration is now on Twitter! I'll be posting all sorts of news and using the blog as more of a place to recommend stuff.

Here's what I tweeted about today, in case you missed it. Trent Reznor's new group is called How To Destroy Angels, and an update to my tweet: you can download their song "A Drowning," at Amazon.

I also link to stories about Massive Attack's upcoming tour, Roger Waters' upcoming tour, Heaven & Hell cancelling their tour due to Ronnie James Dio's health, a comic book about Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig and more.

Follow me on twitter!

TONY IOMMI TO RELEASE HIS MEMOIRS

Ozzy Osbourne's book, I Am Ozzy, comes out in a few days on January 25. Now news comes that Black Sabbath guitarist/founder/boss Tony Iommi will be releasing his memoirs, Iron Man, soon, according to Publisher's Weekly.  Tony with Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice, aka Black Sabbath MK 2, aka Heaven & Hell, have some dates booked for this summer, provided that Dio recovers well from his chemo (which, supposedly, he has been).

Ozzy did an interview in Rolling Stone where he expressed ambivalence about working with Sabbath again (not surprising, given that he and Tony are involved in an ugly lawsuit). I wish that they could get it together.  Actually, I don't care if they never perform again: I have been lucky enough to have seen the classic version of the band a few times. But as a huge fan (and writer of the liner notes on the definitely Sabbath box set, The Black Box), I'd just love to see them end this dumb lawsuit.

RONNIE JAMES DIO - GET WELL SOON

I was sorry to hear that legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio has been diagnosed with cancer. His wife and manager Wendy Dio recently posted to his website that he "aced" his first chemo treatments.

No Expiration readers know that my favorite version of Black Sabbath was the original with Ozzy Osbourne. But the second version with Dio (which now goes by the name Heaven & Hell) was great in their own right. Ronnie also sang in Ritchie Blackmore's post-Deep Purple band, Rainbow, and did some great songs there, espcially "The Man On The Silver Mountain," but also "Long Live Rock and Roll" and "Black Sheep Of The Family."

And, I can't front, the second concert I ever saw was Dio (the first was Rush), and I loved it.  I saw them a total of three times. I also give Ronnie tons of respect for having the good sense of humor to appear in Tenacious D's movie. Anyway, I hope he "slays this dragon," gets well soon and starts rocking again with Dio and Heaven & Hell.

A DARK DAY FOR BLACK SABBATH

Yesterday, news came out that Ozzy Osbourne is suing Tony Iommi for the rights to the name "Black Sabbath," just as Tony kicks off a tour with Heaven & Hell (essentially the second version of Sabbath, which also includes Geezer Butler, Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice).

I kind of figured this came from Sharon Osbourne, obviously. I'm sure her relationship with Tony, even since the 1997 reunion, hasn't been smooth (it certainly wasn't in the years leading up to the reunion). Sharon runs Ozzfest, and most of the Sabbath tours since '97 have been Ozzfests. Tony has always been Sabbath's leader and I don't think he took kindly to his singer's wife (and former manager's daughter) taking the reins of his band. Tony is the legal owner of the Sabbath name, having bought the rights to it from Ozzy, Geezer and Bill back in 1985 (according to the best Sabbath site out there, Black-Sabbath.com -- why Sharon allowed that at the time, I have no idea).

I figured this stemmed from Tony's lawsuit against the Live Nation owned Signatures Network from last year. He was suing Signatures for selling Black Sabbath merchandise after the band's agreement with the company expired. He wanted three times the profits that they made from Sabbath's stuff, plus an immediate halt to selling Sabbath merchandise. The problem, I figured, was that Sharon deals with Live Nation for Ozzfest (which she didn't put on this year, I think the reason may actually have been spun as: her and Ozzy wanted to concentrate on their ridiculous variety show, but it was probably that they have been having problems booking great bands, and they've pretty much booked every cool band they could have gotten - where do you go after Metallica?). Plus, even though Ozzy has been concentrating on his solo career in recent years, there's probably still some resentment that Tony (and Geezer) is with Dio again -- although keep in mind that Tony could have called it Sabbath, but didn't. I imagine Tony may be able to counter with the fact that Ozzy cheapened both his and Sabbath's name via The Osbournes, hopefully he won't go there.

Ozzy posted his press release (with an explanation to fans) at his website, and he actually makes some good points. While Sabbath did have some success after Ozzy originally left the band (both with Ronnie James Dio and Ian Gillian on vocals), through the late '80s and the early '90s, they were kind of a joke: it was just Tony Iommi and whomever he hired. People forgot what was so great about them: that changed in '97 when Ozzy rejoined. The weird thing is, in his press release, he says that the trademark should be owned by Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill equally. But according to news reports, Ozzy is trying to get a 50% stake (leaving the other 50% to be split among the other three guys), and a cut of the profits that Tony made from his post-Ozzy Sabbath tours (that's just bitter).

It sucks that this has gone as far as it has, I hope they resolve it soon. I had the privilege and honor of writing some of the liner notes to The Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath 1970 - 1978 box set, which included all of the Ozzy-era Sabbath albums remastered. It came out in 2004, in a break in the Sabbath action, but Geezer told me that if they never did anything together ever again, he was satisfied with the way it ended. The reunion happened, they played some mindblowing shows, and more importantly to him, they were all friends again. Since then, they've toured a bit more, and appeared together when they were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's a shame that this may end up being the last page in the book.

I wonder if Tony (or Geezer or Bill) participated in Wreckage Of My Past, the documentary on Ozzy that Jack Osbourne is working on (due in 2010): it looks like a very "sober" un-Osbournes like look at Oz's incredible career. Watch the trailer here.

CRAZY LAME

I caught the first few minutes of The Osbournes' variety show. Really bad. I've heard that Ozzy Osbourne has criticized much of it already. I can't hate on him and the family for trying something different, but I don't think that this one had a chance of being cool. And the worst part is, while Ozzy is doing goofy skits, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler are about to release a new album with Ronnie James Dio as Heaven & Hell.

HEAVEN AND HELL'S THE DEVIL YOU KNOW DUE IN APRIL

I'm fine with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler working with Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice, as long as they aren't called "Black Sabbath." To me, that name will always evoke the sond of Tony, Geezer, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward, and you don't want to be compared to that -- with all due respect to Ronnie, Vinnie and Ian Gillian.

But I'm glad that Tony, Geezer, Dio and Vinny are about to put out a new album as Heaven & Hell: The Devil You Know is coming out in April. I know they're going to be touring. I wonder if Black Sabbath will ever work together again. The last time they appeared together was at their long-overdue induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a few years back. They looked like they genuinely were enjoying each other's company, and the accolades. If it was the last page of their book, it was a good last page. I'm glad Tony and "Geez" are playing a completely different repertoire with a completely different band.

THIS WEEK ON OUTQ: U2, BOWIE, NIN AND SABBATH

This is a pretty crazy week for new record releases, but here's what I'm going to be talking about on OutQ tomorrow morning:

1. The avalanche of new U2 stuff: the reissues of Boy, October and War, which "Todd" commented about when I posted about them a few weeks ago. He cried "foul" that there were still bonus tracks left after the release of The Complete U2 on iTunes a few years back. Speaking of iTunes, they've just released U2's Live From Paris, recorded on The Joshua Tree tour. It's the audio of the DVD that came with The Joshua Tree reissue that came out last year. And "The Ballad Of Ronnie Drew" CD single that came out only in Ireland a few months back.

2. David Bowie's Live In Santa Monica '72. This is Bowie before he was a star, and he still had lots to prove. He was completely into the Ziggy Stardust act, and his band, The Spiders From Mars, were rocking.

3. The new Nine Inch Nails albums, Ghosts I-IV and The Slip.

4. Black Sabbath's Rules Of Hell box set, covering their lineup with singer Ronnie James Dio.

I won't even have time to talk about Buddy Guy's new album Skin Deep, Zach de la Rocha's new project One Day As A Lion or Peter Gabriel's new song from Wall-E.

Next week, I think we'll start introducing topics of discussion. Hopefully next week's will be that long debated topic, "Do politics and music mix?" So, we'll talk about Zach's new album, as well as the soundtrack to the Crosby Stills Nash & Young documentary Deja Vu. (And also the non-political Rolling Stones concert film, Shine A Light, which comes out on DVD. Although Bill and Hillary appear in it).

AN OPEN LETTER TO TONY IOMMI AND GEEZER BUTLER

Dear Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler:

Hey, how's your summer going? I'm glad to hear that your "other" band, Heaven & Hell (the Black Sabbath mk. 2 lineup - which includes Ronnie James Dio and Vinnie Appice) - is doing so well. I know you guys are going on a righteous tour with Judas Priest and Motorhead. You've got a box set of the Dio era Sabbath stuff coming out, and an album of new material. Great!

But after this Heaven & Hell thing winds down, I was hoping that you guys could convince your original and greatest frontman, Ozzy Osbourne, to get back together with you guys. Did you hear his last album, Black Rain? It was actually quite good. I know a new Sabbath album is probably out of the question: how could a new album compare to your body of work (although I bet if you try hard, you could match the underrated Technical Ecstacy or Never Say Die!). Maybe just record a few new tunes like you did with Dio for the Sabbath compilation The Dio Years. And then go on tour. I used to hope you guys would play some more obscure songs. Now, I'd just like to see Ozzy get back out there.

You've heard about his family's upcoming variety show, right? 'Nuff said. I'm not talking smack about the family: Jack has made a great recovery/comeback from what I hear. And, whatever may have gone down between you guys and Sharon , well, I doubt Oz would still be alive, not to mention as successful as he is, without her. I got a kick out of their reality show. At first. But I gotta admit - at the risk of Sharon reading this and wanting to k&*% my f$%^*&% a## and feed me my b*&^s, I'm not feeling good about this. I guess it's going down no matter what. I'd just like to remind people why Ozzy is so great - it's because of his body of work, not his stunts or hijinks. And most of the great body of work was with you guys.

Think it over? Please? Thanks!

BLACK SABBATH, ER, HEAVEN AND HELL BOX SET

The second version of Black Sabbath - which features singer Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinnie Appice and which now goes by "Heaven & Hell" - is about to get the box set treatment. Much like the original band's Black Box which came out in 2004 - and which yours truly had the honor of working on - this box will just contain remastered versions of their albums: 1980's Heaven & Hell, 1981's Mob Rules, 1982's live album Live Evil, and thier 1992 reunion album, Dehumanizer.

It's pretty amazing that this version of the band has proven so popular. The reunion was supposed to just be to record two new songs for The Dio Years collection, which led to a tour, which led to a live album, and now they are on the "Metal Masters" tour with Judas Priest, and apparently they are working on a "Heaven & Hell" studio album set for release in early 2009.

On one hand, I'm glad Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler have found something to do outside of Sabbath while Ozzy Osbourne is off doing his own career. On the other, I hope Sabbath does one last thing, I hope they don't get overshadowed by Heaven & Hell. I wonder what Ozzy - and Sharon - think about all this Heaven & Hell stuff.

THE METAL MASTERS TOUR

This is one heavy group of bands: the Metal Masters tour will feature Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell (the Ronnie James Dio fronted version of Black Sabbath), Motorhead and Testament. People will no doubt snicker at it - and no one who shows up will care. This is sort of like Ozzfest, without the younger bands that the older fans don't care about (and without Ozzy). It will be interesting to see how this does. I'd be into going if I could get my hands on a ticket. I've haven't seen Priest since high school - and that when they were touring for their awful, synth-heavy album, Turbo. I did see Halford open for Maiden a few years ago, though, and he was great. I've never seen the Dio version of Sabbath. Motorhead is always great though. Talk about a trend-proof concert.

Meanwhile, Priest is meeting a new audience, like so many other older rock bands, via the game Rock Band: Priest's Screaming For Vengence will be the first full album download sold through the game.

THIS WEEK'S NEW RECORDS

I kick it "old school," as you may have figured out by now. I go to the record store (yes, there is still one near me) on Tuesdays (new release day). Then, when I come home, I check out the iTunes store.

So, today I didn't buy any full length CDs, but I tried a bunch of things out on iTunes: I bought two tracks from Patti Scialfa's new album, Play It As It Lays, "Play Around" and "Run, Run, Run." Her voice is polarizing: her obvious influence is the great Ronnie Spector and some people love her voice, and some don't. I think that, at least on these songs, she reigned in her her tendency to sometimes oversing, which is good. That's what I'd do with her if I was her producer. Of course, it's understandable that she would oversing, given her dayjob (which I'll be writing about soon enough).

If you have a taste for something different, and don't mind lyrics that aren't in English, you should check out Manu Chao. I checked out his song "Rainin' in Paradize" which actually is in English. I may pick up the album instead of buying more individual tracks.

I don't think that anyone benefits from the term "neo-soul." It translates to "soul music for Starbucks" or something. But that seems to be what Jill Scott has been lumped in with. I don't care what you call it, she can sing - check out her new single, "Hate On Me."

I'm not a big fan of Ronnie James Dio - his dungeons and dragons thing doesn't really appeal to me. And to me, Black Sabbath is four guys - Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. That said, I was glad to see Tony and Geezer get back together with Dio this year - and I was glad to see that they called themselves Heaven & Hell. I think it's cool that they can do their own thing while Ozzy doing his solo thing. They released a live album. While Dio's era in Sabbath pales compared to Ozzy's "The Mob Rules" is a great song, so I "grabbed" that.

The Dropkick Murphys combine punk rock with Irish music - they've been around for a few years, and got a big break last year when Martin Scorsese used thier song "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" in The Departed. Their new song, "The State Of Massachusetts" is rockin'.

Right now I'm really looking foward to Robert Plant's upcoming album with Alison Krauss. I'll write more about that later.